[Asheshouse]

Originally Posted by X

Had the British turned around and violently struck the thin Panzer corridor to the sea, the encirclement would have been broken.

I don't buy this argument, at least not yet.

The following is based on reading History of WWII, Liddell Hart; Blitzkrieg, Len Deighton and Atlas of WWII, Peter Young.

The main breakthrough was made on the junction of the French 9th and 2nd Armies. The German panzer units crossed the R. Meuse between 12th and 15th May. At this time the only armoured units in position to offer an immediate response were French. They had three armoured divisions in the area.

The 3rd Div was ordered to attack on 15th but in fact never hindered the German advance in any effective way.

The 1st Div faced Rommel's advance at Morville but on the 15th were tactically defeated in a combined air and armour assault which opened the way for Rommel's advance.

On the morning of the 15th Churchill was being advised by the French Prime Minister Reynaud that "We are beaten, we have lost the battle".

On the evening of the 15th the 2nd Div was over run and destroyed by the German advance as it was forming up to advance.

On 17th a hastily assembled armoured force under De Gaulle attacked at Montcornet, but was tactically defeated by air attack before it could come to grips with the German columns.

Meanwhile the British units, which included only one armoured division, and represented only 11% of the armoured forces of the allies, was still being drawn back from Belguim and was not in position to intervene.

On 17th Gamelin was replaced as Commander in Chief by Weygand, who was then in Syria. This was to result in total inertia in the allied command until Weygand had started to pick up the reins three days later. On 20th Weygand was still visiting and consulting and had yet to take any positive action.

The British supply route was through Cherbourg and le Havre so time was lost reconfiguring supply lines which were cut when the Germans captured Boulogne on the 20th. While this was going on the British fell back to Arras, establishing this as a new supply hub and prepared for a counterattack towards the south. This attack took place on 21st/22nd but there was no coordinated action by other allied forces coming north. The French 1st Army was supposed to have added 2 infantry divisions to the attack but this contribution was not in place in time to be effective. Coordinated action had been agreed with Gamelin but his removal had hindered this agreement.

The British attack failed due to lack of resources and inadequate intelligence information. From this point on the British no longer had an effective armoured force with which to attack and were forced into defence.

On 24th Weygand complained that "the British had fallen back 25 miles without agreement! whilst the French troops were moving up from the south and gaining ground". The picture painted by Weygand appears to be a myth. There is no evidence that French forces had made any effective advances from the south, and in the meantime the British forces were still holding defensive positions around Douai and Vallencienes.

The decision by Gort to fall back on Dunkirk was taken on 25th May and approved by the British war cabinet on 26th. The decision was taken on the basis that there was no prospect whatsoever of any French advance from the south within the foreseeable future. No preparations for an attack were in hand.

The British actually landed additional troops in an attempt to hold Calais, Boulougne having already fallen, but Calais was over run on 27th May. Royal Navy destroyers who brought the troops into Calais became embroiled in direct line of sight action with German ground forces who were moving in on the harbour at the time. The fresh troops were landed under fire.

The myth began to be developed by Weygand that the collapse was somehow due to Gorts decision to withdraw. There seems to be no facts to support this. No serious attempts were made after 17th May to attack from the south over the R Somme and even though the Germans had established a number of bridgeheads over the Somme even the bridgeheads were not seriously threatened, despite their vunerability.

What is likely is that if Gort had not fallen back on Dunkirk then the BEF would have been cut off and forced to surrender, as was large parts of the French 1st Army at Lille. The failure to evacuate the BEF and significant numbers of French troops would have probably resulted in the British goverment sueing for peace, and the history of the world as we know it would have been rewritten.