L4JIE
NAVY
JYA
NEWS, EVACUATION FROM FRANCE 70th ANNIVERSARY SUPPLEMENT JULY 2010
1
0 ------------
I
kK
I
J r
-.: ,. --..
A
--
It
1,1
4
-
-
-
4
,
-. 4'
I
a
.'. -4---a fortnight there had been a disarming quiet along the banks FOR of the Somme and the Aisne. Here had brushed the left flank of the armoured wedge driven across northern France by the panzers as they thrust to the sea. In their wake had come German infantry, bolstering the flank, in places crossing the two great rivers. And there the Hun had stayed, resolutely, for two weeks now. There had been efforts to dislodge the foe - one General Charles de Gaulle had bludgeoned the bridgehead at Abbeville - but all had failed. And so the uneasy stand-off
" British and French troops file up the steep cliffs at St ValĂŠry-en-Caux after a forlorn mission by the Royal Navy - Operation Cycle - to rescue them
"We've gone to war with a 1918 army against a German Army of 1939." carbines and hand-grenades tear of the British Expeditionary Force, persisted. It persisted until the first They were on the Continent less Weygand was exaggerating. But streaks of light glimmered on the holes in the enemy's lines." evacuation at Dunkirk did not to thwart the renewed German attack the first three weeks of battle had cost the Allies the flower of their armies eastern horizon on Wednesday June Thus began the last act of the when it came - and it would come bring the curtain down on Britain's - than to bolster the resolve of their 61 divisions had been destroyed, 5 1940. Thousands of muzzle flashes Battle of France. Within two weeks, involvement on the continent. the French would be suing for peace. There were more than 100,000 among them half France's armour. glowed briefly in the half-light along faltering ally. a 100-mile stretch of front from the Within three, the guns would be Britons still in France after Dunkirk: And the resolve of Britain's ally "Three-quarters, if not four-fifths, of our most modern equipment was mouth of the Somme to Laon on the silent. Like the first act, it would rear area and supply units, RAF was faltering. France had already Aisne. demand the sacrifice of friend formations, liaison officers and dismissed hermilitary leader, 68-yearcaptured," he wrote. "Our units in "It's a relief for the men," wrote and foe. It would herald another staffs, and not least the fighting men old General Maurice Gamelin, and the north were the best armed. They a soldier in Germany's 57 Infanterie evacuation from the continent - a of the 51st Highland Division. replaced him with one five years were our spearhead. The best of the Division. "After long days in 'forgotten Dunkirk' - and the worst In fact, fresh troops were still his senior, Maxime Weygand. The French Army was captured." What was left would be shown no foxholes, after heavy artillery and maritime tragedy in British history. arriving in France: 52nd Division and new commander hardly exuded losses, now we're advancing. We the 1st Canadian. In all, there were in confidence, mercy by the Germans. 000 don't need tanks, our artillery, antiHowever much the newspapers of excess of 150,000 Commonwealth "This war is sheer madness," he tank guns, field guns, machine-guns, the day trumpeted the homecoming told a conference of Allied leaders. Continued on page ii personnel on the Continent,