May 26, 1940, 7 a.m. Port of Dunkerke, France.

Supreme Commander of the British Expeditionary Force, W. h。 e。 Admiral Gort stood on a field airfield on the outskirts and watched a British Flamingo-style midsize airliner slowly land on the runway.

In the air, five Air Force Hurricane fighter jets circled the ring. As the airliner slowly stopped taxiing on the runway, Gort and his men headed for the plane.

The hatch opened, and a middle-aged English gentleman dressed in a crisp general's uniform with a smile on his face appeared in front of Gort.

"Huh? How are you? Gort exclaimed in surprise.

Half an hour later, in a small three-story building on the edge of the port area of Dunkerk.

"Are you sure this is a formal plan?" Gort frowned as he looked at a document in his hand.

"Of course, it is formal, and this plan was developed by the Council of Chiefs of Staff of the various services. The Prime Minister personally deliberated on the plan, and the entire wartime Cabinet agreed to implement it. Do you still have any questions? The admiral sat comfortably on the sofa beside him, holding a cup of black tea in his hand.

"Oh, no doubts." Goth hurriedly replied. "Of course, I have full confidence in the judgment of the chiefs of staff."

"Oh, so how was the Prime Minister's order executed yesterday afternoon? Lord Gott? ”

"I've already issued the order. However, it will take time for the retreating troops to return to their original positions. ”

"We don't have much time left." The admiral elegantly placed the black tea in his hand on the tea machine.

"Got, you've got an idea of where we're now. I want you to start preparing for the implementation of this plan immediately. We have consulted with the French High Command, who will cooperate with our actions. The specific situation is planned to be there. Now you have one more day to prepare, only one day. Tomorrow at this time, this plan must be launched. Do you understand? ”

"Yes, Your Excellency Chief of Staff."

"Haha, that's good, I'm going to fly to Paris at once to discuss the details of the French coordination with General Weygang. Hope to see you again in Paris in two days. Admiral Ironside, Chief of the General Staff of the British Empire, stood up with a smile.

"Are you leaving?"

"Yes, the plane is still waiting for me."

"Then I'll take you to the airport."

"No, you can read this plan carefully now and see what else you have to ask, and if you run into trouble with this plan you must report it to London immediately, understand?"

"Yes, understood."

Seeing off the Chief of the General Staff, Gort returned to his office and was stunned by the plan.

Why did he send that Ironside to deliver the plan, everyone knew that he was the toughest one in the entire staff to support the plan to break out to the south. Last time, Wei Gang's plan was also passed on by him personally, but he was denounced as cowardly and cowardly by him when he raised a little question, and lost the determination of the British ** officer to fight. And judging from the frame in London, this plan is imperative, and even if they have opinions, they don't seem to be able to listen to them.

What a joke, the day before yesterday afternoon he agreed with me to let the troops move to the seashore, and yesterday afternoon he ordered that the troops must be returned to their original positions, with the result that now at least six divisions of my own troops are exhausted on the road, and the back and forth movement of troops has already had a great impact on the morale of the soldiers. And many of these troops already don't have much ammunition and provisions. And the supply ship promised by London yesterday afternoon has not yet reached Dunkelko.

In fact, he had lost the determination to continue fighting before the bloody battle of Arras, and it was also his first proposal to retreat in the direction of Dunkerke. With only four days left to supply the troops, and only enough ammunition for a large-scale battle, the consequences would be disastrous if London did not bring in ammunition and supplies.

It seems that London has abandoned the plan of retreat by sea, and it is only left with one way to break through by land. If the information in this plan is true, it is really a chance to save yourself and this army.

Gort took a closer look at the plan. There should be no problems in terms of breakout, the key is whether it will be a trap for the Germans. But those chiefs of staff should also think of this, it seems that they have already analyzed the possibilities, and they don't have to think about it themselves. Then the remaining question is......

"Ding"

Goth rang the electric bell leading to the next room. After a while, his adjutant opened the door and walked in.

"General, what do you command?"

"Has the Navy's transport ship arrived? Have you been contacted? ”

The adjutant replied loudly.

"Not yet, General. They were supposed to arrive last night, but they had already contacted the Navy last night, and they seemed to be investigating the reason why the three transports had not yet arrived, and they heard that they were in some trouble. ”

"Was it sunk in the strait? It's impossible, German submarines didn't break through our anti-submarine blockade so easily. Gort was puzzled.

"Leave him alone, you contact London again, and ask them to send a few more ships at once in my name, we are in great need of supplies now."

"Yes, General."

"Also, the order was given to the troops on the Western Front to speed up their movements, and they must return to their original positions this evening. Their ammunition supplies were delivered to them as soon as the ships arrived, reassuring them and allowing the commanders to maintain the morale of their troops and prepare for battle as soon as they arrived at their positions. The troops of the northern front also immediately handed over the defense to the Belgian troops, ordering them to immediately begin to assemble in the direction of Arras.

We need to concentrate all our forces to open this breakthrough. The 5th and 50th Divisions, plus the 3rd Division, would serve as the vanguard and let them rush to the Arras line as soon as possible. Tonight, let them make a tentative attack first. ”

"Yes, General, I'll go and give your orders at once, but if those three troops are used, won't we have no reserves?"

"You don't have to worry about this, I have my idea, you go down."

"Understood, General." The adjutant opened the door and walked out.

And while Gott was in full swing preparing for that plan, there was chaos in the British Admiralty in London.

Admiral Beckhausen, the Minister of the Navy, was reprimanding several of his men with thunderous reprimands.

"Why didn't you inform me sooner, you know what that means? Why didn't you report it to me on the same day, that this was a grave dereliction of duty, and that I would take you all to court-martial. The Admiralty was waving a document in his hand, and saliva was about to squirt onto the officers' faces.

"We are very sorry for our actions, but in fact it is not that we did not report immediately, but that we want to get accurate information...... "A lieutenant commander of the Navy came forward to defend himself, but before he could finish his sentence, he was interrupted by an angry admiral.

"What! How dare you come with me! Three fully loaded munitions supply ships, 12,000 tons of equipment, ammunition and provisions, two regiments of infantry, two escort destroyers, four anti-submarine trawlers, and a minesweeper, how can you explain all this to me in just two days when we have lost so many ship personnel and equipment? Now you can explain these things to me in detail. ”

The lieutenant colonel quickly replied.

"General. One of our anti-submarine trawlers on patrol in the Strait of Dover the night before had suddenly disappeared, and it was only at noon yesterday that we received a report from the commander of their detachment. At that time, we thought that we had run into a German submarine, so we ordered the anti-submarine patrol of the strait to be strengthened at the same time as the search force was dispatched.

However, they found no wreckage or survivors on the patrol route of the missing fishing boat, not even a single body, and no signs of German submarine activity in the strait. We ordered anti-submarine trawlers to expand their search and patrol areas.

By this time it was already nine o'clock in the evening, and the flotilla for the replenishment of Dunkelko had already departed. At that time, we sent a good anti-submarine message to that fleet, and sent two escort destroyers patrolling the center line of the strait to protect it. At 10:14 p.m., the station suddenly received an emergency distress signal from two anti-submarine trawlers, and because the signal was jammed, we could not find out what had happened to them. So we immediately ordered another nearby anti-submarine trawler to go to the rescue and investigate. As a result, the ship also sent a distress signal at 10:42, claiming to have been torpedoed by a German submarine. The nearest one near them was the Dunkerke supply fleet. So we ordered them to go to the rescue and ordered the two destroyers to be ready for anti-submarine warfare.

As a result, they sent back a telegram that when they got there, there was nothing on the sea, believing that the anti-submarine fishing boats had sunk with their crews. As we feared that the German submarines were still operating there, we ordered them to return to their original course, and we were ready to send other ships there to continue the search for survivors.

Ten minutes later, almost simultaneously, we received a mine-distress signal from the three transports and two destroyers, and it became clear that the Germans had laid mines in the Strait of Dover. We immediately sent two minesweepers to the rescue, only to find that the Germans had a much larger minefield than we had liked. Moreover, they are mixed mines, and in the minefields there are not only floating mines, but also a large number of anchor mines and their magnetic mines. As a result, one minesweeper was sunk by a magnetic mine, the other was damaged, and finally escaped from the minefield. That's how things worked. ”

"Have you now investigated the distribution of German mines and the location of minefields?" "We sent all the minesweepers to investigate as soon as dawn came. Now we find that their mines are scattered along the coast of France and Belgium, divided into three huge minefields, and connected with ours, at least a thousand of them, and now their mines, together with ours, completely block the coast between Calais and the Belgian port of Ostend. We will no longer be able to resupply Dunkirk in the short term. ”

"Then there's no way to sweep a route?"

"It's not possible in the near future, at least for now we have nothing to do with German magnetic mines, and we can't let the minesweepers enter the minefield until the Naval Research Institute has developed countermeasures, otherwise they will die in vain."

"So can't we sweep a way out of our own minefield?"

"We think the same way, but we need time, and we have a lot of mines in our minefields, and it takes about three to four days to clear a channel that can be navigated by a small boat, and more than five days if we want to pass through other ships. What we still don't understand is how they got into the strait to lay mines. How did their mine-laying submarines pass through our tight blockade, and how could they lay so many mines in just one night? They could have done this if they had used a large number of air force planes to lay mines, but in the past two days, the radar has not detected any planes in the sky over the strait. ”

The Admiralty Minister frowned and thought for a moment, then stood up.

"I must go and report this to the Prime Minister immediately, and you must write a detailed report first. I'd love to see your reports on my desk when I get back. ”

Then he shoved the document into a briefcase and left the office without looking back, leaving a room full of panicked naval officers.

In the Prime Minister's office at 10 Downing Street, Churchill was taken aback by Beckhausen's report, and he hurriedly asked the Secretary of the Admiralty.

"Beckhausen, how much time will it take for you to clear a route and restore maritime contact with Dunkelsk?"

"Now it will take us three or four days to clear a channel without being disturbed by German aircraft, and we can only pass small ships, and if we want to pass through large ones, we will have to wait another two days."

"Now we can't approach the port of Dunkerke from the sea."

"Yes, Prime Minister."

Churchill stood up and stared at the map on the wall with a frown. He lit a cigar and spun around his office in contemplation. Suddenly Churchill seemed to figure out something.

"I see, hahahaha, this just proves that the Germans have indeed reached the end of their crossbows, and they no longer have the ability to continue the attack. And they are afraid that we will counterattack them after the troops are replenished in the encirclement. So they thought they were clever and laid mines in the port of Dunkerke, trying to stop our support for the expeditionary force. They thought it could trap us.

They did not expect that we had already discovered their weakness and already had plans for a counteroffensive. In this way, it seems that our breakout plan will definitely succeed. Just let them blockade it, I'm tempted to see Hitler's face when he learned that we had broken through his encirclement. Hahahaha. Churchill smirked in his office.

"So Prime Minister, don't we have to rush to clear mines."

"No, no, no, we still have to sweep mines, and we have to pretend to be in a hurry. Then those Germans will think that they really trapped our expeditionary force. They will relax because of this, and our breakout plan will be more secure. Churchill replied with a smile.

"But the supplies requested by General Gort......"

"This is indeed a problem, but the Germans in front of him now are only a few weak infantry regiments, and they should not be able to exhaust their ammunition in a short time. When the time comes, as soon as he breaks through the encirclement, he will be able to contact the main French forces, and he will have everything at that time. You send a telegram back to him, explaining the situation here, and telling him to follow the planned steps.

Letting the Air Force airdrop some supplies to comfort him can also boost morale a little. He was told that if the operation was successful, I would personally go to France to honour the meritorious soldiers and officers. ”;