1940 May 15 at 7: 30 in the morning, Churchill, who had just taken office as British prime minister, was sleeping in the naval headquarters building when suddenly a phone call came, showing that it was French Prime Minister Renault.

Churchill, who was awakened, immediately heard more news of being awakened.

Renault on the other end of the phone clearly said in English: "We were crushed" (we were crushed).

Churchill was blindsided and couldn't believe it, but Renault on the other end of the phone repeated this sentence several times.

So, after a long silence, Churchill reluctantly asked, "Surely you won't lose so fast?"

That's right, it's so fast.

The British expeditionary force was besieged.

1May 940 10, Germany launched a war against France, and France was divided into A and B armies. The B Army commanded by Bock attacked Holland and Belgium in Flanders, the northern line of France.

A Army led by Lund bypassed maginot line and launched a surprise attack from the Ardennes.

Then within five days, France's elaborate defense line collapsed.

Everyone here may think that France is not one of the most powerful armies in the world. How did it decompose so quickly?

Let's briefly analyze it.

In fact, from the beginning of World War I, France has always maintained a vigilant attitude towards Germany, and maginot line in the northeast was specially set up for the Germans.

The Germans either attacked maginot line or crossed Belgium and attacked Flanders from the north, thus attacking France.

And, of course, the Ardennes forest north of maginot line. It stands to reason that China people should not collapse so soon.

But it is this mountainous area where marching is difficult that has become a breakthrough for the Germans to quickly tear open the defense line.

Of course, the French also know that Ardennes is a gap in maginot line, and they even designed an ambush.

If the Germans attack from here, they will be recalled.

Ironically, Germans just come and go freely. They still underestimated the speed of German operations, and did not pay enough attention to this gap.

On May 10, Hitler went to war.

Guderian is marching into Ardennes with the latest tank tactics.

At this time, the commander-in-chief of the French army, Gamelin, was still laughing at the Germans, ready to tighten his pockets and surround them in the Ardennes.

But guderian didn't make any adjustment after he left Ardennes. When Gamelin was about to be surrounded, guderian quickly bridged the bridge with engineers to cooperate with the bombing of the air force and artillery.

So the armored tank troops were ridiculously fast, strode forward all the way, and successfully broke through maginot line, forming a trend of encirclement with the B Army.

The French don't understand, how did this happen? How can the encirclement become an encirclement?

Only nine days later, at six o'clock in the morning of May 19, the commander-in-chief of the British Expeditionary Force, Gott, was completely disappointed with the war situation.

Bok's army B kept advancing to Flanders, Belgium, while Lund's army A advanced at an alarming rate.

On the other hand, within the allied forces, the French First Corps suffered a crushing defeat.

The Belgian cavalry regiment just doesn't exist, and some even give up fighting directly and drink coffee in cafes;

The Royal Guards in Britain belong to people who don't know what to do, and the confused information makes them very confused.

But at least on this day, Gott basically determined the future operational intention, which was the premise of the miracle later-running.

In fact, Gott is not the only senior official who has the idea of running away. Although Churchill, who came back from Paris, ostensibly said that he would stick to Flanders with the French army, and Wei Gang, the new commander-in-chief of the French army, also practiced the slogan of sticking to Flanders, the British were still dogs and cared more about local security.

19, the British army headquarters held a meeting. The meeting decided to retreat as an alternative, and collected ships ready to take back the besieged British expeditionary force at any time.

Then, on the 22nd, just three days later, the war situation changed dramatically. The Germans have moved westward to the coastal areas and started shelling Calais and boulogne. The British Expeditionary Force was double-teamed.

At this time, only Dunkirk was left as the retreat location, and retreat was no longer regarded as a post-election plan in Britain. Naval headquarters officially named the evacuation plan generator plan.

Generator planning preparation

Ramsey is a navy general with distinctive personality and excellent organizational ability. He once served as the chief of staff of the navy commander and the captain of a cruise ship.

However, due to his distinctive personality, he thought that his talents were not fully recognized, so he resigned voluntarily.

Later, because of the outbreak of World War II, he joined the army again.

Being appointed as the chief commander of the generator project this time will be his touchstone. Whether it is a mule, a horse, a hero or a bear depends on whether Ramsey can do it well.

First of all, for Ramsey, keeping the boats together is the most important part of the whole rescue operation.

However, requisitioning ships is not a simple matter. A few days before the start of the "generator" project, the news about the withdrawal of the British expeditionary force was not allowed to be disclosed to the public, so as not to be directly known by German spies and expose the military intentions of the allies prematurely.

Then the requisition of people's ships must be carried out in a low profile, but at the same time, a large number of ships must be gathered.

The next day, May 23rd, lucky Ramsey successfully took back 40 mobile barges from the Dutch, weighing between 200 tons and 500 tons.

But it is not easy to find a large number of suitable rescue boats in Britain, because these boats are too scattered.

To this end, Ramsey's assistants had to make phone calls everywhere, carpet search available ships, and stayed up for three days and three nights.

Finally, the news spread all over the British shipping industry.

People only know that there is a great crisis in the troops on the other side, but they don't know what happened specifically.

But out of patriotism, many British ferries, open-bottom barges, dredgers, yachts, offshore merchant ships and Scott barges began to gather in Dover.

At the same time, for the British, there is good news from the European continent.

The Germans unexpectedly stopped attacking the British and French allied forces in Flanders, all of which originated from Hitler's ceasefire order on May 24th.

Many people find it hard to imagine why Hitler gave up the opportunity to pursue victory. Obviously, in guderian's tank tactics, the "Tusi" and "Mi Chong" have no strength to fight back, and at this time, only 20 kilometers away from Dunkirk, they can annihilate the British and French allied forces in one fell swoop.

However, Hitler's consideration cannot be said to be unreasonable. First, I am afraid that the tanks will rush too fast and the logistics will not keep up, and then there will be problems.

Second, considering the muddy Flanders area, it is very inconvenient for tanks to fight.

Third, Hitler didn't want these military nobles to occupy the army. In particular, Hitler's ancestors were not nobles.

Fourth, he wanted to leave enough armored troops to besiege Paris and avenge the First World War.

In short, for Hitler, he thought Britain and France were a dead end, so he asked Goering, the air force commander who wanted to share the work, to use his air force to oppress and annihilate the British and French Coalition forces.

But from now on, Goering didn't do very well, so Hitler quietly buried a mine for himself.

But for Gott, commander of the British Expeditionary Force, it was a relief that the German army suspended the attack, and he was finally able to arrange the evacuation with normal breathing.

First of all, based on the canal defense, Gott concentrated his troops in several villages and towns adjacent to the east of the canal to take care of each other to make up for the lack of troops and delay the German tank forces as much as possible.

Then notify the troops except the defense to rush to Dunkirk.

In addition, Gott has to do a more important thing, that is, send someone back to England to remind the lords in London that the crisis situation of the British expeditionary force is very dangerous at this time, and they must not be reluctant to give up their equipment to save these soldiers.

Indeed, as Goth expected, the nobles in London did not pay enough attention to this.

In their budget, the navy only intends to send a few destroyers to participate in the rescue.

But fortunately, Gotthard came, and he solemnly conveyed Gotthard's meaning at the military conference held in London.

"Any ship that can cross the English Channel must, must be dispatched ... any ship! Even rowing is no exception! "

The generator plan begins.

On the afternoon of May 26th, German logistics troops arrived in Flanders. At the suggestion of the army generals, Hitler cancelled the rest order and the Germans resumed their offensive posture.

Gott's canal defense line began to bear the high pressure of the Germans and stopped every crossing.

This time they have a clear goal, but the cost of casualties is also extremely high.

Later, at 6: 57 pm on the 26th, the rescue work was ready.

The navy headquarters ordered Ramsey's "generator set" to "start the generator operation", and 129 ferries, offshore merchant ships, Scott and small boats set sail for Dunkirk in an orderly manner.

In the retreat corridor of Flanders, the retreat order of British soldiers is chaotic, and the retreat scenes are various.

In order to scare the allies, the Germans also made full use of the fear appeal of advertising psychology, and thousands of leaflets fell from the sky.

Leaflets are scary, too It drew a map showing the position of the allied forces, reminding the British and French soldiers that you were surrounded and could not escape.

Then advise "surrender quickly, surrender generously".

But the British soldiers who fled saw these leaflets, and their morale was greatly boosted. Because they finally got the map after running for so long, they knew where to go.

Therefore, in the process of British running, the German Air Force is also considered to have made great contributions.

So with the help of the God of the German Air Force, the chaotic "Mi Chong" flocked to Dunkirk Beach.

How messy is it? All kinds of chaos you can't imagine.

take for example

"The brothers of the first battalion of the East Surrey Legion rode borrowed bicycles and mixed in the retreating crowd;

In the countryside, a soldier from the 5th Battalion of the Royal Sussex Corps drives a big carriage.

A brigadier general without a hat walked alone on Berger's road;

The gunman Robert Lee saw a guy wearing skates and holding an umbrella whizzing past him in the suburb of Dunkirk.

There is also a young man carrying a parrot cage on the road.

The most common thing is that there are big blisters on the feet, and they are carried by two comrades to walk the last five miles. "

Faced with this situation, the commander-in-chief of the French coastal army, General Abrayal, is a little puzzled.

Because he didn't clearly understand the intention of the British army to retreat, when he wanted to complain about the lack of discipline in the British army, he knew that people didn't want to fight at all, and the ship that took them home was close to Dunkirk.

But for the British, the organization of the Dunkirk coast is still very important.

For example, how to organize soldiers to board the ship in an orderly manner?

How to clear up the ship congestion in the port?

How to deal with the bombing of the German Air Force?

Therefore, in order to rescue more soldiers, the British naturally feel uneasy about handing over the organization work to the French.

So, at 5: 35 on the 27th, the second day of the plan, Tannatt, a senior British naval officer, and his shore service brigade took the destroyer "Wolfhound" and miraculously sailed into Dunkirk under the bombardment of German Stuka.

After Tannatt arrived, the first problem he faced was how to organize the soldiers on the beach to board the ship and return to England under the intensive bombing of the German aircraft group.

Royal Flying Brigade?

-Difficulties

Old people in the British Air Force cherish their Spitfire fighters very much, and send several at a time. The key is to fly across the strait, and there is not enough oil.

I circled in France for about 40 minutes and flew back. Sometimes it is difficult to say hello to Stuka in Germany.

So you can rely on anti-aircraft guns on the beach?

-there is a problem, a big problem, and there is no anti-aircraft gun.

-how can the army not have anti-aircraft guns?

If you personally look at this period of history and see Tannatt ask such a question, as a bystander, you will see Major General Martin, commander of the air defense, salute and answer proudly and neatly.

"Sir, according to your orders, all the anti-aircraft guns were destroyed, and the Germans could not get any weapons from us."

Don't die laughing. Major General Martin did obey orders, but he didn't have enough brains to misinterpret the orders given by his superiors.

But it is said that the plane blew you up right above your head, but you destroyed the anti-aircraft gun. Isn't that an idiot?

Otherwise, soldiers lying on the beach would not be in a hurry to throw grenades into the air to blow up German planes.

So you can't stand the bombing in Stuka, Germany.

Fortunately, however, due to the influence of temperate maritime climate, it was mostly rainy when retreating, so the German plane could not take off smoothly and had to act on sunny days.

(During the Dunkirk retreat, German planes only took off on May 27th, May 29th and June 1. )

However, the one-day bombing of German planes on the 27th completely disrupted Ramsey's schedule.

The "Z-route" determined at the beginning of the plan has no mines and the distance is short, but the air of this route is full of German planes.

Before 10 on the morning of 27th, no ship could successfully cross the strait to reach Dunkirk.

So in desperation, I can only choose "Y route" and sail from the northeast to avoid German mines and shells, but this distance is more than twice as long as "Z route", which takes more than three hours, and the ship is simply not enough.

Therefore, only 7,669 British troops were evacuated on the 27th, and most of them were rescued before the official start of Operation Generator. At the same time, several large rescue boats disappeared on this day.

At this time, Razim urgently needs more ships and more air fire support.

The generator is getting better and better.

In the early morning of the 28th, Ramsey kept generating electricity to London, and London was anxious to find available ships.

In Dunkirk, as a senior naval officer, Tannatt successfully stabilized the chaotic soldiers and began to organize boarding operations effectively.

It is impossible to get on the boat quickly by the port pier. Now these places have become a sea of fire under the bombing of German planes.

However, Tannatt found that the Germans ignored the breakwaters extending on both sides of Dunkirk, and the "Queen of the Straits" successfully docked next to the breakwaters in the early morning, and the waves rolled up by the ship did not destroy the fragile wooden breakwaters.

Now, in addition to boarding the boat from the beach, a faster boarding method has been added.

But so far, not having enough boats is still a big problem.

In addition, in the defense around Dunkirk, Gott was in big trouble.

Also at 4 am on 28th, Belgian King Leopold III bowed and surrendered to Hitler.

Therefore, the Belgian army has no reason to continue fighting for the Allies, so there is a gap of 20 miles between ypres and the coast. Enemy armored forces can rush in from here and end the British retreat ahead of schedule.

Fortunately, however, the Belgian army itself did not play well in the previous battles, and this line of defense has long been exposed step by step, so the British commander Brooke, who is in charge of this line of defense, intends to take a bottom behind them.

So, as early as the day before, after the Third Division of the Second Army received instructions again, 13000 people advanced 40 kilometers from the south of the encirclement to ypres under the nose of the Germans, which temporarily solved the current urgent need.

On the other side of the Strait, London has clearly understood the critical situation of Dunkirk from Ramsey's telegram and Dunkirk's special envoy, and they dare not despise any demands made by Ramsey.

Want a boat, right? I'll give it. Want a plane, right? I'll give it. Anything else? I will go all out.

That's it. You are doing very well.

So on the morning of 28th, more ships set off from Dover. In just one morning, 1 1 destroyers were all full.

Besides, it's raining today, so German planes can't take off. Breakwater is also of great use. It can carry 540 people per hour, which makes it possible to rescue more soldiers. (The beach carries 50 people per hour)

On May 28th, there were 17804 people evacuated, twice as many as on the 27th.

In addition, there are two pieces of good news that provide hope for the rescue of more soldiers.

The mines on the "X route" have been cleared, and the route has been shortened from 87 km to 55 km.

In addition, France managed to flood the low-lying land south of the coast, and now the German elite tanks have moved on.

At dawn on May 29th, the weather got worse.

It has been raining in Mao Mao, and the cloud curtain is only 300 feet high.

Today is a good day for the British, and German planes won't hover over them at least for now.

But after noon, the weather cleared up, and the German Air Force, which had been suppressed for a day and a half, began to bomb Dunkirk by venting. They had planned to dispatch more than 400 military aircraft at one time.

At this time, the wave prevention Committee exposed under the eyes of the German Air Force was the focus, so the warships docked at the wave prevention moved rapidly, but they still failed to hit the German shells and were hit by the stern, deck and turbine. This round of bombing directly caused the British army to lose three large-capacity steamboats, and the anti-wave was also greatly damaged.

Fortunately, however, all the ships left the breakwater and did not sink nearby, at least not causing traffic problems on the shore.

Of course, in addition to the bombing near the anti-wave season, ships sailing in the strait are also targets of German attacks.

And they can only rely on their own destiny. Some ships walk against snakeskin, which can avoid Stuka's shells by surprise.

Some insisted on walking for a long time and were finally solved by a shell.

If you are lucky, you can be successfully rescued by another ship and return to England.

Unlucky people were rescued one after another and bombed one after another.

The air raid didn't end until dark, and Dunkirk was a mess.

What's more, some cheapskates in London began to weigh the pros and cons.

They didn't want to hand over the latest destroyers to Ramsey to avoid being blown up by the German Air Force, so they took back the latest eight destroyers in Ramsey's hand, which also slowed down the rescue speed.

However, the generator set in Razim still needs to find other more effective ways to rescue the soldiers on the beach, and they can only do what they can.

On May 30th, it was rainy, and there were no German planes.

At 4 o'clock in the morning, the naval headquarters dispatched an officer named Wake Walker to Dunkirk.

His task is different from Tanner's. He is mainly responsible for the rescue order of maritime transport ships, ensuring that each ship can reach the boarding place where the ships are most needed as quickly as possible.

However, after yesterday's bombing, the transport ship was obviously insufficient.

The dark crowd on the beach, the long queue winding into the sea, the soldiers soaking in the water from the waist down … all these people can only wait endlessly.

But at night, things changed immediately.

All day on the 30th, news was flying all over the sky.

British soldiers who returned to the mainland by boat described to the British people the critical situation of British soldiers trapped on the other side of the strait.

So like

The cry of "Our children and our brothers are in trouble across the strait, and we must find ways to save them" began to spread.

On this Sunday night, all kinds of ships, such as sea fishing boats, dredgers, sailboats, yachts and so on, set out for Dunkirk in droves.

They are basically responsible for connecting, receiving or dragging troops to large ships parked in the open sea.

It was also under Ramsey's fierce debate that the navy returned the destroyer Hyundai to France to continue the rescue. At the same time, an engineering team was temporarily set up on the beach. After the shore service brigade promised these engineers to board the ship first, they worked extremely hard.

They lined up military vehicles one after another and extended them into the sea, looking for materials to build platforms in a timber factory, turning the deck of stranded ships into a wooden path.

So the "Gendarmerie Pier" was built. Because it was so good, they ordered their officers to go back on their word and leave them at the seaside to continue their work.

(Chief Engineer: I really brought this old six)

On the 30th, a total of 53,823 people were evacuated because of strict discipline, military car docks and, most importantly, boats flooding.

(The number of people evacuated from the beach has tripled compared with yesterday, reaching 295 12, and 243 1 1 people were evacuated by the breakwater. )

On may 3 1 day, it was still raining, and only a few german planes bombed.

The Royal Air Force also began to appear in French airspace.

In the outer defense line of Dunkirk, the Germans are gradually breaking through the canal defense line.

Fortunately, however, guderian's tanks withdrew from the battle surrounding the British and French allied forces as early as 29th, because Hitler was preparing to besiege Paris, so the pressure on the surrounding defense lines was correspondingly reduced.

Therefore, the British troops at the front line are gradually withdrawing from the front line in batches.

Of course, in this case, someone has to stay and die.

As the commander-in-chief of the whole army, Gott didn't want to go, but Churchill didn't want to take a bath after hearing the news.

Gott must leave. It's not worth dying in France. If he is caught by the Germans, it will hurt the face of the empire even more.

So in order to save face, Gott still wants to go. Although the journey was a bit thrilling, he returned to London.

3 1 day is not a big problem compared with the previous days.

Statistics are as follows: Allied forces evacuated 680 14 people. It is expected that all British troops will be evacuated after June 1.

How many people did the French withdraw? There were 10842 people that day, which was less than before. It is conservatively estimated that the current total is less than 30,000.

(France: I'm so touched. Call me if you fight, and don't fart if you run away. )

Hand in hand, shoulder to shoulder

The British are not completely exquisite egoists, but some people use their brains. If we completely ignore the interests of the French, it is not to push France completely to the opposite side.

So Churchill himself flew to Paris on 3 1 and told the French generals in his broken French at the highest military conference.

"No, * * * Enjoy, arm in arm, shoulder to shoulder (French)."

And take the initiative to let the rest of the British guard force, reducing the casualties of the French army.

At first, the British generals disagreed, which would mean more British casualties.

But later, they also predicted that it would be even worse if the French army surrendered.

On June 1 day, the rescue of the French army became the new focus of the rescue operation, but the sky was clear in Wan Li.

Once again, the German plane landed on the beach. This time, the British Air Force finally met the German Air Force. After a short battle, the scene of the British Air Force was dominant, but the German cruise time was longer than that of the British Air Force, and the Spitfire fighters flying over the strait did not have enough oil and had to return. Therefore, in most cases, Dunkirk has been in the shadow of German warplanes.

/kloc-one day in June, 2000, the rescue ship suffered heavy losses, and the shadow of war was deeply engraved in the hearts of the military and civilians. Many people say they never want to go back to Dunkirk.

But a day later, when the German plane evacuated, the rescue had to continue.

Rescuers continued to sail between the straits in fear.

So when the enemy kept bombing and the soldiers were on the verge of collapse, they actually arrived and 64429 people were saved.

Among them, there are 350 13 French troops and 294 16 British troops.

last hurrah

After June 1, the evacuation has come to an end. As long as we work hard, this rescue activity will be completely over.

They extended the plan to the evening of June 2 and June 3, and planned to evacuate at least 78,000 people within 24 hours.

But also depends on whether the surrounding defense lines can resist the German attack.

After the rescue operation began on the evening of June 2, at ten o'clock, the British Expeditionary Force basically withdrew.

The next step will be the difficulty of evacuation. How to organize Chinese people to board the ship when the language is unreasonable?

It turned out to be very difficult. The French seem to have thousands of ways to slow down boarding.

They want to take all their equipment, personal belongings and even their dogs.

Many people wear tire tubes around their necks-trying to use them as lifebuoys-but this cumbersome additive has further slowed down progress.

Instead of spreading out and making good use of the whole breakwater, they all tried to squeeze into the first ship they met.

They insisted on maintaining the integrity of the troops, as if they never thought that Britain could rally. They forget that the most important thing at this moment is to leave before dawn.

So the British can only put the French into the transport ship and drive away.

On the last night of June 3, French warships also joined the rescue operation.

At this point, there are only a few fortresses left in the defense around Dunkirk.

So taking advantage of the night, the French army quickly retreated, racing against time.

At this time, a large number of French rescue boats and the remaining British warships have been on standby in Dunkirk.

This night was the last fight, and the rescue work was smoother than the previous night. Before dawn, the rescue fleet set out on time, leaving an empty beach and 30,000 to 40,000 desperate French soldiers.

14 in the early morning of June. When the Germans occupied Dunkirk, the British had already left. In order to take some pictures of British prisoners of war, they just found twenty or thirty British soldiers from French prisoners of war.

Although the retreat was extremely embarrassing and produced various contradictions, it actually saved the strength of counterattack and successfully rescued the 224686 British army and 123095 French army.

Then, on the evening of June 4th, when Churchill made a report on the Dunkirk retreat in the House of Commons of the British Parliament, he shocked the whole Parliament with his passionate conclusion.

"We will fight at the beach, we will fight at the landing site, and we will fight in the fields and streets."