Is Dunkirk a famous historical city? Which country does it come from? What's the story?
The famous story is that the Dunkirk retreat was the largest military retreat in the history of Dunkirk, a port city near the Belgian border in northeastern France, after the defense line of the British and French allied forces collapsed under the rapid offensive of the German mechanized forces during World War II. In the end, Britain was able to use various ships to withdraw a large number of troops.
Although this large-scale evacuation operation successfully saved a lot of manpower, all the heavy equipment of the British expeditionary force stationed in France was abandoned on the European continent, which led to serious problems in British ground defense.
Historical background
1In the early morning of September 30, 939, the Germans launched a surprise attack on Poland, and World War II broke out. On September 3, Britain and France were forced to declare war on Germany. But in fact, the Anglo-French Coalition forces just hid in maginot line and did not provide effective military support to Poland. On September 27th, the Germans occupied Warsaw, and Poland completely fell. During this period, Britain and France only condemned Germany's diplomatic relations. This period was called "fake war" or "strange war" by Germans. On the morning of May 1940, 136, German divisions, guided by more than 3,000 tanks, bypassed maginot line and attacked Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Luxemburg and other countries with two army groups A and B. The main attack direction of the Germans was the left-wing Army Group A, which commanded powerful armored forces to attack the northern end of maginot line. It was rugged and densely forested. This greatly surprised the British and French allied forces who marched into Belgium and faced the German right-wing B army group. In just over ten days, the German armored forces crossed the French mainland and headed for the English Channel. The allies in the north have actually been surrounded in Flanders in northern France. On May 27th, the Belgian army surrendered, and 400,000 British and French troops began to retreat to Dunkirk. The English Channel in the west became the only hope for the Allies to survive.
Multi-party argument
The argument of "stop moving forward"
When German troops were advancing towards Dunkirk from the west, south and east, the nearest German tank was only 65,438+00 miles away from this port. However, on May 24th, the German army received a stop order from Hitler. This order was later controversial and was considered by many military historians to be Hitler's stupid order to interfere with military command at will. In fact, Hitler's orders are his consideration, and he can't be completely blamed. First of all, after the war in northern France is clear, the Germans need to preserve the strength of armored forces for the next combat operations. The German General Command originally planned to complete the final siege battle by the B Army Group. Secondly, the piecemeal counter-attack by the Allied forces had little effect, which aggravated the concern of some senior German commanders about the loss of armored forces, because the rapidly advancing armored forces had left the infantry far behind. After visiting the headquarters of Army Group A, Hitler thought it necessary to stop the armored forces from advancing and prevent the enemy from breaking through. At the same time, German Air Force Commander Goering promised that the Air Force could undertake the task of destroying the allied forces in the encirclement. Another reason may also be considered as the reason ordered by Hitler, fearing that the armored forces were trapped in the criss-crossing areas outside Dunkirk, caught in positional warfare, and could not quickly intercept the retreat of the British and French troops. In addition, some people think that Hitler has a political plan to withdraw some British troops from Britain, which will help to make peace with Britain politically. Some people, including the commanders of the front-line armored forces, expressed their opposition and thought that they should move on.
As a result of the execution of this order, the British and French allied forces retreated to Dunkirk under the oppression of German Army Group B, while Army Group A, which cut off its retreat, was closer to Dunkirk, but stopped attacking in the canal area west of Dunkirk and did not gather troops to flank along the coast, which gave the British and French allied forces an opportunity. Now the coalition forces are fighting for survival, strengthening Dunkirk's defensive positions close to the ground. Although the German armored forces resumed their attack on May 27th to prevent the British and French allied forces from retreating from Dunkirk, they could not break through because of the enemy's organized defense. The Anglo-French Coalition forces successfully delayed the German attack and bought more time for the troops to leave Dunkirk.
Activity flow
On May 20, the German armored forces cut off the connection between the British and French allied forces and the French army in the south wing, and about 40 divisions of the three group armies of the British and French allied forces were surrounded in the Flemish region on the border between France and Belgium. Then the Germans reached the coast of the English Channel, and the Allies were compressed in the 50-kilometer-wide coastal area around Dunkirk. As early as May 20th, Lord Gott, commander of the British Expeditionary Force, began to put forward the possibility of retreat. Britain began to prepare to retreat from the sea, and the navy made an evacuation plan, hoping to evacuate 1 10,000 people every day. On May 26th, the British Navy ordered the evacuation operation codenamed "Generator". The German air force bombed Dunkirk violently, destroyed the port and prevented the allied forces from retreating. Due to the deep water, the British navy warships could not get close to the beach and retreated slowly. On May 27th, only more than 7,000 people were evacuated. The British government appealed to civilians to provide any available ships, mobilized all the warships and civilian ships that could be deployed, and countless amateur sailors and private ship owners were also called in. They have sailed barges, freighters, motorboats, fishing boats, even colorful yachts and even inland river vessels. They braved the blows of German planes, submarines and artillery, shuttled between the straits and sent batches of allied officers and soldiers back to Britain. The British army used all the forces on the ground, at sea and in the air to support the retreat. On May 28th, the bad weather in Dunkirk prevented the German air raid, and nearly 17000 people were evacuated. After the retreat began, the Germans stepped up their ground attacks and attacked the British and French transport fleets from the air and sea. The British army tried its best to stick to its eastern and western lines in order to maintain the channel for retreating to the coast of the strait, and stepped up the boarding work of its troops. Various ships are used as ferries, trucks are sunk into the sea as boarding trestles, and beaches extend into the sea. The bomb dropped by the Germans exploded on the beach by the sea. On May 29th, 47,000 people were evacuated. On May 30th, the fog reduced the visibility, stopped the German air raid again, and the allied forces withdrew more than 50,000 people. On May 3 1 day, the number of evacuees reached 68,000. Dunkirk's encirclement gradually narrowed, but the Germans could not stop the allied forces from retreating from the sea. In order to cover the ground retreat, the British Air Force dispatched 2739 fighter planes for air cover, with an average of 300 sorties per day, effectively resisting the German air strikes. Despite heavy losses under the attack of the German Air Force, more than 60,000 people were evacuated on June 1 day. The retreat began on the night of June 2, as German air strikes and artillery fire approached Dunkirk Beach. For the next three days, under the cover of darkness, the allied forces evacuated 26,000 people to Britain every day. On June 4th, the Germans conquered Dunkirk, and 40,000 French troops who were too late to leave as defenders were captured.
The retreat lasted for 9 days from May 26th to June 4th. In this retreat, the number of people evacuated from Dunkirk to Britain was 338,226, including about 210.5 million British troops, 90,000 French troops and 33,000 Belgian troops. Britain, France, Belgium and the Netherlands also used 86 1 ships of various types, including fishing boats, passenger ships, yachts and lifeboats. In just 10 day, this unprecedented "Dunkirk Fleet" rescued 340,000 troops from the death trap, saved a lot of effective forces for the future counter-offensive of the Allies, and created a miracle in the history of World War II.
Loss statistics
All the heavy equipment of the British and French soldiers captured by the Germans was abandoned during the retreat. After the British army retreated, only rifles and hundreds of machine guns were left in the British-French Coalition forces. On the beaches of Dunkirk, the British and French allied forces abandoned 1200 cannons, 750 anti-aircraft guns, 500 anti-tank guns, 63,000 cars, 75,000 motorcycles, 700 tanks and 26,500 artillery pieces. The British and French allied forces captured more than 40,000 people and killed or injured more than 28,000 people. During the retreat, * * * dispatched 86 1 ships of various types, 226 British ships and 7 French ships1ships were sunk by German artillery fire. The British Air Force dispatched 2739 sorties in the cover retreat, losing 106 aircraft, and about 140 German aircraft were shot down by British fighter planes and ground anti-aircraft guns. A luxury cruise ship named Lancaster was requisitioned as a retreat military transport ship, which was bombed and sunk by the German army, killing at least 3,500 British soldiers. The shipwreck caused more deaths than the Titanic. The British government has been blocking information afterwards, and it has only been decrypted in recent years.
After Dunkirk's retreat, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill gave a speech in the House of Commons:
We must be very careful not to portray this retreat as a victory. Retreat cannot win the war. ..... The Germans tried desperately to sink thousands of ships full of soldiers at sea, but they were repelled, they were defeated, and we quit the expeditionary force! ……
He explained that Britain will be determined to continue fighting:
Even though the vast land of Europe and many ancient and famous countries have fallen or may fall into the hands of the secret police and the evil organs of Nazi rule, we are unwavering and indomitable. We will fight to the end. We will fight in France, we will fight at sea and in the ocean, we will fight in the air, and our confidence and strength will increase day by day; We will defend our island at any cost. We will fight on the beach; We will fight at the enemy's landing site; We will fight in fields and streets; We will fight in the mountains; We will never surrender. Even if the island or most of it is conquered and starved to death, I never believe for a minute that our imperial subjects overseas will continue to fight under the armed protection of the British fleet until the new world uses all its strength and ability to save and liberate the old world when God thinks fit. ....