Battle of Dunkirk
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{{Infobox Military Conflict
|conflict=Battle of Dunkirk
|partof=World War II
|image=Image:Dunkirk beach fighting.jpg
|caption=British soldiers under German air-attack during Battle of Dunkirk, France 1940.
|date=May 26, 1940–June 4, 1940
|place=Dunkirk, France
|result=Allied tactical victory, German strategic victory.
|combatant1=United Kingdom, France, Canada
|combatant2=Germany
|commander1=Lord Gort
|commander2=Gerd von Rundstedt (Army Group A), Ewald von Kleist (Panzergruppe von Kleist)
|strength1=approx. 400,000
|strength2=approx. 800,000
|casualties1=34,000 killed and wounded,
34,000 captured
9 destroyers sunk, 200+ smaller vessels sunk
177 planes shot down
|casualties2=? killed
132 planes shot down
|}}
Template:Campaignbox Western Front (World War II)
This article is about a Second World War battle in 1940, for the 1658 battle of the same name see Battle of the Dunes (1658)
The Battle of Dunkirk (French: Bataille de Dunkerque) was a major battle during World War II which lasted from around May 26 to June 4, 1940. A large force of British and French soldiers were cut off in northern France by a German armoured advance to the Channel coast at Calais. Over 330,000 Allied troops caught in the pocket were subsequently evacuated by sea to England in Operation Dynamo.
Contents |
Background
After the Phony War, the Battle of France began in earnest on May 10, 1940. The German Army Group A burst through the Ardennes region and advanced rapidly to the west, then turned north in the so-called "sickle cut". To the east, Army Group B invaded and subdued the Netherlands and advanced westward through Belgium.
A British counterattack southward towards Arras on May 21 failed to sever the German spearhead, which had reached the coast the previous day, separating the British Expeditionary Force near Armentières and the Belgian army further to the north from the majority of French troops south of the German penetration. Next, the German armor swung north along the coast, threatening to capture the Channel ports and trap the British army and the adjacent French First Army before the soldiers could retreat to the relative safety of England. However, the unopposed German panzer divisions halted outside of Dunkirk on May 24. This order allowed preparation for a new southward advance against the remaining French forces. In addition, the terrain around Dunkirk was considered unsuitable for armor, so destruction of the British forces was initially assigned to the Luftwaffe and the German infantry organized in Army Group B.
The Dunkirk Pocket
On May 25, General Lord Gort, the commander of the BEF, decided to evacuate British forces. From May 25 to May 28, British troops retreated about 30 miles northwest into a pocket along the Franco-Belgian border extending from Dunkirk on the coast to the Belgian town of Poperinge. Meanwhile, the Belgian army surrendered, followed by most of the French 1st Army on May 29.
Starting on May 27, Operation Dynamo began the evacuation of Allied troops from the Dunkirk area. The German Panzer divisions were ordered to resume their advance the same day, but improved British defenses halted their offensive, although the remaining Allied forces were compressed into a 5 km wide coastal strip from De Panne through Bray-Dunes to Dunkirk by May 31.
A total of five nations took part in the successful evacuation from Dunkirk - Britain, France, Belgium, Netherlands and Poland.
Aftermath
The successful evacuation of troops from Dunkirk ended the first phase in the Battle of France. It provided a great boost to British morale, but left the French to stand alone against a renewed German assault southwards. German troops entered Paris on June 14 and accepted the unconditional surrender of France on June 22.
What if?
The battle of Dunkirk poses one of the great "what-ifs" of World War II, which has attracted speculation from many military historians. If Hitler had not ordered the German panzer divisions to halt from 24 May to 26 May, but instead ordered an all-out attack on Dunkirk, the retreating Allies could have possibly been cut off from the sea and destroyed. If the whole of the British Expeditionary Force had been captured or killed at Dunkirk, morale in Britain could have possibly sunk so low as to have toppled the government and replaced it with one more disposed to making an accommodation with Nazi Germany, similar to the Vichy regime in France. Without the need to oppose the British in the Atlantic and North Africa — or even with the assistance of a Quisling government in Britain — perhaps the troops and resources thus freed would have been enough to wholly defeat the Soviet Union in 1941 and led to German conquest of the whole of Europe and Asia.
On the other hand, the panzer divisions were stopped for repairs and resupply, and to allow the rest of the army to catch up. Had they pushed forward recklessly, they could have outrun their supply lines and become vulnerable to being cut off themselves. Even if the British Expeditionary Force had been cut off and destroyed, few in Britain wanted to collaborate with the Nazis — Churchill had become Prime Minister after the fall of the Chamberlain government on May 10, 1940 precisely because his uncompromising belligerence reflected the mood of the nation.
Later fighting at Dunkirk
The city of Dunkirk was besieged in September 1944 by units of the Second Canadian Division; German units withstood the siege, and as the First Canadian Army moved north into Belgium, the city was "masked" and left to wither on the vine. The German garrison in Dunkirk held out until May 1945, denying the Allies the use of the port facilities.
See also
References
- Holmes, Richard, ed. (2001). "France, fall of". The Oxford Companion to Military History, New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198662092.
- Keegan, John. (1989). The Second World War, New York: Viking Penguin. ISBN 0670823597.
- Liddell Hart, B.H. (1970). History of the Second World War, New York: G.P. Putnam.
- Murray, Williamson and Millett, Allan R. A War to Be Won, Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press. ISBN 067400163X.
- Weinberg, Gerhard L. (1994). A World at Arms, New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521443172.
- Wilmot, Chester. (1952). The Struggle for Europe, Old Saybrook, Conn.: Konecky & Konecky. ISBN 1568525257.de:Schlacht um Dünkirchen
fa:نبرد دونکرک fr:Bataille de Dunkerque hr:Bitka kod Dunkirka it:Battaglia di Dunkerque nl:Slag om Duinkerken ja:ダンケルクの戦い pt:Batalha de Dunquerque th:ศึกแห่งดันเคิร์ก