31 May 1940

The Composite Squadron formed by the Bays and 10^th Hussars, was placed under the command of Major D.V. Asquith of the Queen’s Bays, and proceeded at 1600 on 31 May to Saint-Léger-sur-Bresle, to join the 9^th Lancers.[i] The Composite Regiment, then, consisted of the 9^th Lancers Regimental Headquarters, their “A” and “C” Squadrons, and the Composite Squadron, designated as “B” Squadron[ii].

The crews of the 9th Lancer took the opportunity “of shooting in” the tanks’ Besa machine-guns (7.9mm and 15mm) which, being new, were very rough and liable to stoppages. Patrols were also sent out to determine defensive positions in case of a German attack[iii].

The remainder of the 2^nd Armoured Brigade, the tank casualties of which were: from action 35 tanks (28 light tanks and 7 cruisers), and due to mechanical faults 35 (27 cruiser tanks and 8 light tanks)[iv], were to be moved by road and rail to Louviers for refit and repair by the 1^st Armoured Division Workshops, and assembled at the Vieux Rouen railhead for transport[v]. The tanks of the 3^rd Armoured Brigade, which needed repair (15 cruisers and 10 light tanks)[vi], were to be entrained at Blangy. The expected trains did not arrive[vii]. The railheads were covered by an anti-aircraft “umbrella” provided by the 44^th Light Anti-Aircraft Battery of the 101^st Light Anti-Aircraft and Anti-Tank Regiment, which according to General Evans, “brought down eight German aircraft”[viii].

Early in the morning, Lord Gort visited Amiral Abrial, the French Commander of the Port of Dunkirk under whom all forces came once they entered the town, at his headquarters in Bastion 32, to co-ordinate plans and to alert Abrial to the fact I Corps would be remaining to fight beside the French.[ix] Gort also informed the him that he was to depart shortly, inviting both Générals Falgade and De Laurencie to accompany him, both declined, but some of the latter’s staff would accompany the staff of the British HQ.[x]As his successor, on his departure, Gort appointed Major-General H.R.L.G. Alexander, Lieutenant-General B.L. Montgomery, in his memoir, states that Lord Gort initially appointed Lieutenant-General M.G.H. Barker, who was subsequently looked over and returned to England, due to fatigue.[xi]

Major-General Alexander took over Command of I Corps, which was to assume the total responsibility for the final defense of the Dunkirk perimeter from 1800 hours, he was to act under the orders of Amiral Abrial ‘unless such orders directly threatened the safety of the British forces’[xii]. On taking over command, Alexander traveled to Dunkirk to meet with Abrial, at which the plans for the defense of Dunkirk were discussed: Abrial intending to hold the perimeter until all troops had embarked for England.

A French Corps on the right was to hold the sector from Gravelines to Bergues …and a mixed French and British Corps under command of Major-General Alexander was to hold the line from Bergues to Les Moeres, and thence to the sea.[xiii]

This line Amiral Abrial referred to as the ‘Uxem-Ghyvelde-Basse-Plaine’, through which the British retirement was to occur. General Alexander was concerned with the efficacy of this, that it did not acknowledge the true situation of the naval and military situation[xiv], his decision was ‘based on his knowledge that few British troops were left to hold it and on the ignorance of the number of French troops still available for the defence’[xv], and that in his opinion the defence, and therefore the evacuation, could not be maintained after the night of 1^st/2^nd June. He was also of the opinion that the line to be held would be too close to the beach and would thus allow the prevention of further evacuation by short range artillery fire.

Major-General Alexander shared this with the Secretary of State for War, Anthony Eden, who replied:

You should withdraw your forces as rapidly as possible on a 50-50 basis with the French Army, aiming at completion by night of 1^st/2^nd June. You should inform French of this definite instruction.[xvi]

Alexander showed the message to Amiral Abrial, who agreed the ‘existing British front should be held until midnight of the 1^st and that the troops should then be withdrawn to the beaches under cover of darkness’[xvii].

There was fighting along the southern front, particularly near Bruges, the German attack concentrated on the Belgian half of the bridgehead, due to be evacuated during the night, and which was to be held until the time to leave, by both French forces and the British I Corps. In the sectors held by the 50^th, 3^rd and 4^th Divisions, the attacks were heavy, with ground lost and recovered by counter-attack, the Germans made only small local gains by days end.[xviii] The situation at La Panne, involving the 4^th Division in the eastern sector, had become serious. There were more men present to be evacuated, than could be accommodated on the vessels available; with the German artillery fire on both the beach and the ships at seas steadily increasing, it was decided that about 6,000 of the men would make, what would become, a ‘ten-mile tramp along the sands’ to Dunkirk. [xix]

The RAF provided fighter patrols over Dunkirk, Coastal Command and the Fleet Air Arm ‘patrolled the sea routes between Dover and the French Coast’[xx]. Despite this, the Luftwaffe made three major attacks on the shipping with further ‘sporadic attacks throughout the day’[xxi]. Passenger ships were not dispatched until after dark, due to these attacks, but was compensated for by the arrival of hundreds of small boats.[xxii] Rear-Admiral Wake-Walker, later recorded his reaction of the sight in the early morning, ‘I saw for the first time that strange procession of craft of all kinds that has become famous. Tugs towing dinghies, lifeboats and all manner of pulling boats, small motor yachts, moto launches, drifters, Dutch schoots, Thames barges, fishing boats [and] pleasure steamers,’[xxiii] which were used to ferry men to the ships, the larger craft taking men directly to Dover, assisting in the evacuation of 68, 014 men by midnight.[xxiv]

[i] WO 167/445, War Diary, Queen’s Bays, May-June 1940, The National Archives (UK); WO 167/447, War Diary 9^th Lancers May-June 1940, The National Archives (UK); Bright, Joan. E, 9^th Queen’s Royal Lancers 1936-1945: The Story of an Armoured Regiment in Battle, Gale & Polden Ltd, 1951. https://www.9th12thlancersmuseum.org/archive/journals/regimental-histories/regimental-histories-1936-1945-bright/37908 p. 13

[ii] WO 167/445, War Diary, Queen’s Bays, May-June 1940, The National Archives (UK); WO 167/447, War Diary 9^th Lancers May-June 1940, The National Archives (UK); Bright, Joan. E, 9^th Queen’s Royal Lancers 1936-1945: The Story of an Armoured Regiment in Battle, Gale & Polden Ltd, 1951. https://www.9th12thlancersmuseum.org/archive/journals/regimental-histories/regimental-histories-1936-1945-bright/37908 p. 13

[iii] WO 167/447, War Diary 9^th Lancers May-June 1940, The National Archives (UK)

[iv] WO 167/419, War Diary 2^nd Armoured Brigade Headquarters, The National Archives (UK)

[v] WO 167/334, War Diary HQ 1^st Armoured Division May 1940. The National Archives (UK)

[vi] WO 167/421, War Diary 3^rd Armoured Brigade, May- June 1940, The National Archives (UK)

[vii] Evans, Roger, Major General, Army Quarterly Volume 45, Number 2 (1943), p. 182; WO 199/3185, Roger Evans Report to C.I.G.S., The National Archives (UK)

[viii] Evans, Roger, Major General, Army Quarterly Volume 45, Number 2 (1943), p. 182

[ix] Ellis, L.F., The War in France & Flanders, 1939 – 1940, (H.M.S.O.), p. 233; Pallud, Jean Paul, Blitzkrieg in the West: Then and Now, After the Battle, 1991, p. 449; Jackson, Robert Dunkirk: The British Evacuation, 1940, Cassell, 1976, p. 134.

[x] Ellis, L.F., The War in France & Flanders, 1939 – 1940, (H.M.S.O.), p. 233; Pallud, Jean Paul, Blitzkrieg in the West: Then and Now, After the Battle, 1991, p. 449; Gort, General the Viscount, V.C., K.C.B., C.B.E., D.S.O., M.V.O., M.C., Second Despatch, London Gazette, No. 35305, pp. 5930.

[xi] Stewart, Geoffrey, Dunkirk and the Fall of France, Pen & Sword Military, 2008, p.113-14; Jackson, Robert Dunkirk: The British Evacuation, 1940, Cassell, 1976, p. 139; Montgomery of Alamein, Bernard Law Montgomery. The memoirs of Field-Marshal the Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, K.G Collins London 1958, p. 64.

[xii] Jackson, Robert Dunkirk: The British Evacuation, 1940, Cassell, 1976, p. 135.

[xiii] Gort, General the Viscount, V.C., K.C.B., C.B.E., D.S.O., M.V.O., M.C., Appendix to Second Despatch of C-in-C, B.E.F., London Gazette, No. 35305, p. 5934.

[xiv] Gort, General the Viscount, V.C., K.C.B., C.B.E., D.S.O., M.V.O., M.C., Appendix to Second Despatch of C-in-C, B.E.F., London Gazette, No. 35305, p. 5934.

[xv] Ellis, L.F., The War in France & Flanders, 1939 – 1940, (H.M.S.O.), p. 240.

[xvi] Ellis, L.F., The War in France & Flanders, 1939 – 1940, (H.M.S.O.), p. 240.

[xvii] Ellis, L.F., The War in France & Flanders, 1939 – 1940, (H.M.S.O.), p. 240; Gort, General the Viscount, V.C., K.C.B., C.B.E., D.S.O., M.V.O., M.C., Appendix to Second Despatch of C-in-C, B.E.F., London Gazette, No. 35305, p. 5934; Jackson, Robert Dunkirk: The British Evacuation, 1940, Cassell, 1976, pp.136-7; Lord, Walter, The Miracle of Dunkirk, Penguin Books, 1984, pp.182-183.

[xviii] Ellis, L.F., The War in France & Flanders, 1939 – 1940, (H.M.S.O.), p. 235.

[xix] Ellis, L.F., The War in France & Flanders, 1939 – 1940, (H.M.S.O.), p. 237; Pallud, Jean Paul, Blitzkrieg in the West: Then and Now, After the Battle, 1991, p. 449; Jackson, Robert Dunkirk: The British Evacuation, 1940, Cassell, 1976, p. 139.

[xx] Ellis, L.F., The War in France & Flanders, 1939 – 1940, (H.M.S.O.), p. 235.

[xxi] Ellis, L.F., The War in France & Flanders, 1939 – 1940, (H.M.S.O.), p. 236.

[xxii] Ellis, L.F., The War in France & Flanders, 1939 – 1940, (H.M.S.O.), p. 236.

[xxiii] Quoted in Sebag-Montefiore, Hugh, Dunkirk: Fight to the Last Man, Penguin, 2015, p. 412

[xxiv] Kiger, Patrick, Mastermind of Dunkirk, MHQ, Volume 30, No.1, Autumn 2017, HistoryNet, p. 38; Ellis, L.F., The War in France & Flanders, 1939 – 1940, (H.M.S.O.), p. 237; Stewart, Geoffrey, Dunkirk and the Fall of France, Pen & Sword Military, 2008, p.114.

[iii] WO 167/447, War Diary 9^th Lancers May-June 1940, The National Archives (UK)

[iv] WO 167/419, War Diary 2^nd Armoured Brigade Headquarters, The National Archives (UK)

[v] WO 167/334, War Diary HQ 1^st Armoured Division May 1940. The National Archives (UK)

[vi] WO 167/421, War Diary 3^rd Armoured Brigade, May- June 1940, The National Archives (UK)

[vii] Evans, Roger, Major General, Army Quarterly Volume 45, Number 2 (1943), p. 182; WO 199/3185, Roger Evans Report to C.I.G.S., The National Archives (UK)

[viii] Evans, Roger, Major General, Army Quarterly Volume 45, Number 2 (1943), p. 182

[xii] Jackson, Robert Dunkirk: The British Evacuation, 1940, Cassell, 1976, p. 135.

[xiii] Ellis, L.F., The War in France & Flanders, 1939 – 1940, (H.M.S.O.), p. 235.

[xiv] Ellis, L.F., The War in France & Flanders, 1939 – 1940, (H.M.S.O.), p. 237; Pallud, Jean Paul, Blitzkrieg in the West: Then and Now, After the Battle, 1991, p. 449; Jackson, Robert Dunkirk: The British Evacuation, 1940, Cassell, 1976, p. 139.

[xv] Ellis, L.F., The War in France & Flanders, 1939 – 1940, (H.M.S.O.), p. 235.

[xvi] Ellis, L.F., The War in France & Flanders, 1939 – 1940, (H.M.S.O.), p. 236.

[xvii] Ellis, L.F., The War in France & Flanders, 1939 – 1940, (H.M.S.O.), p. 236.

[xviii] Quoted in Sebag-Montefiore, Hugh, Dunkirk: Fight to the Last Man, Penguin, 2015, p. 412

[xix] Kiger, Patrick, Mastermind of Dunkirk, MHQ, Volume 30, No.1, Autumn 2017, HistoryNet, p. 38; Ellis, L.F., The War in France & Flanders, 1939 – 1940, (H.M.S.O.), p. 237; Stewart, Geoffrey, Dunkirk and the Fall of France, Pen & Sword Military, 2008, p.114.

Share this: