I love reading accounts of the French, Dutch and Belgian Armies fighting bravely - It rightly reminds me that it wasn't just the BEF fighting in France and Belgium. So just to remind people there is always another side to the coin: Towards the end of May Brigadier Norman's force had been ordered to hold a defensive line from Bergues to West Cappel. He had at his disposal the 1st Fife and Forfar Yeomanry and the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards. It was fairly obvious to Brig Norman that he could not hold a line some four miles long with such a small force but he did hope to hold the Germans up for a considerable amount of time. At 0200 hrs on the 29th May the 6th Battalion Green Howards were informed they were now part of the 48th Division. They were a labour battalion armed with little more than their .303 rifles. They were to join up with Brigadier Norman's force and help hold the line. The delaying plan took an incredible knock when the CO of the 6th Green Howards, Lieutenant Colonel Steel, went to see Brigadier Norman and told him the following: My battalion is a labour battalion of 20 year old boys. They were sent out to dig trenches, and are armed only with rifles. They have been put into an unsuccessful counter-attack near Gravelines in which they lost heavily. They have been down to the beaches, and told they were going home. They were then brought back, and put on the ground where they are now. They will stay just as long as they do not see a German. At the first sight of the enemy, they will bolt to a man. The Green Howards fled later that afternoon after their lines were penetrated by German AFV's. It has to be said that the 2nd Battalion Welsh Guards that were defending the area around West-Cappel faced one of the strongest thrusts that day and held the line when attacked around 1500 hrs and kept the Germans back until nightfall when the Germans decided to consolidate their positions for the night rather than attempt to exploit their gains in the dark. Several days later the following is written in Jackson's book Dunkirk-The British Evacuation 1940: By 03.00 hrs on 2nd June, when embarkations were temporarily suspended with the approach of daylight, some 6,000 British troops remained within the shrinking perimeter, patiently waiting their turn for evacuation. Most were concentrated at Malo, where Alexander had formed a defence with the aid of his few remaining 2-pounders in case enemy armour broke through to the beaches. The guns, however, would not be used in anger again, for on the perimeter the French fought gallantly on. On the morning of the 2nd June the Germans seized the bridgehead at Hoymille, which had been held by the 139th Brigade. They were fiercely counter-attacked by three companies of the French 21st Divisonal Training Centre; with incredible bravery 550 men charged the enemy across the open, bullet raked ground, floundering through thigh-deep water. The conter-attack collapsed in a welter of bloody foam, torn apart by the murderous Spandaus, and only sixty-five French soldiers emerged unscathed. He goes on to say: At the other end of the perimeter the Germans made several spirited attacks on the defences of General Janssen's 12th Division; all were beaten off with heavy loss, and a spirited counter-attack by the 8th Zouaves and 150th Infantry Regiment took sixty prisoners. Unfortunately Janssen himself was killed in an air raid during the day. I think these two accounts of French soldiers amongst the many others in Jackson's book are quite significant because I like to think that the sacrifice these French soldiers made was not for France - It was to allow the BEF to get away and leave them behind to face the Germans on their own. So when someone knocks the French soldiers of 1940 - Please feel free to show them this thread. Cheers Andy
Will we ever read this in the Daily Mail / Express/Times 'While the British army fled the Dunkirk beaches in anything that could float the French rearguard bravely and stubbornly held the perimeter'
