CHAPTER 1: DOWN BUT NOT OUT: THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK

The soldiers cowered at the bottom of their holes that were dug deep into the sand of the dunes along the Dunkirk beach. The air was rent with the sound of explosions, anti-aircraft salvos, and machine gun fire. Most disconcerting though was the ear-curdling shriek of the German JU-87 Stuka dive bombers that relentlessly tormented the Allied troops trapped in the bridgehead. To the soldiers pinned on the beach it appeared that every enemy aircraft was fixating on their position and every bomb was targeting them individually. As one survivor depicted, “You can see them [bombs] fall out of the bellies of the brutes [enemy bombers], hundreds of them and they all seemed to be coming straight at you, at first terribly slowly, then faster and faster till at last there’s a blackish blockage flash and a scream.”

Everywhere along the beach bombs impacted, sending geysers of sand into the air. The French town of Dunkirk itself was a complete ruin. Bright long flues of flames danced from the skeletons of burning buildings. Roads were impassable as broken bricks, timbers, paving stones, and burnt out vehicle carcasses, all shattered and dislodged by shelling and bombing, blocked passage. The dock was equally decimated. The large oil tanks were ablaze spewing a thick greasy black smoke into the air. Trapped by the low cloud ceiling, the smoke cast a pall over Dunkirk giving the appearance that the apocalypse had arrived. In the harbour the wrecks of sunken vessels, the water surrounding them encased in a thick, sludgy, black oil, made navigation treacherous. Dunkirk was in its death throes.

The Allies were in a perilous situation. In a matter of less than three weeks they had been thrown from the frontiers of Belgium, Holland, and France to the coast. They were now fighting to save as much of their armies as possible. Clearly, they had come to fight the last war. The Germans had decided to fight an entirely different conflict.

The Germans had not squandered the period following the First World War. Stung by their defeat and the humiliating terms of capitulation, they had embarked on a path of military modernization despite the limitations of the Versailles Peace Treaty. The Germans revealed their new doctrine in September 1939, when they sliced through Poland in a mere six weeks. To those who paid attention, it became apparent that the Germans had embraced combined arms warfare, aptly titled “Blitzkrieg.” This new approach to warfare leveraged the marriage of tanks, armoured vehicles, and close support aircraft, which in turn created an offensive capability empowered by speed, mobility, and destructive power. When synchronized, this new approach took advantage of the mobility and firepower of armoured forces, the infantry, artillery, and air power. The sheer speed and devastating destructive capability of this approach to warfare simply overwhelmed Polish resistance.

Despite this exposition and, moreover, the “Phoney War” period from October 1939 to April 1940, which gave the Allies time to reflect and prepare, nothing was done. Quite simply, the Allies failed to anticipate the tidal wave of destruction that was about to consume them. They seemed unwilling, or unable, to adapt to the new form of manoeuvre warfare that the Germans displayed.

Rather, the Allies seemed content to rely on their long-standing defences and plans. The French were firmly anchored in their Maginot Line, a string of fortifications that boasted state-of-the-art technology and weaponry. The Belgians were equally confident positioned behind the Albert Canal, which in itself provided a formidable defensive barrier and it was reinforced with strongpoints and the world-renowned impregnable fortress of Eben Emael. Furthermore, similar to the First World War battle plan, the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and French reserves were deployed in depth to launch a counterattack the moment the Germans commenced their anticipated flanking attack through Holland and Belgium. Significantly, the Allied commanders also realized that they held a numerical advantage in personnel and material, particularly tanks and aircraft. Therefore, their confidence seemed justifiable.

However, they forfeited an opportunity to strike at Germany. To accomplish the invasion of Poland, the Reich’s Führer, Adolf Hitler, deployed sixty-two divisions, representing his best forces, as well as 1,300 aircraft. In doing so, he had exposed his western frontier. It was practically undefended. The border was secured by second-rate frontier troops. Hitler gambled, correctly, that the Allies, specifically Britain and France who had guaranteed Poland’s sovereignty, would fail to attack. Then, once Poland was defeated, Hitler halted his war machine and reoriented his forces.

Nonetheless, the combatants were now mired in a seeming stalemate on the Western Front as Germany faced down Britain and France along the French border. The “Phoney War” dragged on through the winter months. Then in April of 1940, German forces seized Norway. There was little doubt that France and the Low Countries would be next.