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.
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[14] As my Twitter followers already know, this week I'm recommending In the Garden of Beasts, Love, Terror, and the American Family in Hitler's Berlin by Eric Larson.
[15] The book covers the first two years of Hitler's chancellorship as the new U .S. ambassador, William Dobb, arrives in Berlin.
[16] He brings his family, which includes his young, naive daughter, that turns out to be a big mistake, and witnesses the insidious transformation of German culture and law by the Nazi party.
[17] Daub cannot keep quiet as he sees what happens to the Jews and other Nazi undesirables.
[18] But the State Department back in the U .S. is unmoved.
[19] They want to hear what Daub is doing to get Germany to pay back the $1 .2 billion it owes America.
[20] The book climaxes with the Knight of the Long Knives, when Hitler decides to deal with his political and personal enemies once and for all.
[21] Hello, and thank you for listening to A History of World War II, Episode 25, Dunkirk, Part 1.
[22] General Gamla realized on May 19th that any action taken by the Allies had to be a matter of hours and not days in order to have any effect on the crumbling Allied defensive situation.
[23] But General Vega, when he decided to cancel Gamla's last order, No. 12, and tour the area before deciding his course of action for the Allies, had ruined the Allies' last chance of holding off complete defeat.
[24] Vega, who was deemed a brilliant second man by de Gaulle, remained a staff officer from his World War I days and his thinking.
[25] His idea to tour the new command before taking action was inspired by General Falk, a hero of the last war who did the same thing.
[26] But things were different now.
[27] The pace of modern war meant there could be no delays.
[28] But Vega would wait three days before deciding the Allied course of action.
[29] May 21st The Allied troops have been pulling back from the dial line since May 16th, under French orders.
[30] As the hours went by, the situation became less and less controlled or organized, but Viscount Gort, commander of the BEF, or British Expeditionary Force, was unflappable in the face of all this.
[31] He kept calmly issuing orders, trying to hold together his forces.
[32] Vega was also calm, but maybe a little too calm.
[33] Instead of staying with the command center and galvanizing his men with a simple direct plan, instead of moving his men into position that would block the German mechanized infantry from catching up to the panzers, which would allow the panzers then to move on to their second phase of destroying the Allied troops, Vegard visited important people in Paris, allowed himself to be praised to the sky, and then in the early afternoon boarded his plane and flew to Belgium.
[34] Vegard decided to assess the northern situation in person, instead of using a secure phone line.
[35] But due to delays that were unfortunately typical of the Allied command and their forces, Vegard did not reach Ypres until 3 p .m. However, even being there in person meant nothing.
[36] Because of the lack of communication, the new commander -in -chief could not contact anyone to find out what the constantly evolving situation was in Belgium.
[37] He also could not issue any orders.
[38] There was no incoming or outgoing communications there.
[39] But Vega did get to meet King Leopold III.
[40] The Belgian king quickly surmised that Vega did not have a plan or even know the situation in the north, and he certainly wasn't going to find out today, here.
[41] Vega, for his part, found out the king was in a defeatist mood, did not want to follow his orders, and was fiercely fighting his own cabinet as to which course Belgium should take.
[42] Vegard also met General Billot, who did not hide his feelings that the Allied cause was hopeless.
[43] Vegard told Leopold and his military advisor, General von Overstraden, that the obvious move should be for the French divisions assembled south of the Somme to attack to the north, while some of the British and French units in Belgium be removed from the defensive line at the Shedd River and pushed southward.
[44] Together, these two counterattacks would come together and close the corridor the panzers had created.
[45] It would only be a matter of time before the German armor would lose their supplies and reinforcements.
[46] But in order for the Allied forces in the north to take part in this, while having their rear protected, the Belgian forces would have to simultaneously extend and move back their line of defense to the Yesser River, which was only about 50 miles from the coast.
[47] Clearly, Belgian territory was about to be lost to the Allies, but this plan would allow the Allied forces to still oppose the Germans.
[48] But Leopold...
[49] who had General van Overstaaten do the talking, said Belgium could not agree to this.
[50] The Belgian monarch could not stomach giving up any more Belgian territory.
[51] Vegard pointed out that keeping the forces in the field against the enemy was their priority, but Overstaaten counted with the Belgian troops were too tired to retreat that far.
[52] Belgian Prime Minister Pirlat later commented that Leopold and his military aide were ready to acknowledge defeat.
[53] and laying the groundwork for Belgium capitulation.
[54] But more importantly, they were challenging the right of the Allied Supreme Commander to give orders to the Belgian army.
[55] The Belgian ministers, who were not allowed to attend the Allied meeting, urged their king to follow Végan's orders.
[56] But Leopold told them Belgium did not have to listen to the French.
[57] the tension between the king and the government council increased.
[58] The king and his ministers would spend the next few days waging a war of their own against each other in letter form.
[59] But the paramount reason that May 21st has to be deemed a waste of time by Vega was that Lord Gort, the man in charge of the BEF, was not told of the meeting in a timely manner.
[60] It only got there after Vega left around 7 p .m. General Gort was happy to have the French lead and wanted to hear what Vegard had to say about the next stage of the Allied battle plan.
[61] Gort that day was busy directing his part of the push south to cut off the German advance.
[62] He did not learn the location or time of the meeting until late in the day.
[63] So Gort got there about 8 p .m., but Vegard had not gone into detail about his plan with the Belgians.
[64] Only General Billot got to hear what Vegard was thinking.
[65] There was nothing spelled out or written down for the commander of the BEF.
[66] Again, the details were left to manufacture themselves.
[67] But what made this wasted day for the Allies even sadder was that after leaving the meeting, General Billot was fatally injured in a car crash.
[68] He would die two days later.
[69] But he alone had talked with Venga and knew the details of the coordination between the Allied forces near the Somme and those trapped in Belgium.
[70] He alone knew Vega's desire for the Belgians to move back to the Lais.
[71] There was never much coordination between the Allies, but what few plans Vega made were now lost.
[72] Gort now only had a gist of Vega's plan.
[73] Even though Vega had cancelled Gemmler's plan, Churchill constantly prodded Gort to take the offensive in some form.
[74] Gort had been in communication with General Blachard, his French counterpart, and finally decided.
[75] on a joint attack.
[76] At 2 p .m. on the 21st, a force under Major General Franklin started moving south from Arras.
[77] At last, something was happening to stem the German tide.
[78] The plan was to meet up with the French heading north from Cambrai.
[79] Unfortunately, the counterattack did not work out as planned.
[80] Franklin's force was reduced at the last minute from two divisions to two battalions.
[81] His 76 tanks were worn down and started giving out right away.
[82] And finally, no French force tried to advance to meet Franklin from the south.
[83] The British force pushed south for about five miles, ran into panzers, and tried to hold their own.
[84] But when it became clear that no French forces were coming up to meet them, they advanced no further.
[85] Gort, to his credit, saw enough of the real situation to know that unless a miracle occurred and soon, it was over for France.
[86] Britain would be next and have to think of themselves if they wanted to survive.
[87] He had already begun talks with London about pulling back the BEF, even the probability of a massive embarkation, to try and make it back to Britain.
[88] Gord had been kept in the dark about what was happening to the French 9th Army to his south, but by now he knew his men were surrounded on three sides, and that had to mean something.
[89] And he wanted to know what Vegard was going to do about it.
[90] General Gort did not suffer fools lightly, and he liked his staff to show initiative, and that turned out to be fortuitous.
[91] Gort's adjutant general saw the situation the same way Gort did and ordered the rear general headquarters to move from Boulogne to Dunkirk.
[92] The medical personnel, transport troops, and construction battalions were moved first.
[93] All during the day, the Germans were still exploiting the gap created along the Meuse River, constantly widening it further.
[94] In this, they had help.
[95] The troops who had been invading the Netherlands were now free to help out on the immediate goal of rolling out the Allied line to the north, or on the German right, pushing them further from Paris.
[96] May 22nd By May 22nd, the German panzers were ahead of the detailed German planning.
[97] This had been a problem since they had reached Abbeville on their way to the coast.
[98] At this point, they were free to head south, and go for the Seine and then for Paris, or turn north and finish off the trapped Allied armies.
[99] But finally a decision was reached.
[100] At 8 a .m., the OKW flashed the code words Ab March Nord, March North.
[101] Army Group A's tanks and motorized infantry were advancing towards the badly shaken enemy.
[102] Guderian's 19th Corps of the 1st, 2nd, and 10th Panzer Divisions that had been brilliant since they had crossed the Meuse now had a new objective.
[103] They were going north along the coast, take the channel ports, and stop the Allies from escaping.
[104] The 2nd Panzer would head for Boulogne, the 10th would make for Calais, and the 1st would head for Dunkirk.
[105] The last was the furthest away, but the most important.
[106] That morning, the first managed to cover 40 miles.
[107] Keep in mind that both sides only had World War I to compare this to.
[108] The first war was about gaining feet and yards.
[109] Here, where the miles were being gobbled up, was almost more than either side could wrap their minds around.
[110] General Blanchard, commander of the French First Army, which was going the way of the Ninth Army, was chosen by Végin to replace the dying general below.
[111] But even this straightforward promotion should have not taken the four days that it did to be made official.
[112] The Allies needed to move fast on everything and every decision to try to keep up with the Germans.
[113] Sadly for the Allies, Blanchard was not of the same caliber as Below, and he was just as physically and mentally worn out as Georges.
[114] During those four days, the Belgians did not receive a single order from Blanchard, and Gort was only told to retreat from the dial.
[115] but nothing more.
[116] Unlike the Allies, the Germans had worked hard during the last four days and rushed motorized infantry and artillery to strengthen both sides of their narrow corridor that led to the coast.
[117] This narrow but long German -controlled passageway started west of Hunsinger's Second Army and ended just north of the Somme.
[118] Churchill flew over to Paris on May 22nd.
[119] He wanted to know what the immediate measures were going to be to salvage the worsening situation.
[120] He met with Renault and Vega at Vincennes.
[121] Vega supposed he was impressing the two leaders with his plan to attack the German corridor from the north and the south.
[122] Churchill, however, wanted to make sure that this action was taken, drew up a resume of a plan to reduce any possible confusion.
[123] He wired a copy to the War Cabinet in London and General Gort.
[124] The points of Churchill's resume were as follows.
[125] Vegard's plan called for the Belgians to withdraw to the Yesser and open up the sluices, which would hopefully slow down Army Group B. The British and French should attack south towards Cambry by tomorrow with eight divisions.
[126] The British would help an always possible day and night.
[127] And the new French Army Group near Amiens.
[128] and along the Somme would strike north and meet up with the British who were coming south.
[129] But even this hopeful meeting between the British and the French, with the plan spelled out, led to confusion.
[130] The part about the combined Allies invading south with eight divisions was a dream of either Weygand or Churchill.
[131] All the Allied forces there were still pinned down by the German Army Group B pushing east.
[132] Also, The last part about a new French army group and where it was supposed to go was misunderstood, either by the British Prime Minister or Vega.
[133] Later that day, when Vega issued his orders, he said nothing about pushing far enough north to join the British.
[134] He merely wanted his forces to move above the River Somme and take away the bridgeheads the Germans had made there.
[135] So Vega's General Order No. 1 on May 22 was at least two days behind reality.
[136] It ignored the fact that the Germans had already made it to the coast.
[137] It ignored the fact that most French units were incomplete, under -armed, or already in a necessary position and could not be moved.
[138] The order did not include a timetable to motivate the men.
[139] And finally, Vegard hinted he had no idea where the Germans were.
[140] So a counterattack, of which Order No. 1 was supposed to build on, was started at 9 a .m. But to guarantee failure, the forces pushing north were whittled down to just the 121st Infantry Regiment, supported by two small armored assault groups.
[141] They were to advance towards Cambry and meet with the British, who would be pushing south.
[142] Although the French were unable to coordinate with the British the day before, they managed to start out on time and make it to the edge of Cambrai that evening.
[143] But upon arrival, the French were told to retreat by General Blanchard.
[144] He was afraid, because they were unsupported, that they would be surrounded.
[145] The northern units under Gort did not receive the orders for their part until 8 .50 p .m., seven hours too late.
[146] The next day, Gort assumed another effort would be made, but did not hear anything specific from Blanchard.
[147] He wanted to know what course to take before moving any troops.
[148] He did not believe any counterattack would make a difference in the outcome, but he would certainly follow any orders given.
[149] May 23rd.
[150] The Panzers were moving again.
[151] Now that they had their orders, they wanted to finish this battle against their continental rival.
[152] The Wehrmacht were already enjoying more success in 13 days than all of World War I. It was time to knock out the French, trap the British divisions, and make them sue for peace.
[153] Germany would then have a free hand for the future.
[154] At 10 .50 a .m., General Lieutenant Kirchner's 1st Panzer Division started out from Deser.
[155] Dunkirk was 38 miles away.
[156] At noon, the panzers were at Renex, 33 miles away.
[157] At 1 .15 p .m., they had made it to Guines, only 25 miles away.
[158] About 6 p .m., they had reached Le Attac, only 20 miles away.
[159] Here, they had to cross the Calais -St.
[160] Omer Canal and expected the bridge to be blown.
[161] Oh well, nothing to do but build another pontoon bridge.
[162] So General Kirchner ordered forward a company of engineers to get started.
[163] But it turned out they weren't needed.
[164] Someone forgot to blow the bridge before they retreated.
[165] The tanks rolled across.
[166] By 8 p .m., Kirchner's advance units had reached the A Canal at its mouth.
[167] They were 12 miles.
[168] from Dunkirk.
[169] We should stop here and draw another mental map.
[170] Because Dunkirk is the British objective, we'll use this as a reference point.
[171] If you imagine you're at Dunkirk with your back to the sea, your right flank goes west and southwest along the coast, while your left flank goes east by northeast because of the slant of the coastline.
[172] To the south along the coast, or what will become the British right, once they get to Dunkirk, is where the Panzers are coming from.
[173] The A canal, west of Dunkirk, is where the British were hoping to set up their right flank defensive line.
[174] They hoped to stop the Germans there, which would give them enough room to comfortably embark their men and get back across the channel.
[175] Unfortunately for the British, the German pace meant that the panzers got to the canal before enough British infantry could.
[176] So around midnight, some panzers crossed the Awe and established a bridgehead at St. Pierre -Brock.
[177] By the morning of the 24th, three more bridgeheads were made, and one battle group made it to the outskirts of Barbourg, only 10 miles from Dunkirk.
[178] The Germans inside the tanks were elated.
[179] Never could they have hoped for such amazing success against the French.
[180] The Germans, with more brass on their uniforms, however, were getting worried.
[181] Panzer Group Commander General von Kleist was unable to make needed repairs as his tanks covered the hundreds of miles.
[182] By now, his tank units were down to only 50 % strength.
[183] To the tank units themselves, this reduced strength was still enough to keep the Allies running before them.
[184] But the 4th Army commander, General Colonel von Kluge, was worried about the exposed flanks of the panzers.
[185] To his thinking, the tanks were too far out ahead of the infantry.
[186] The British counterattacks on the German flanks had been small and repulsed, but they had the effect of scaring the German officers.
[187] The German staff officers, staring at maps away from the fighting, were driving themselves crazy.
[188] wondering why the Allies did not counterattack more, especially along the Panzer's flanks.
[189] The only one not worried was General Guderian.
[190] He alone seems to have understood that the established tactics and view that war was a land acquisition game had changed.
[191] When on the offensive, literally during a drive, tanks did not need infantry support.
[192] Their job was to scare away opponents or take an objective.
[193] Let the motorized infantry that followed hold the position they took.
[194] The tanks were all about movement and keeping the enemy always falling back in hopes of keeping their defensive line straight as outdated military doctrine dictated.
[195] For Guderian, the question was why to try to control most of the chessboard when you had a weapon that could go straight for the king and end the game.
[196] Welcome to True Spies.
[197] The podcast that takes you deep inside the greatest secret missions of all time.
[198] Suddenly out of the dark it's appeared in love.
[199] You'll meet the people who live life undercover.
[200] What do they know?
[201] What are their skills?
[202] And what would you do in their position?
[203] Vengeance felt good.
[204] Seeing these people pay for what they'd done felt righteous.
[205] True Spies from Spyscape Studios.
[206] Wherever you get your podcasts.
[207] Shortly before 5 p .m., the advanced tanks were rolling towards Dunkirk, with no opposition to speak of.
[208] Literally, there was a smattering of infantry troops desperately waiting for reinforcements.
[209] The Allies needed a miracle.
[210] They got two, actually.
[211] One in Hitler, and one in Field Marshal Hermann Goering.
[212] As the tanks were within 10 miles of Dunkirk, the 4th Army Commander, General von Kluge, called General von Rundstedt, at Army Group A headquarters.
[213] Kluge asked that the tanks stop so everyone else could catch up, and Rundstedt agreed.
[214] The panzers were ordered by Rundstedt to halt the next day, on the 24th, for a short rest, everyone assumed.
[215] Field Marshal Hermann Goering, commanding officer of the Luftwaffe, was just as stunned as everyone else, on both sides, at the penetration made by the panzers, but what he felt was not elation, but concern.
[216] He was vainglorious, and he wanted his Air Force to have its proper share of the coming victory.
[217] He decided to talk to Hitler and convince him to get the tanks to set back and let the Luftwaffe finish off the Allies.
[218] To any outsider, the question begged to be asked was, why would Hitler stop the tanks from finishing off what they had made possible?
[219] It was their victory, after all.
[220] But Goring knew his leader well.
[221] As the number two man in the Nazi party, he had spent many hours over the years listening to Hitler pour out his heart about his desires for a greater Germany.
[222] Goering used his intimate knowledge of the brilliant but sometimes fickle Nazi warlord and began to manipulate him perfectly over the phone on the 23rd.
[223] He proposed to Hitler his brilliant idea that now was the time to let loose the Air Force.
[224] Goering promised to finish off the Allies much more cheaply than the Panthers could.
[225] Goring spoke to Hitler's inner thoughts when he told him he wanted his leader to save the panzers for the big push on Paris.
[226] And lastly, Goring pleaded with his Fuhrer to let the credit for the victory in the West go to the Luftwaffe, which was associated with the new Reich of National Socialism, and not the army generals and the Prussian aristocrats.
[227] Hitler had been obsessing about his precious tanks for the last couple of days and knew that the Flanders country the Panthers would have to go through was not good for tanks.
[228] Hitler wanted to agree with Goering, but knew he needed to keep the attack going on the ground.
[229] But how to do it?
[230] The maximum of never letting up an opponent that was beaten was well known by all military men.
[231] By the 23rd, the question for the Germans wasn't one of victory.
[232] That was already in the bag.
[233] There was no way Belgium and France could eject the German panzers and infantry from where they were.
[234] The question was how to achieve the final victory as quickly and cheaply as possible.
[235] There were future battles to be considered.
[236] For the Allies, the question was the exact opposite.
[237] Failure was already at hand.
[238] The question was how to manage losing the war in such a way as to save France's face and the British their fighting men for what was surely coming.
[239] The British position in the north was crumbling fast.
[240] The German 5th and 7th Panzers had been pushing Gort's two infantry divisions back on both sides of the town of Arra all day.
[241] But a small force managed to hold out inside the town itself, which was located 40 miles northeast of the River Somme.
[242] This resistance to the Germans meant that there were only two roads that led out of the town still open to the British.
[243] and by 7 p .m. Gort ordered the men within the town limits to withdraw to the east and northeast.
[244] Dunkirk was their only hope.
[245] May 24th Hitler talked with von Rundstedt that morning, and the Army Group A commander had the answer Hitler was looking for.
[246] Rundstedt suggested letting the tanks rest and be repaired.
[247] They already formed a line west of the Allied forces at the Ackanal.
[248] Why not take advantage of that?
[249] Let Army Group B keep pushing the Allies towards the coast and the Panzers.
[250] They would be bottled up and out in the open for the bombers and the fighters.
[251] This solution met all of the criteria for Hitler.
[252] I don't know how to say shooting fish in a barrel in German, but that was the idea.
[253] Hitler liked it and added it would be doing the Air Force a favor.
[254] So at 12 .41 p .m., new orders went out.
[255] It had Rundstedt's and Hitler's name attached to it.
[256] And Hitler...
[257] who was determined to save his panzers, made sure this order, unlike yesterday's order to halt, was specific.
[258] The tanks were not to go beyond a line created by the cities of Gravelines, Saint -Omer, and Bethune.
[259] To the east, Hitler wanted Armored Group B to push the Allies out of Belgium and into the northeast corner of France.
[260] Braulich and Halder, who Hitler had done an end run around with Rundstedt, tried to change Hitler's mind, but ran into a brick wall.
[261] They tried to remind Hitler that the Manstein plan called for Army Group A to be the hammer and Army Group B to be the anvil, but Hitler's order halted the hammer in mid -air.
[262] Weygand, for his part, was spitting mad when he found out the British had retreated from Iraq, as if they should be able to do something the French army couldn't.
[263] But because of the British withdrawal, the French army to the British left now stuck out more.
[264] If there was an Allied offensive here, it would be more dangerous for the French.
[265] Vegard told Renault that because of the British retreat, the coordinated counterattack planned could not happen now.
[266] Vegard left out the part that there never would have been a French attack north of the Somme.
[267] He ended by saying that now the only thing left for the Allies would be large bridgeheads around Boulogne, Calais, and Dunkirk.
[268] So Végin sent a bitter letter to Renaud, and Renaud sent a bitter letter to Churchill.
[269] But in the end, Gort, who was happy to follow French orders, knew the situation was lost and decided to save his men and salvage some hope for Britain.
[270] But Végin was not finished.
[271] With one eye on posterity, he continued to talk about more plans for some sort of coordinated attack on the Germans.
[272] So the Germans had a corridor that was always widening and ended along the Somme.
[273] The British had a smaller corridor that was always shrinking north of Arras.
[274] Guderian's tanks, who were ordered to stop this day, could be proud of what they had achieved.
[275] Going up the coast from Abbeville, they had captured Bologna and surrounded Calais.
[276] Then they had reached Gravelin, 20 miles down the coast from Dunkirk.
[277] They didn't want to stop, but certainly needed it and would take advantage of the respite.
[278] The battle line in Belgium had moved southwestward at first and then northwest as the Allies tried to disengage from the Germans, but there was no way that Army Group B was going to let that happen.
[279] So with the French and the British retreating towards the coast, and Guderian to their west, coming up the coast, by May 24th, the Allies were hemmed in into an imperfect triangle.
[280] The base of the triangle was along the coast from Gravelines to Terenzen, and the apex was about 70 miles inland at Valenciennes.
[281] The Allied corridor had become merged into a narrow line of troops heading for the sea.
[282] As can be imagined, this was a very small area for all these troops.
[283] Despite Van Gogh's blustering, there was no hope of breaking out.
[284] To make matters worse, the Germans had three bridgeheads over the A canal as well as further inland towards St. Omer mentioned earlier.
[285] Bratlich and Holder were doing their parts to rush mechanized infantry to this left flank along the coast that had worried Hitler so much.
[286] The only hope for the Allies.
[287] was to escape to the sea via Dunkirk.
[288] The territory between the Aux Canal and Austin in Belgium, where King Leopold and his government was located, held the remainder of the Belgian army, nine divisions of the BEF, and ten divisions of the French First Army.
[289] Fortunately for the Allies, the area south of their location was bad for tanks.
[290] Canals crisscrossed, ditches went in every direction, and some areas had been flooded by the French.
[291] But Guderian and Reinhardt's panzers kept themselves busy while repairing their tanks and waiting for reinforcements.
[292] They had increased their bridgeheads to five across the A canal.
[293] They were confident that when the word was given to resume their advance, they would be ready to finish off the Allied forces and end the Battle of France.
[294] Making their coming job easier was the 6th and 18th armies of Army Group B pushing the Allies to the northeast.
[295] Without prompting, Vega sent out information that a new French 7th Army was advancing north and had already taken several cities, including Amiens, but none of this was true.
[296] Churchill, who was sold on the Vega plan and believed what the energetic Generalissimo told him, thought he had found a kindred spirit of the offensive.
[297] This led the British Prime Minister to unrealistically ask anyone close by why wasn't the British troops at Calais fighting to get to Gort?
[298] Why were they settling for a bridgehead?
[299] Why wasn't Gort fighting through to get to them?
[300] After all that had happened, Gort still had the intention of driving south, but as the situation in his front worsened, he was able to commit fewer and fewer troops to it.
[301] May 25th At 5 a .m., the three main members of the Belgian government called upon King Leopold III one more time.
[302] In attendance was Perlotte the Premier, Spock, the foreign minister, and General Dennis, minister of war.
[303] They were not given permission to sit, so got on with putting their argument before the king one last time.
[304] The premier begged the king not to allow himself to be captured by the Germans, but to flee and keep the struggle going in Britain like the monarchs of Holland and Norway had.
[305] But they got nowhere and so reminded the king that history and the Belgian people would not remember his highness kindly after the war for becoming a German puppet.
[306] It would also mean breaking the agreement Belgium had with her allies, but the ministers knew this meant very little to the sovereign.
[307] Leopold told them again he would be staying and share the fate of his people.
[308] And there were other reasons.
[309] Leopold told his ministers, Shortly, in a few days perhaps, France must herself renounce the struggle.
[310] No doubt England will continue the war, not on the continent, but on the seas and in her colonies.
[311] But Belgium can play no part in it.
[312] Her role is terminated.
[313] There is no more reason for us to continue the war on the side of the Allies.
[314] The ministers then informed the king that the government would be leaving and would be continuing the war in any way they could.
[315] They then asked if they continued the struggle, would it be in the king's name?
[316] He replied no. So the ministers told Leopold that the government would have to disassociate itself publicly from him.
[317] The king told them to do what they had to do.
[318] They shook the king's coolly offered hand and went to Dunkirk and then to Britain.
[319] General Gort of the BEF and General Blanchard, now commander of the French First Army, agreed that they would still try to do their part to go on the offensive.
[320] They didn't have much faith in it, but they would follow their vague orders from Vegard.
[321] But they also agreed that the main thrust had to come from the south.
[322] After all, Vegard was talking about some impressive numbers that could move north to help them.
[323] Unfortunately, Vegard was exaggerating or was misled.
[324] He was either passing on unbelievably good news or hoping to buck up the Allied spirit by reporting false numbers.
[325] But miscommunication and or saving face still dominated the French high command.
[326] French General Bessot had abandoned his Somme offensive the night before against orders.
[327] But when General Vega visited George's office and had news that the Allies were still determined to launch an offensive from the north, George's staff called General Besson and told him his Somme offensive was back on.
[328] Somehow, it seemed that five Anglo -French divisions would be involved in this miracle counterattack.
[329] But later that day, Vegard's hopes were dashed by a Major Favel, who came representing the 1st French Army and Blachard.
[330] At the meeting were Premier Renaud, Pétain, Vegard, Admiral Darlon, and General Sir Edward L. Spears, who represented Churchill.
[331] Favel had to tell this august audience that the First Army was unable to carry out Végon's plans.
[332] Blanchard, the commander of the French forces, was too exhausted, as were his men.
[333] Also, the French First Army had only three divisions left that could fight, and most of them had ammunition for only one more day.
[334] And finally, to Blanchard, It seemed the British appeared to be ready to embark, and the Belgian army ready to give up.
[335] Another meeting was held at 7 p .m. with the French politicians in high command.
[336] After the meeting, and for years to come, three versions of what was said has come out.
[337] But what can be said with certainty was that Pétain and Weygand, the President and Premier, posed the question of ceasing hostilities and examining the German peace proposals.
[338] Also, Renault agreed to put these questions to the British the next day.
[339] It must be said here that Patin mentioned several times that it would be better for a military man to talk to the Germans and represent France.
[340] He felt a man in uniform could get a better deal from Germany.
[341] The evening of the day before the 24th, Gort and Blanchard found out that the German 6th Army had broken through near Contoury, between the British and Belgian forces.
[342] If the German advance was allowed to continue, not only would Belgium troops be cut off from the Allies, but the German 6th Army would be open to take Dunkirk, the last port in Allied hands.
[343] Gort waited all day of the 25th to see if the hole was plugged.
[344] But as the last of the British troops were ready to head to the coast, the Belgians were simply unable to stop the German advance by themselves, but not because they didn't try.
[345] So at 6 p .m., Gort ordered the 5th and 50th Divisions that were about to head south, according to Vega's counterattack plan, to turn north and close the hole.
[346] Gort had no doubt that sealing off the flow of German troops through the gap between the Allies was the French and British's only hope of making it to the sea.
[347] But by Gort having his men turn north, he knew it would certainly kill the Vega plan, but it could not be helped.
[348] Gort had made his decision.
[349] and tried to tell Blanchard, his counterpart, but was unable to reach him.
[350] If Gort needed another reason to head for the sea and focus on the German 6th Army to the east instead of the Panzers to the south and west of him, he got it.
[351] A wallet of a German staff officer was found as the lines kept moving between the aggressors.
[352] Inside the wallet were papers, maps, and a bootjack.
[353] The plans inside were of a major attack on Ypres.
[354] This confirmed for Gort that he had made the right choice.
[355] His forces would need to go north and slow down the German offensive if the BEF was to have any chance of gaining enough time to be able to move towards the coast.
[356] At 11 .30 that night, General Blanchard, who had not talked with Gort yet, made his own decision, independently, to call off his part of the counteroffensive for tomorrow.
[357] He cited the German breakthrough at the Belgian Front and the withdrawal of the British, but at this point it was inevitably prudent.
[358] He then made it official by ordering the three Allied armies to regroup closer to the coast and to form a bridgehead covering Dunkirk in depth.
[359] Since the moment Hitler gave the order to halt the tanks west of Dunkirk, more ranking officers came to believe that stopping the tanks had been a mistake.
[360] There were numerous attempts at backdoor lobbying, but nothing worked on Hitler.
[361] Those who supported Hitler agreed with him that letting the Luftwaffe finish off the Allies would save the Werkmark for Paris and possibly for Britain.
[362] May 26th At 4 .10 a .m., War Secretary Anthony Eden telegraphed Gort and ordered him to head for the beach.
[363] The Navy would provide a fleet of ships and small boats to be supported by the RAF.
[364] the Royal Air Force.
[365] It went on to say that Churchill would soon sound out Renault about this.
[366] It ended by saying, do not discuss this order with the French or the Belgians.
[367] Lord Gort read the letter when he got back that morning from a meeting with Blanchard.
[368] Gort had canceled the push south and got Blanchard to agree to move north.
[369] Blanchard thought it was to have a new defensive line closer to the beach that would give the Allies a permanent bridgehead on the continent.
[370] Gort was surprised that Blanchard did not figure out the truth, even though he couldn't tell him.
[371] By now, the BEF and the French First Army were squeezed into a long, narrow corridor running inland from the coast.
[372] The area controlled by the Allies was about 60 miles deep and 20 miles wide.
[373] Most of the British forces were around Lille, which was 43 miles from Dunkirk, and the French First was further south, or inland.
[374] By now, even General Rundstedt was having doubts about holding back the tanks.
[375] The Luftwaffe, after three days of bombing every Allied target they came across, hadn't been able to fulfill Goring's promises.
[376] Also, Army Group B was getting bogged down.
[377] The Allies' resistance was stiffer than expected.
[378] The dissenters against holding back the Panzers finally got a break about noon on the 26th.
[379] The OKW, or German High Command, called General Halder and informed him that the Fuhrer would allow the panzers and motorized infantry to move within artillery range of Dunkirk to cut off evacuations or reinforcements.
[380] The Germans had finally figured out what the British were up to.
[381] Like the French, the German high command was thinking that the British were trying to retreat just enough to set up permanent bridgeheads around important port cities.
[382] But by now, they had seen the ships traveling back and forth across the channel.
[383] The weather and cloud cover had helped the British for a while, but now the jig was up.
[384] The British had to be stopped.
[385] The war in the West had to end here.
[386] Hitler was already thinking of his next step for Lebensraum, or living space, for Germany.
[387] But only hours after the first order to halt was altered, another order came that lifted it altogether.
[388] New orders were cut and sent out.
[389] But due to delays, unusual for the efficient Wehrmacht, the tanks of the 19th Corps did not start to advance until the early morning of May 27th.
[390] Hitler had been hoping to take it easy on the British and in return get a favorable peace treaty or at least a non -aggression pact.
[391] But clearly, the mighty naval power across the Channel was going to make Hitler earn his victory in the West.
[392] In the coming weeks and months, Hitler would admit complete confusion in trying to deal with the British.
[393] Didn't they know they were beaten?
[394] The Allies had run out of time, but they had used the last few days wisely.
[395] As stated previously, the French, British, and Belgian forces were limited to a narrow corridor just south of Lille.
[396] Gord had transferred veteran troops to the western side of the corridor and had received fresh troops for the eastern side.
[397] The two retreating sides were also moving in an organized way towards the coast.
[398] But by now, the two sides of the corridor were so close to each other that the men became one line heading towards Dunkirk.
[399] Of course, all this took place while being constantly bombed and strafed by the Luftwaffe.
[400] For the haggard men, hoping to make it to the sea, time and the names of the villages they passed ceased to mean anything.
[401] Their lives were about bombing, no sleep.
[402] losing friends and witnessing death and destruction everywhere.
[403] The British left faced Bach's Army Group B that had come mostly straight at them on the western side.
[404] On the right, they faced Rundstedt's Army Group A that had gone south of them, through Sedan, and then swung north.
[405] Rundstedt's panzers had reached Bourbon, which was only ten miles west of Dunkirk.
[406] Premier Renaud had flown to London that morning of the 26th to talk to Churchill and his cabinet.
[407] But while Renaud was away, men schemed in Paris.
[408] They wanted to organize and pressure Renaud into seeing things their way.
[409] Vegard was in the lead.
[410] That morning, he summoned Baddowin to Vincennes for a talk, which began about 10 .30 a .m. Vegard told him that the situation in the north had worsened to the point of impossibility.
[411] Vegard wanted to save the army.
[412] so he could put down revolution and anarchy at home after the war.
[413] For a general, he was too concerned with politics.
[414] He said in so many words, the war was over.
[415] He had to save the army.
[416] To keep fighting would only lead to a massacre, and a massacre would not help France.
[417] Végan wanted to avoid that.
[418] So Végan, Pétain, Chantem, a radical party leader, and Baldwin agreed they needed to end the war to save France.
[419] They also agreed that a military man would be needed to lead this negotiation with the Germans, or the French public would not go along.
[420] During the afternoon, the Belgian command sent a telegram to Weygand that they would be finished soon.
[421] There was no reply.
[422] Weygand heard from Blanchard that his plan was now to move back towards Dunkirk and create a defense in depth, anything to slow the Germans down and save his men.
[423] Weygand agreed.
[424] but still spent the next few days complaining about the British pullback.
[425] It was a case of sheer politics, but Weygand knew what would be coming after the war and wanted to cover himself as best as he could.
[426] Premier Renaud returned to Paris and told his cabinet that Churchill informed him that the BEF would be attempting to evacuate from Dunkirk.
[427] In response, Weygand asked Admiral Darlan if it was possible to evacuate a large amount of men from the port city.
[428] Darlan told Weygand it was impossible.
[429] Three minutes before 7 that evening of the 26th, right before Hitler released his panzers to finish off the trapped allies, the British Admiralty gave the go -ahead for Operation Dynamo, the codename for the Dunkirk evacuation.
[430] Besides the military situation, this decision was in response to something that Renault had told Churchill while he was at Whitehall that day.
[431] Premier Renault, the head of the French government, told the British Prime Minister that Petain would push for a ceasefire if a large part of France was overrun.
[432] It seems the French might beat the British to the punch in leaving the other with holding the bag.
[433] The Panzers that evening were topping off their gas tanks and taking on all the ammo they could carry.
[434] They would head out early in the morning to finish what had started on May 10th, only 16 days ago.
[435] But Lord Gort had a surprise for them.
[436] He had deployed three infantry divisions with heavy artillery on his right flank.
[437] The panzers would not get very far without paying a heavy price.
[438] Gort didn't have to hold out forever, although it probably seemed like that to him.
[439] Ignoring the prediction that only 45 ,000 or so men would be saved and the vast majority left behind would become prisoners of Nazi Germany, Gort focused on what he knew.
[440] The evacuation had begun.
[441] But what he couldn't know was that before it was all over, an armada of 850 vessels of all types, cruisers, destroyers, small sailboats, and Dutch scoots under the control of civilian volunteers would sail for Dunkirk.
[442] By now, the word desperate did not even begin to describe the situation the Belgian forces were in.
[443] Their line was now from Bruges to Ypres, which ran parallel to the coast, and was about 30 miles inland.
[444] Then the part of the defensive line, held by the BEF in French, went inland, just short of Cambry.
[445] Then it looped back around towards the coast until it reached Gravelines, which was about 15 miles west of Dunkirk.
[446] Gravelines was just on the eastern side of the Aux Canal, where the British had established a defensive line.
[447] This was all the territory the Allies held north of the River Somme.
[448] To make matters worse for the Belgians, and it's hard to imagine it getting worse, They had simply overwhelming German pressure put on them, as General Kirchner's 18th Army, that was in Holland, came to push beside General Reichenau's 6th Army.
[449] Added to this, the Belgians were running out of food and ammunition and had no air cover, Belgian or Allied.
[450] The French and British had not yet told the Belgians their plans about evacuating.
[451] That morning, Gort realized the Belgians were not pulling back towards the Yassir.
[452] and frankly, covering his retreat.
[453] He asked London to put pressure on them to do so.
[454] They, in return, asked him to counterattack to help them.
[455] He said he could not.
[456] Their reply was that they couldn't help him either.
[457] At 9 p .m., two hours after Operation Dynamo had commenced, the first British ship, Mona's Isle, headed for Dunkirk.
[458] It was able to take aboard 1 ,400 British troops, but it quickly came under German artillery and left the coast with 23 killed and 60 wounded.
[459] Gort wired Anthony Eden that day, I must not conceal from you that a great part of the BEF and its equipment will inevitably be lost even in the best circumstances.
[460] This was in response to Gort having heard what the Navy was allocating.
[461] for getting his men to safety, and he knew it wasn't enough.
[462] He sent a representative to tell the chiefs of staff to send everything possible, military and civilian.
[463] The calling in of public and private boats had been going on since May 14th by the BBC.
[464] But at the time, the Admiralty and all its varied offices were looking for wooden craft for dealing with Germany's magnetic mines.
[465] But that quickly became a secondary threat to what was happening on the continent.
[466] Churchill, the most offensive thinker among the Allies, knew or was prudent enough to plan for everything he could think of.
[467] The War Office and Ministry of Shipping were quietly talking amongst themselves about a possible evacuation, but it was Churchill that wanted plans drawn up.
[468] But from the 20th to the 26th, Every time Vice Admiral Bertram Ramsey, who was put in charge of the evacuation planning, had a meeting with his small but efficient staff, the news only grew worse about the situation for the Allies.
[469] This would demand that the minutes from the previous meeting had to be thrown out.
[470] They would figure out the amount of craft needed at one meeting, only to realize the numbers they had just put together were woefully inadequate.
[471] By the third meeting, Ramsey, an extremely practical man, gave up on figures of ships and which French cities would be used for the evacuation.
[472] He told everyone above and below him to gather everything that could make it to sea, top off their fuel, get supplies from one of the designated ports along the British southern coast, and head for Dunkirk, or thereabouts.
[473] As for the Royal Navy, it didn't take them long either to realize the ships designated up to this point weren't enough.
[474] So everything that was seaworthy was checked, and if it passed inspection, was loaded with fuel and supplies.
[475] Everything from dredges, ferries, naval patrol boats, Dutch barges that had made it out before Holland surrendered, to European pleasure craft from 30 to 100 feet would be used.
[476] If boats of civilians were going to be used, the craft would come along up here, the crew would get off, and military personnel would get on.
[477] Only in certain situations, when the military crew could not work the engines, were some original crew allowed to stay aboard.
[478] Vice Admiral Ramsey was given a blank check by the 22nd, and his staff made calls to everyone.
[479] The telephone was coming into its own, as the staff in the dynamo room, within the white cliffs of Dover, worked on.
[480] Their pace was flat out all the time.
[481] No meals, just sandwiches.
[482] No sleeping, just naps.
[483] It didn't take long for this nautical chaos to become somewhat organized.
[484] Things were starting to work themselves out.
[485] The smaller ships were being moored at Sheerness on the Thames Estuary, and Ramsgate became the final assembly point where tanks were topped off and supplies loaded.
[486] Personnel from the Inner Service Topographical Department dashed off to most of London's travel agencies and took their maps and guides of France.
[487] Since no one had vacationed in France since war was declared, the travel agents did not mind.
[488] By the 26th, the men on the continent were getting orders by word of mouth.
[489] It seemed to everyone that each rumor started or ended with the phrase, every man for himself.
[490] These less than precise orders led to confusion, but the retreating men were told to head for the columns of smoke during the day.
[491] and at night to head for the only part of the landscape where there weren't any flashes from muzzles or turrets.
[492] That would be Dunkirk.
[493] The artillerymen were told to destroy their equipment before running for the coast.
[494] They would destroy the breach blocks and dial sites and leave everything behind.
[495] The vehicles were next.
[496] Their lorries...
[497] Half -tracks, vans, heavy -duty trucks, motorcycles, brand gun carriers, mobile kitchens, pickups, and staff cars were all lined up, emptied of their oil and water while running, and would seize up.
[498] There were mountains of blankets, gas caps, shoes, and new uniforms burning in the open fields.
[499] Piles of typewriters, mimeograph machines, and movie projectors were destroyed, along with army prayer books.
[500] The smoke actually helped confuse the Luftwaffe.
[501] Goring had his Luftwaffe on non -stop bombing raids for almost a week.
[502] He had General Kesselring directing what Goring hoped would be the final touches on Germany's victory over the West.
[503] Kesselring had been using his Heinkels...
[504] Dornayers, and Stukas on the Dunkirk bombing runs.
[505] By now, Dunkirk was the only port open left to the Allies, and Goring wanted it made useless.
[506] An air raid on the 25th took out Dunkirk's main harbor lock, electric power, and wrecked the port itself.
[507] By now, Allied discipline was gone, and panic had set in.
[508] It was the British soldiers' turn to have their metal tested.
[509] On the morning of the 26th, the Luftwaffe dropped 4 ,000 bombs on Dunkirk, its ports, docks, ships, and the roads leading to the port.
[510] The desperate men on the beaches were asking themselves where in the hell was the Royal Air Force.
[511] But the RAF was there.
[512] It was still unorganized but starting to come together while trying to defend Dunkirk.
[513] The carefully hoarded British fighter planes of Hurricanes and Spitfires were being moved to airfields closer to the channel.
[514] By the 26th, squadrons started doing patrols over Calais.
[515] Air Command was hoping to get their men some experience before sending them into the hornet's nest.
[516] But before the 26th was over, the RAF was making sorties over Dunkirk, taking on German Messerschmitt 109s.
[517] For Winston Churchill, Calais had been the key.
[518] It was 24 miles west of Dunkirk, and if it could be held, the British would have two ports to evacuate from.
[519] Therefore, Churchill ordered the garrison there under Brigadier Claude Nicholson to hold out at all costs.
[520] Churchill's telegram said that every hour they held out was of the greatest help to the BEF.
[521] Nicholson had his 30th Infantry Brigade.
[522] Two of its three battalions were crack regulars, and to help them, Churchill had sent the 3rd Royal Tank Regiment.
[523] But on the 23rd, Nicholson was told to send some of his tanks to help Boulogne.
[524] but they were quickly pushed back by Panzers.
[525] Boulogne was lost.
[526] Only Dunkirk and Calais held out.
[527] The German High Command, still worried about losing too many tanks before the war for France was over, told the 1st Panzer Division to bypass Calais and keep moving.
[528] They were to head for Dunkirk.
[529] The 10th Panzer could deal with the stubborn Calais, and they did, with help from the Luftwaffe.
[530] Calais fell on the 26th.
[531] Only Dunkirk.
[532] Next time, the Allies will have to deal with the capitulation of King Leopold on May 28, which would allow the Germans to rush past the tired Belgian forces.
[533] While the British are trying to save as many of their men as possible, their territory will become nothing more than a stretch of beach less than 30 miles long.
[534] Welcome to True Spies, the podcast that takes you deep inside the greatest secret missions of all time.
[535] Suddenly out of the dark it's appeared in love.
[536] You'll meet the people who live life undercover.
[537] What do they know?
[538] What are their skills?
[539] And what would you do in their position?
[540] Vengeance felt good.
[541] Seeing these people pay for what they'd done felt righteous.
[542] True Spies, from Spyscape Studios, wherever you get your podcasts.