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From 26 May 1940–4 June 1940, allies evacuated 330,000 of 400,000 from Dunkirk. Whatever it is not a bad result from the current point view. But in evacuation, allies had to abandon huge heavy weapons and equipment. These troops couldn't fight again in short time because of without these weapons. At last French government surrendered on 14 June 1940 after 10 days Dunkirk evacuation.
My question is whether there is a better option. What if allies would insist on fighting at Dunkirk for three months?
Could they insist for 3 month around Dunkirk like the battle of Anzio?
If they insist for 3 months in Dunkirk, could France stand longer?
Is there other better choices than evacuation of Dunkirk?
Thanks
Donkeyking
The BoB would happen over Dunkirk rather then over England. The RAF won't have the advantage of ground based radar and Me-109s won't arrive in the battle area low on fuel.
Who pray tell were the "allies" in 1940? France was resolved to surrender Russia had a non aggression pact and the United States was resolved to find out which way the wind was blowing. Who exactly were the "allies" who would keep a conflict going for 3 months?
At the time of Dunkerque the "Allies" were Britain and its commonwealth France was suing for surrender before the Nazis crossed the border.
Care to explain then, how on Earth did 92,000+ French soldiers get killed between May 10 and June 24 of that year?
traffic accidents?
Just kidding. The French troops were let down and sacrificed by their leaders to no purpose. Poor weapons, poor tactical concepts, poor leadership, poor command decisions. 10 years or more of bad high command came home with a vengeance in less than 7 weeks. And it came on the poor soldiers who lost their lives trying to delay the Germans to give their officers time to come up with a plan. There were exceptions but on average the high command seemed incapable of planning lunch let alone dealing with a fast paced battle or campaign.
If the Allies attempt to hold Dunkirk that's where German air attacks will take place. Not over England. The Luftwaffe would establish forward airfields just out of artillery range from the Dunkirk perimeter.if allies were still in Dunkirk, Luftwaffe couldn't move their air base to the north of France as BOB
The British, plain and simple chose to cut their losses and extricate their troops. Churchill did order a return to remove some French troops which were repatriated and within a couple of week became POWs anyway
French 7th Army was well equipped with armor and motorized infantry. If they couldn't contain a German secondary attack while operating on excellent defensive terrain then the situation was hopeless. How could the BEF expect to make a stand at Dunkirk or anywhere else?
The British Government should have given this some thought before signing a military alliance with France.
Gort is credited by some as reacting efficiently to the crisis and saving the British Expeditionary Force. Others hold a more critical view of Gort's leadership in 1940, seeing his decision not to join the French in organising a large scale counter-attack as defeatist. Yet Gort had seen and worked under the miserable French leadership. Personally I think that under the circumstances he was correct in saving his own troops
Why was the BEF in Belgium on May 10th, 1940 if that battle was already lost?
They should have relocated to someplace they could do some good.
The Dutch fought a hard but hopeless battle. The Netherlands is excellent defensive terrain.
Move the BEF to Holland and the Dutch have a chance to prevail. Operation Market-Garden in reverse. In this case you need to hold the Port of Rotterdam.
The first, allied navy can support their army. The British and France has a lot of battleships and cruisers, and they have a lot of huge guns which are much bigger and more effiective than WW I type "siege" artillery. The other important thing is these navy guns dosn't have logistic problem like guns on land.
The third, every effort would be paid if they had stood for three months in Dunkirk.[/quote]The second, German tanks were light in 1940 and not good to break through heavy defencing areas. And then BEF were very good at defencing.
French wouldn't feel they were abandoned by British, they would continue to fight.
German tactical airpower ruled the day, and by the end of that day it savagely mauled major elements of the Allied forces. This was a doctrinal failure on both the part of the French and British.
Personally speaking, the biggest mistake French military planners made just before the outbreak of war, was to assume they had allies, and forget the UK altogether.