On March 12, 1938, Germany annexed Austria by force, Austria is located in the heart of Europe, and the main ethnic group in the country is as German as Germany, the head of the German Third Reich Hitler was born in a border town in Brunau, Austria under his high-pressure, Austria held a referendum, and finally 99% of the voters approved of the German-Austrian merger, so Germany's strength increased greatly;
Anglo-French "Appeasement Policy"
On September 30, 1938, the heads of state of Britain, France, Germany and Italy met in Munich, in the absence of Czechoslovakia, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and French Prime Minister Faraday signed the "infamous" "Munich Agreement" with Germany, agreeing to merge the entire Sudetenland into the German territory in exchange for peace, at the same time, Britain and Germany also signed the "Anglo-German Declaration", declaring that the two countries "will never fight each other", British Prime Minister Chamberlain is very satisfied with the signing of this declaration. After returning to London, he triumphantly waved the declaration signed with Hitler's name in his hand to the British people who came to pick him up, declaring: "From now on the peace of the whole generation has been guaranteed" "Now I invite you to go back to sleep, to sleep in peace in your bed!" ”
British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, who returned to London after signing the Munich Agreement
On the one hand, the implementation of the "appeasement policy" between Britain and France was due to the fact that just 20 years after the end of the First World War, the participating countries suffered heavy losses, the anti-war sentiment in the country was high, and they had just recovered from the world economic crisis and were unwilling to break out again. On the other hand, with the rise of the Soviet Union, affected by different ideologies, Britain and France were more worried about the threat posed by the Soviet "Red Revolution" to Europe, so they used Austria, Czechoslovakia and other small countries as chips to trade with Germany in an attempt to "bring disaster to the east", but the signing of the "Munich Agreement" not only greatly enhanced the momentum of German fascism (soon after the signing of the agreement, the German army occupied All Of Czechoslovakia), but also made Stalin no longer seek relations with Britain and France, which contributed to a year later. Signing of the Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact;
Swing the sickle plan
After the German occupation of Poland in 1939, the High Command drew up a battle plan for attacking France and replaced it with the "Yellow Plan", but in January 1940, an officer of the German General Staff was forced to land in Belgium due to a plane trek, and the plan fell into the hands of Britain and France. The rugged and forested Ardennes was the main direction of assault, and although the plan was opposed by a group of senior German generals, it was strongly supported by Hitler and named "The Scythe Project";
Manstein, one of the three famous German generals in World War II
Although Britain and France declared war on Germany two days after the German army attacked Poland, but it was declared war, because they believed that Germany would definitely attack the Soviet Union after occupying Poland, so the Anglo-French coalition army was only stationed in the border area of eastern France, and did not take the initiative to attack, according to the War Scenario between Britain and France, the British Expeditionary Force of more than 390,000 people and some French troops were stationed on the Franco-Belgian border, once the German army attacked westward, they forcibly marched into Belgium to block the German army, seeking a decisive battle with the German army in Belgium, as for the defense of the German-French border All of them are pinned on the "Maginot Line", while the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and other countries believe that as long as they strictly observe neutrality, they can avoid getting involved in the war;
Maginot Line
Maginot Line is a fortress defense line built by France in the border area of the two sides in order to defend against German invasion after the First World War, construction began in 1928, named after Maginot, who was then the French Minister of War, and was basically completed by 1936, with a total length of about 390 kilometers from north to south, a total of 5800 permanent fortifications for various purposes were constructed, and the ground building was mainly machine gun fortifications and artillery fortifications. Constructed of reinforced concrete or 300 mm of armor with a thickness of 3.5 meters, it is very strong, and minefields, anti-tank piles, anti-tank trenches, and wooden pile barbed wire, electric barbed wire mesh are set up outside the fortifications, and multi-storey underground fortifications have been built in some important areas, equipped with command posts, ammunition depots, hospitals, power stations, etc., and the tunnels are accessible in all directions, and even tram passages have been built in some larger fortifications;
However, due to the opposition of the Belgian government and the topography of the Ardennes region, the Terrain of the Ardennes was not suitable for armored forces to fight, so the French did not build a defensive line on the Franco-Belgian border, which was eventually used by the German army and became a key breakthrough in the "Swinging Sickle Plan".
Blitz Western Europe
In April 1940, the German army occupied Denmark and Norway, on May 10, the German army gathered 136 divisions (including 10 armored divisions and 6 motorized infantry divisions), more than 3,000 tanks and more than 4,500 aircraft were divided into two army groups A and B and began to attack the countries of Western Europe, the Luftwaffe first raided the airfields and important military positions of the Netherlands, Belgium, Lu and France, in the face of the powerful Offensive of the German army, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg and other small countries were completely powerless. A few hours after the start of the war Luxembourg announced its surrender, five days later the Netherlands announced its surrender, after receiving a request from the Belgian government for assistance, the Anglo-French coalition immediately set out to build fortifications in Belgium, but the attack of the German Army Group B was only a feint, the purpose was to induce the British and French allies to move, the real main force of the attack was Army Group A, after successfully crossing the Ardennes, on May 13 Guderian commanded the 19th Panzer Army to cross the Meuse River, and under the fierce bombardment of the Luftwaffe, the French defense line quickly collapsed In just one day, the Germans captured Sedan, and then, without waiting for the follow-up infantry units to follow, Guderian led the 1st and 10th Panzer Divisions straight to northern France;
Guderian, one of the three famous German generals in World War II (founder of "Blitzkrieg")
When they learned of the real strategic intentions of the German army, the Anglo-French coalition was shocked, so they abandoned the blockade plan and retreated all the way to the Flanders, but at this time, the German armored forces had already entered no man's land, galloping on the vast plains of northern France, and on May 22, Guderian led his troops to the shores of the English Channel, thus cutting off the retreat of the Anglo-French forces, and only ten days after the start of the war, the two German army groups surrounded more than 400,000 British and French troops in the Dunkirk area with a rapid and unexpected offensive;
The German attack on France's "Sickle Harvest Plan"
At the critical moment when the German army was approaching, under the strong persuasion of Air Marshal Goering, on May 24 Hitler issued an order to Guderian to stop the offensive, which was considered by many historical military scientists to be Hitler's first stupid decision during World War II. In fact, the command is not completely wrong. First of all, the low-lying terrain in dunkirk and the swamps all over the ground were not conducive to the advance of the armored troops, and secondly, because the elite German panzer corps led by Guderian advanced too fast, the logistical supply and infantry could not follow up, and the British army had severely damaged the German army in the counterattack on the 22nd, Marshal Lundstedt, the commander of Army Group A, believed that the continuation of the attack was likely to cause greater attrition to the armored forces and affect the next operations against southern France. He suggested to Hitler that the Panzers should stop advancing in the canal area west of Dunkirk to await more infantry, while Marshal Goering assured that the Air Force would be fully capable of eliminating the British and French forces. On all the lines, Hitler finally accepted this suggestion, ordering Guderian, who was closer to Dunkirk, to stop advancing and for Army Group B and the Air Force to eliminate the Allied forces in the encirclement;
German armored forces
Taking advantage of this rare respite, the Anglo-French forces quickly set up defensive positions on the outskirts of Dunkirk, and although Guderian's armored forces resumed their offensive on 27 May to prevent the Allied retreat, they were never able to break through the line. On the other hand, with the surrender of the Belgian army, the British and French allies lost a protective barrier, so the British army ordered Montgomery's 3rd Infantry Division to block the German army, under the command of General Montgomery, the British troops skillfully jumped out of the German encirclement, and built a strong defensive line, successfully delayed the German attack, won more time for the withdrawal of large troops, Montgomery also began to emerge in the British military circles with excellent military skills, and after returning home, he was promoted to the commander of the 2nd Army. He then became Britain's most famous general during World War II;
Dunkirk evacuation
As early as May 19, 1940, the British side saw that the defeat of the European continent was a foregone conclusion, in order to avoid the expeditionary force being surrounded by the Germans, a retreat plan code-named "Generator Plan" was formulated, under the command of Lieutenant General Ram, commander of the Port of Dover, planning to withdraw from the three ports of Calais, Buren and Dunkirk on the French coast to withdraw to the British mainland, on May 23, Calais was occupied by the Germans, four days later Buren was captured, and only one of the three ports originally intended to be used was Dunkirk;
Defensive line on the outskirts of Dunkirk
At eighteen o'clock in the afternoon of May 26, the British Admiralty ordered the implementation of the "Generator Plan", that night, the first batch of 1312 people, mainly logistics troops, were successfully withdrawn to Britain, because once the evacuation operation began, there was no longer any secret to speak of, coupled with the urgency of the situation, the British Admiralty began to requisition ships in the coastal areas and the Thames River, and through the radio appealed to all those who owned the ships to go to Dunkirk, the British people were very aware of what the withdrawal of the expeditionary force meant to Britain, so they actively responded to the call and barged the boats for a while According to statistics, 861 ships of various types have joined the rescue operation, including 693 British ships and 168 French, Dutch and Belgian allied ships, mainly from the six ports of Hirness, Magat, Dover, New Haven, Foxstone and Ramsgate in the south of the United Kingdom, crossing the English Channel and sailing to Dunkirk, the British Royal Navy also dispatched 1 cruiser. 8 destroyers and 26 other ships participated in the rescue;
A small boat on the Thames that was towed by a tugboat to participate in the rescue
On 27 May, the Luftwaffe 2nd air force and 3rd Air Force launched a fierce bombardment of the Dunkirk port area and the beach, dropping 15,000 high-explosive bombs and more than 30,000 incendiary bombs, and the port of Dunkirk was seriously damaged. The RAF sent 200 sorties of fighters for embarkation cover, dealing a heavy blow to the Germans, shooting down 23 Germans at the cost of 11 fighters. On the first day of the retreat, despite the best efforts of the British Navy and Air Force, the retreat was slow due to the lack of small ships to ferry, and only 7669 people returned home safely throughout the day;
On the morning of 28 May, due to the fog and poor visibility, the Luftwaffe was unable to continue the bombing, and the British seized this favorable opportunity to accelerate the evacuation, with a group of 50 people, each led by an officer and a sailor, from the beach to the sea, first boarding a small boat not far away, and then taking a small boat to a large boat farther from the coast. In the afternoon, the Germans began a disruptive airstrike raid on dunkirk beaches, but most of the shells fell into the sea or in the open, and even a few bombs that fell on the beach did not cause damage to the Anglo-French forces, because the soft sand absorbed most of the energy generated by the explosion. With the arrival of civilian boats, the evacuation operation progressed rapidly, with a total of 17,804 people successfully evacuated that day, more than 10,000 more than the first day;
Anglo-French officers and men in the process of evacuation
On the third day of the evacuation operation on May 29, the British began to take more measures to speed up the boarding speed, and even sank the trucks into the sea one by one to make a trestle to extend out, and in the afternoon, the weather turned clear, the Luftwaffe launched a large bombing campaign against large ferries, sinking 21 ships of various types, including 3 destroyers, and damaging 7 destroyers, forcing Ramsey to transfer back the 8 most advanced destroyers involved in the rescue to avoid greater losses for the Royal Navy. Influenced later operations against german invasions of the British mainland. As the German offensive became more and more fierce, the defense of the outskirts of Dunkirk became more and more difficult, and the area controlled by the British and French forces became smaller and smaller, but the evacuation speed was greatly improved that day due to the addition of more civilian ships, and a total of 47,310 people were evacuated throughout the day;
On 30 May, fog still enveloped the beaches, and the unusually calm of the English Channel, which had always been known for its strong winds and waves, allowed a large number of small boats and river boats to join the operation, and a total of 53,822 people were safely evacuated throughout the day, more than half of them French soldiers.
Rescue ships carrying expeditionary forces sailed back to England
On 31 May, commander of the British Expeditionary Force, Gott, was ordered to return home and hand over command of the troops to Alexander, the commander of the 1st Army, and on the same day the Luftwaffe once again made a major move, and the RAF also took off from the mainland for cover operations. At the same time, the German ground troops launched an unusually fierce attack on the British and French allied blocking positions, the two sides fought fiercely all day, the British and French officers and men who were responsible for the task of rearguard stubbornly resisted, tried to ensure that the position was not lost, and bought precious time for the large troops, british captain Owen Andrew also won a Victoria Cross medal for his heroic performance in the battle, which was the only British medal in this operation to recognize heroic acts. A total of 68,014 people were safely evacuated throughout the day, the largest number of evacuations in the entire Dunkirk evacuation operation;
June 1 was the day of the british army's heaviest losses, without foggy weather as cover, the Luftwaffe was all out, the Royal Air Force was also out of the nest, the two sides launched a fierce fight over Dunkirk, although the British army finally succeeded in withdrawing 64,429 people and shooting down 23 German fighters, but 31 rescue ships were sunk, including 4 destroyers full of officers and men;
German Stuka bombers
On 2 June, in the face of the great threat of the Luftwaffe, in order to avoid greater losses and save enough air power to cope with future operations, the British army was forced to stop the daytime retreat, the last group of 26,256 British Expeditionary Force troops safely boarded the ship that night to evacuate, and the next night, Alexander led a staff officer and a total of 26,175 French officers and men to withdraw to Britain;
On the morning of June 4, the German armored forces broke through the defensive line and rushed into the city of Dunkirk, and about 40,000 French troops on the task of rear guard were too late to withdraw and were all captured.
French Marines arriving in Britain
The Dunkirk evacuation lasted nine days (in fact, three nights on May 26, June 2, and June 3 and six full days from May 27 to June 1), with a total of more than 338,000 officers and men evacuated, including about 215,000 British troops, about 90,000 French troops, about 33,000 Belgian troops, in addition to more than 28,000 killed and more than 40,000 captured;
Due to the urgency of the situation, in order to speed up the evacuation, the Anglo-French coalition abandoned all heavy weapons, all officers and men carried only carry-on rifles and hundreds of machine guns on board, a total of 1200 cannons, 750 anti-aircraft guns, 500 anti-tank guns, 700 tanks, 63,000 cars, 75,000 motorcycles, 21,000 machine guns and 500,000 tons of military supplies were finally abandoned on the beach, and the Royal Air Force flew a total of 2,739 fighters to cover the retreat. 106 aircraft were lost. At the end of the operation, only 500 guns, 200 tanks, more than 700 fighters and more than 500 bombers were left in the entire British Isles;
Equipment abandoned on the beach
Although the British suffered heavy losses in the retreat, the preservation of a large number of officers and men with rich war experience was of great significance in strengthening Britain's belief in continuing the war, and most of these people became the backbone of the future counter-offensive, as British Prime Minister Churchill said when he reported to Parliament after the operation: "We have thwarted the German attempt to eliminate the expeditionary force, and this retreat will breed victory!" ”
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill
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