Enfin un documentaire britannique qui rend honneur à la défense de Dunkerque (et de Lille) par l'armée française...! Le "miracle" de Dunkerque enfin expliqué aux anglo-saxons... Than you.
This was a great and informative video with great graphics , photos and audio clips. I showed this to my Children as a part of their home study. The length of time fits a 10 year olds attention span long with the graphics. Please do more on the History side .
The 2017 movie doesn't capture the massive scale of the evacuation . Nor does it show the complete devastation of the city of Dunkirk . 240,000 BEF solders were evacuated with another 100,000 French and Belgian solders . .
I think that historians should examine more this incident that led to Rommel's hesitation to proceed to crush Dunkirk all because of a tank regiment that apparently displayed skill that alarmed him to relent.
Mom told me several times in life ,," there are several people u dont ever want to get in a fight with cause youll get your arse kicked, an Englishman, an Irishma, a farmer or a farmers son. A korean, n a couple others. Good advice
Perhaps under mentioned in this video is the decision to use the Mole (the huge breakwater) to moor larger vessels and evacuate 200k of the c. 330k troops. The use of smaller vessels was of course essential for the beach evacuation and were a rallying point for morale. Great to see the proper recognition of the French bravery defending the town and slowing nazi tank divisions. I’m looking forward to visiting Dunkirk including the museum there this summer.
I am born and bred in Edinburgh. 57 years young. And watching this makes me proud to be British. With all this Scottish independence nonsense being spoken again. The SNP want to align themselves with Brussels. And at its head. The very people who wanted to blow us out of the water. In my opinion. Leopards do not change their spots.
Leopards don't change there spots except for the ones that rule Scotland yet you don't want your country to be able to be free and independent after a genocidal and brutal history. Very strange times indeed. P.S hopefully one day you will be proud to be Scottish but I don't see many William Wallace's up there but you never know they might bring back the hanged drawn and quartered spot if you do try who knows.
How can a humiliating defeat as Churchill called it make you feel pround ? Very strange .all Dunkirk showed was how inferior the French and British compared to the Germans remember next time we attacked to Germans in France we were under the leadership of the Americans
The Belgian army discussed with the Germans and delayed them, talking to them and fighting again. A lot of Belgian soldiers lost their life while delaying the germans. I am from Belgium. So the Britains had more time for the evacuation. Belgium was discussing with the Germans and after the talks decided to fight further. French Flanders was a piece of Flanders in the past, France took that part in the past. French Flanders was part of the Big Germanic Empire the Germans were building. This was not the politique of the Flemings or Belgians. See history of French Flanders. Dunkirk coms from the Flemish name Duinkerke. This is the originally name of Duinkerke.
Glad to see you have a sence of humour. Singapore was the biggest military defeat in british history, The British surrendered to a much smaller Japanese army
A good representation. What has not been said however was the nation being called to prayer to save the situation by King George VI. Churchill admits that he had a sense of an interference because of the prayers and righteous purpose against an evil enemy. Apart from the circumstances the sea was unusally calm for the whole week as well as the shield of the clouds over the boats and the evacuees. Many times when God answers prayer we are tempted to think we did it without Him when He actually delivers us.
Thanks to brave men from all over the world and to the Lord most high . Thinking of the families who lost their loved ones . We humans must learn to live in peace.
@@lucindamckinney7895 I think it was more collaboration between multiple races. The connection of the British monarchy ahem! And divine intervention. All in all a huge effort which the God of Abraham rewarded as requested by the king of england. Faith is an amazing thing. Like forgiveness and music.
There is also the spiritual aspect of answered prayer when the channel was a smooth as glass and a fog hung low over it. Those conditions just don't happen. Power of prayer
It was a TRUE MIRACLE FROM GOD. Summer is the season for usual heavy storms in the Channel. In 1944 the weather was so bad prior to June 6th that both the allies & the nazis were sure no landing was possible. In 1940, the weather would prevent any mass evacuation too, If ... King George VI had not appealed for the whole of the UK to pray during two days for Fair Weather. And IT WAS GOD'S MIRACLE OF The Sea Like A Mirror During Nine Days. The evacuation was completed on June 4th, with scattered troops making successful escapes till June 5th. A little piece of curiosity for History : The French magazine ''Match" published their last issue in June, before only resuming its post-war publication 9 years later as "Paris-Match". The last 1940 issue featured a French marine on the cover. It was dated June 6th 1940.
It was a humiliating defeat as the Americans used to say " faster than a brit out of Dunkirk " Churchill said war was not won on evacuation., But we did beat the Germans to the beach which must be some sort of victory ✌
@@sharonprice42 It was not "some sort of victory" it was a Victory PERIOD. The Victory was that the nazis would again meet the men they couldn't capture, like Alexander & Monty as their Victors.
@user-nl6pp6di7k How can a defeat be a victory. Britain was beat in France 200.000 ran to the sea , leaving all their weapons and military equipment behind , the next time they went back the Americans were in charge of the British under the command of the American General Eisenhower. Montgomery made mistakes especially Market Garden. The Americans went on to liberate Paris and meet up with the Russians at the Elbe as Churchill said it was a humiliating defeat. That changed when the Americans were in command of British and Canadian troops on D-DAY The Americans went on to defeat the Japanese bringing ww2 to an end
@@sharonprice42 The Brits' who escaped at Dunkirk helped the Americans with their experience. Were the Americans at Dunkirk in '40, the disaster would have been the same. Remember that the aggressors had years to prepare, aided & abetted as they were by the unscrupulous big moneyed moguls of the world. While the Democracies were hampered by their social problems, absolutely unkown in the slave states. After the 1942 Bataan surrender, AAC Captain William Dyess was angrily stunned by the IJA trucks : Dodge & General Motors all of them. The Germanazis later bolstered their war machine with unlimited slave labor, an advantage the Anglo-Americans didn't have.
*The British won the Battle of Dunkirk.* *The British BEF was only 9% of the total allied forces in France and the Low Countries.* The German advance was halted in France as the British with a vastly inferior force stopped them at Arras. Some German soldiers turned and ran. Directive 13, issued by German Supreme Headquarters on 24 May 1940 stated specifically for the annihilation of the French, English and Belgian forces in the Dunkirk pocket. The Luftwaffe was ordered to prevent the escape of the British forces across the English Channel. The German southern advance was stopped at Arras by the British with a numerically inferior force. The Germans never moved much further after. The Germans could not have taken Dunkirk, they would have been badly beaten in and around the town. *The Luftwaffe was defeated over Dunkirk by the RAF with the first showing of the Spitfire en-mass. More German than allied planes were destroyed in the Dunkirk pocket.* The first defeat of the Nazis in WW2 was by the British in the air battle over Dunkirk. Only six small warships were sunk at Dunkirk by the Germans as the effectiveness of the Luftwaffe blunted. The British were retreating after the French collapsed in front of them - a programme already in motion, a programme already in motion before the Germans showed up, as General Gort saw the disjointed performance of the French forces in front of him, and the exceptionally poor leadership. If the French collapsed the small BEF had no hope against the large German force heading west. *The French were amongst the British when General Gort decided to take the men back to England,* as he did not trust the French in a joint counter-attack. French General Wiegand held a meeting to arrange a counter-attack not inviting General Gort head of the BEF. Gort was under the command of Weigand. Gort heard of the meeting rushing to be there. He got there after the French and Belgians had left. He ordered the evacuation having no faith in the elderly French leaders. All armies retreat and regroup when the need is there. There happened to be a body of water in the line of the retreat. Were the BEF to move down the English coast and enter France further west with more men from England? The Germans did not know what was to be the next British or allied move. *The Germans could not have taken Dunkirk trying for nearly a week failing in the process.* The British retreat operation was carried out as planned and in orderly fashion. All bridges to Dunkirk were destroyed by the allies. The British counter-attack at Arras was with outdated Matilda 1 tanks, which only had machine guns, and a few of the brand new Matilda 2 tanks. The Germans fled in droves. In desperation the Germans turned a 88mm AA gun horizontal successfully against the Matilda 2 - their conventional anti-tank weapons and tanks could not penetrate the tank. The Matilda 2 would roll over German gun emplacements killing the gunners. Rommel thought he had been hit by a force three times the size, which made them stop and rethink. The Germans countered with their superior numbers pushing back the British who fell back consolidating towards Dunkirk. The British resolve and the new Matilda 2 made the Germans sit up and think about a street fight in Dunkirk against a consolidated force still with its weapons and the new Matilda 2 - the large 88mm would be useless in Dunkirk streets while the Matilda 2 would be in its element, with the Matlida 2 easily destroying the Panzer MkIII & MkIVs. The Matilda 2 could knock out any German tank at the time, while no German tank could knock it out. The Germans were expecting the Matilda 2 to be shipped over in numbers and for all they knew many were in Dunkirk. The Germans could not stop the tanks coming as the RAF controlled the skies with a CAP and the RN the waters of the Channel. Not a good prospect for the Germans. A Dunkirk street fight was a fight the German troops were untrained and unequipped for and unwise to get involved in. Von Rundstedt and von Kluge suggested to Hitler that German forces around the Dunkirk pocket cease their advance, consolidating preventing an Allied break out from Dunkirk. Hitler agreed with the support of the Wehrmacht. German preoccupation rightly was with an expected attack from the fluid south of the German lines, by mainly French and some British forces, not from dug-in Dunkirk which was too much of a formidable consolidated opponent, taking substantial resources to seize. The German column had Allied troops to each side with soft marshland to the south west of Dunkirk unsuitable for tanks. If German forces had engaged in a street battle for Dunkirk, they would be vulnerable on their weak flank from the south. In short the fast moving panzers were now static; German forces attacking Dunkirk in a battle of attrition would have been largely wiped out. The German columns were consolidating their remaining armour for an expected attack by the British and French from the south, and the important resupply from Germany, which was slow as it was via horses - or maybe a combined attack from the south and the Dunkirk pocket. The Germans attacked on a remarkably narrow front. *They had over-stretched their supply lines.* The Germans had no option but to stop, being more concerned at defending from the mainly French forces in the south which were viewed as a greater threat than Dunkirk. French general Weigand implemented his creation of _hedgehogs_ to attack German lines from the sides, with success - hedgehogs were adopted post war by NATO being a part of the tactics until the 1970s. What were the Germans thinking? Are the British retreating to England from Dunkirk to move down the English coast and re-enter France further south with fresh forces, including Canadians and the new Matilda 2 tanks, which they feared, and join up with the French forces there? Are they going to reinforce the Dunkirk pocket supplied by the Royal Navy with a 24/7 air CAP? The British could easily do any of these as they controlled the Channel. This would create one large difficult to combat force at Dunkirk. They also saw the resolve of outnumbered British forces at Arras. German generals were trying to figure out what was happening. None thought that British troops would retreat to England and stay there. The British never did that sort of thing. The Germans could divert most of their forces south and risk a Dunkirk breakout being attacked from their rear fighting on two fronts, or stay and consolidate, which they needed to do, awaiting a French/British attack from the south and use some forces and the Luftwaffe to attack Dunkirk, which they did. *German forces resumed their attack on Dunkirk for over 6 days and failed to seize the port.* The plan to break out of the Dunkirk Pocket using British, Belgian and French forces was abandoned as Gort had no confidence in the French. All military school studies since, knowing what the German and allied positions and situations were in 1940, have shown it would have succeeded. *The Germans were defeated at the Battle of Dunkirk.* They tried militarily to seize the port but failed. Only because the British did not trust the French and moved back to England did the Germans eventually occupy the town. *The Germans did not let the British get away that is misguided myth, they tried for a week simply not able to seize Dunkirk.*
@Roger's channel Nonsense. The French agreed to man the Dunkirk perimeter with the British to get out 130,000 French troops. At the end when only French troops were left, they surrendered.
Miracle? Where? The Germans utterly routed France and England and had won the battle in 3 days. In ten days the Germans were on the Coast and were exhausted. Their equipment broke as much from wear and tear as combat. The Germans lost 11000 dead the British 27000 and the French 93000. There was 123 German Divisions and the losses indicate how total and swift a victory it was. many British French and German troops barely saw combat. The Allies were near equal in numbers but the breakthrough at the Meuse was a complete Coup de grace. When 5 million soldiers were engaged the MIRACLE was how few casualties there were. The French had 1.8 million captured and the British had 41000 missing or captured. Miracle?
@Roger's channel The Luftwaffe was defeated over Dunkirk by the RAF with the first showing of the Spitfires en-mass. ‘The days of easy victory were over. We had met the RAF head on.’ Major Werner Kniepe of the Luftwaffe’s III /Kampfgeschwarder 2 From The Luftwaffe 1933-1945 Strategy For Defeat by Williamson Murray: Over Dunkirk, the Luftwaffe suffered its first serious rebuff of the war. As Galland has noted, the nature and style of the air battles over the beaches should have provided a warning as to the inherent weaknesses of the Luftwaffe's force structure. Admittedly, the Germans fought at a disadvantage. Although positioned forward at captured airfields, the Bf 109 was at the outer limits of its range and possessed less flying time over Dunkirk than did the "Hurricanes" and "Spitfires" operating from southern England. German bombers were still located in western Germany and had even farther to fly. Thus, the Luftwaffe could not bring its full weight to bear so that when its bombers hammered those on the beaches or embarking, the RAF intervened in a significant fashion. German aircraft losses were high, and British fighter attacks often prevented German bombers from performing with full effectiveness. Both sides suffered heavy losses. During the nine days from May 26 through June 3, the RAF lost 177 aircraft destroyed or damaged; the Germans lost 240. For much of the Luftwaffe, Dunkirk came as a nasty shock. Fliegerkorps II reported in its war diary that it lost more aircraft on the 27th attacking the evacuation than it had lost in the previous ten days of the campaign. He goes on to say: To a certain extent, the strategic collapse of the entire western position has obscured the significant attrition of German armored and air forces that took place during the fighting. At the beginning of the western offensive, the army possessed 2,574 tanks. By the armistice, the Germans had lost 753 tanks or nearly 30 percent of their armored forces. Luftwaffe losses of aircraft were on a similar scale (see Tables III, IV, V, and VI). Tables III through VI underscore the extent of German aircraft losses in the Battle of France. They suggest that the tendency to view the Battle of Britain as a separate episode from the defeat of France does not do justice to the resistance of Allied air forces in the spring of 1940 and distort the fact that for five months, from May through September, the Luftwaffe, with only a short pause, was continuously in action. The break in morale of bomber pilots, reported over London in mid-September 1940, thus was the result not only of the strain of fighting over Britain but of operations that had been continuous from the previous May. More German than allied planes were destroyed in the Dunkirk pocket. The first air defeat of the Nazis was in the air by the British over Dunkirk. Only six small warships were sunk, when stationary at Dunkirk, as the effectiveness of the Luftwaffe was blunted.
The Dunkirk escape was a lucky retreat for the defeated soldiers, glorified by the propaganda of the British media. There were other retreats of bigger numbers during the same time that have not been covered at the same level in British's media. Also the media selectively understated the importance of French armies defending the retreating BEF against the advancing German force. In military sense, the Dunkirk event was not consequential to the final defeat of the German troops.
Enfin un documentaire britannique qui rend honneur à la défense de Dunkerque (et de Lille) par l'armée française...!
Le "miracle" de Dunkerque enfin expliqué aux anglo-saxons...
Than you.
Pro tip : you can watch series at Flixzone. Me and my gf have been using it for watching a lot of movies lately.
@@judejad9782 Merci Jude, mais ce site a mauvaise réputation... Looks like a trap.
This was a great and informative video with great graphics , photos and audio clips. I showed this to my Children as a part of their home study. The length of time fits a 10 year olds attention span long with the graphics. Please do more on the History side .
Im 30 and my attention is on how committed I am to posting this comment.
I need some more bug spray...
thanks - will do
The Senior Service to the rescue. The Royal Navy did an amazing job
And french navy and army too.
Great vid I hope you get more views. Great compilation of photos.
Thank you. Now I can go watch the movie on Netflix and have some idea of what happened.
The 2017 movie doesn't capture the massive scale of the evacuation .
Nor does it show the complete devastation of the city of Dunkirk .
240,000 BEF solders were evacuated with another 100,000 French and Belgian solders .
.
I think that historians should examine more this incident that led to Rommel's hesitation to proceed to crush Dunkirk all because of a tank regiment that apparently displayed skill that alarmed him to relent.
Another amazing video
Well done, enjoyed this video.
the evacuation was amazing. The british came thru a tough tough time. All kinds of respect for those civilians and troops.
Wow Awesome !!
Mom told me several times in life ,," there are several people u dont ever want to get in a fight with cause youll get your arse kicked, an Englishman, an Irishma, a farmer or a farmers son. A korean, n a couple others. Good advice
One has to wonder if King George's day of prayer had any effects on that time Hitler agreed to halt the attack
Perhaps under mentioned in this video is the decision to use the Mole (the huge breakwater) to moor larger vessels and evacuate 200k of the c. 330k troops. The use of smaller vessels was of course essential for the beach evacuation and were a rallying point for morale. Great to see the proper recognition of the French bravery defending the town and slowing nazi tank divisions. I’m looking forward to visiting Dunkirk including the museum there this summer.
Good film this
I can totally see me and my 14 foot fishing boat going on a mission like this to save our Soldiers. 🇺🇸
Good on you.
I am born and bred in Edinburgh. 57 years young. And watching this makes me proud to be British. With all this Scottish independence nonsense being spoken again. The SNP want to align themselves with Brussels. And at its head. The very people who wanted to blow us out of the water. In my opinion. Leopards do not change their spots.
Leopards don't change there spots except for the ones that rule Scotland yet you don't want your country to be able to be free and independent after a genocidal and brutal history. Very strange times indeed.
P.S hopefully one day you will be proud to be Scottish but I don't see many William Wallace's up there but you never know they might bring back the hanged drawn and quartered spot if you do try who knows.
How can a humiliating defeat as Churchill called it make you feel pround ? Very strange .all Dunkirk showed was how inferior the French and British compared to the Germans remember next time we attacked to Germans in France we were under the leadership of the Americans
The Belgian army discussed with the Germans and delayed them, talking to them and fighting again. A lot of Belgian soldiers lost their life while delaying the germans. I am from Belgium. So the Britains had more time for the evacuation. Belgium was discussing with the Germans and after the talks decided to fight further. French Flanders was a piece of Flanders in the past, France took that part in the past. French Flanders was part of the Big Germanic Empire the Germans were building. This was not the politique of the Flemings or Belgians. See history of French Flanders. Dunkirk coms from the Flemish name Duinkerke. This is the originally name of Duinkerke.
This video is underrated and I know im 2 years too late
that noise in the beginning was from war of the worlds
Well spotted ;)
nice
The British miracles: Operation Alphabet, Operation Dynamo, evacuation of Crete, the successful deserters of Singapore, ...
Glad to see you have a sence of humour. Singapore was the biggest military defeat in british history, The British surrendered to a much smaller Japanese army
A good representation. What has not been said however was the nation being called to prayer to save the situation by King George VI. Churchill admits that he had a sense of an interference because of the prayers and righteous purpose against an evil enemy. Apart from the circumstances the sea was unusally calm for the whole week as well as the shield of the clouds over the boats and the evacuees. Many times when God answers prayer we are tempted to think we did it without Him when He actually delivers us.
Thanks to brave men from all over the world and to the Lord most high . Thinking of the families who lost their loved ones . We humans must learn to live in peace.
Rightly said 🙏🏿!
Amazing RESCUE OPERATION: DYNAMO 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥳🥳🥳🥳
Can we say that the British had a thick plot armor.
Their plot armor: The French Soldiers.
No. They have balls
@@lucindamckinney7895 I think it was more collaboration between multiple races. The connection of the British monarchy ahem! And divine intervention. All in all a huge effort which the God of Abraham rewarded as requested by the king of england. Faith is an amazing thing. Like forgiveness and music.
Le"miracle"fut la protection des troupes françaises!
Already
There is also the spiritual aspect of answered prayer when the channel was a smooth as glass and a fog hung low over it. Those conditions just don't happen. Power of prayer
Amen I believe it.
Most of the British Forces where Territorial 8 out of 13 divisions where Army reserve!
excelent plan trough ardennes
The king called for a day of national prayer,god heard
Yes He did.
The fog was biblical
If only the French high command was as good as its soldiers.
Cant take a history channel serious if it can't even use the original WW2 German map. I never knew that there was no polish corridor....
5:04 the picture seems to be from a wartime 20th Century Fox movie but it's certainly not a real war picture like the others.
It was a TRUE MIRACLE FROM GOD.
Summer is the season for usual heavy storms in the Channel.
In 1944 the weather was so bad prior to June 6th that both the allies & the nazis were sure no landing was possible.
In 1940, the weather would prevent any mass evacuation too, If ...
King George VI had not appealed for the whole of the UK to pray during two days for Fair Weather.
And IT WAS GOD'S MIRACLE OF The Sea Like A Mirror During Nine Days.
The evacuation was completed on June 4th, with scattered troops making successful escapes till June 5th.
A little piece of curiosity for History :
The French magazine ''Match" published their last issue in June,
before only resuming its post-war publication 9 years later as "Paris-Match".
The last 1940 issue featured a French marine on the cover.
It was dated June 6th 1940.
It was a humiliating defeat as the Americans used to say " faster than a brit out of Dunkirk " Churchill said war was not won on evacuation., But we did beat the Germans to the beach which must be some sort of victory ✌
@@sharonprice42
It was not "some sort of victory"
it was a Victory PERIOD.
The Victory was that
the nazis would again meet
the men they couldn't capture,
like Alexander & Monty as their Victors.
@user-nl6pp6di7k How can a defeat be a victory. Britain was beat in France 200.000 ran to the sea , leaving all their weapons and military equipment behind , the next time they went back the Americans were in charge of the British under the command of the American General Eisenhower. Montgomery made mistakes especially Market Garden. The Americans went on to liberate Paris and meet up with the Russians at the Elbe as Churchill said it was a humiliating defeat. That changed when the Americans were in command of British and Canadian troops on D-DAY
The Americans went on to defeat the Japanese bringing ww2 to an end
@@sharonprice42
The Brits' who escaped at Dunkirk helped the Americans with their experience.
Were the Americans at Dunkirk in '40, the disaster would have been the same.
Remember that the aggressors had years
to prepare, aided & abetted as they were
by the unscrupulous big moneyed moguls of the world.
While the Democracies were hampered by their social problems, absolutely unkown in the slave states.
After the 1942 Bataan surrender, AAC Captain William Dyess was angrily stunned by the IJA trucks : Dodge & General Motors all of them.
The Germanazis later bolstered their war machine with unlimited slave labor, an advantage the Anglo-Americans didn't have.
@user-nl6pp6di7k Strangest victory ive ever heard of , i suppose Singapore was another victory!!
hi
breaking bad T.T
we're going to release a Breaking Bad video to coincide with the season 4 "Better Call Saul" premiere - Early August.
Why use a modern day map when showing things that happened in 1939?
Wonder at the research the video author had made.
*The British won the Battle of Dunkirk.*
*The British BEF was only 9% of the total allied forces in France and the Low Countries.* The German advance was halted in France as the British with a vastly inferior force stopped them at Arras. Some German soldiers turned and ran. Directive 13, issued by German Supreme Headquarters on 24 May 1940 stated specifically for the annihilation of the French, English and Belgian forces in the Dunkirk pocket. The Luftwaffe was ordered to prevent the escape of the British forces across the English Channel.
The German southern advance was stopped at Arras by the British with a numerically inferior force. The Germans never moved much further after. The Germans could not have taken Dunkirk, they would have been badly beaten in and around the town. *The Luftwaffe was defeated over Dunkirk by the RAF with the first showing of the Spitfire en-mass. More German than allied planes were destroyed in the Dunkirk pocket.* The first defeat of the Nazis in WW2 was by the British in the air battle over Dunkirk. Only six small warships were sunk at Dunkirk by the Germans as the effectiveness of the Luftwaffe blunted.
The British were retreating after the French collapsed in front of them - a programme already in motion, a programme already in motion before the Germans showed up, as General Gort saw the disjointed performance of the French forces in front of him, and the exceptionally poor leadership. If the French collapsed the small BEF had no hope against the large German force heading west. *The French were amongst the British when General Gort decided to take the men back to England,* as he did not trust the French in a joint counter-attack. French General Wiegand held a meeting to arrange a counter-attack not inviting General Gort head of the BEF. Gort was under the command of Weigand. Gort heard of the meeting rushing to be there. He got there after the French and Belgians had left. He ordered the evacuation having no faith in the elderly French leaders.
All armies retreat and regroup when the need is there. There happened to be a body of water in the line of the retreat. Were the BEF to move down the English coast and enter France further west with more men from England? The Germans did not know what was to be the next British or allied move. *The Germans could not have taken Dunkirk trying for nearly a week failing in the process.* The British retreat operation was carried out as planned and in orderly fashion. All bridges to Dunkirk were destroyed by the allies.
The British counter-attack at Arras was with outdated Matilda 1 tanks, which only had machine guns, and a few of the brand new Matilda 2 tanks. The Germans fled in droves. In desperation the Germans turned a 88mm AA gun horizontal successfully against the Matilda 2 - their conventional anti-tank weapons and tanks could not penetrate the tank. The Matilda 2
would roll over German gun emplacements killing the gunners. Rommel thought he had been hit by a force three times the size, which made them stop and rethink. The Germans countered with their superior numbers pushing back the British who fell back consolidating towards Dunkirk.
The British resolve and the new Matilda 2 made the Germans sit up and think about a street fight in Dunkirk against a consolidated force still with its weapons and the new Matilda 2 - the large 88mm would be useless in Dunkirk streets while the Matilda 2 would be in its element, with the Matlida 2 easily destroying the Panzer MkIII & MkIVs. The Matilda 2 could knock out any German tank at the time, while no German tank could knock it out. The Germans were expecting the Matilda 2 to be shipped over in numbers and for all they knew many were in Dunkirk. The
Germans could not stop the tanks coming as the RAF controlled the skies with a CAP and the RN the waters of the Channel. Not a good prospect for the Germans. A Dunkirk street fight was a fight the German troops were untrained and unequipped for and unwise to get involved in.
Von Rundstedt and von Kluge suggested to Hitler that German forces around the Dunkirk pocket cease their advance, consolidating preventing an Allied break out from Dunkirk. Hitler agreed with the support of the Wehrmacht. German preoccupation rightly was with an expected attack from the fluid south of the German lines, by mainly French and some British forces, not from dug-in Dunkirk which was too much of a formidable consolidated opponent, taking substantial resources to seize. The German column had Allied troops to each side with soft marshland to the south west of Dunkirk unsuitable for tanks. If German forces had engaged in a street battle for Dunkirk, they would be vulnerable on their weak flank from the south. In short the fast moving panzers were now static; German forces attacking Dunkirk in a battle of attrition would have been largely wiped out.
The German columns were consolidating their remaining armour for an expected attack by the British and French from the south, and the important resupply from Germany, which was slow as it was via horses - or maybe a combined attack from the south and the Dunkirk pocket. The Germans attacked on a remarkably narrow front. *They had over-stretched their supply lines.* The Germans had no option but to stop, being more concerned at defending from the mainly French forces in the south which were viewed as a greater threat than Dunkirk. French general Weigand implemented his creation of _hedgehogs_ to attack German lines from the sides, with success - hedgehogs were adopted post war by NATO being a part of the tactics until the 1970s.
What were the Germans thinking? Are the British retreating to England from Dunkirk to move down the English coast and re-enter France further south with fresh forces, including Canadians and the new Matilda 2 tanks, which they feared, and join up with the French forces there? Are they going to reinforce the Dunkirk pocket supplied by the Royal Navy with a 24/7 air CAP? The British could easily do any of these as they controlled the Channel. This would create one large difficult to combat force at Dunkirk. They also saw the resolve of outnumbered British
forces at Arras. German generals were trying to figure out what was happening. None thought that British troops would retreat to England and stay there. The British never did that sort of thing.
The Germans could divert most of their forces south and risk a Dunkirk breakout being attacked from their rear fighting on two fronts, or stay and consolidate, which they needed to do, awaiting a French/British attack from the south and use some forces and the Luftwaffe to attack Dunkirk, which they did. *German forces resumed their attack on Dunkirk for over 6 days and failed to seize the port.*
The plan to break out of the Dunkirk Pocket using British, Belgian and French forces was abandoned as Gort had no confidence in the French. All military school studies since, knowing what the German and allied positions and situations were in 1940, have shown it would have succeeded.
*The Germans were defeated at the Battle of Dunkirk.* They tried militarily to seize the port but failed. Only because the British did not trust the French and moved back to England did the Germans eventually occupy the town. *The Germans did not let the British get away that is misguided myth, they tried for a week simply not able to seize Dunkirk.*
@Roger's channel
Nonsense. The French agreed to man the Dunkirk perimeter with the British to get out 130,000 French troops. At the end when only French troops were left, they surrendered.
@Roger's channel
You need to read some history.
@Roger's channel
The pull out books you read do not count.
@Roger's channel
The French were good for sure. To say the British army would have been annihilated only because of the French is poppycock.
@Roger's channel
You need to read some real books. You can move your lips when reading them if it makes it better.
Using current maps to illustrate country borders during WW2? A Pinnacle of ignorance.
Very amateuris
Miracle? Where? The Germans utterly routed France and England and had won the battle in 3 days. In ten days the Germans were on the Coast and were exhausted. Their equipment broke as much from wear and tear as combat. The Germans lost 11000 dead the British 27000 and the French 93000. There was 123 German Divisions and the losses indicate how total and swift a victory it was. many British French and German troops barely saw combat. The Allies were near equal in numbers but the breakthrough at the Meuse was a complete Coup de grace. When 5 million soldiers were engaged the MIRACLE was how few casualties there were. The French had 1.8 million captured and the British had 41000 missing or captured. Miracle?
The BEF was 9% of all allied forces.
@Roger's channel
The Luftwaffe was defeated over Dunkirk by the RAF with the first showing of the Spitfires en-mass.
‘The days of easy victory were over. We had met the RAF head on.’
Major Werner Kniepe of the Luftwaffe’s III /Kampfgeschwarder 2
From The Luftwaffe 1933-1945 Strategy For Defeat by Williamson Murray:
Over Dunkirk, the Luftwaffe suffered its first serious rebuff of the war. As Galland has noted, the nature and style of the air battles over the beaches should have provided a warning as to the inherent weaknesses of the Luftwaffe's force structure.
Admittedly, the Germans fought at a disadvantage. Although positioned forward at captured airfields, the Bf 109 was at the outer limits of its range and possessed less flying time over Dunkirk than did the "Hurricanes" and "Spitfires" operating from southern England. German bombers were still located in western Germany and had even farther to fly. Thus, the Luftwaffe could not bring its full weight to bear so that when its bombers hammered those on the beaches or embarking, the RAF intervened in a significant fashion. German aircraft losses were high, and British fighter attacks often prevented German bombers from performing with full effectiveness. Both sides suffered heavy losses. During the nine days from May 26 through June 3, the RAF lost 177 aircraft destroyed or damaged; the Germans lost 240.
For much of the Luftwaffe, Dunkirk came as a nasty shock. Fliegerkorps II reported in its war diary that it lost more aircraft on the 27th attacking the evacuation than it had lost in the previous ten days of the campaign.
He goes on to say:
To a certain extent, the strategic collapse of the entire western position has obscured the significant attrition of German armored and air forces that took place during the fighting. At the beginning of the western offensive, the army possessed 2,574 tanks.
By the armistice, the Germans had lost 753 tanks or nearly 30 percent of their armored forces. Luftwaffe losses of aircraft were on a similar scale (see Tables III, IV, V, and VI).
Tables III through VI underscore the extent of German aircraft losses in the Battle of France. They suggest that the tendency to view the Battle of Britain as a separate episode from the defeat of France does not do justice to the resistance of Allied air forces in the spring of 1940 and distort the fact that for five months, from May through September, the Luftwaffe, with only a short pause, was continuously in action. The break in morale of bomber pilots, reported over London in mid-September 1940, thus was the result not only of the strain of fighting over Britain but of operations that had been continuous from the previous May.
More German than allied planes were destroyed in the Dunkirk pocket. The first air defeat of the Nazis was in the air by the British over Dunkirk. Only six small warships were sunk, when stationary at Dunkirk, as the effectiveness of the Luftwaffe was blunted.
The Dunkirk escape was a lucky retreat for the defeated soldiers, glorified by the propaganda of the British media. There were other retreats of bigger numbers during the same time that have not been covered at the same level in British's media. Also the media selectively understated the importance of French armies defending the retreating BEF against the advancing German force. In military sense, the Dunkirk event was not consequential to the final defeat of the German troops.
What luck might you be referring to?