WWII: Evacuation at Dunquerque

The posting on Russell Bentley told of his interest in China, but that is only half of his story. He writes: "I am involved in a project which will take me to England, Scotland and France next month. This has to do with a little known group, Nicholson's 30th, made up of three regiments, which were asked by Churchill to stay in France and protect the south left flank of the Dunkirk beach. They were told they would not be evacuated and needed to "hold at all cost". They did hold with great loss for three days, which allowed the evacuation to be completed. According to T.R.Fehrenbach, a noted and respected historian, this stand at what he calls the Battle of Calais, was to the evacuation at Dunkirk what the Battle of the Alamo was to San Jacinto. He feels the success of the latter in each case depended on the success of the former. In particular, he notes not just the military significance of the evacuation; he feels the significance of Dunkirk is the political and geopolitical pressure the British government would have felt if the evacuation had not been successful and if Hitler had had 250,000 British prisoners of war as bargaining chips in negotiations with Churchill. I hope to do at least an article or maybe a book on this if everything sorts out as Fehrenbach thinks. There is some disagreement on this issue; Keegan states that "Calais" was important but not critical, and Richard Holmes feels that, while gallant in effort, it was not in the least important. If Fehrenbach is right, there is a great story to be told".

Ronald Hilton - 7/1/02