The History of WWII Podcast XX
[0] Welcome to True Spies, the podcast that takes you deep inside the greatest secret missions of all time.
[1] Suddenly out of the dark, it's a bit in love.
[2] You'll meet the people who live life undercover.
[3] What do they know?
[4] What are their skills?
[5] And what would you do in their position?
[6] Vengeance felt good seeing these.
[7] People paid for what they'd done, felt righteous.
[8] True Spies, from Spyscape Studios, wherever you get your podcasts.
[9] Greetings from Central Virginia.
[10] First off, I'd like to thank everyone who's donated to the cause of me getting my life back on track.
[11] Seriously, your help and kind words will mean more to me than you will ever know.
[12] Since some of you are still making donations, I thought I'd wait until the next episode to thank you all.
[13] But don't worry, I'll think of something.
[14] Maybe I'll read the episodes with the appropriate accent or learn to correctly pronounce the un -American cities and personalities.
[15] I'll get back to you on that, but thank you.
[16] This week's episode is brought to you by Audible.
[17] In case you didn't know, Audible has over 85 ,000 titles to choose from, and you can get one for free.
[18] You can go to my website, worldwar2podcast .net, and click on the Audible banner.
[19] And once you're there, you can sign up for a free 14 -day trial and get a free audiobook download of your choice.
[20] You can keep the membership, not keep the membership, but either way, you still keep the free download.
[21] This time, I would like to recommend the book, 22 Britannia Road, by Amanda Hodgkinson.
[22] It's got a lot of good reviews on there.
[23] I haven't finished listening to it yet, but I've gotten through the first chapter and I really like it.
[24] It's the story of a woman who's basically hidden in the forest of Poland with her son for the entire World War II.
[25] And now the war is over.
[26] She's going to Britain to meet up with her husband, who she hasn't seen in years.
[27] And he wants to forget that he's Polish.
[28] He wants to forget all about the war.
[29] And they have to somehow make their lives work again, even though they haven't seen each other for years.
[30] They've had totally different experiences and they're not even sure.
[31] who the other person is anymore.
[32] So it's really neat, and I'll just read you a part of the summary that's inaudible.
[33] Housekeeper or housewife?
[34] The soldier asks Sylvania as she and her eight -year -old son board the ship that will take them from Poland to England at the end of World War II.
[35] There her husband, Janus, is already waiting for them in a little house at 22 Britannia Road, but the war has changed them so utterly they'll barely recognize one another when they're reunited.
[36] Survivor, she answers the question.
[37] Sylvania and Ulrich spent the war hiding in the forest of Poland.
[38] Wild, almost fernal, Ulrich doesn't know how to tie his own shoes or sleep in a bed.
[39] Janusz is an Englishman now determined to forget Poland and forget his own ghost and begin a new life as a proper English family.
[40] But for Sylvania, who cannot escape the painful memory of a shattering wartime act, forgetting is not a possibility.
[41] So it's a story done well and it's well told and it pretty much represents what tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people had to go through after World War II to try to put their lives together.
[42] They haven't seen their loved ones or friends or family in years and they all had these horrible experiences and I'm sure they all had to do things they never thought they would be capable of and now they have to begin to put their lives back together.
[43] Hello, and thank you for listening to a History of World War II podcast, episode 27, Dunkirk, part 3.
[44] Captain Tennant, now CNO or Chief Naval Officer, was in charge of and directing the evacuation at Dunkirk.
[45] His idea of using the eastern mole or breakwater at Dunkirk Harbor was starting to pay off.
[46] But on May 28th, there seemed to be a bottleneck at the beach of Bray Dunes, east of Dunkirk, next to the Belgian border.
[47] Churchill, Dover, nor Tennant would tolerate any bottlenecks in attempting to get their men off the continent, out of France, and out of harm's way.
[48] So Commanders Richardson and Kerr, who worked for Tennant, were chosen to fix the situation at Bray Dunes.
[49] But they soon found out that a lack of organization was only one of the problems there.
[50] Instead of 5 ,000 men waiting to be picked up, there were around 25 ,000 men frantically waiting to be rescued.
[51] They were panicking and on a few occasions capsized boats that came to take them to a ship or destroyer.
[52] And the situation was only getting worse.
[53] When Richardson contacted Dover, the only reply for now was, make do.
[54] Every part of the evacuation was overwhelmed and Dover was trying to control it all, but of course it couldn't.
[55] They needed the help of Tennant and his staff.
[56] That's why they were sent to the continent.
[57] So Richardson set up an headquarters in the back of the lorry that he drove to get to the beach, and some of his men started breaking up the troops into groups of 50.
[58] The rest of his men ran lifelines to the men standing in the water, waiting to be the next to be picked up.
[59] Some of the desperate men took advantage of the gradual run of the beach and went out as far as they could.
[60] They only stopped when the water was to their shoulders.
[61] Their clothes were now soaked heavy and dragging them down.
[62] They couldn't stay out there all night.
[63] But it's not hard to imagine if the channel had been shallow enough, the men would have been happy to walk all the way to Dover.
[64] But the gradual beach also worked against everyone's efforts.
[65] The smaller boats could only come in so far.
[66] Just like everything else about Dunkirk, there always seemed to be one step back for each step forward.
[67] But slowly, gradually, men started making it to the waiting ships.
[68] But having finally reached a ship, they found themselves too tired or cold to climb up the recently made and unsecured ladders.
[69] The crews found themselves hauling the men up, hundreds of them soaking wet, until they were unable to lift their arms.
[70] So progress was being made.
[71] But still, the waiting men could look around and estimate the hours it would take before they were picked up.
[72] Some started to panic and rush out of place to a nearby boat.
[73] Some boats were swamped and capsized, but gradually the few officers there were able to regain order and keep the process moving.
[74] By 7 p .m., however, the men, ships, and boats got into a rhythm.
[75] Men waiting at Bray Dunes, Malo Les Bains, and La Pan were being picked up and heading for home.
[76] The system was working, but compared to the numbers on the beach, it was very slow going.
[77] Some of the skippers, not using them all, figured out the idea of dropping anchor before heading towards the beach.
[78] They would move forward until they ran aground.
[79] After they picked up all the men they could, they would then use their anchor to pull themselves back out to the deeper water.
[80] After dropping out their passengers to a nearby destroyer, they would head back to the beach and repeat the process.
[81] May 29th Around 1 .30 a .m. that morning, a stiff breeze came up.
[82] This breeze caused the surf to increase and make the job of loading men that much harder.
[83] It was another case of gaining an advantage and then losing it somewhere else in the process.
[84] Commander Richardson at Bray Dunes saw the pace slow down to the point of halting all progress.
[85] He decided to stop everything and send the men back to Dunkirk.
[86] He hoped the eastern mole was working better than things were here.
[87] He was more right than he could have known.
[88] The mole was working as hoped.
[89] A line of destroyers, ferries, minesweepers, and other steam engine ships came alongside the mole, picked up the men, and headed for home.
[90] It didn't hurt that the pier master was Commander Clauston, a big, ice hockey -playing Canadian who shouted and was used to being listened to.
[91] Word had gotten out, as happens in these situations, and thousands of men started heading towards the eastern mole.
[92] but Clauston was there with his megaphone ordering and organizing the thousands of tired, starving, desperate men.
[93] The embarkation itself was dangerous, but as long as the Tommies didn't give in to their panic, the system worked.
[94] The captains and commanders at sea were equally desperate to save their countrymen.
[95] For example, the destroyer Sabre, commanded by Brian Dean, had previously made three trips to the mole in one day.
[96] Throughout the night of May 28th, 29th, the ships kept coming.
[97] The dog -tired men, when they finally got their chance to get aboard a ship, were not used to crawling up the makeshift ladders and gangplanks, but the idea of making it home pushed them on.
[98] Captain Tennant looked on in pride as the Eastern Mole and Commander Clouston were able to evacuate about 2 ,000 men an hour.
[99] Twice the men were evacuated on the 28th, then on the 27th.
[100] It was as if Goddess Fortuna smiled at the British.
[101] And there was more good news.
[102] All destroyers were given over to Ramsey.
[103] Route X was finally cleared of mines, shortening the passage from 87 to 55 miles.
[104] The beachhead was holding, although the Belgians were out.
[105] A storm had veered away from the area at the last moment, and most significantly, smoke from the burning oil refinery hid most of Dunkirk from the Luftwaffe.
[106] As for the men manning the perimeter, They watched as water flowed across the ground toward them and covered up both sides of the raised roads leading to the port.
[107] The French had flooded the area.
[108] Now even the Panzers would have trouble advancing.
[109] But, as if to balance things out a bit for the fate of the adversaries, the Brighton Belle, a paddle steamer, hit a submerged wreck.
[110] She was carrying 800 men picked up from the beaches of La Panne.
[111] A gaping hole was made and water started rushing in.
[112] Fortunately, several ships were nearby and were able to get everyone off the doomed ship.
[113] Fortuna was smiling at them, but she was fickle.
[114] By now, it was obvious to everyone but Garing that the Luftwaffe was unable to finish off the war in the West.
[115] The German Navy asked themselves what they could do to help the army in this great enterprise.
[116] Although they never for a second told themselves they could take on the British Navy, there had to be something they could do to stop the British from escaping.
[117] But what?
[118] That was the question.
[119] The German destroyers had been used up in Norway, their larger ships would not work in the narrow channel, and their feared U -boat packs were limited by the shallow water and British anti -submarine measures.
[120] For the German Naval War Command, that left the Schnellboot.
[121] They're small but fast motor torpedo boats.
[122] So the Naval War Command, or SKL, had two flotillas, or about nine boats, transferred and were now based in Holland.
[123] when the Dutch fell into German hands.
[124] The S -boats, as the Schnellboots were called, wasted no time, and sunk the French destroyer Jaguar on the night of May 22nd, 23rd.
[125] Their next victim was the British destroyer Wakeful.
[126] During the night of May 28th, 29th, she loaded 640 men, and by 1240 a .m. of the 29th, started to head for home.
[127] To be safe, she was taking the longest route, Route Y. But after she reached the Quinty whistle buoy, she turned west, increased speed, and started to zigzag.
[128] But it did her no good.
[129] Lieutenant Zimmerman, the skipper of S -30 or Schnellboot -30, saw her and closed in.
[130] He soon let loose two torpedoes.
[131] Commander Fisher of the Wakeful saw the torpedoes coming at him, but it was too late.
[132] He turned his ship hard to port, and the first torpedo missed, but the second hit in the forward boiler room.
[133] The wakeful broke in half.
[134] She was gone in 15 seconds.
[135] The men below decks didn't have time to react.
[136] Only one of them, who snuck topside for a smoke, survived.
[137] But Commander Fisher and about 50 men thrown into the sea survived.
[138] Before too long, Fisher was picked up by a drifter named appropriately Comfort.
[139] With his rank, he took over and told all the ships that had come to get the survivors to head for home, now.
[140] He explained that his ship had been torpedoed and the culprit was probably still around.
[141] And he was right.
[142] But the S -boats weren't the only sharks in the water near the buoy.
[143] The German U -boat, U -62, decided to risk the shallow waters.
[144] Fisher had the comfort pull alongside the Grafton to warn her as well.
[145] But as he shouted out his warning at 2 .50 a .m., the Grafton was hit by a torpedo in its wardroom.
[146] Thirty -five men were killed instantly.
[147] Comfort had been lifted by the blast straight into the air like a child's toy.
[148] She hit the water, submerged, only to rush to the surface again.
[149] But all those on deck, including Fisher, had been washed overboard.
[150] The Grafton was now leaderless, but its engines were still running.
[151] She circled about and eventually came under friendly fire before the situation was figured out.
[152] The Grafton survivors were taken aboard the ferry Maylines.
[153] Then the Grafton was finished off and sunk.
[154] by the destroyer Ivanhoe.
[155] Amazingly, Commander Fisher was picked up by the Norwegian freighter Heard.
[156] Word of these events, minus many of the details, got back to Ramsey at Dover.
[157] He responded by issuing orders to the entire armada at 8 .06 a .m. on the 29th that all ships carrying troops were not to stop to pick up survivors from sunken ships, but to radio for help from others nearby.
[158] He then ordered two minesweepers to stop picking up troops and search for torpedo boats near the Quinty whistle buoy.
[159] But Ramsey knew that he had to do more.
[160] Route Y was the longest, and up until now the safest.
[161] So he followed up these orders by having more anti -submarine vessels from the Thames estuary patrol the area.
[162] But even with these countermeasures, Ramsey wanted to give the men of the BEF the best chance of surviving.
[163] So at 4 .06 p .m., Ramsey ordered all ships to use Route X. Since Route X was 26 miles west of the buoy where the German S -boats were operating, Ramsey felt good about this move.
[164] But there were always more problems rising.
[165] Now the German batteries were shelling the mole from the southeast.
[166] Clearly, they were moving in and getting the range.
[167] Could the RAF do a fast strike and stop those guns?
[168] The Army's medical services were completely inadequate on the beaches.
[169] Could the Navy assist with their doctors?
[170] By the 29th, men were coming to the beach in rates faster than they could be picked up and taken to a waiting ship.
[171] Tenants' men in the makeshift offices tried to organize things, but once the men were on the beach, it was chaos and every man for himself.
[172] But now, there were so many men in line at every pickup point, whether along the mole or a stretch of beach, that the lines appeared not to be moving.
[173] This created even more panic -filled stress among the men, and fighting broke out.
[174] Again, as in other locations, men rushed to incoming boats that turned over, and in one case, seven men drowned in four feet of water.
[175] Officers soon had to rely on their sidearms to keep any sense of order.
[176] But the beaches, because of their gradual slope, proved to be the biggest bottleneck.
[177] But necessity is the mother of invention, and the captains and skippers were a resourceful lot.
[178] The skipper of the minesweeper, Oriel, Lieutenant Davies, had an idea.
[179] His ship was an old River Clyde paddle steamer.
[180] He ran her hard at the beach and grounded her.
[181] The men would climb aboard her from the beachside and get aboard a waiting ship on the other end.
[182] He created a ready -made pier.
[183] The tide would then come in and lift her up, and she would head out to sea again.
[184] On May 29th, the Oriole saved 2 ,500 men.
[185] Captain Tennant, a resourceful man as well, was always looking to improve the rate of men making it back home.
[186] He suggested to Dover that only the mole be used.
[187] The beaches were slow going.
[188] But Ramsey at Dover turned him down.
[189] He wanted every possible means used.
[190] He saw no good reason to limit the operation, slow as the beaches were proving to be.
[191] Also, if they only used the mole and the Germans were able to stop them, I'm not sure how long the saying, don't put all your eggs in one basket has been around, but that idea had to be on Ramsey's mind.
[192] Tennant didn't argue the matter.
[193] He was simply trying new things to improve the situation.
[194] Besides, he knew so far they had been lucky with the smoke and low clouds concealing most of their actions.
[195] Again, by late morning, a good rhythm was established.
[196] Ships and boats would come along the mole, men would climb or be hauled aboard, and the ships would leave for home, and the boats would head to waiting ships.
[197] It so happened that by 1 .30 p .m. on the 29th, an unusually large number of ships met at the mole.
[198] On the harbor, or western side, were docked the British destroyers Grenade and Jaguar, the transport Canterbury, and a French destroyer.
[199] On the seaward, or eastern side, was docked the channel ship Fenella.
[200] Soon, six other ships pulled along the western side between the British and French destroyers.
[201] Things were looking up for the men on the mole and on the beach.
[202] Today, they all hoped Churchill's predictions would be defied.
[203] As a dozen ships pulled up to the mole, Tennant radioed over and said that things were looking well.
[204] But then the goddess Fortuna turned away from the British.
[205] or perhaps the god of war, Mars, decided it was Germany's time to be favored.
[206] Either way, the wind that had been shrouding the British activity changed, and smoke cleared from over the harbor.
[207] By 2 p .m., the Flieger Corps 8 commander, General Major Wolfram von Richtofen, a distant cousin of the Red Baron from World War I, gave the order to attack.
[208] The Luftwaffe finally had its chance.
[209] Welcome to True Spies.
[210] The podcast that takes you deep inside the greatest secret missions of all time.
[211] Suddenly out of the dark it's appeared in love.
[212] You'll meet the people who live life undercover.
[213] What do they know?
[214] What are their skills?
[215] And what would you do in their position?
[216] Vengeance felt good.
[217] Seeing these people pay for what they'd done felt righteous.
[218] True Spies from Spyscape Studios.
[219] Wherever you get your podcasts.
[220] By the 27th of May, the German pilots realized their dominance of the air was coming to an end.
[221] The bombing of Dunkirk had gone well, but the 27th saw modern British fighters, hurricanes and spitfires, coming over from Britain and messing up the neat German formations.
[222] The BEF on the ground and at the beaches had pretty much given up on the RAF.
[223] But British Air Command, led by Air Chief Marshal...
[224] Sir Hugh Downing was holding back his divisions of fighters, knowing the real battle that would decide Britain's fate was still coming.
[225] Only 16 squadrons, or about 200 planes, were allocated for helping with the evacuation.
[226] So the British started giving the Luftwaffe a hard time, but the damage to the harbor had already been done.
[227] By May 28th, it looked like the Germans would still retain control of the air.
[228] As the land controlled by the Allies became smaller, More German fighters and bombers were freed up.
[229] But then the clouds rolled in and cut visibility, thereby negating air dominance.
[230] But General Richthofen had more than just the British air defense to contend with.
[231] Hermann Goering, his superior, constantly called him and asked for updates and demanded that his promise to Hitler about finishing the war be realized.
[232] Richthofen hoped that Goering would soon figure out that he couldn't control the weather.
[233] Before the attack was launched at 2 p .m. on the 29th, The commander told his flyers to limit themselves to the targets on the beaches and in the water.
[234] Army Group B was too close to risk attacking the defensive perimeter of the Allies.
[235] So the attackers took off from various fields at 2 .45 p .m., but it was not going to be a normal raid.
[236] This sortie was reinforced by planes from Holland and eastern Germany.
[237] All told, about 400 aircraft of fighters and bombers made for Dunkirk.
[238] The British Spitfires and Hurricanes turned out to be more than a match for the ME -109s, as well as the new ME -110s.
[239] Of course, the German pilots found out, much to their dismay, the ME -109s were superior to the ME -110s.
[240] The British fighters could turn sharper, hold a dive longer, and recover from it faster.
[241] But there was never enough of them.
[242] Because most were being saved for the defense of Britain, sometimes, and without knowing it, The BEF had no air defense.
[243] At 3 p .m., the German formations, which had circled around, came at the beach from the direction of the sea.
[244] This happened to be one of the times when there was no British air cover.
[245] For the Germans, it was the making of a perfect storm.
[246] The 12 ships along the eastern mole were busy taking on grateful men.
[247] What was going to be a good afternoon for the evacuation turned out to be a day better left forgotten.
[248] The German pilots couldn't believe their eyes when they saw the eastern mole, but then they thought, how long had this apparent evacuation been going on?
[249] They had to stop it.
[250] Though excited, the experienced German pilots applied themselves with precision.
[251] A few planes broke formation and dropped surprisingly few bombs on the mole.
[252] The waiting men dove into the water or face down on the breakwater.
[253] Men were killed instantly or unable to stay above the water in their soaked uniforms.
[254] The destroyer Jaguar, at the end of the mole, was able to get underway.
[255] Another series of bombers made for her, but scored no direct hits.
[256] It didn't matter, as their bombs came close enough.
[257] Shrapnel managed to rip open her fuel tanks, and the Jaguar lost speed.
[258] Fortunately, another destroyer, Express, came over and pulled her away from the shore and took on her passengers.
[259] Jaguar eventually made it back to Dover, but empty and out of the evacuation.
[260] Grenade that had been beside the Jaguar came under attack.
[261] She was hit several times, but was towed away from the harbor before she sank and could block that part of the mole from future use.
[262] The remaining men on the mole were stunned and didn't know which way to go.
[263] While they stood there dazed, German fighters strafed them with their machine guns.
[264] Perhaps the Luftwaffe would prove Gehring right after all.
[265] The German planes then focused their bombs on the large wooden steaming Fenella.
[266] She was on the end of the mole, but on the other side from Jaguar and Grenade.
[267] She was quickly hit, and her hole was shattered.
[268] Closer to shore, but along the mole, were six trawlers, and one of them, Calvi, was hit, but went down so fast, she sank straight down, rested on the bottom, while her battle ensign was still flying above the waves.
[269] Finally, the men waiting to board had seen enough and started heading for the beach.
[270] But Big Commander Clauston was still there, on the shore end, and made the men go back.
[271] Why?
[272] If they had used the mole and got on a ship, they might die, but they might make it home.
[273] If they stayed on the beach, they and those behind them would surely be captured by the Germans.
[274] He used his voice, megaphone, and sighs to chase the men back toward the mole.
[275] When the men returned to the mole, most of them made for the seamer Crested Eagle, which was behind the sinking Fenella.
[276] By 6 p .m., some 600 men were aboard, and she cleared the mole.
[277] But she was quickly found by the Stukas and hit several times.
[278] The captain wanted to give the men some chance for surviving, so turned the ship towards the beach.
[279] The fire on board was spreading, and most of the men didn't think it would make it to the shallow water, so most jumped and swam to shore.
[280] Now the 6 ,000 -ton cargo liner, Clan McAllister, received the Luftwaffe's attention.
[281] She came to the beach at 9 a .m. that morning and used her landing craft to ferry men out to the bigger ships.
[282] She took several hits and was abandoned, but her true rule was yet to play out.
[283] She sank in the shallow water upright, but the planes flying over her couldn't tell from the higher angle.
[284] So the Luftwaffe spent days and many bombs hitting her, thinking somehow she still stayed afloat.
[285] The destroyer Malcolm tried to help her, but realized it was useless.
[286] and made it to safety.
[287] The minesweeper Waverly was less lucky.
[288] Around 4 p .m. she was loaded with 600 men and made for home, but 12 Hinkle's found her and harassed her for more than 30 minutes.
[289] The Waverly constantly altered her course, but eventually a near miss took out her rudder.
[290] A second direct hit put a six -foot hole in her bottom.
[291] She went down with a loss of more than 300 men.
[292] However, the oddest occurrence had to be the end of a favorite isle of white fairy, Gracie Fields.
[293] She departed from Lepan, which is about 12 miles east of Dunkirk, in western Belgium, with 750 troops.
[294] A near -miss jammed her helm.
[295] Unable to stop, Gracie started circling.
[296] The scoots Jutland and Twente came over.
[297] matched her movement, and unloaded the survivors.
[298] The three ships waltzing would be something most of the men would never forget.
[299] Gracie slowly sank while being towed home.
[300] Dusk settled in, the attack lessened, and then stopped altogether.
[301] The mole was in shambles, and not a working ship remained.
[302] Clouston realized that the damage wasn't all due to the bombs.
[303] Several ships rammed into it in confusion.
[304] Knowing how much the mole was needed, Clouston got to work and repair the holes in the mole as best he could, with doors, hatch covers, and planks from the doomed ships.
[305] King Ori, a damaged passenger steamer, came along the mole that night, but Clouston made it leave.
[306] The last thing he needed was another ship sunk here, blocking its use.
[307] The king made for the sea, but barely got into deep water before she rolled over and sank.
[308] On May 29th, the Germans were still one day away.
[309] from fully realizing what the British were up to.
[310] The successful air attacks on British shipping in the harbor of Dunkirk were at first just seen as a fortunate turn of events by the Germans.
[311] The OKW and its generals have been cabling each other for the last three days about how the BEF and the French First Army were finished.
[312] The ships coming and going were seen as the British desperately trying to resupply their trapped men.
[313] Back at Dover, The dynamo room continued making plans for the mole and ignorantly enjoyed the increase of expected evacuees.
[314] But at 6 .25 p .m. on May 29th, Dover received a signal from a wireless set just given to the shore parties at Dunkirk.
[315] The message listed several of the ships that were sunk.
[316] This was bad enough, but at 7 p .m., a Commander Dove called Dover of his own initiative.
[317] and reported that the harbor was done for, and that all future evacuations must be done from the beach.
[318] It was not his call to make, and it's assumed that he suffered from shell shock.
[319] He, like everyone else at the beach, had been suffering from five days of being the target of the Luftwaffe.
[320] As can be imagined, the combination of these two pieces of information caused Ramsey and the Dynamo Room to feel the operation might be at an end.
[321] But Ramsey, perhaps showing why he was in charge, instead of panicking, tried to confirm the disastrous news before giving up.
[322] At 8 .57 p .m., he radioed Captain Tennant to confirm the loss of the harbor.
[323] But Tennant's negative reply due to the chaos and repair attempts never got back to Dover.
[324] But Ramsey couldn't take any more chances.
[325] At 9 .28 p .m., he radioed all ships to head for the beach east of the Mole to collect troops.
[326] Still having not heard from Tenet by the early hours of May 30th, Ramsey sent out a destroyer to confirm the situation.
[327] The good news came back at 5 .51 a .m. that the mole was mostly usable.
[328] The bad news was that an entire night, safe from the Luftwaffe, had been lost.
[329] As staggering as the list of lost men and ships were, It was certainly challenged for being the worst thing Ramsey heard that day by the announcement that Admiral Pound decided to withdraw the eight modern destroyers Ramsey had left for the evacuation.
[330] London was thinking of the battle soon to come to the home shores.
[331] Honestly, after all that had happened, they could hardly be blamed.
[332] But still, all Ramsey had left now was 15 older ships for protection.
[333] They were considered expendable.
[334] If he wanted to protect the many small ships picking up troops, he would have to spread out his remaining ships to one destroyer an hour for the coast.
[335] This would allow for only 17 ,000 troops every 24 hours to be lifted in any kind of safety.
[336] The British fighters were stretched thin, and this made today's disaster possible.
[337] Now, the modern destroyers, protecting the boats and ships full of men, were heading for home.
[338] Fortuna was walking away from the BEF.
[339] But to compound the problem, the next day, May 30th, was when the majority of the Allies were finally making it to the beaches.
[340] The remaining parts of the French First that were holding up the German advance were released by General Priot and told to head for Dunkirk.
[341] Also, the last of Gort's strong points, or stops, were closing up.
[342] Those men were heading north as well.
[343] Unfortunately, as the French tried to head west of Dunkirk and some British to head east of it, they crossed paths.
[344] were frustrated with each other for being in the way while trying to retreat, and fighting broke out.
[345] Men were shot, and fistfights occurred.
[346] Not their proudest moment, but all too human.
[347] Churchill had told his cabinet and Renault, but word did not make it to Gort or Tennant, that French troops should, quote, share in the evacuations, nor must they be dependent upon their own shipping, unquote.
[348] So the French, embarrassed by losing, and the British, embarrassed by trying to pull out, led to tension and fighting on the beach among the two allies.
[349] Some British even built barricades to block French soldiers from getting to nearby boats.
[350] Everyone was tired, hungry, afraid, and wanted to get away from the panzers and bombers as fast as they could.
[351] As men came into the perimeter, some were pulled to add to the defensive line.
[352] The second Coldstream guards were selected to be stationed along the Berghese -Ferns Canal.
[353] The canal ran parallel to the coast, about six miles inland.
[354] These men watched the constant line of ragged and exhausted men trudging past them, heading for the beach.
[355] Finished watching the latest batch of men past them, their eyes returned to the flat fields in front of them.
[356] Their line of fire should have been clear, because the fields were open.
[357] But so many Allied vehicles were abandoned near the beach, their line of sight was heavily obscured.
[358] This caused many to think that the Germans would be on them before they could resist.
[359] Fortunately, some parts of the defensive line were not being engaged by the Germans.
[360] The Germans had been pushing hard since May 10th and were equally worn down.
[361] In fact, the 5th Gloucesters were surrounded by German infantry 15 miles inland, but were still able to slip out during the night of the 29th.
[362] Their pursuers were too tired to chase after them.
[363] Even the strong point at Cassell, 19 miles south of Dunkirk, got orders to make for the beach.
[364] They held off the German attackers for three days and paid the price for it.
[365] But by now, German infantry had gotten behind them.
[366] They were cut off from the sea.
[367] Some wanted to surrender, but most had heard stories about captives being shot out of hand.
[368] So they waited until night to make their escape.
[369] They were chased, caught in a crossfire, and ambushed.
[370] But somehow, 13 men of the Kassel Defense made it to safety.
[371] General Priot of the First French and his men at Lille had been amazing in holding back the Germans in front of them.
[372] But during the morning of the 29th, the 7th Panzer Division literally rode into their position and took them over.
[373] So their defensive pocket was gone, and that meant that Rundstedt's Army Group A and Bach's Army Group B joined together behind or north of where General Priot's men had been in the southern edge of the Allied perimeter.
[374] The Allies at Dunkirk were truly surrounded.
[375] Just like on May 24th, the Panzers were pulled out of the line, but this time by the Panzer generals themselves.
[376] This was not Hitler having second thoughts of taking it easy on the British.
[377] What had been a glorious campaign was now a siege.
[378] The Panzers had done their job.
[379] So at 10 a .m. on May 29th, the OKW ordered the Panzer divisions to pull back.
[380] General Gustav von Weitersheim's motorized infantry took over for Guderian.
[381] Then General Reinhardt's tanks backed out of the front lines to be refit and the men to recuperate.
[382] Because of this change, now ten more experienced infantry divisions joined in the attack of the 35 -mile Dunkirk Allied perimeter, and it went on shrinking.
[383] At the western edge, Gravelines fell.
[384] On the eastern side, Ferns was breached by German infantry.
[385] Back at sea, it became obvious to Dover that the situation on the water was not as organized as on the beach.
[386] There were too many instances of numerous boats being where the majority of the men weren't, and vice versa.
[387] What was needed was a Captain Tennant on the water.
[388] So Rear Admiral Frederick Wake Walker was chosen.
[389] At 52 years old, he was recognized as a good organizer.
[390] And as a former commander of the Battleship Revenge, it was understood that...
[391] That job showed a sure sign of capability.
[392] Admiral Wake Walker was ordered to Dover, and Ramsey told him the situation and their need.
[393] But Wake Walker had to realize he did not outrank Tenet.
[394] He was only in charge of everything on the sea.
[395] He agreed, and Ramsey showed him a neat, organized map.
[396] Britain had their side, the French theirs.
[397] Everything was nice, neat, and precise.
[398] In other words, very British.
[399] But all this meant nothing when Wake Walker got into position at 4 a .m. on May 30th.
[400] His base of operations would be on the minesweeper Hebe.
[401] He forgot the maps and stared at the total chaos.
[402] After assessing the situation, his first report simply said, need more small boats to get men to ships.
[403] Now.
[404] Wake Walker could be sure his view would be taken seriously.
[405] But if it hadn't, it would have mattered little.
[406] It was in good company that day.
[407] His report was one of many, and they all said the same thing.
[408] Three different brigadier generals had already sent messages saying they could only hold out for a little while more.
[409] Send more small boats now.
[410] The men on the beach were starting to think that the British Navy had given up on them.
[411] But next time, we'll see that that couldn't have been further from the truth.
[412] Finally, after days of phone calls, messages, and the herding of many small ships, Dover had a large convoy of privately owned, unarmed ships heading for Dunkirk.
[413] They had left Ramsgate at 10 p .m. on the night of the 29th.
[414] The miracle of Dunkirk was underway.
[415] On May 27th, 7 ,669 men were evacuated.
[416] On May 28th, 17 ,804 men were evacuated.
[417] And on May 29, 47 ,310 men were evacuated from Dunkirk.
[418] Welcome to True Spies.
[419] The podcast that takes you deep inside the greatest secret missions of all time.
[420] Suddenly out of the dark it's appeared in love.
[421] You'll meet the people who live life undercover.
[422] What do they know?
[423] What are their skills?
[424] And what would you do in their position?
[425] Vengeance felt good.
[426] Seeing these people pay for what they'd done felt righteous.
[427] True Spies from Spyscape Studios.
[428] Wherever you get your podcasts.