The Sound of Drums - A British Hearts of Iron AAR
Part Thirty-Five
11th - 14th June 1940
The supply crisis began on the 11th June - precisely as Daladier had predicted. For the common soldier it was a simple case of tightening their belts and making their rations last longer - not too hard a task given the food they had been suffering for the past six months. For the troops assigned to mechanised equipment however - from the simple motorised infantry vehicles to the valuable armoured divisions - the sudden lack of oil meant a quarter of the BEF simply came to a halt.
Of great concern was that the transport fleet assigned to the evacuation was also based in France, and it too found itself without oil. If none could be provided soon, they would have to wait for the advancing German armies to provide some!
Troops evacuating to ships that cannot move
The crisis had come about, like with most of the problems currently facing the BEF, due to the rapid advance of the German army into France. Britain had always supplied enough resources for all Allied forces in France, but had always sent them to the major supply depots in France. Now these depots - in particular the one outside Paris - had fallen to the enemy, and the entire Allied armed forces had to make do with what little they had.
The British forces had one small lifeline however, and it had been ‘provided’ by the most unlikely of places. When Italy entered the war, it had been decided to halt the sending of additional troops to Egypt while the Battle for the Mediterranean was still undecided. As such, six transport flotillas remained in Britain, fully prepared to steam out at a moments notice. That notice came from the Prime Minister. Fresh from his trip to France and remembering the urging of Daladier to evacuate before it was too late, he ordered every available ship in the are to provide cargo duty for providing supplies for the trapped troops in France, and transport duty to bring them home.
Field Marshal von Bock was not keen to see his prize disappear. He had failed to destroy the British at Dunkirk, and it was through their tenacity that the ‘Channel Corridor’ existed. While his peers were conquering Paris and advancing into central France, he was being continuously humiliated by a stubborn BEF that should be able to fight back, let alone be threatening the entire western flank of the German campaign into France. Hitler was unhappy, and the only way Bock could possibly save his career would be to capture or destroy the BEF before they managed to escape France. His panzers struck before the BEF had even heard that the order to evacuate had been given.
British troops evacuate Calais, 12th June
Thankfully for the British there was help in the form of the French and Belgian troops also forced into the ‘Channel Corridor.’ None of their forces had been given orders to join the fleeing British - Daladier had purposely ordered that the French troops ‘hold the line’ in order to give the BEF a chance to organise a retreat - and as such they formed the main line of defence against Bock’s attack. They were, as had been proven throughout the entire French campaign, no match for the blitzkrieg tactics of the enemy, but their stubbornness allowed two British divisions to escape Calais before the province was overrun. They also slowed down Bock long enough for the fuel problems to be rectified on the 13th.
Able to evacuate in earnest, the BEF quickly got all troops and equipment to the beaches of Dieppe and Le Havre for immediate embarkation. At Cherbourg the British planes, headquarters and ships got enough fuel to make it to their destination and promptly fled. Finally the vessels there could join with the already impressive fleet based in the Channel, making a total of 18 transport flotillas to link England to France. Very little was normally mentioned about the ‘experience’ of non-combat orientated troops, but these were the transports that shifted divisions across the Empire, that had brought the troops to France and had avoided German vessels to save Norway. If there was one nation that knew how to move soldiers across the waves in a hurry, it was Britain.
The evacuation from France
The BEF’s evacuation from France was a resounding success, with nearly every soldier, vehicle and piece of equipment shifted back to England. The return of the BEF meant that Britain was secure for the time being. As long as the Royal Navy continued to hold back the Kriegsmarine, and the Royal Air Force the German bombers, then there was very little chance of a German invasion of Britain. France however had been left to whatever fate Hitler had reserved for it. Given his outspoken indignation at the Treaty of Versailles, as well as the British Army’s survival, it could be almost guaranteed that his terms for the French surrender would not be kind…
