Quoted: The core of the BEF was saved at Dunkirk but the BEF suffered 68,000 casualties and virtually all of its equipment including 64,000 vehicles, 20,000 motorcycles and 2,500 guns

Well put Sir,

It is also a myth that the troops left all their small arms behind, they didn't. The vast majority of troops were evacuated by the RN in good order. The pictures that are usually shown of troops without weapons are of the stragglers taken off in small boats.


Troops being evacuated on an RN Destroyer, in good order and with all their personal kit.


The biggest disgrace of Dunkirk was that of  the 120,000+ Phrench troops who were evacuated, the vast majority decided to sit out the war as soon as the Armistice with Germany was signed by the Phrench rather than fight on with the Free French Forces.

ANdy

Quoted: 20,000 British motorcycles . . . lost . . .

But as Britain had the biggest motorcycle industry in the world at that time it was no biggy, although the British motorcycle  industry switched to producing vast numbers of small arms immidiately after Dunkirk, which is how some of them got a start in the first place.

Quoted: Quoted: A little known fact is that another 144,000 allied troops were eventually brought out through Cherbourg and Brest before the total collapse of the Phrench weenies. yeah the phrench weenies who has only sacrified their first army for allowing this evacuation...

Strangly, it was Charles De Gaulle who was the outstanding French Commander in the defence of France, he handled his armour very well.

The fault lies not with the men at the front, it was the Staff Generals at the rear who lacked Testicular Fortitude. The French  .Gov ordering the French forces to pull back left the British outflanked and cut off.

ANdy

Quoted: Andy, if one day you’re coming in Paris, drop me a mail. I love your sense of humour !

I will!

ANdy

Le Grand Charles... he was a visionary of armoured warfare in the Fuller/Liddle Hart/Guderian mould. If the politicians had listened to him he would have run the Germans out of town on a rail in 1940.


1912–1940: Military career

Young Charles De Gaulle chose a military career and spent four years at the École Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr (the French equivalent of the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York or the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst at Camberley in the United Kingdom). He graduated in 1912 and decided to join an infantry regiment when he could have joined an elite corps. During World War I, then Captain De Gaulle was severely wounded at the gruesome Battle of Verdun in March 1916, and left for dead on the battlefield. Still alive, he was found and taken prisoner by the Germans. He made five unsuccessful escape attempts, and was put in solitary confinement in a retaliation camp.

When the war ended, he remained in the military, serving on the staff of Gen. Maxime Weygand and then Gen. Philippe Pétain. During the Polish-Soviet war in 1919-1920, he volunteered to be a member of the French Military Mission to Poland and was an infantry instructor with the Polish army. He fought and distinguished himself in fighting near the river Zbrucz and received the highest Polish military award, Virtuti Militari. He was promoted to major and offered possibility of a further career in Poland, but chose instead to return to France. He was heavily influenced by that war, namely by the use of tanks, fast maneuvers and lack of trenches.

Based partially on his observations during war in Poland, which was so different from experiences from WWI, he published a number of books and articles on the reorganisation of the army, particularly Vers l'Armée de Métier (published in English as "The Army of the Future") in which he proposed the formation of a professional mechanised army with specialised armoured divisions in preference to the static theories exemplified by the Maginot Line.

While Heinz Guderian and elements in the German Army General Staff had views similar to De Gaulle's, Pétain rejected most of De Gaulle's theories, and the relationship between them became strained. French politicians also dismissed De Gaulle's theories, fearing the political reliablity of any professional army, with the notable exception of Paul Reynaud who would later play a major role in De Gaulle's career.

At the outbreak of World War II, De Gaulle was only a colonel, having encountered hostility from the leaders of the military through the 1920s and 1930s due to his bold views. After the German breakthrough at Sedan, on May 15 1940 he was finally given command of the 4th Armoured Division.

On May 17, 1940, De Gaulle attacked the German tank forces at Montcornet. With only 200 French tanks and no air support, the offensive had little impact on the German advance. There was more success on May 28, when De Gaulle's tanks forced the German infantry to retreat at Caumont. This was one of the few significant tactical successes the French gained against the Germans during the campaign. Prime Minister Paul Reynaud promoted him provisional brigadier general (thus his title of général De Gaulle).

On June 6, Paul Reynaud appointed him undersecretary of state for national defence and war and put him in charge of coordination with the United Kingdom. As senior official in the French government he resisted proposals to surrender. He served as a liaison with the British government, and with Churchill carved a project of union between France and the United Kingdom on the morning of June 16 in London. This was a last minute effort to try to strengthen the resolve of those members of the French government who were in favor of continuing the war. He took the plane back to Bordeaux (provisory seat of the French government) on that same afternoon, but when landing in Bordeaux in the evening he learned that Pétain had become premier with the intention of seeking an armistice with Germany.

That same day he took the most important decision in his life and in the modern history of France: he would refuse the humiliation of a French surrender and instead rebel against the apparently legal (but illegitimate in his eyes) government of Pétain, returning to London and calling for the continuation of war. On the morning of June 17, with 100,000 gold francs from the secret funds given to him the previous night by Paul Reynaud, he fled Bordeaux by plane, narrowly escaped German aviation, and landed in London that same afternoon. De Gaulle decided to reject French capitulation and to set about building a movement which would appeal to overseas French, opponents of a separate arrangement with Germany.

1940–1945: The Free French Forces
On June 18, De Gaulle prepared to speak to the French people, via BBC radio, from London. The British Cabinet attempted to block the speech, but was overruled by Churchill. In France, De Gaulle's "Appeal of June 18" could be heard nationwide in the evening. The phrase "France has lost a battle; she has not lost the war", which appeared on posters in Britain at the time, is often incorrectly associated with the BBC broadcast; nevertheless the words aptly capture the spirit of De Gaulle's position. Although only few people actually heard the speech that night (the BBC was seldom listened to on the continent, and millions of Frenchmen were refugees on the road), excerpts of the speech appeared in French newspapers the next day in the (unoccupied) southern part of France, and the speech was repeated for several days on the BBC. Soon enough, among the chaos and bewilderment that was France in June 1940, the news that a French general was in London refusing to accept the tide of events and calling for the end of despair and the continuation of a winnable war was spread by word of mouth. To this day it remains one of the most famous speeches in French history.

From London, De Gaulle formed and led the Free French movement. Whereas the USA continued to recognise Vichy France, the British government of Winston Churchill supported De Gaulle, initially maintaining relations with the Vichy government but subsequently recognising the Free French.

On July 4, 1940, a court-martial in Toulouse sentenced De Gaulle in absentia to four years in prison. At a second court-martial on August 2, 1940, De Gaulle was condemned to death for treason.

In his dealings with his British allies and the United States, De Gaulle insisted at all times in retaining full freedom of action on behalf of France, even where this might embarrass or inconvenience his partners in the war. "France has no friends, only interests" is one of his best-remembered statements. Churchill is often misquoted as having commented, regarding working with De Gaulle, that: "Of all the crosses I have had to bear during this war, the heaviest has been the Cross of Lorraine (De Gaulle's symbol of Free France)". (The actual quote was by Churchill's envoy to France, Major-General Edward Spears [1],[2].)

Working with the French resistance and supporters in France's colonial possessions in Africa, after the Anglo-American invasion of North Africa in November 1942, De Gaulle moved his headquarters to Algiers in May 1943. He became first joint head (with the less resolutely independent Gen. Henri Giraud, the candidate preferred by the United States) and then sole chairman of the Committee of National Liberation.

At the liberation of France following Operation Overlord, in which Free French forces played a minor but symbolic role, he quickly established the authority of the Free French Forces in France, avoiding an Allied Military Government for Occupied Territories in France. He was flown into France from Algeria a few hours before the liberation of Paris, and drove near the front of the column of liberating forces into the city alongside allied officials. After his return to Paris, he moved back into his office at the War Ministry, thus proclaiming continuity of the Third Republic and denying the legitimacy of Vichy France.

After the war he served as the President of the provisional government from September 1944 but resigned on January 20, 1946, complaining of conflict between the political parties, and disapproving of the draft constitution for the Fourth Republic which he believed placed too much power in the hands of parliament with its shifting party alliances.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_de_Gaulle