Even so, there is no doubt that had it not been for the unexpected resistance at Gravelines, and, to a lesser degree, the heroic combats of Boulogne and Calais, the order to halt would have found the German tanks at Dunkirk instead of still back at the Aa. It can even be supposed, without too great a stretch of imagination, that General Guderian would have been better advised to proceed with his Panzers directly toward Gravelines instead of delaying for the capture of Boulogne and Calais. Those two bypassed cities could have no effect on the main German drive, and thus Guderian would have been at Dunkirk itself before he received the order to halt.
The French Navy’s role in all this had been extraordinary in that it is not part of the naval profession to fight on land. Nevertheless it had done its utmost to hold back the land forces of the enemy. It had made possible the delays which immediately preceded Hitler’s amazing order to his tanks to halt—delays without which the British Expeditionary Force would most likely never have seen England again.
1 This barrier was to produce no results, as the German surface forces did not take any part in this phase of the offensive. On the contrary, with ships so close together, the danger of mistaken identities was considerable. To avoid regrettable errors, the commanding officer of each submarine received orders not to attack any other submarine! Thus it was that the German U-9, prowling in the area and knowing that it was the only German submarine there, was able to surprise and torpedo the French submarine Doris (Lt. Comdr. Jean Favreul) shortly after midnight on May 9. This was the first French submarine destroyed by enemy action.
2 This battalion, oddly enough, belonged to one of the two divisions the elements of which had made such a poor showing at Walcheren and Zuid Beveland. Later it was to distinguish itself by its last-ditch stand in defense of the beaches of Dunkirk—proving that all the division lacked was training under fire before the decisive battle.
3 Now an admiral and Chief of Naval Operations.
Few cities in the Republic of France have had as stormy a history as Dunkirk. In early days it had been the lair of corsairs, whose hunting grounds had been the rolling seas, and France, England, and Spain had each in turn sought to capture or destroy it, depending upon the circumstances of the moment. During the French Revolution, the War of 1870, and the First World War, Dunkirk had been a focus of conflict. The heroic conduct of its inhabitants had twice gained for it the accolade of the French Assembly that “Dunkirk deserves well of the Republic.”
This time the city was to undergo an even more severe trial.
Immediately after the failures in Belgium and Holland, the port and roadstead were filled with warships and merchantmen returned from that northern essay. The night of May 17 was filled with air raid warnings, followed by the explosions of bombs, machineguns, and magnetic mines. The return antiaircraft fire of the ships was incapable of stopping the enemy planes. Two piers were set on fire, another was blown apart. The inner harbor locks were temporarily disabled. The 11th Torpedo Boat Division, which was cruising offshore, had two of its three 600-ton torpedo boats seriously damaged.
The local naval commander no longer had any air protection at his disposal. The squadrons of the aircraft carrier Béarn, which had already lost part of their strength on the Oise River, had to evacuate the Dunkirk airstrips and fall back to Cherbourg, whence they were very quickly ordered to the Mediterranean. An Air Force fighter group, assigned to the Navy, was called to other duty, and left without notice. The British had sent their units back to Britain one after the other as the German advance reached their respective bases in France.
Nevertheless an attempt was made to evacuate everything not essential to the safety of the Army. In succession there were lost immediately off the jetties almost a dozen ships: the freighter Pavon, loaded with bales of wool, and with 1,500 Dutch soldiers on board—sunk on May 20; the destroyer Adroit, the fleet-tanker Niger, submarine chaser No. 9, and six minesweepers—sunk on May 21. On the 22nd it was the turn of the Jaguar, a super-destroyer, which, after having survived almost continuous air attacks, was struck during the night almost off the entrance to the port by a torpedo from a German motor torpedo boat.11 The officers and crews of sunken warships were immediately sent to coastal batteries in the neighborhood to bring their complements up to strength.
It is known today that this success on the part of the German motor torpedo boats based on the Dutch coast was due in part to their deciphering the message which the Jaguar sent to Dunkirk giving the time of her arrival.
Confusion and chaos reigned in the city and the suburbs. The roads were filled with refugees of all nationalities. The area was without water and light. The shops were practically empty of both customers and goods. Many of the inhabitants, fleeing the bombardment, joined the refugees who were milling about in the suburbs without anywhere finding an avenue of escape.
There was no naval base at Dunkirk. Like all other cities on the front, Dunkirk lay within the zone of the Armies. Nevertheless the port was of such importance that the Navy obtained, from the Army High Command, the post of governor for an energetic naval officer. This officer was Rear Admiral Platon, just returned from Walcheren, who in the trials to come gained the respect of everyone. He was everywhere, looking after all needs; he was unperturbed even under the most intense bombardment, often stopping to adjust his monocle as an example of coolness to others. To bolster the civilian morale, he started a newspaper, the Jean Bart. A few of the leading citizens who had not fled the city—the Assistant Prefect and the Archpriest of the church of Saint-Eloi, among them—aided him devotedly and untiringly. Had it not been for Platon’s success in restoring order in the martyred city, the ultimate evacuation of the Allied troops might have been far less successful.
The appointment of an energetic governor was not the only thing done to strengthen Dunkirk. On May 21, after his conference at Ypres, General Weygand paid a short visit to Dunkirk in company with the Commander in Chief of the Naval Forces of the North—Admiral Jean Abrial. The two men knew each other well, and they were well matched—Weygand, the old soldier and Generalissimo, and Abrial, a former Commander of the Mediterranean Squadron and an officer who had held many staff positions. Weygand, greatly concerned for the safety of the Armies, yet still confident that a counteroffensive would be successful, had no need to impress Abrial with the vital importance of the northern ports. In entrusting their defense to the Admiral, the Generalissimo said, in conclusion, “I know to whom I am talking.”
Abrial called attention to the unpreparedness of the Navy for such a task, as well as the inadequate means at his disposal.
“Means?” retorted Weygand. “I will give you all I can. But what is needed above all is a stout heart. I am counting on you to save everything that can be saved—and, above all, our honor!”
On May 23 the appointment became official. Hitherto, the Admiral, North, had only had the responsibility of protecting commercial shipping in his zone and defending the coast against attacks from the sea. Henceforth he had the duty of building an impregnable bulwark around Dunkirk against enemy attack by land as well as by sea in order that, first of all, the Allied armies could continue to live—and then, if all else failed, to insure their safety in embarking.
To assist him in carrying out his orders, Admiral Abrial was given an able Army officer, Lieutenant General Marie B. A. Fagalde, as aide, and the remnants of two Army divisions which had escaped from the trap of Flanders by retreating along the coast.
Ever since May 20 no supplies had been able to reach the surrounded troops except by sea. The Army High Command had asked the French Admiralty to arrange for the transport to Dunkirk of approximately 3,000 tons of munitions and provisions daily.