Dowding "only" lost nearly 200 planes in one day, and he was about to cry "in tears" in front of Churchill, and the losses were greater than that of the French Air Force. On 18 May, in order to relieve the pressure on the Dunkirk side, Germany's air force almost poured out, and not only did most of the air force be transferred to the Western Front, but even the Hainan Airlines also dispatched planes to participate in the air battle on the Western Front.

The Dunkirk battlefield on the Franco-Belgian border was just one of the fiercest battlefields in this great air battle. On the 18th, the number of fighters of all types directly shot down by the French Air Force exceeded 300. At the beginning of the French campaign, the French Air Force had about 1,600 combat aircraft, in addition to more than 500 provided by the British Royal Air Force to fight directly at airfields in France. As a result, after the end of the air battle on the 18th, the French Air Force directly and permanently lost 20% of its combat strength, and this is not counting those planes that were scrapped on the ground after returning, which can almost be said to be disabled in World War I.

In contrast, the Luftwaffe had just over sixty aircraft shot down and more than a hundred wounded on this day, with much less damage.

That night, in the German official broadcast to the whole country, Goebbels proudly said to all the people on the propaganda channel: "In the air battle during the day today, I have cut the throat of the swan of the French Air Force!" The air battle on the 18th was the last elegy for the French swan. ”

The knock-on effect of the defeat in the air battle over Dunkirk was that the French Army's recapture of Dunkirk was also severely frustrated.

At 10 o'clock in the morning, when the Luftwaffe attack planes from other directions launched the fourth wave of air raids, the officers and men of the French Third Tank Division approaching Dunkirk were already frightened, and they themselves were already in a state of collapse.

This was urgently transferred to prepare for the recapture of Dunkirk by the 3rd Panzer Division of the French Army. Without even touching the edge of Dunkirk, it was blown up on the road battlefield about 35 kilometers away from it, and a large number of tankmen directly abandoned their tanks and fled, and the army was crushed. If there had been a German unit nearby at the time, a small clash would have been able to easily crush the discouraged Panzer Division.

In the morning of the same day. It took the French more than three hours to drive the fleeing tankmen back into the tanks, regroup their troops, and continue to advance towards Dunkirk, but the more than three hours wasted in the process were extremely fatal for the more than 300,000 Anglo-French troops who were surrounded.

When the French 3rd Panzer Division was beaten by constant air raids, it lost its armor and was overwhelmed.

Two armored clusters of the Seventeenth Army commanded by Guderian were frantically advancing towards Dunkirk without hesitation.

Due to the speed of the rush is too fast. Guderian's two tank divisions were already out of touch with the infantry that followed. But although his superiors were uneasy about the speed of his attack, Führer Hitler gave him orders directly from his superiors: assault, assault, assault, all the way to Dunkirk.

Guderian personally led two tank divisions that were not fully manned, including 80 No. 3 tanks and more than 100 No. 3 tanks, had penetrated behind enemy lines of the Anglo-French forces, frantically interspersed and broke through. The Anglo-French team, which was in the midst of a rout, was unable to organize its troops to effectively encircle and annihilate the elite that had burrowed into their stomachs.

As in history, in the course of the assault. More than once, his tank divisions were confronted by large numbers of French soldiers who surrendered to them. But Guderian, who was anxious to "see the sea as soon as possible", did not accept the surrender of these French soldiers at all, and simply told them to pile up their rifles and throw them under the tracks of the tanks to crush them. And then they all drove them away.

"Get out of the way, get out of the way, we're in a hurry!"

That's pretty much what Guderian said to the French soldiers who surrendered.

In the race to Dunkirk, Guderian's tank cluster was also attacked by the Anglo-French air forces.

But the attacks of the Anglo-French air forces simply could not stop the high-speed advance of his tank group.

There are two reasons for the poor effectiveness of the British and French air forces.

First, because their escort fighters were unable to expel the German fighters protecting the German tanks, the British and French bombers were unable to reduce their altitude and bomb threateningly under the threat of interference from the German fighters. Barely flying above the German tank, he hurriedly dropped the bomb, and the accuracy of the hit can be imagined.

Dowding "only" lost nearly 200 planes in one day, and he was about to cry "in tears" in front of Churchill, and the losses were greater than that of the French Air Force. On May 18, in order to relieve the pressure on the Dunkirk side. Not only did most of the air force be transferred to the Western Front, but even the Hainan Airlines also dispatched planes to participate in the air battles on the Western Front.

The Dunkirk battlefield on the Franco-Belgian border was just one of the fiercest battlefields in this great air battle. On the 18th, the number of fighters of all types directly shot down by the French Air Force exceeded 300. At the beginning of the French campaign, the French Air Force had about 1,600 combat aircraft, in addition to more than 500 provided by the British Royal Air Force to fight directly at airfields in France. As a result, after the end of the air battle on the 18th, the French Air Force directly and permanently lost 20% of its combat strength, and this is not counting those planes that were scrapped on the ground after returning, which can almost be said to be disabled in World War I.

In contrast, the Luftwaffe had just over sixty aircraft shot down and more than a hundred wounded on this day, with much less damage.

That night, in the German official broadcast to the whole country, Goebbels proudly said to all the people on the propaganda channel: "In the air battle during the day today, I have cut the throat of the swan of the French Air Force!" The air battle on the 18th was the last elegy for the French swan. ”

The knock-on effect of the defeat in the air battle over Dunkirk was that the French Army's recapture of Dunkirk was also severely frustrated.

At 10 o'clock in the morning, when the Luftwaffe attack planes from other directions launched the fourth wave of air raids, the officers and men of the French Third Tank Division approaching Dunkirk were already frightened, and they themselves were already in a state of collapse.

The 3rd Panzer Division of the French Army, which had been urgently transferred to retake Dunkirk, was blown up on a road battlefield about 35 kilometers away from Dunkirk without even touching the edges of Dunkirk. If there had been a German unit nearby at the time, a small clash would have been able to easily crush the discouraged Panzer Division.

On the morning of that day, the French spent more than three hours driving the fleeing tankmen back into the tanks, regrouping their troops, and continuing to advance towards Dunkirk, but the more than three hours wasted in the process were extremely fatal for the more than 300,000 British and French troops who were surrounded.

When the French 3rd Panzer Division was beaten by constant air raids, it lost its armor and was overwhelmed.

Two armored clusters of the Seventeenth Army commanded by Guderian were frantically advancing towards Dunkirk without hesitation.

Due to the speed of the breakthrough, Guderian's two tank divisions that had broken through were already disconnected from the infantry that followed. But although his superiors were uneasy about the speed of his attack, Führer Hitler gave him orders directly from his superiors: assault, assault, assault, all the way to Dunkirk.

Guderian personally led two tank divisions that were not fully manned, including 80 No. 3 tanks and more than 100 No. 3 tanks, had penetrated behind enemy lines of the Anglo-French forces, frantically interspersed and broke through. The Anglo-French team, which was in the midst of a rout, was unable to organize its troops to effectively encircle and annihilate the elite that had burrowed into their stomachs.

On more than one occasion, as in history, his tank division encountered large numbers of French soldiers who surrendered to them during the assault. But Guderian, who was anxious to "see the sea as soon as possible", did not accept the surrender of these French soldiers at all, and simply told them to pile up their rifles and throw them under the tracks of the tanks to crush them, and then drove them all away.

"Get out of the way, get out of the way, we're in a hurry!"

That's pretty much what Guderian said to the French soldiers who surrendered.

In the race to Dunkirk, Guderian's tank cluster was also attacked by the Anglo-French air forces.

But the attacks of the Anglo-French air forces simply could not stop the high-speed advance of his tank group.

There are two reasons for the poor effectiveness of the British and French air forces.

First, because their escort fighters could not expel the German fighters protecting the German tanks, under the threat of interference from the German fighters, the British and French bombers were unable to lower their altitudes to carry out threatening bombing, and they hurriedly dropped bombs when they barely flew above the German tanks, and the accuracy of the hit can be imagined. It was because their escort fighters were unable to expel the German fighters protecting the German tanks, and under the threat of interference from the German fighters, the British and French bombers were unable to lower their altitudes to carry out threatening bombing, and they barely flew above the German tanks and hurriedly dropped bombs, and the accuracy of the hit can be imagined. Under the threat, the British and French bombers were unable to reduce their altitude to carry out threatening bombing, and barely flew above the German tanks and hurriedly dropped bombs, and the accuracy of the hit can be imagined.

Barely flying above the German tank, he hurriedly dropped the bomb, and the accuracy of the hit can be imagined. Barely flying above the German tank, he hurriedly dropped the bomb, and the accuracy of the hit can be imagined. Barely flying above the German tank and hurriedly dropping bombs,. (To be continued......)

PS: Ask for a thumbs up. I'm too sleepy, I'll proofread it tomorrow