Dunkirk 1940

by Tim Lynch

  German map showing the waterways around Dunkirk. The difficulty in manoeuvring tank formations in this type of countryside has been put forward as one explanation for Hitler’s infamous ‘Halt Order’. (Courtesy Martin Marix Evans)

  At Gawthorpe’s HQ, a man in a British officer’s uniform had appeared and asked questions about the plans for the next day. ‘[As] I could not verify his credentials’ wrote Gawthorpe, ‘and liked neither his face, accent, attitude or anything else about him, I dropped him through a hatch into the cellar and put an armed clerk on guard.’22 An hour later, a staff officer appeared to explain that whilst the man might be ‘tactless and excited’, he was genuine and he was released. The man had had a lucky escape. A great many suspected fifth columnists had already been executed on far flimsier grounds, the Grenadier Guards executing as many as seventeen – possibly more – in a single day. Anthony Rhodes, an officer with the BEF spoke to one Field Security Policeman who claimed to have interrogated up to 100 suspects a day. He records one conversation between a colleague and the divisional provost officer when he asked if the provost really shot spies:

  ‘Of course’ said the provost officer.

  ‘And you do it entirely on your own? I mean the trial and that sort of thing?’

  ‘Of course.’

  ‘But I suppose you take very good care that they really are spies, don’t you? I mean -it’s a sort of absolute power of attorney, isn’t it?’

  ‘It’s absolute all right,’ he said, grinning.23

  In all, it is believed that overenthusiastic British and French troops killed civilians at a rate comparable to the 5,000 killed by the Germans in the ‘Rape of Belgium’ in 1914 – an action that saw them labelled as ‘a barbaric, baby spitting horde for the better part of half a century.’24

  The British, meanwhile, were using the pause to replace the West Yorkshires with regular troops. Around Hinges, the 2nd Royal Norfolks began taking over on the night of the 24/25th. In the late afternoon of the 24th, two platoons of ‘A’ Company were preparing to hold their position at Calonne as the rest of the battalion pulled back through them towards Neuf Berquin. At 1900hrs, a party of retreating Frenchmen told them that the Germans were only a mile away. At 1930hrs, the ominous sound of tracked vehicles grew louder and ‘it seemed the small force was destined to have an exciting time.’25 Then, around the corner came the carriers of the relieving force of 4th Brigade. Even as the platoon commanders met, the Germans opened fire at close range, sending Second Lieutenant Clough and Major Parks diving for cover in an evil smelling ditch.26 Patrols were sent out to track down the Germans but no contact was made. The carriers then set out towards Robecq and the sound of heavy fighting was followed by a column of prisoners being marched back.

  That night, the exhausted men of ‘B’ Company had their first sleep for four days but there were no rations for them except biscuits and chocolate. By the light of a single candle stuck in a bottle, Colonel Pulleyn briefed his officers in a cottage in the village and told them that the battalion was to gather the next day in Calonne and then move to take up position in reserve of the newly arrived 2DLI, who would be attacking St Venant as troops of the Welch Fusiliers counterattacked at Robecq.

  A suspected fifth columnist under arrest. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of French and Belgian civilians were summarily executed – often on the flimsiest of evidence – by Allied soldiers during the campaign.

  Outside, German artillery fire was stepped up to try to disrupt the incoming forces and reports were coming in of ‘at least one gas shell to St Floris’.27 At around 0100hrs 21-year-old Albert Porritt was killed by a splinter and the company moved closer to the centre of the village for protection. Further proof of the difficult position the battalion was in came during the night when Captain Leslie Sykes, commander of HQ Company, was killed by sub-machine gun fire whilst on reconnaissance with his platoon commanders when they encountered an enemy patrol.

  At dawn, fighting patrols were sent out and came back with a number of prisoners. Five light machine guns and three submachine guns were captured and thrown into the Lys canal. At 1000hrs the battalion was ordered to cross the canal and to take up positions facing the Forêt de Nieppe. Across a makeshift bridge of planks placed across a barge, they no sooner reached their positions than they were ordered instead to withdraw and to move to Merville and then to Estaires for a rest. As ‘C’ Company led the way through Merville, an artillery barrage dropped and its first shell fell in their midst causing several casualties, although fortunately none were fatal. The barrage lifted only when Stukas appeared overhead and screamed into the attack. Soldiers and civilians alike hid in cellars as the bombardment continued in relays, the battalion edging their way out of town in the brief intervals between until, on the far side, they were caught in a box barrage across the only two exits from the area. It is perhaps a mark of how the last few days had hardened them that Lieutenant Moor remarked that ‘by a miracle the only fatalities were civilian.’

  Strung out over several miles and harried all the way by air strikes, the battalion finally reached Estaires at dusk and settled into barns and farms around the village only to find that the promised rations had been sent on to Doulieu instead due to conflicting orders. For the past two days, the battalion had been placed under the orders of 25th Brigade by Gawthorpe but the battalion had assumed that this was simply because communication with 137 Brigade HQ had been lost. Now, as they withdrew, they once again fell under Gawthorpe’s command but by now his plans had changed. Under the command of 138 Brigade, the remnants of 137 were to hand over to the incoming troops and withdraw to Doulieu for a rest and then move to catch up with Gawthorpe at Cassel.

  The town of Cassel, perched atop one of the very few hills in Flanders, was an obvious target for a German attack. Control of it would dominate the approaches to Dunkirk and it was vital that it be defended. When Gawthorpe arrived, however, it was already in enemy hands and he ‘could not get within four miles of it’. Instead, he was advised to steer to the east of it and to recce an approach from that side. With that in mind, he headed to the village of Steenvorde but on arrival there was greeted by a staff officer with instructions ‘to take no further aggressive action … report to III Corps headquarters at Teteghem, near Dunkirk, with all you’ve got.’ When Gawthorpe protested that Dunkirk was on the English Channel, the officer was terse: ‘We happen to be going that way.’28 It was the first indication Gawthorpe had of a general retreat.

  For Private Ernest Jones of the 2/5th, the 27th was not only a day of rest spent sheltering from the pouring rain, but also his 21st birthday, celebrated with his first hot meal for days and his last until he reached England. His battledress jacket was holed in two places where bullets had narrowly missed him, passing through his wallet and tearing a photograph inside it. Now, he sat with his friends watching Estaires burn. Unknown to him or his comrades, just a few miles away, the Totenkopf had finally resumed their attack, and had been given the task of securing the area around Hinges and pushing north to the line Estaires–Neuve Chappelle. Against a defence so desperate that British troops ran out of ammunition but fought on with bayonets and entrenching tools, the military ineptitude of Eicke and his officers led to men being ordered to attempt frontal assaults on machine gun positions in the belief that brute force and ignorance could achieve as much as skill and training. In particular, Bertling, commander of the Division’s 2nd Infantry Regiment, got his unit into such difficulties that the entire division had to be diverted to his aid. The 2nd Norfolks, who had relieved the 2/5th at Hinges, barricaded themselves into a farm to delay the advance of the Totenkopf’s left flank. When the British ran out of ammunition and surrendered, the SS were once again embarrassed by their own incompetence and eager to take their frustration out on their prisoners. All the surviving Norfolks were gathered together against a barn wall and gunned down. Even including the victims of this atrocity, Eicke could only claim that his division had inflicted around 300 casualties on the B
ritish but his poor leadership of the Totenkopf had cost twice that many casualties among his own men – some 155 dead, 483 wounded and 53 missing.29

  At dusk, orders came for the West Yorkshires to head for Kemmel and so the battalion set out on a long, uncomfortable march along crowded roads in heavy rain. Reaching the smoking ruins of Bailleul around midnight, their destination was suddenly changed to Berthen, which they reached at 0430hrs. Despite the weather, Pulleyn decided to take his men through the village and into woods on the high ground to the north, leaving the Lincolns of 138 Brigade and the Northumberland Fusiliers in their comfortable billets. Two hours later, though, he was proved right when an air raid struck Berthen with tremendous force and hit a church where ammunition had been stored, triggering secondary explosions that continued for some time in a spectacular display. One stick of bombs overshot the village and hit the edge of the woods where ‘B’ Company were sheltering, causing another six casualties including 20-year-old Sam Roberts, a former player for York FC who died of his wounds five days later. Throughout the rest of what Lieutenant Moor called ‘an endless morning’, the bombers returned time and again, plastering the area so that by midday, ‘B’ Company was down to fewer than 30 men. Two of the attacking planes were shot down and ‘the crew of two who bailed out of one of them were rounded up and killed.’30

  The survivors of ‘B’ and ‘C’ Companies threw up a defence line along the northern edge of the wood and remained there until 1630hrs when orders reached them to head for the coast. The main concern now for the battalion officers was whether their tired, hungry men would be able to make the 30 miles to Dunkirk on foot. A violent thunderstorm had broken out at 1500hrs, effectively preventing further air attacks so the men were at least able to move openly but felt far from safe.31 ‘It was now learned’ wrote Lieutenant Moor, ‘that German mechanised forces were closing in on all sides. The men’s feet were by this time in poor shape and after Watou, Haringhe and Rousbrugge had been passed, with A/T weapons in position at the road side all the way, it began to appear doubtful whether the Bn would win its race down the narrowing corridor to the sea.’32 Once on the main Pyres–Furnes road, however, they met with heavy traffic and were able to hitch lifts in small groups to the coast.

  In its entry for 29 May, the battalion war diary notes ‘whereabouts of the bulk of the battalion unknown having been scattered on march.’33 ‘Amidst the confusion of abandoned vehicles, flooded fields and disappearing officers’, recalls Ernest Jones, ‘we made our way to the coast.’34 Some went to Dunkirk, others to the beaches north of the port, many simply left to fend for themselves. Pausing for the night of the 28th near a farm, Lieutenant Clough and Company Sergeant Major Clayton woke to find the battalion had moved on, leaving them to find their own way back. Private Jones was one of a group of ten men who reached a square in Dunkirk where their officer told them to stay where they were and went off to find transport. He did not return and it was only later that Jones discovered he had reached home five days before his men.

  The evacuation beaches. The ‘Provost Jetty’, created by driving vehicles into the sea at low tide, enabled ships to come close into the beaches at high tide.

  The public shelter on the Place de la Republique, Dunkirk. It was here that Ernest Jones and Cyril Rigby took cover.

  German artist’s impressions of the British escape from Dunkirk.

  Those who could be found were put to work directing traffic and putting the final canal line into a state of defence. Knowing that there was a real risk of panic, Gawthorpe himself stood on the beach directing troops in an effort to maintain calm; ‘Right, you join your division over there … yes you’re all going together but you can’t go without tickets … Division’s got the tickets.’35 He was right to do so; already Dunkirk was filled with drunken, panicking troops.

  In the square, Jones and his party took shelter from incoming artillery in an air raid shelter. As they waited, another soldier arrived, tripped, and his rifle went off, striking Jones’ friend Cyril Rigby in the knee. They managed to get him to an American nurse who dressed the wound. ‘Two hours later a passing ambulance convoy picked him up and we went to the quayside with him to be confronted by row upon row of ambulances.’36 Told to make their way to the beaches, Jones and his friend ‘Chuck’ Skillbeck found a stores vehicle, changed into clean uniforms and made their way to the harbour’s mole where, in groups of 50 at a time, they moved up to safety aboard HMS Exeter. Jones was never able to find out what happened to his wounded comrade.37

  Offshore, the ships that had so recently brought the BEF to France were now taking them home, but the strain of facing the German air superiority quickly began to show. Many returned time after time throughout the next week under increasingly difficult conditions; but not all felt the same way. The evacuation got under way on the night of the 26/27th but as early as the 28th, the Canterbury sailed only after direct orders and a naval party had been put aboard to ‘stiffen the crew’. The next day, the captain of the St Seiriol had been put under open arrest and again a naval crew brought aboard so that she could return to Dunkirk after her first trip. On 1 June, after three trips, most of the crew of the Tynwald – the ship that had brought the West Yorkshires to Cherbourg in April – along with those of the Malines and the Ben-My-Chree all refused to sail from Folkestone and had to be replaced.38 Each was capable of carrying up to 2,000 men at a time and indeed the Tynwald, under a navy crew, later loaded 4,000 men in half an hour on the night of 4 June39 but for precious hours they sat idle throughout that night. When relief crews arrived the next day, they were met by jeering and the crew of the Ben-My-Chree had to be physically prevented from leaving by a naval party wielding fixed bayonets. As the navy dealt with the other ships, the Malines quietly slipped anchor and sailed for her home port, her captain later claiming; ‘It seemed in the best interests of all concerned.’40 Elsewhere, the coxwain and motor mechanic of the Hythe lifeboat were dismissed at the end of June for their refusal to sail.41 For the men trapped on the beaches, time was running short.

  A German soldier inspects a 1917 vintage Renault tank brought into service to defend GHQ.

  B Company, 2/5th West Yorkshire Regiment.

  Troops in the ‘cinema queue’ on the mole.

  At Gravelines, the 6th Green Howards of 69 Brigade held on to a four-mile front but were in no state to hold it for long. On 29 May, their commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Steel, informed Brigadier Norman, in charge of that sector:

  My battalion is a labour battalion of 20-year-old boys. They were sent out to dig trenches and are armed only with rifles. They have been put into an unsuccessful counterattack near Gravelines in which they lost heavily. They have been down to the beaches, and told they were going home. They were then brought back, and put on the ground where they are now. They will stay just as long as they do not see a German. At the first sight of the enemy, they will bolt to a man.42

  Elsewhere, as the perimeter shrank, other labour troops found themselves being left to sacrifice themselves for the better equipped regulars. By 1 June, 138 and 139 Brigades formed the last line of defence under the command of General Curtis. With no reserve except the 70 remaining men of the 2/5th Leicesters, they held the line of the canal at Bergues. Hard pressed, a German bridgehead was established against 139 Brigade’s front at Hoymille on 2 June that was only beaten back when, with incredible bravery, 550 men of the French 21st Divisional Training Centre attacked through a field flooded thigh deep. Only 65 men survived unscathed but the Germans were pushed back.43 Bergues finally fell at 1700hrs and the survivors of the rearguard broke off contact, firing their remaining ammunition and setting up delaying mechanisms to fire rifles propped against barricades to give the impression that they were still manned as the defenders slipped away.

  By 4 June, the BEF was gone. Now German attention turned south.

  A German soldier watches an oil depot in flames at Dunkirk. The smoke had been a marker for retreating troops for the past week.r />
  NOTES

  1 Gawthorpe, ‘137 Infantry Brigade: A Formation of the TA in the First Year of War 1939/40’ in Ca Ira Vol XII June 1948 p224

  2 Blaxland p186

  3 Report on ‘Polforce.’ WO197/118

  4 Lieutenant R.A. Moor. Personal account.

  5 Sandes, E.W.C. Pyramid to Pagoda p253–4. See also Ca Ira Vol X No 4 June 1941 p181

  6 Stéphane Bonnaud. ‘Le 9e Bataillon de Chars de Combat. Pt II’ in Histoire de Guerre Blindés & Matériel No75 Fevrier/Mars 2007

  7 The role of the North African units has been largely overlooked in France. They were composed of North African Arabs and ‘pied-noirs’ – literally ‘black feet’ or Frenchmen born abroad. The colonial formations gained a reputation for fighting well but the Nazi ideology refused to consider them worthy of treatment under the Geneva Convention. A great many North and West African troops, along with smaller numbers of Vietnamese soldiers, were murdered after capture. 1st DINA would later hold the line alongside the remnants of 138 and 139 Brigades on the Dunkirk perimeter and, after evacuation to England, the 27th Algerian Infantry would be shipped back to France to take part in still more fighting throughout June.