Posted on 5/26/2010, 12:10:43 PM by Homer_J_Simpson
To be continued.
William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
News of the World in Review
Twenty News Questions – 15
Britain Settles Down for Last-Ditch Fight (by Raymond Daniell) – 16
The British Isles and the Channel Battle Area (map) – 17
Letters to the Editor of the Times on Issues of Current Interest – 18-21
Answers to Twenty News Questions – 22
The New York Times Magazine
Monsters in Armor – 24
The Fuehrer at the Front with Men of the Parachute Army (photo) - 25
I love these posts. France is about to fall and in a few months the Battle of Britain will begin.
Ping
Weygand sacked 15 generals today. So what? By September 6, 1914, Joffre had sacked three army commanders, seven corps commanders and 34 divisional commanders. Primary reason? Age. The average age of French generals in 1914 was 64.2 years. And mobilization had recalled many more retired officers to active duty.
It seems the French high command didn’t learn their lesson the first time, and applied it in 1940 too little, and too late.
Did you notice the name of one of the French Colonels promoted to replace the fired generals? One Charles DeGaulle...the same officer who warned of changes in warfare, built around tanks and aircraft, mobility and striking power. DeGaulle was regarded as an eccentric and something of a crank. By the time France called on him in the Summer of 1940, it was too late.
Interestingly enough, French tanks of the campaign were actually superior to their German counterparts. But the Nazis employed their en masse, working in concert with aircraft, infantry and artillery under the blitzkrieg strategy. The French dispatched their tanks in limited numbers, in support of infantry—and without air cover. They were sitting ducks, to say the least.
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1940/may40/f26may40.htm
BEF to be evacuated from Dunkirk
Sunday, May 26, 1940 www.onwar.com
On the Western Front... The position of the Belgian army is becoming increasingly grave. It is clear that it is unable to stay in the fight for much longer. The British forces are beginning to fall back on Dunkirk and in the evening the order is issued to begin Operation Dynamo, the evacuation from Dunkirk. Admiral Ramsay, who commands the Royal Navy forces based at Dover, is appointed to command the operation. The scope of the operation is not made clear to the local French commanders at first and they feel, with some justice, that they are being abandoned.
In Norway... The British cruiser Curlew is sunk by air attack off Harstad.
From London... General Dill becomes Chief of the British General Staff. His predecessor General Ironside takes over as Commander in Chief of Home Forces.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/26.htm
May 26th, 1940
UNITED KINGDOM: London: Old bandstands from the parks as well as the railings around them are being scrapped to help the war effort. Mrs Hugh Dalton, the wife of the Minister for Economic Warfare, is leading a drive to uproot railings as chairman of the London County Council parks committee. One bandstand to be demolished is in Temple Gardens beside the Embankment. Streets, squares and crescents of Victorian and Regency houses are having the railings chopped from their garden walls. Some people claim that London looks better without them. Victorian churchyards are also yielding up their railings, but so far Buckingham Palace railings are sacrosanct. There is a proposal to take up disused tramlines for scrap.
Large congregations gathered at churches of all denominations this Sunday for the National Day of Prayer “on behalf of the nation and Empire, of their allies and of the cause in which they are united”, as German armies pour into France and the British reach Dunkirk.
The King and Queen were at Westminster Abbey, accompanied by the refugee Queen of the Netherlands, Queen Wilhelmina, and Mr. Churchill. In his sermon the William Temple, Dr Lang, called the war “a mighty conflict against the powers of evil”. At Westminster Cathedral Cardinal Hinsley spoke of a “just crusade for deliverance from the evil which rests on force alone.”
Woodford, Cheshire: Second prototype Avro Manchester (L 7247) makes its maiden flight.
General Ironsides is named Commander in Chief Home Forces. General Dill is named CIGS.
WESTERN FRONTt: Dunkirk Evacuation: Operation ‘Dynamo’ begins.
Initial plans are to lift off 45,00 men of the BEF over a two-day period under the direction of Vice-Admiral B. H. Ramsey.
Aircraft of RAF Bomber Command attacked Wehrmacht troops believed to be crossing the Lys between Menin and Courtrai.
GERMANY: Hitler belatedly orders his armies to attack Dunkirk.
NORWEGIAN CAMPAIGN: RN: During the attack on Narvik, C class anti-aircraft cruiser HMS Curlew is bombed by German Ju-88s and sunk in Lavang Fjord, Skudenes in the Lofoten Isles at 67 32N, 16 37E. (Alex Gordon)(108)
RAF 46 Sqn., three flights of 6 Hurricanes, each led by a single Swordfish of 823 Squadron take off from HMS Glorious and land at Skaanland near Narvik. The first flight leaves at 2130, and is the only flight that actually lands at Skaanland.The landings at Skaanland prove to be a series of minor disasters. The airfield was not built to handle the heavy, high-speed fighters. Sqn. commander Kenneth Cross brought his Hurricane down perfectly - until his wheels bogged and his plane stood on its nose, bending the propeller. Another fighter did a half-somersault when it caught its wheel in chicken wire used to hold the field’s sod runways in place. Clambering out of his plane, Cross stormed over to a greying airfield construction officer and demanded, “What the hell sort of place is this to bring Hurricanes into?” The officer, who had worked himself to exhaustion to get the field ready, burst into tears. The upside-down Hurricane was righted, someone straightened Cross’s propeller with a hammer, and the squadron managed to take off for Bardufoss and join 263 Squadron. The Skaanland field was abandoned. For the first time, the Allies have modern fighter aircraft based in Norway. Unfortunately, and unknown to the Allied troops on the ground or to the Norwegians, the disaster in France has resulted in the decision to pull the Allied troops out and abandon Norway to her fate. Glorious herself remains off Narvik to offer some element of air cover for the Fleet.
At 1600, Vice-Admiral Well’s force arrives in the Clyde, docking at Greenock. HMS Ark Royal needs to replenish her sorely depleted ammunition and stores. HMS Furious is in need of further repairs; her role in the NORWEGIAN CAMPAIGNis now over.
U.S.S.R.: Soviet submarine K-2 commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: Destroyer HMCS Fraser departed Bermuda for UK. (Dave Shirlaw)
http://worldwar2daybyday.blogspot.com/
Day 269 May 26, 1940
200 German bombers and artillery pound the Citadel at Calais and German troops cross the canals forming the last Allied defensive line. At 4 PM, Brigadier Claude Nicholson surrenders at the Citadel. British losses are 300 killed, 200 wounded evacuated by boat and 3500 taken prisoner. Thousands of French and Belgian troops are captured. German losses are 750-800 killed or wounded.
Dunkirk. British War Cabinet sends a telegram to General Lord Gort authorizing the British Expeditionary Force withdrawal to Dunkirk. RAF Vice-Marshal Keith Park assigns 16 squadrons of No. 11 Group to protect the port. BEF’s retreat around Lille, France, leaves a gap in the Allied lines exposing the French left flank and Belgian right flank to the Walther von Reichenau’s 6th Army. The Belgians fall back to the River Leie. The French 1st Army is essentially encircled.
Narvik. Anti-aircraft cruiser HMS Curlew sunk by German Ju-88 bombers (9 lives lost). The loss of Curlew’s aircraft warning radar outfit deprived the Allies of early warnings of incoming aircraft. http://www.naval-history.net/Photo06clCurlewNPIngoBauernfiend.jpg
U-13 and U-48 leave dock at Kiel to join the growing fleet attacking Allied shipping around the British Isles.
I wonder how Halder reacted getting a letter from Winston Churchill, hee hee.
Canadian “Glory!”
Yeah... Sure...
This is days late news being reported as current. The Brits got it handed to them by Rommel at the Battle Of Arras. The main British Division-Sized thrust was to the south of Arras, using most of the tactical assets of the British Air Force in support, and ran over the Regiment-sized SS Totenkopf, whose battle reputation was “less than stellar”.
Rommel drew the British Matilda tanks in to a crescent-shaped circle trap of 88’s and 105 artillery in direct fire, and inflicted heavy losses against the british tanks south of Arras.
He then immediately counter-attacked, and drove the Brits back until he ran in French Heavy Armour, that his P I’s and II’s couldn’t counter.
I did notice that de Gaulle was one of the commanders who got promoted to general in the wake of this shakeup.
This is the first day where they really seem to grasp how close France is to complete collapse.
Crap. We could LOSE this war.
My country isn’t even in this war. Those Europeans sure cant keep from fighting can they.
“This is the first day where they really seem to grasp how close France is to complete collapse.”
The French High Command has known this for almost a week, but now it’s common knowledge.
You’re right, there’s a difference between what the Allied leaders knew and what they disclosed to the public.
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