Comments

There have been various comments on my story "Just Wait Till Your Father Gets Home" supposedly correcting my character's reference to the Germans "defeat "at Dunkirk in the Second World War.

In fact I stole the line from an old British TV series, Dad's Army in which the pompous Captain Mainwaring tells the other members of his Home Guard unit that the Germans were "still smarting from their defeat at Dunkirk."

Along with the live T.V. audience I laughed at the irony of the comment. It would appear however, that although the BBC and I share the same British sense of humour, certain members here do not.

The government propaganda machine of the time certainly did try and turn Dunkirk into some kind of victory. The reality was that The British army left behind 2,500 guns, 84,500 vehicles, 77,000 tons of ammunition, 416,000 tons of supplies and 165,000 tons of petrol. 68,000 soldiers were killed or taken prisoner.

A cartoon of by David Low dated 18th June 1940 (just after the fall of France) shows a British soldier shaking his fist at the Luftwaffe bombers overhead. The caption reads: 'Very well, Alone!' It sums up very well the attitude of the British people to the events of the war at that time. There is little doubt that my character, Mr. Arnold would have shared that point of view.

http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/gallery/2002/05/09/verywellalone. jpg

Having said all that I do appreciate all the comments that readers have taken the time to write about my stories and constructive criticism is always welcome. As a history buff, I just thought that I should put the record straight.

I must hold my hand out for this one! I assumed the "Dunkirk Victory" was meant as a joke, but had no idea the phrase had such a distinguished pedigree! Having said that, Field Marshall Gort (the BEF c-in-c) deserves a lot of credit for realising the French were on the point of collapse and being determined to rescue the British Army. I think it was Montgomery who said that the real victory was that the troops lived to fight another day, which they did to no mean purpose. Something to think about yesterday and tomorrow at 11.00 am.

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I would have thought that around Remembrance Sunday there would have been more interest.

An impressive post Hotspur, with some mind-boggling figures quoted. The figures that really count is that some 200000 BEF and 140000 French troops were plucked from the beaches of Dunkirk and did, as Lincoln quite rightly pointed out, live to fight another day.

These men were trained soldiers and their loss would have been a major hammer blow so early in the war and their escape from that small pocket is usually held up as some sort of miracle and I`m not arguing with that. Opinion differs as to who gave the halt order for the armour and why but whether it was Hitler himself, Generals Von Runstedt or Von Kluge or maybe a joint decision it is now regarded as a tactical error and those on the beaches had time to organize for defence and evacuation and we know how the story ended.

I must take a look at your story, it sounds like it could be my cup of char.

Living here 'across the Pond,' I've only seen a few British television comedies on occasion, "Dad's Army" not being one of them; however, I did suspect that the remark about Dunkirk might have been meant sardonically (as a commentary on wartime propaganda)--but in that it case I figured that it was 'pushing it' to have one of the story's characters predict a probable British triumph by Christmas after the British Expeditionary Force had been driven from continental Europe.

Undoubted Adolf Hitler would've at least have approved of the German halt order at Dunkirk, even if he hadn't originally given it, but IMHO it was more of a political decision than a military one. Hitler underestimated the British will to continue fighting, he expected (or at least strongly hoped) to co-opt the British Empire in a 'crusade against Bolshevism'--something he undoubtedly felt would be more likely to occur if the Germans didn't slaughter many thousands of British troops on the beach at Dunkirk.

Even after Dunkirk, it's quite possible that the Germans could've won the war if they'd dropped all the paratroopers they had into southern England and captured a couple major airfields, so that the Luftwaffe could fly in reinforcements and equpment before the B.E.F. could be resupplied. However, for all of his blustering, AFAIK Hitler never seriously planned on invading Great Britain--nor was he ever convinced to commit sufficient German resources to north Africa to capture the Suez Canal, which would've seriously undercut the British ability to fight effectively in the Mediterranean area.

BTW, General (later Field Marshal) Bernard Montgomery was prone to exaggeration (IMHO), I recall that he referred to 'Operation Market Garden,' the last major Allied defeat on the western front in Europe, as "ninety percent successful."

Your forces didn't cross the Rhine, Monty, so it wasn't successful at all... --C.K.

You will be telling us next the Americans won the war for us, CK!

"Market Garden" was a brilliant concept, (as acknowledged by Gen Bradley, one of Montgomery's fiercest critics) which was bedevilled by misfortune, E g the SS Panzer Corps which coincidentally arrived to refit, as it was deemed by Rundstedt as being a safe area. Up till then everything had gone right for the allies after breaking out of Normandy, for this operation anything that could have gone wrong did so.

Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery was unpopular with some of his peers and superiors but idolized by his troops. He was particularly unpopular with some US Generals, Patton and Bradley being the most notable and he had a very strained relationship with Eisenhower and was indeed very nearly sacked at one point for comments he made about Eisenhower`s role in Operation Market Garden.

He had many flaws in his character and even some aspects of his personal life have been brought into question thus it is easy to overlook his achievements. His victory over Rommel in the desert was a turning point in the war and denied the German army access to the Suez Canal and the strategically important oilfields in the Middle East. The victory also provided a much needed morale boost in England when it was needed most and the importance of that campaign should not be underestimated.

CK pointed out Monty`s claim that Market Garden was 90% successful and he did say that but he also said he`d made a mistake and this admission is somewhat unique amongst military leaders. He wasn`t to blame for the weather or the lack of resources allocated to that campaign but the fact remains it was a very bold but poorly planned operation and will always be seen as a bridge too far rather than the catalyst for early victory it was intended to be. He did, in fact, cross the Rhine some months later and made good progress to the Ruhr, encircling Army Group B in the process.

A complex character, not helped by a loveless upbringing and much prone to arrogance and boastfulness which won him few friends but his contribution to the allied cause in WW2 is a matter of historical fact.

CK Your comments about an immediate parachute invasion of England possibly being successful are very wide of the mark.
Notwithstanding the RAF being able to strafe and attack on our own soil; the Royal navy was so incredibly powerful that effective resupply would have been virtually impossible. The only way the Germans could have invaded was first to nullify British air power-which they tried and failed; and then take on the might of the Navy which history slows that except in the U boat battle against commercial shipping they had very few successes in the North Atlantic area.
BTW many British soldiers escaped to fight again via Nantes included my late father-in-law; something that is little known.
Whilst almost the entire war effort was directed to the RAF in 1940, presumably if necessary more resources could have been made available or even bought from the USA if invasion was a serious threat.

Well, Arthur, 'the truth be told': It was those guys from the East, wearing the dark brown uniforms with the red stars as insignia, who did the 'heavy lifting' (and suffered massive casualties) in the land war against the Third Reich... --C.K.