Chapter 149: Dunkirk Epilogue

That night, the desperate resistance of the British and French forces was quite effective, and after the German attack was frustrated, the offensive rhythm was adjusted, and there was a rare calm on the battlefield.

This gave Li Guang an excellent opportunity, and the number of transport ships on the British side was sufficient, and even small boats were more than enough. All the temporary docks built by the British army were ready to use, and the bottlenecks that affected the speed of the withdrawal finally disappeared on this day, and the landing craft finally had some leisure. In fact, even if he couldn't spare his hand, Li Guang would also draw landing craft, and the performance of the British anti-aircraft gunners made Li Guang very angry.

After two days, the landing craft was free. Not only the infantry and armored companies, but even the antiaircraft artillery companies were dispatched for the whole night, and during the night's transportation, the thousands of troops did not stop at all, and the officers and men were all in a state of continuous rotation.

During the day, the damage caused by the German fighters to the artillery group was really great enough, and out of two hundred and fifty guns, less than 100 were picked out in good condition. After a night of labor, the heavy artillery and most of the ammunition were transported to the Liberty wheel.

The situation of the war is changing rapidly, and Li Guang is not sure about the next time window for transporting ammunition. In order to save the time for the landing craft to dock, the biggest gain of the naval resistance army this night was not artillery, nor shells, but tanks.

Nearly 100 French B1 heavy tanks and British-made Matilda 1 tanks were transported to the Freewheel. In terms of value, these tanks are not the highest, but these big guys are able to act on their own and ship extremely quickly. And because the tanks are large enough, they occupy a lot of weight, and only 100 tanks occupy 1,800 tons of load.

In the past few days, Li Guang's most important and laborious collection of dozens of three-inch antiaircraft guns finally landed on this night. Seeing these good things being hoisted onto the boat one by one, Scrooge Li Guangcai breathed a sigh of relief. With these anti-aircraft guns, the anti-aircraft fire on the pickup destroyer can be considered complete, relying only on small-caliber anti-aircraft artillery fire, although the firepower is intensive, but the range is not enough, and there are still loopholes in the air defense.

By 8 a.m. on 1 June, after more than 10 hours of all-out transportation, the Liberty Wheel was already overweight by more than 1,000 tons. Not only in the cabin, but also on the upper deck were munitions, and in the cabin were cannons and cannons, and tanks were stacked with tanks, and there was almost nowhere to put their feet. Li Guang looked at it, he couldn't pretend anymore, don't sink the free wheel, then it's too late to cry. The Liberty was immediately ordered to evacuate under the escort of the destroyer USS Pickup and three submarines.

Li Guang was once proud that his retreat order was given just right.

On June 1, 1940, the weather turned clear, the Luftwaffe went all out, and the British Air Force went-for-tat, almost pouring out all the planes that could be sent, from the "Spitfire", "Hurricane" single-seat fighters, "Dreadnought" two-seat fighters to "Hudson" bombers, biplane "Swordfish" torpedo planes, and even reconnaissance planes were put into Dunkirk, but the German fighters did an excellent job of intercepting the British planes and effectively covering the bombers' attacks, although the German planes were shot down 23 planes. But 31 ships, including 4 destroyers full of officers and men, were sunk, and 11 were heavily damaged, which was the heaviest day for the British army!

Eight landing craft of the Maritime Resistance Army also suffered heavy losses on this day, three were sunk by the bombing, and one person was killed again.

In such a fierce battle in the air, bombs, and shells flew in all directions, Alexander, who was known for his composure and calmness, became more and more fearless, installed canvas deck chairs on the beach, sat on them with a calm demeanor, and calmly watched the troops board the ship in an orderly manner, or strolled on the beach while munching on apples, not caring about the roar of planes in the air and the flying of artillery fire on the ground. The orderly next to him also held a mirror for him; There was also a soldier who sat in the stern of the boat and fished leisurely, and the troops were full of contempt for the German bombing.

Li Guang scoffed at Alexander's steady demeanor. Such a powerful army, such good equipment, was actually dumpled by the Germans. Li Guangke was reluctant to accompany Alexander on the ground to be bombed, so he carefully hid behind the rocks and admired the war in Europe. According to Li Guang's view, the British army was really well-trained, and the technical and tactical level of the French army was not bad, but what was missing was the war mentality from top to bottom and the spirit of sacrifice.

From 1 June onwards, the British and French defenses on the battlefield began to struggle significantly. It is definitely not so easy to say that the Anglo-French forces were also tenacious enough to resist the attack of the German armored lions. A few days earlier, the Anglo-French forces had to resist mostly infantry and armored units, and by the first day of June, the German follow-up troops had clearly reached the front line, and the density of fire was greatly increased. Li Guang was in the headquarters, and he saw that the battle line was retreating every hour on the map - the British and French forces were no longer able to hold on.

Perhaps the free wheel was already fully loaded, and Li Guang was relaxed. Perhaps it was because of the battlefield of blood and fire for several days, Li Guang's nerves were thickened, and he could appreciate it with a relaxed mood in the face of such a terrifying battlefield. In the past few days, very few shells have fallen on the beach, except for the disturbance of German fighters, but by 1 June, the German heavy artillery units were able to free up their hands to attack the beach.

The most terrifying artillery bombardment experienced by the Naval Resistance Force was the salvo of the main guns of the Chilean battleship, and the power of that kind of huge cannon can be described as devastating and terrifying. However, at that time, the naval resistance army had bunkers and fortifications, although many of them could not withstand the power of the giant cannon at all, but they had some psychological protection.

On this bare beach, the German artillery fire was not intensive, but no one knew whose head the next shell would fall. It depends on luck to survive. This may be the cruelty of war, and it doesn't matter if you work hard or not.

Although the Navy's resistance army only spent a few days on the beach, it was already an old bird compared to the flowing British and French soldiers. A sewer has long been a hidden roadway for the Naval Resistance Army. Man is a strange animal, and many fighters experienced air raids for the first time, and shelled for the first time. But a few days later, these fighters were able to try to determine the impact point based on the sound of the shells in the screech of the shells.

Before Li Guang made enough money, he had to participate in the rescue day and night.

But as soon as the supplies were sufficient, Li Guang immediately ordered the infantry company to board the ship. The armored company also left only two platoons to continue collecting supplies. However, the materials searched for this time were not picky, and they almost pulled whatever they saw, but all the large items weighing more than three tons were abandoned, and the crane equipped on the guano ship was only three tons.

The guano ships were also ordered to carry people only at night, and for the sake of the British, it was not worth it to take the surname of their own brothers. In this war that was not Chinese, the naval resistance army had already lost eight people, with a total of more than 70 casualties, and it was really impossible to continue to risk the lives of the brothers.

On the evening of June 1, a guano boat was dispatched to transport weapons and ammunition.

On June 2, due to the great threat of German aircraft, and considering that the British Air Force had exhausted all its resources, in order to preserve enough air power to be used in the future war, the British army was forced to stop the daytime retreat and only use the night organization to retreat.

The explanation from the top is beautiful, right? Preserve strength. In fact, it is to save the Air Force and abandon the Army. The British's inner man has a price.

As soon as night fell, a fleet of ships of all kinds set sail from England, and before midnight arrived at Dunkirk, where the last British expeditionary force boarded from the East Causeway.

A guano ship, loaded with ammunition overnight, had already made its way south to catch up with the Liberty. The tonnage of the cranes on the guano ships was too small, and it was difficult to lift large weapons. The German artillery fire was already able to cover the sea in the early morning, and the guano boats reluctantly left.

The benefits of guano boats are not large compared to those of the freewheels, but they are also very considerable. In order to be able to load the ship as soon as possible, the number of vehicles and motorcycles loaded on the guano ship is the largest, followed by weapons and ammunition.

On the evening of June 3, the armored units of the German 18th Army rushed into the city of Dunkirk, and about 40,000 French troops who were the last rearguard on the beach "did not have time to evacuate" and were all captured.

Vice Admiral Ramsay announced the end of Operation Dynamo.

The evacuation lasted nine days, beginning on May 25 and ending on June 3, 1940. In just nine days, this unprecedented "Dunkirk fleet" saved 340,000 troops from the death trap, saved a large number of vital forces for the Allied counteroffensive, and created a miracle in the history of World War II.

But what made Li Guang strange was why the guano boat transported a full 50,000 people, and how did the British and French troops still rescue 340,000 as in history?

The reason is very simple, there are no 40,000 French troops who were the last to be captured to carry the German attack to the death, and no amount of ships can transport people. It should be said that the French army was quite persevering in its defensive operations, knowing that it would be abandoned, and still fought until the last moment, until the retreat on the beach was completed.

These 40,000 people were captured as in history, and it was tragic. But this is not a war for the Chinese, and Li Guang does not have much emotion about it.

Another reason was that Li Guang's presence slightly affected the course of the war. Li Guang's artillery attack frustrated the German offensive on the southern front, but instead concentrated more on the eastern offensive, and the attack was faster, occupying Dunkirk twelve hours earlier than the historical German army. As a result, the total number of people rescued was still about 340,000.

At the end of the rescue operation, it cannot but be said that the British general was ruthless enough. More than 40,000 French troops were abandoned. This kind of large-scale spending, Li Guang thinks that he is ruthless. The supplies that Li Guang obtained during this large-scale retreat were on the one hand, and great reputation on the other. And what Li Guang felt most deeply was that it was not easy to be a general. Li Guang believed that the British upper echelons were also unwilling to abandon more than 40,000 French troops, but the choice of surviving with a broken tail was still a choice as a last resort.

The war was extremely cruel, and Li Guang prayed in his heart that he would not encounter such a situation. He didn't know what he would do until that day. It is easy to blame others for giving such cruel orders and making such cruel deployments. Standing on a moral high ground, the coalition generals who can be scolded are bloody. But if you really face such a dilemma one day, how should you deal with it?

In Europe these days, Li Guang's biggest feeling is the gap. The gap between China and Europe. According to Li Guang's calculations, the Anglo-French army had an average of one cannon for every fifteen people.

This data is too amazing, a division of the Chinese army is only eight to twelve 75mm guns plus some mortars, and this is already the configuration of the regular army. If it is a miscellaneous unit, even a division does not have an artillery tube, and can only rely on some mortars to install a façade.

According to Li Guang's analysis, there are three main points in the defeat of the Anglo-French coalition forces: First, the strategic thinking is conservative, and they only know how to defend and defend the Maginot Line, and they do not have the initiative at all.

Second, although the weapons of the coalition forces are very powerful, their configuration is extremely irrational, and their use is also a World War I mentality.

Thirdly, the soldier has not experienced the battlefield. According to Li Guang's experience, even after only a short war, the battlefield performance of soldiers is completely different. If the greatest significance of this retreat is to be evaluated, it should be that Britain and France saved 340,000 soldiers with combat experience. This is extremely critical, battlefield experience is extremely important, and no amount of rigor training can replace the feeling between life and death.

The Germans undoubtedly had a great advantage in this respect, and the German soldiers had already been tempered in Poland. And the Anglo-French army is still a rookie unit.

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