At the same time, this order was also supported by Jodl, Rundstedt and others, since the German army attacking Dunkirk at this time consisted of 16 divisions, each of which belonged to 4 armies of 2 army groups, Rundstedt wanted to straighten out the complex chain of command before continuing the attack. (Rommel and Guderian are not yet qualified to object, because they are not of enough rank.) ）

In any case, this gave Britain a once-in-a-lifetime respite from the possibility of organizing a retreat at sea.

As early as the assault of Rommel's armored forces on Arras, the British foresaw that defeat was a foregone conclusion, and the wartime cabinet instructed the Admiralty to develop a plan to organize the retreat of the expeditionary force, codenamed "Operation Dynamo".

The operation was carried out by the commander of the Dover Naval Port, Vice Admiral Bertram? Under his command, Ram planned to evacuate 10,000 men a day from the three ports of Calais, Buren, and Dunkirk on the French coast, and concentrated 30 ferries and 12 minesweepers.

Ramsey at the same time suggested strengthening the air cover forces, but the commander of the British Air Force Fighter Command, Hugh ? Admiral Dowding said that fighter jets could only be sent to Dunkirk if they were satisfied with the defense of the homeland.

Because Rommel took Arras a few days earlier than in history, the Anglo-French army was surrounded by twice as many people as in history, and about 87 divisions of the Anglo-French army were surrounded in the Dunkirk area on the Franco-Belgian border.

At this time, the Anglo-French forces were attacked on three sides in the Dunkirk area, one facing the sea, and the situation was very critical, and the only way to survive was to withdraw to Britain by sea. In order to escape from the encirclement, the British army used all its transport ships and a large number of civilian ships to participate in the retreat.

Originally, Rommel and Guderian had already disobeyed the attack, and the four armored divisions could have taken the two ports of Dunkirk and Calais, but Hitler, at the instigation of Goering, personally went to Army Group A to inspect it, and both Rommel and Guderian received orders to report to Army Group A headquarters immediately.

Even if Rommel and Guderian wanted to disobey the order, they had no chance, and after settling their troops, Rommel and Guderian could only immediately fly to Charville to meet Hitler.

Hitler ordered the Panzer forces to halt the pursuit - an order considered by many military historians to be Hitler's first stupid order in World War II. There are many theories about the reason for this order.

One version is that Hitler wanted to leave room for negotiation with Britain out of political considerations, but Directive No. 13 of 24 May made it clear that "the next objective of the operation is to carry out a centripetal assault on our troops on the northern flank, to annihilate the French, British, and Belgian forces encircled in Artois and Flanders, and to quickly seize and defend the coast there." Obviously, this statement is too much speculation.

More information is believed to be due to the counterattack of the British army, which caused the command of Army Group A to misjudge and took the initiative to put forward a proposal to suspend the attack. This was in line with Hitler's desire to keep the armored forces for the task of continuing the attack on France, and he agreed to this proposal.

Rommel originally wanted to rely on the advantage of knowing the outcome of history and strive to change the direction of history, but as a result, Rommel, who was humble and despise, could not change Hitler's mind at all, and the wheel of history was still rolling forward, and in the final analysis, Rommel's power was not enough, his status was not enough, and his prestige was not enough.

Hitler and Goering had a beautiful idea of not consuming precious armor to prepare for the second phase of the French campaign, thinking that by bombing the air force, they could bomb the 87 divisions of the Anglo-French army into surrender, which was a bit whimsical.

Rommel and Guderian hurried to the headquarters of Army Group A to meet the great Führer Hitler, and something extremely helpless happened, Hitler actually did not summon the two of them, and Rommel took the initiative to ask for a meeting but failed to do so, so Rommel and Guderian were stared at at the headquarters of Army Group A.

"What now,...... Exceptional"

Although you Rommel took it upon himself to launch an attack, who gave you the courage to disobey the Führer's orders, if it weren't for Hitler knowing Rommel's loyalty to him, Rommel and Guderian at this time were afraid that they would be arrested and taken to the Gestapo's interrogation room, and now Hitler just cooled Rommel where it was, which is already a great favor.

In a word, the authority of the Führer cannot be provoked.

……

At 18:57 p.m. on 17 May, the British Admiralty ordered the commencement of Operation Dynamo, and the situation was even more dangerous than it had been planned, since only Dunkirk was the only three French ports that had been intended for use, and Buren and Calais were already within range of the artillery of the 7th Panzer Division, and these two ports were no longer usable.

The only way for more than 800,000 Anglo-French troops to survive was Dunkirk and its nearby 40 kilometers of coastline, Dunkirk is a historic ancient castle that has been an important port in northern France since the 9th century AD, and in 1939 it was the third largest port in France in terms of throughput, with 7 deep-water berths for large ships, 4 dry docks and 8 kilometers of docks.

The harbor channel has been dredged to allow large ships to enter and exit freely, the well-established breakwaters and convex piers can effectively withstand the strong winds and waves of the English Channel, and if these port facilities can be fully utilized, 800,000 British and French troops can carry all the equipment to board safely in just a few days, but since the beginning of the war, the area has been heavily bombed by the Germans, all four docks have been destroyed, the 8-kilometer-long pier has been blown into ruins, and even most of the city of Dunkirk has been razed to the ground in air raids.

The only thing that can also be used for ships to moor is only an east embankment less than 1200 meters long, and it is also built up by wooden piles and planks, which is very simple, the width can only be up to 8 people at the same time and side by side, only on the sea side there is a concrete pillar, with a lighthouse, there are some wooden piles around the embankment, and ships can also be moored in an emergency, but the current is rapid, and there is a certain danger when the ship is docked.

There are no port facilities or breakwaters along the nearby coastline, and there is a deep-water channel parallel to the shore not far from the coast, which is connected to the Dunkirk port area, but this channel is turbulent and full of reefs, making navigation quite dangerous.

There were three routes from Dunkirk to the UK, and the Z route had the shortest range of only 40 nautical miles, but it was under German artillery blockade and could not be used; The distance of the X route is slightly longer, 55 nautical miles, but the British army has laid a number of minefields on the route, which will be difficult to clear and cannot be used in a short period of time; The only thing that could be used was the farthest route, the Y route, which was nearly 90 nautical miles away and took almost six hours to complete, and although there was no threat from German artillery fire, the danger of the air threat from German aircraft was greatly increased.

Ramsay formed a lean command team, only 16 people in total, to organize this most complex and dangerous naval retreat in history, Ramsay was responsible for overall command and coordination, and Rear Admiral Wake **** was responsible for directing the navigation in the English Channel. Admiral Tennant was in charge of boarding the port of Dunkirk and the beach, and Jack? Lieutenant Commander Claus Tong was in charge of the most critical East Causeway.

……