Britain’s Greatest Battles of World War Two: Part 2, The Battle of France

This video, which is about the Battle of France, is taken from a series being created by Great Stories from the Past about the major battles and campaigns that were fought by the British during the Second World War.

This video tells the story of one of the classic “Blitzkrieg” battles of the War; how and why it occurred and, importantly, how the successful strategies and tactics used by the Germans came about.

Many of the best known and most successful commanders of the Second World War were involved in this battle including Generals Von Rundstedt, Von Manstein, Guderian and Rommel for the Germans, and British commanders Alan Brooke, Harold Alexander, Bernard Montgomery, Bertram Ramsay and Keith Park.

[Music] in the Autumn of 1939 the lights were going out all over Britain places of entertainment were being closed and a blackout imposed Britain mobilized for war but only had a meager 10 divisions of troops they departed for France to join a much bigger French army of nearly 100 [Music] divisions placed under the overall command of the French commanderin-chief General Morris Gala the British troops were deployed along the French Belgium border largely in an area that was familiar to British troops of the first world war war had been declared to support Poland but how is this Army going to help that country surely the only way was by invading Germany while their armed forces were still in Poland British troops waited for orders from their French commanders but no orders were forthcoming frustrated the Allied troops sat and stared at an empty border doing nothing going nowhere seeing no enemy church will described this as a Twilight War an American Senator called it a phony War the expression stuck throughout an exceptionally cold winter morale in the largely conscript French army was low signs of drunkenness and absenteeism began to grow while the outer touch High command shut itself away in its Fortress at vanen on the outskirts of Paris the question that would soon be asked was whether the French armed forces were sufficiently organized and committed to withstand the inevitable Blitz that was to come from the German war [Music] machine [Music] h Paris in the 1920s and 30s these became known as the crazy years as the French tried to shake off the after effects of the first world [Music] war Parisian culture flourished but increasingly a political divide widened between the right and the left governments came and went with regularity while riots and protests filled the streets a lack of political Direction left the military rudderless and complacent uninspired and unchallenged French generals believed future Wars would be dominated by defense with setpiece battles developing slowly through the use of infantry and artillery while they viewed tanks and aircraft as having only a supporting role in the view of Andre bowrey a postc World War Commander of the French army and at the time a junior staff officer this thinking was born more of a complacency from victory in 1918 rather than from any deep military strategic thinking as he famously said Victory is a very dangerous opportunity during that first month of War Germany’s army was focused on fighting and defeating Poland leaving their Western Front open to attack on the 7th of September before any British troops had arrived in France hesitantly elements of the French army crossed onto German soil in what became known as the S offensive initially French progress was relatively Swift and smooth with only very limited resistance encounter in less than a week they had pushed about 5 miles into Germany however the Germans soon organized a small force that checked French progress a week later just as the first British troops were arriving in France General gaman ordered his troops to withdraw then in October perhaps reasoning that the Allies had no purpose in now supporting Poland as that country ceased to exist Hitler offered both France and Britain an opportunity to make peace he told the rag war as an Enterprise is where all participants are losers having endured millions of deaths and billions in Lost wealth Hitler made it clear that an agreement would need to include a solution and settlement of what he described as the Jewish problem and and he finished his speech by stating if however the opinions of messes Churchill and his followers should Prevail this statement will have been my last the Allies rejected Hitler’s offer and by mid October with Poland defeated much of Germany’s army had moved to the Western Front German guns were now able to pound forward French positions along the majino line and the lofer was able to operate with near impunity in the air above briefly the German first Army was ordered to take offensive action against the French while only a few square miles of territory was actively contested there was that month a bitter and bloody battle with almost 200 German soldiers losing their lives Hitler though needed to secure his western border before continuing with his planned expansion to the east the Soviet Union had all the land he needed plus many valuable raw materials that Germany did not possess and he viewed Russian leaders as common bloodstained criminals with an inconceivable gift for lying he believed their country was controlled by Jews intent upon dominating the world and inflicting the same fate upon Germany as they had to Russia the danger of fighting a war on two fronts had long since been a German foreign policy and Military preoccupation by the mid 20th century The increased importance of air power meant that Germany’s Prime Industrial Area the r Valley was within range of Allied attacks from France as well as Belgium and the Netherlands Germany’s war effort in the East could therefore be compromised by Allied attack upon this industrial base staged entirely from within the border of the Allied countries a further consideration was the desire to undermine and restrict Britain’s Naval dominance and world trade for this Germany required ports with quicker and easier access to the Atlantic Ocean than those located along the North Sea that could be located by the British Fleet by the end of October the German High command had drawn up an initial plan for the invasion of France it would be launched through Central Belgium with the intention of pushing the Allied armies deployed along the Franco Belgium Border South as far as the river Som they expected half a million German soldiers to be killed causing their army to hold a position on the S until sufficiently reinforced possibly as long as 2 years however despite Germany’s success in Poland that campaign had thrown up a number of difficulties particularly within the Panza divisions keeping such fast moving units supplied was a logistical problem that needed a rethink and of Greater concern were the tanks themselves they were too small too likely armored and apt to break down leaving concern amongst German generals that they might not farewell against much larger and more heavily gunned French tanks as a result Hitler was persuaded by the German High command to hold off an invasion of France to allow time to upgrade the tanks it also provided time for certain German generals to rethink and refine their plans for an attack upon France during the European Wars of the mid 18th century the Prussian Army regularly defeated other Count’s significantly larger armies their Commander Frederick the great the King of Prussia was believed by Napoleon to be the greatest General that ever lived Frederick trained his troops meticulously to enable him to carry out skillful Maneuvers on the battlefield like for example the oblique order where he would pinpoint his attack Upon A Single part of the enemy’s line often its flank or some weak position by concentrating overwhelming Force there Frederick inflicted crushing defeats on major European powers of that time Frederick was just one of a succession of poen zolen family rulers that turned the relatively small German province of Brandenburg into the Kingdom of Prussia which later under Otto von bismar would become the unified country of Germany Brandenburg had few natural resources and unfavorable farming conditions they acquired a further Province through marriage in Poland called East Prussia which was little better provisioned the hoen Solin therefore sought their route to Glory through military means with conquest and land acquisition Coming Far a highly proficient Army by the second half of the 18th century they had considerably increased their territory for Conquest with further parts of Northern Poland later added towards the end of the century Germany’s defeat in the first world war was a bitter blow to Prussian military [Music] prowess but despite their defeat German army officers almost immediately turned their thinking towards how to win the next War [Music] with senior officers having being schooled in the Prussian military tradition a new way of fighting started to develop in the 1920s well before Hitler came to [Music] [Music] power their thoughts were further influenced by the enforced reduction in the size of the German Army by The Victors of the first world war Britain Italy France and the United States so once again the German Army sought tactics where fewer soldiers could defeat greater numbers as had Frederick the great this led to their strategy of dislocation they sought to avoid an enemy’s most heavily defended areas instead they would concentrate their attacks upon weaker positions which would be less attritional having overwhelmed such positions speed was of the essence advancing swiftly before the enemy could reorganize thus dislocating their defenses Communications and supply lines in 1931 AR Rising star within the German Army called Hein gadarian became Chief of Staff of Germany’s motorized troops he now became significant in developing the idea of the Panza division by 1936 his ideas were published in a book called Acton Panza which was never studied by French generals the Panza division would prove to be the ideal unit in the strategy of dislocation this new way of fighting was Unleashed upon Poland in September 1939 and with the role of the lufta added soon acquired the nickname Blitz [Music] GRE meanwhile the German High command’s plans for the invasion of France in October 1939 were based upon Germany’s first World War schen plan which was originally designed to defeat France in 6 weeks allowing Germany to turn its full military might on Russia however that strategy had been unsuccessful largely due to British and Canadian resistance in Flanders and especially the Eep Salient General gerd Von runed the commander of Germany’s army group a for the invasion of France in 1940 thought that the plan was flaw to him it was too obvious and it would leave the French army intact plus it did not appear to German military principles of maneuver and encirclement together with his chief of staff General Eric Von man they reworked the plan gaining Hitler’s personal approval both of these generals came from military families that had served for Generations in the Prussian Army so with their military background their plan for the invasion of France would turn out to be the finest example in the use of concentrated forces to dislocate and encircle an [Music] enemy France during the 1930s had become content to Shield behind the majino line a magnificent largely Subterranean defensive structure that had taken at great cost 10 years to build it extended along the full extent of their border with Germany but not along the border with Belgium this was because France and Belgium had signed a defense pack as far back as [Music] 1920 but Belgium had little appetite for potential European conflicts so in October 1936 Leopold III the king of Belgium unilaterally withdrew from The Pact with France announcing his country’s neutrality before a year later obtaining a guarantee of neutrality from Nazi Germany with this achieve Belgium reorganized its Armed Forces into a merely defensive Force leaving France with a largely undefended northern border along which he would take many years to extend the majino [Music] line consequently General Galan placed his best troops along this border the seventh French army on the left the French first Army on the right and the British expeditionary force in the center his two weakest and least well-provisioned armies the second and Ninth French armies were deployed along the border close to the Arden Forest all these armies were ordered to dig in and create new defensive positions Britain had assured France that the British expeditionary Force known as the bef would consist of at least 10 division but by the end of 1939 just four divisions had arrived in France they were formed into two Army cores with a first and second infant division in one core and the third and fourth infig divisions in two core there were no British armor divisions in early November Gamlin decided to change his strategy calling it The dial plan his idea was that if Belgium was invaded the French first and seventh armies together with the bef would move forward to new positions largely along the river dial and Ms providing a defense Ive line from ANP to the end of the majino line the commander of Britain’s two cor was General Alan Brook indisputably he would become Britain’s greatest general of the second world war and throughout he kept a diary this diary has since become one of the best sources of insight into events and strategies of the entire Conflict at this time he viewed gamblin’s plan with skepticism writing in November in his diary the whole plan of the advance is fanciful and can only result in disaster the dial plan was based on Belgian assurances that they had developed new anti-tank defenses along the river dial which could be quickly occupied by French and British troops additionally there would be more troops to defend this line as the Belgian Army would slot in between the French 7th Army and the bef and with the Dutch Army join in to the north of the French army meanwhile the weaker poorly equipped and undermanned Ninth and second French armies would remain in their current positions along the river Ms just south of the Arden Forest these armies consisted largely of reservists with an average age of over 30 they had outdated weapons very few anti-tank guns and only aim mited quantity of [Music] ammunition describing the Arden as Europe’s best tank obstacle damlin thought it would take at least 2 weeks for any army to penetrate the forest but senior British commanders like Alan Brooke question the logic of gamblin’s decision moving troops forward at just the moment when civilians would be fleeing towards them from an advancing enemy would result in chaos especially when the road Network in the area would struggle to support so many troops all moving at the same time Camin appears to have had a desire to keep the Germans as far from French soil as possible but in due course the new anti-tank defenses along the dial would prove to be quite inadequate and the expected 2 to 3 weeks for embedding British and French troops sir would in reality be less than 4 days due to the speed of the German ADV bars speculation about Germany’s plans was heightened on the 10th of January when a German plane lost in fog crashed in Belgium on board were two German officers one of whom was carrying secret documents outlining Germany’s current plans for the invasion of both Belgium and the the Netherlands unsettled by the incident Hitler ordered the high command to change their plans by chance General Eric Von manstein was trying to put forward his alternative strategy following a personal meeting between Von manin and Hitler in early March Hitler ordered that Von manen’s plans should be used for the invasion of France by the spring of 1940 with little in the way of active warfare many amongst the Allies started to convince themselves that Hitler would not attack in the West Britain though continued to mobilize and an increasing number of troops were dispatched to France on the 9th of April prime minister Nebel Chamberlain proclaimed Hitler has missed the bus he said these seven months of inactivity have enabled us to remove weaknesses and so in enormously add to our fighting strength that the future can be faced with a calm steady mind just a few days later this calm was shattered as Germany invaded both Denmark and Norway the aim was to deny the Royal Navy access to the Baltic to safeguard the supplies of Swedish iron oil shipped to Germany through the Norwegian Port of narvi and to obtain sea ports with direct access to the Atlantic Ocean which circumvented the Royal Navy’s blockade of the North Sea largely through the insistence of Winston Churchill a British Army Corps under General Claude ainle was sent to take control of nari and at the same time the Royal Navy laid mines in the waters along the Norwegian Coast as a deterrent to German shipping [Music] but by the 7th of May it was clear that British French and Norwegian efforts in Norway were doomed to failure the operation was highlighting Britain’s unpreparedness for war inadequate provision completely outgunned and without sufficient air cover British troops had no chance of withstanding the German [Music] invasion Parliament deated the situ situation in narik Chamberlain opened the debate in a lackluster fashion but it quickly turned into an argument about the competence of the British government in running the war the house was electrified when the conservative MP for Portsmouth ad The Fleets of Roger Keys stood up to speak dressed in his full Admiral’s uniform with all his medals he claimed to represent the view of the Armed Forces and stated they were frustrated by inept political leadership following this a pillar of the conservative party Leo amyy Rose to his feet to address the house compromise and procrastination are the natural qualities of a political leader in times of peace they are fatal qualities in war in devastating fashion he continued by quoting Oliver cromwell’s words when expelling the long parliament nearly 300 years before you have S here too long for any good that you have been doing depart I say and let us have done with you in the name of God go Herbert Morrison for the labor party moved a motion of censure upon the government leaving Chamberlin to call for support from what he called his political friends but this drew a stinging repost from David Lloyd George Britain’s leader joined the first world war it is not a question as to who are the prime ministers friends it is a far bigger issue he has appealed for sacrifice the nation is prepared for every sacrifice as long as it has leadership I say solemnly that the Prime Minister should give an example of sacrifice because there is nothing that can contribute more to victory in this war than that he should sacrifice the seals of office Churchill being a member of the government as first Lord of the admiralty manfully defended the government’s handling of the naric campaign but when within 2 days Neville Chamberlain had been forced to resign and the King had sent for Churchill to form a new government on that very same day Germany launched its main attack in the west before the Allies had realized what was happening the lwfa had attacked French and British airfields destroying many planes that were still on the ground the French without any radar or other early warning system were caught napping and for the remainder of the battle the Allies would be seriously disadvantaged by Germany’s resultant air [Music] superiority shortly afterwards troops from General bombo’s Army Group B crossed the borders into Netherlands and Central Belgium while Army Group C under General von Lee faced the French along the maano line in the Netherlands German parat troops were used to secure vital bridges for the tanks to cross other vital infrastructure like airports was also captured in similar fashion the outdated Dutch army with its obsolete weapons was no match for the Germans within just 5 days most of the country had been overrun with the Germans on the 14th of May demanding the surrender of Holland’s large is Port reddam the Dutch hesitated and immediately a large force of German bombers took off to attack the city and the port while the bombers were Airborne the Dutch in Rotterdam surrendered but it was too late rown was bombed causing considerable damage and death the next day the Dutch government capitulated in Belgium the Germans stormed across the neutral border and again using paratroops swiftly captured the Belgian Fortress of Idan imar which the belgians thought was impregnable and was the Lynch pin of their first line of defense along the Alber Canal the belgians immediately pulled back to take their place in the defensive blind along the river dial where the British and French troops delayed by traffic were now arriving but the belgians deployed in positions allocated to Alan Brook’s Left Flank division the the third division commanded by General Bernard Montgomery two days were now lost while International diplomacy involving even the king of Belgium attempted to sort out the issue consequently on the 13th of May Alan Brook wrote in his diary I do not think much of the Belgian Army and I am very nervous as to my Left Flank adding a few days later they are of poor fighting quality and I would not trust them a yard meanwhile thinking the attack in central Belgium was Germany’s main thrust Gamin was unaware of Germany’s army group a under General von rad was advancing through the Arden with 45,000 armored vehicles of which 1,700 were the new bigger and more powerful panzas 3es and fours they’ been moving unimpeded for 3 days along Pathways prepared by well-trained battalions of Engineers on the 13th of May 2 days before the Dutch surrender garan’s main paner Corp in Army group a had reached the banks of the river Ms near sadol where the French had already blown all the bridges meanwhile just North the fifth and seventh paner division in general gun Von cl’s Army were ahead of the game the seventh paner division through Dynamic leadership had already crossed the river Ms near Den the previous day this division was commanded by a little known General by the name of Owen roml who would now become one of the pivotal commanders in Germany’s armored thrust into France this division would gain the nickname the ghost division because nobody including the Germans quite knew where it was going to appear [Music] next usually armies had always waited for the artillery to arrive to provide covering fire before attempting a river crossing but with the ethos of Blitz Greek neither gadarian nor RL were going to wait instead stooker dive bombers blasted the French second and Ninth Army positions along the river Ms German assault troops were soon across the river forming Bridge heads so that Engineers could start building pontoon bridges for the panzas to cross once across Garian panzas quickly captured the Mafi Heights above sadon at which point General Charles hansinger the commander of the French second Army made a fateful decision thinking that garan intended to turn East to attack the rear of the majino line he pulled the second Army East to cover such a possibility but this merely opened the way for gadarian to race West keeping parallel with Rumble who was doing the same further north meanwhile the Allies in the north of Belgium including the bef had initially been holding the Germans along the the Dial line but by the 15th of May both the Belgium and French first armies on either side of the bef began to give way under German pressure Alan Brook wrote in his diary the British expeditionary force is likely to have both its flanks turned and will have a very unpleasant time in extracting itself out of its current position all of a sudden Gamblin started to panic about the growing threat to the Panzer advance from the Arden along the Valley of the Som and ordered a pull back from the river dial this was now Complicated by the increasing quantity of refugees who were fleeing from the German advance and plugging the roads as the Germans continued to advance on all fronts Gamin became increasingly confused and indecisive leading on the 19th of May to him being relieved of command it was a further three days before his replacement the 73-year-old general Ma veon arrived to take over during which time the Allies were leaderless at the same time the 84-year-old Marshall Philip patan the hero of the battle of veran in the first world war became France’s Deputy Prime Minister gadarian was determined not to give the Allies time to regroup and continued to press on the following day the 20th of May hispan reached the English Channel at the mouth of the river s an encirclement had been achieved just as Von runed and Bon manstein had planned cutof British French and Belgian troops now faced a desperate fight for survival in a cauldron battle intended to prevent them from remaining a fighting [Music] force veon immediately attempted to coordinate flank attacks upon either side of V Run’s thrust into France from the North near Aris the only two regiments of armor that Britain had managed to ship to France was ordered to attack rl’s 7th pounds of division they were equipped with just 58 british-built Matilda tanks that were slow but well armored although achieving some initial success they were too few in number and lacked infantry and air support anyway rl’s division was far too strong for such a small Force meanwhile from the South Charles dore’s armor division attacked Garian panac but suffered much the same fate it was all too little too late and with a lack of political and Military cohesion amongst the Allies Von realized that coordinating such attacks was near impossible events now moved rapidly veon ordered the armies in the north to fight their way out of the encirclement by attacking to the South but on the 23rd of May General Gaston Billet the commander of the French army Group which included both the bef and the Belgian Army was killed in a car crash meanwhile King leapold informed veel that his army was incapable of taking offensive action as it was designed merely as a defensive force and Lord Gort the commander of the bef explained that he could only spare two divisions for any offensive operation because all the rest were fully stretched all in the line against Germany’s army Group B that same day Garian captured bin and laid Siege to C the following day Von runed ordered Army group a to Halt although the siege of Cal would continue the German tank Crews have become increasingly exhausted and both infantry and supplies needed to catch up CH Bon Rin had felt that the marshy ground around Dunkirk was unsuitable for the pancers making them vulnerable to attack he was acutely aware that they would be needed in the second stage of the battle for France that was still to come Hitler endorsed his decision having also been convinced by Herman gory that the lufafa would prevent any evacuation by destroying the bef on the beaches of danur to the north Germany Army Group B continued to press the Allies within the bef General Michael barer the commander of One Core became unwell leaving Alan Brook to effectively oversee both cores by the 23rd 3 days after gadarian had reached the coast cutting off the bef’s main supply lines from laav British soldiers were put on Half rations and concern began to grow as to how long their ammunition would last just 2 days later it was clear that the Belgian Army on the British left was disintegrating the French sth army which had been on their left had already moved South to bolster the ninth Army which had been smashed by the Germans breaking out of the ardan the BF was now in serious danger being cut off from the Sea by German forces advancing from the North for 2 days alen Brook coordinating both one and two core worked feverishly to withdraw them so the Gap could be plugged on the 26th of May Cal fell to the Germans cutting off the last supply line to the bef the British government was by now under no Illusions as to the seriousness of the situation Lord gour received a call from Anthony Eden the secretary estate for war and was told consider evacuation but don’t let on to the French or the belgians in fact G had a week earlier started to prepare defensive positions along the canals around dunker in preparation for that exact Prospect the following day King Leopold II of Belgium believing his country’s position to be untenable sought an amnesties with Germany without consulting either France or Britain whether the Germans failed to respond he surrendered his entire Army unconditionally at this point General Alan Brook was recalled to the UK to prepare for a possible new operation in France the sponsor ility for withdrawing the bef now fell upon two subordinates general Harold Alexander the commander of the first division was given command of one Corp with the added responsibility being in charge of the rear guard and General Bernard Montgomery took over as acting commander of Tor Alan Brook had formed a good opinion of both Alex and Monty and later added a note to his diary about them it was intensely interesting watching Alex and Monty during the those trying days both of them were completely imperturbable and deficient yet they were two completely different characters it was in those critical days that the appreciation I made of those two commanders remained rooted in my mind and it resulted in the future selection of these two men to work together in the triumphal advance from alamain to Tunis part of the French first Army was now surrounded and cut off near Leo after a fierce 4-day battle they surrendered having run out of food F and ammunition all that was left of the armies that had lined the river dial to defend Belgium just a fortnight earlier was the bef and the remnants of the French first Army the bef was still largely intact and for the most part within a small pocket around duner little there remained of any of the French armies that had been deployed north of the river s they had already sustained 92,000 killed and more than 200,000 wounded in the battle they were no longer a threat to the Germans who now sought to finish off the [Music] bef and so started the nine days that were known as operation [Music] Dynamo responsibility of this fell to Admiral Bertram Ramsey who just two years previously had been forcibly retired after a long and distinguished career following a dispute with the head of the royal Navy but with the outbreak of the second world war a rather frustrated Ramsay sought a way back applying to the new first Lord of the admiralty Winston [Music] Churchill Ramsey came from a military family his father had been a general and his two Elder Brothers both had distinguished Army careers a lack of money to privately educate the third son had resulted in Bertram being sent to the Navy at a very young age while his father commanded the fourth huzar in which was serving at the time a young Winston Churchill on rejoining the Navy Ramsey was sent to command DOA at the center of a coastal area where the naval command structure was flimsy where defenses especially against submarines was negligible and where control over shipping in the streets of DOA was poultry what nobody foresaw was that Ramsey a specialist in amphibious operations would become one of the most significant commanders of the second world war responsible for planning and commanding the naval operations for D-Day Operation Torch in North Africa and the Allies Landings in both Sicily and Salo having initially been responsible for ensuring the safe passage of supplies across the channel to the bef he adapted his role by sending demolition teams to destroy Naval facilities at ports about to be captured in the Netherlands Belgium and France to prevent them from being used by the Nazis against Britain but on the evening of the 26th of May at exactly 6:57 p.m. Ramsey received instructions from the abilty to Launch an evacuation of British troops from Dunkirk an operation that had been ordered by Churchill only moments before it would become known as operation Dynamo supposedly taking its name from the former Dynamo room in the naval headquarters deep in the tunnels and the White Cliffs below Dober Castle it was from here that Ramsey planned and commanded the evacuation he hastily assembled a Fleet One Cruiser and 39 destroyers from the Royal Navy four destroyers from Canada and three from France he also pressed into service cross Channel feries and a plethora of small pleasurecraft that would famously become known as The Little [Music] Ships he ordered a telephone line to be set up between himself and Captain William tenant and his team who he had immediately dispatched to Dun Kirk to act as Beach [Music] Masters government officials initially bed at the 500 cost to the line but it would prove to be invadable in helping to recover thousands of troops from France the following day the 27th of May 11 group of fighter command under air viice marshall Keith Park was pressed into action to provide aerial cover for the evacuation [Music] flying from their bases largely in Kent and Essex 287 aircraft in 22 patrols flew that very same day over the next week 11 group flew over 3 and a 12,000 sorties inflicting a heavy toll on German bombers that had been sent to attack the troops in the harbor and on the beaches it provided a 11 group with invaluable experience in preparing them for the battle which was still to come the Battle of Britain the arf’s intervention was timely as on the 27th of May the luer started bombing danur its ports and its beaches despite this 25,000 troops were evacuated on that first full day mainly from the harbor where troops could step straight onto waiting ships but within a few days the harbor the Breakwater and the mole had all been put out of action by the luer however 240,000 British and French troops had already been rescued now all evacuations would have to take place from the beach at Dunkirk the beaches shelved gently into the sea so the Navy destroyers even at high tide could not approach within 1 mile of the shore This Is Where The Little Ships became invaluable furring the troops from the beaches to the Destroyers lying further out to sea by the 30th of May hundreds of Civilian boats crewed by civilian volunteers had crossed to France to help the evacuation assisted by the weather remaining fine at the sea [Music] C meanwhile since late 1939 the BBC had for the first time embedded a reporter with the British army his name was Richard dimbleby and he continued to report from the beaches of Dunkirk the days and nights ships of all kinds have pled to and fro across the channel under the fierce onslaught of the enemy’s bombers utterly regardless of the perils to bring out as many as possible of the trapped bef by now virtually every British unit had withdrawn inside the defenses around DKK the operation was nearing completion on the 3rd of June Captain William tenant and general Harold Alexander patrolled up and down the shoreline in a launch with a megaphone to ensure that no British soldiers were left behind a total of 98 8,000 British and French troops were rescued from the beaches the last allied ship left Dunkirk at 3:00 in the morning on the 4th of June at 10:00 a.m. the remnants of the rear guard consisting of 40,000 French troops surrendered and danur fell to the Germans but through their efforts 198,000 British troops and 140,000 French and Belgian troops had been saved operation Dynamo rescued the bul of the British Army in what was the biggest evacuation ever undertaken in military history despite the terrible loss of weapons and equipment Britain managed to recover its most precious and Priceless asset her trained and experienced soldiers that would be critical for the defense of the UK and for the rebuilding of the British army as soon as the capture of Dunkirk had been achieved the Germans restarted the battle against the remaining French army 112,000 of the French troops that had been evacuated at Dunkirk immediately returned to France through ports in Britany and Normandy and they rejoined their comrades s defending the line along the River Song pardoned by their experiences in Flanders they now fought tenaciously to defend their country veon implemented defense in depth as a means of inflicting the maximum attrition upon the Germans and he held armored and mechanized divisions to the rear to use in counterattacks for a few days the French line held but with with extensive use of dive bombers to attack French positions German infantry managed to inch forward and eventually managed to create Crossings over the river s once the paner divisions had crossed they quickly pushed into French lines soon rl’s Panza division had captured Ru where he crossed the river San and raced into Normandy capturing Channel ports on the [Music] way by now the French Air Force had virtually ceased to operate and general veon was advising ministers that the French army having been penetrated in numerous places by paner incursions was on the brink of [Music] collapse to the east the majino line was encircled and cut off by the Germans the French there fought stoked it and interestingly German artillery failed to penetrate any of the fortresses along the majino line Panic seized the French Nation on the 10th of June the French government fled Paris declaring it an open City at the same time Italy joined the war and invaded France in the south on the 13th of June Churchill flew to TOS in central France to meet with the French government Keen to find a way of keeping them in the war he offered a union between France and the United Kingdom but this was spectacularly rejected the French prime minister poor Reno was disappointed by this reaction from his cabinet and felt he no longer had their support on the 16th of June he resigned and was succeeded by the Aging Philip patan who in a radio addressed to the people of France announced that he intended to seek an Armistice with the Germans 3 Days Later Hitler arrived in France to negotiate the Armistice agreement the French signed the following day and 3 days after that the Armistice came into effect signaling the end of all fighting in France the battle was over France had been crushed and would remain under German occupation for the next 4 years the Germans having planned up to 1 million casualties in the Battle had achieved Victory with far fewer losses just 27,000 kills around 115,000 wounded and 18,000 missing in just 6 weeks Germany had conquered four countries and driven a fifth the United Kingdom from Continental Europe with a dramatically reworked sleen plan Germany accomplished what they had failed to achieve in four years during the first world war but this time they had been aided by an inept French army and by Britain’s complete lack of of preparation for war making this an easy victory for Hitler General Andre B was later to contend that the collapse and defeat of the French army in 1940 was the most significant event of the 20th century he wrote had the French army held the Hitler regime would have almost certainly have fallen there would have been no Nazi conquest of Western Europe no Nazi assault on the Soviet Union no Holocaust and most likely no communist takeover of Eastern Europe and gerbon runed reflecting after the war believed that Germany’s failure to destroy the British army at Dunkirk was The crucial moment that led to Germany’s ultimate defeat 5 years later he was to make the following observation we should have known better after the first world war the French came close to collapse in 1917 the British even after our offensive against them in 1918 never showed any sign of collapse Britain would now become the country around which Western nations would coales in the fight against Hitler British national resolve would not flinch and would be typified by Churchill speeches to the British people it know that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war we can stand up to him all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad fished [Music] Upland [Music] oh