Morale is a vast but intangible factor, but in a tangible way the Allied counter—the drive to close the neck of the German corridor to the sea between Cambrai-Bapaume-Arras and Amiens-Peronne—is still possible of success.
But this gap must be closed quickly if it is to be closed at all; otherwise German forces pressing southward through Belgium and France and crowding into the corridor will so strengthen the German hold as to make the Allied efforts unlikely of success. Much depends upon this Allied counter. If it is successful the aspect of the battle can change overnight; if unsuccessful the Germans will almost inevitably win a second great victory—the victory of the Channel ports—and with it will accomplish their basic aim, the delivery of a terrific blow at the armies of the enemy.
At the week-end the prospects for the Allies were still grim, as both Paris and London recognized. The German corridor to the sea had been narrowed but not cut; German mechanized forces were operating in the rear of the Allied troops in the Channel port area, cutting up communications, perhaps destroying docks; the Channel ports and ships in the Channel itself were subjected to fierce bombardment from German planes. The Scheldt River line in the north had been lost, and the Allies were being pressed back upon the fortified city of Lille, where, perhaps, the isolated Allied armies of the North may have to make their last stand.
WHAT ARE THE PROSPECTS?
If the Allies win the battle and succeed in re-establishing a continuous and unbroken front, the Channel ports might yet be saved; a campaign of long duration would seem likely.
A considerable blow would have been dealt the German Army and the impetus of its rush into France would have been decisively checked in a battle which might ultimately have the same consequences as the Battle of the Marne. The war would not be over, for the Germans would not be “licked” after a single defeat, but the entire complexion of the war would have been changed overnight.
IF THE GERMANS WIN
If the Germans win the battle they have not won the war, although the staying power of France would depend to a great extent upon the character of the victory. Certainly a German victory, implying as it might, capture or destruction of large Allied forces, would be a smashing blow at France, perhaps a fatal one, if two or more French armies, reported yesterday from Berlin to be trapped in the net, should be destroyed. And even if a large number of Allied troops succeed in escaping the German net and were successfully evacuated by sea or sifted through the net to rejoin the main armies to the south, the Germans would be left in control of the Channel ports twenty-six miles from England.
What then? The answer would depend entirely upon the circumstances, upon the continuation of French resistance, upon the losses suffered by the Germans, almost certain to be heavy, in their attempt at a modern Cannae. But it would seem with the Channel ports in their possession, and hence direct communication between France and Britain severed and a round-about sea route enforced upon the Allies, that Germany, still utilizing, as she has done from the war’s beginning, the advantage of her interior and central position, would turn her might first upon one, then upon the other of the Allies in an attempt to crush them. England is by far the most likely objective, although, with, or after the drive against England, might be a continuation of the drive against Paris if French resistance were not previously broken.
INVASION NOT EASY
Invasion of England would neither be simple nor certain of success; in fact the odds might be against the attackers. The British Navy still can make its might felt, even in the Narrow Seas; there are close to 1,000,000 armed men in various degrees of training in Britain today; she still has large metropolitan air squadrons, ready for defense.
Nevertheless German control of the Belgian and French Channel ports might be of such serious consequences to both France and Britain that the Allies may be expected to fight to the death to prevent it.
For it would mean across the Channel and the North Sea from the Orkneys to the Downs a coastline from which the Swastika flew from every inch of soil. It would mean another Napoleon, this one with a clipped mustache and a talent for forensics, dreaming on the heights above Boulogne of an invasion of England.
Perhaps this time the dreams might be possible of success (though not without a terrific struggle), for the dreaded wings of war can now leap the Narrow Seas, and England’s insularity is no longer a sure security.
IF INVADERS COME
But even if an invading army—dropping from the skies, landing from fast ships, transported by planes—should successfully establish a foothold on English soil for the first time since Harold died at Hastings with an arrow through his eye in the Norman conquest in 1066 the war again would not necessarily be over. For certain it is that any invaders must fight for every inch of British soil; certain it is that their losses would be heavy. And were the tight little isles at last to be conquered—something that is still far from reality and is still only the substance of a dream, the dream that Napoleon dreamed and Hitler now dreams again—there is still the British Empire, immense, powerful with great potential strength.
That future outlook is something no man can foretell, but certain it is that the Battle of the Channel Ports, decisive in the history of the world, is rapidly approaching its climax this week-end twenty-two years after the war to end war.
MAY 29, 1940
THE ALLIES LOSE A BATTLE
By HANSON W. BALDWIN
The surrender of the Belgian Army means that the Germans have won the battle of the Channel ports.
The Allies have lost the aid of 300,000 to 600,000 Belgians—perhaps eight to sixteen divisions—and an undetermined number of British, French and Polish troops, enclosed in the German pocket in coastal Belgium and Northwestern France are faced with extreme peril. Probably the only way these Allied forces can escape annihilation or surrender is an immediate attempt—in itself dangerous in the extreme—to evacuate them by sea from Dunkerque, possibly the only Channel port left open to Allied use.
The sudden surrender of King Leopold was obviously a shocking surprise to the Allies. But the surrender only hastened what had come to be regarded in recent days as the almost inevitable outcome of the battle of the Channel ports. For ever since the Germans smashed the French Ninth Army and broke through to the sea at Abbeville the scales of victory in this battle were heavily weighted in Germany’s favor.
It was taken for granted, of course, that the 600,000 to more than 1,000,000 Allied troops hemmed in with their backs to the sea would fight terrifically—as they have done—but it was also realized that the situation could be rectified only if French forces south of the Somme were able to launch a successful counter-attack, smash across the neck of the German corridor to the sea and reestablish communication with their beleaguered forces to the north. As an alternative, a French counter-attack from their positions south of the Aisne up the Meuse Valley might have relieved some of the German pressure. The other alternatives were a fight to the death by the trapped troops forcing the Germans to pay heavily for the price of victory and giving the French a chance to reorganize their Somme and Aisne lines, or voluntary evacuation by sea, thus abandoning defense of the Channel ports.
It seemed likely, as late as last Saturday, when the German communiqués spoke of increasing numbers of prisoners, that the disintegration of the Allied armies in the pocket had started and that it was probably too late for a successful French counter-attack.
Belgium had an ostensible maximum strength of eighteen to twenty-one divisions, plus 25,000 fortress troops. One of these divisions—the Ardennes Chasseurs, plus the fortress troops—were apparently destroyed or captured in Eastern Belgium and it is very doubtful if Belgium was able to mobilize her full strength or to equip more than eight to sixteen divisions, some of which must have been badly cut up in the fighting in Western Belgium. The German victory, so far, therefore, adds up to the capture or destruction of perhaps eight to sixteen Belgian divisions with their equipment. The rest of the Allied troops in the pock
et are still fighting, but they cannot long maintain their position with most of the Channel ports behind them in German hands and with their left flank exposed because of the Belgian surrender. The Germans have won a victory of far-reaching consequence in the course of the war.
German soldiers clear a Dutch bunker of weapons after taking control in Holland, May 1940.
JUNE 1, 1940
75% OF B.E.F. REPORTED SAFELY OUT OF FLANDERS
ROOSEVELT WARNS WAR IMPERILS WHOLE WORLD BRITAIN HAILS MEN
By Harold Denny
Wireless to The New York Times.
LONDON, May 31—About three-quarters of the British Expeditionary Force thus far has been evacuated from Dunkerque and brought to England, it was estimated unofficially in well-informed quarters late tonight. Military authorities would not confirm or deny this estimate, the actual figures being kept secret.
[The United Press reported that it was estimated that 75 to 80 per cent of the British Expeditionary Force and some of its Allies trapped by the Germans in Flanders had been snatched from what had appeared to be the certain annihilation of more than 500,000 men. Original estimates of the strength of the B. E. F. ranged from 300,000 to 350,000.
“At least one Belgian army corps is still fighting side by side with the Allies,” the British Broadcasting Corporation said early today in a news broadcast picked up in New York by the National Broadcasting Company. The corps was said to be under the command of the former commander of the Liége district who had refused to obey King Leopold’s capitulation order.]
The evacuation of Dunkirk, June 1940.
Ragged and battle-weary British and French soldiers who fought their way out of the shambles of Northern France and Belgium continued to stream into port during the day, still dazed but happy as they hurried inland for brief leaves at home.
They were greeted with almost delirious enthusiasm by the populace as they disembarked from the motley collection of large and small boats which had ferried them across the Channel and by cheering crowds all along the railway lines.
They were welcomed not sadly as a beaten army but proudly as the heroes in one of the bravest chapters in Great Britain’s military annals.
Earlier this week high army officers had expressed the fear that almost the entire British Expeditionary Force would be lost. To date a far larger number has been returned safely to England than any one had dared to hope.
The primary reason for this result is said to have been the skillful coordination with the troops by the British Navy assisted by elements of the French Navy and by the Royal Air Force in conjunction with French aviators.
TROOPS’ CONDUCT PRAISED
The behavior of the soldiers under a pounding by a vastly superior force such as no troops ever had had to withstand before is praised without measure by commanders returning with them, who have seen much of the war. These soldiers stood their ground and retired always in perfect order under admirable discipline. So these fine battalions, among them some of the best in the British Army, were not destroyed after all, but their survivors after a rest will be able to re-form with additions and take the field again better than they were before, because now they are used to the most terrible engines the Germans can hurl against them.
Part of the B. E. F. and a considerable force of French still are holding a narrow strip of coast behind Dunkerque covering the withdrawal. This strip now is being called the “Corunna line” in memory of Sir John Moore’s classic withdrawal from Spain in 1809, when his army had been placed in a similarly hopeless situation by the defection of the Spanish. French troops are in this line with the British, while more are with General Rene Prioux among those who are fighting their way to the coast.
The part played by the British fleet is so brilliant that today’s returning soldiers shouted to the crowds along the beach: “Thank God for the navy” and cheered sailors on shore whenever they sighted them. The French soldiers, also, wrung the sailors’ hands and exclaimed: “Merci.”
The navy has had two jobs in the evacuation. One has been to try to keep down the German fire on the British troops and to knock out tanks by fire from the warships lying out before Dunkerque. According to the returning soldiers, this strategy undoubtedly has done much to keep down the British and French casualties.
The warships have had to manoeuvre in shallow water against racing tides, in darkness and under a terrific German air bombardment, where the grounding of one ship, thus blocking the channel, might have spelled doom to many soldiers. One of three destroyers whose loss was announced last night was sunk by an aerial bomb which performed the incredible feat of dropping straight down the ship’s smokestack without touching its sides.
Another destroyer, one of four, was attacked by German dive bombers as she approached the French coast. Her crew brought down one plane with anti-aircraft fire. Further in toward the coast the same vessel was attacked by high bombers, but took on a full load of soldiers and set out for England. A transport departing at the same time came under heavy air attack, but the destroyer crew put a blanket of fire on the German planes. These planes then turned their attention again to the destroyer and made twelve more attacks. The transport escaped unscathed, but a bomb struck the destroyer, breaking a steam pipe and causing some casualties, and forced the destroyer to halt. Another destroyer came to the assistance of the first and tried to tow her out, but as the German bombers again attacked the commander decided he was not justified in detaining the other ship and transferred his passengers to her.
It was an odd sight to see the fleet of transports, which, with destroyers, and other naval craft, came steaming into these waters today crowded to the gunwales with cheering and smiling lads who a few days ago never had hoped to see the shores of England again. There were steamboats of all sizes, many of them had been pleasure boats in happier days, coastal tramp ships, dingy fishing boats and motor boats. A tug chugged in towing a string of five barges loaded with soldiers. One party of soldiers was brought by an officer—a yachtsman in civil life—in a sailboat he had “pinched” near Dunkerque when he could not find a transport.
The crews of these unorthodox transports were as varied as the coats—sturdy coastal seamen, fishermen and amateur yachtsman. They have not hesitated to take their little ships to that thundering beach to bring back the soldiers.
The soldiers who arrived here were dog-tired and ravenously hungry. Many said they had snatched only a few hours’ sleep in seventeen days of fighting and had little to eat but biscuits. Townswomen heaped oranges, apples, sandwiches and cups of tea on the barricade separating them from the troops, and one family contributed wedding cake baked for a ceremony tomorrow.
The soldiers’ torn and stained clothing gave a hint of what they had been through. Most of them had lost all their kit except their rifles and had only the clothes they stood in. One man was in pajamas with a blanket draped over his shoulders. However, almost all of them were smiling and many remarked after a meal and a night’s sleep that they would be ready for “another go at Jerry.”
Most of them were too tired to talk, however, and many fell asleep the moment they sat down in the troop trains. Those who could tell of their adventures added to the tale of rushing on German tanks, of the incessant bombing and machine-gunning from the air, of the slaughter of refugees by German airplanes and tank crews.
Several insisted that “Fifth Column” activities behind the British lines had been marked. Wherever they moved, they said, the Germans seemed to know it and greeted them in their new positions with bombs. Whenever a headquarters moved also the Germans seemed to get instant word of it and however obscure the house, even if it was one of a long row it was unerringly bombed.
JUNE 2, 1940
OUR ARMY WATCHES
General George C. Marshall, Army Chief of Staff, said yesterday it was “essential” that President Roosevelt receive authority to call out the National Guard, if needed, because of “the recognized possibility of dangerous developments in this hemisp
here.”
As one step in the defense program, the Army decided to assign 12,000 recruits to newly created tactical units of combat forces, increasing garrisons over the country.
Meanwhile, the German successes in Europe stirred fears in South America. Governments rushed rearmament programs, newspapers called for national unity, anti-fifth column groups were formed. The belief was general that, if they won the war, the Germans would physically invade South America; their present activity was described as boring from within, in an attempt to set up totalitarian regimes.
Experts of the Aeronautical Chamber of Commerce of America estimated that three to four years would be required to reach the production of 50,000 military planes a year.
Senator Taft said in a radio talk there was no evidence that the Administration had any defense plan or planners, and declared its principal activity was to get more powers for the Executive.
WARNING BY GENERAL
By FRANK L. KLUCKHOHN
Special to The New York Times.
WASHINGTON, June 1—General George C. Marshall, Army Chief of Staff, said today that, because of “the recognized possibility of dangerous developments in this hemisphere” which would require sending troops outside the United States for defense purposes, it was “essential” that Congress grant President Roosevelt authority to call the National Guard to active service at any time.
The New York Times Book of World War II, 1939-1945 Page 30
