Dunkirk 1940 by Tim Lynch

Author:Tim Lynch
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780750964531
Publisher: The History Press
Published: 2015-02-27T16:00:00+00:00

With the sun at its hottest, for the tired men of 36 Brigade any movement became an effort as they sat and waited. At noon, Brigadier Roupell visited the Buffs. There was little real information he could give them but, painfully aware of the fate of one of his battalions already, gave orders for them to retreat as soon as their position appeared untenable and to head for St Pol, 20 miles to the north.

The Buffs were hit first. Even as Roupell left just after midday, the Germans laid down a barrage of artillery fire in front of them, following it with sustained machine gun fire. Close behind it came motorcycles and armoured cars and by 1230hrs, attacks were coming in from both the east and the south as elements of 1st, 2nd and 6th Panzer Divisions all slammed into 36 Brigade. Almost immediately, the two forward companies were overwhelmed.

The Kents were hit soon afterwards. Roupell had asked them to hold as long as possible to give the Buffs time to disengage but by 1230hrs, tanks and infantry were already moving towards them in extended line. Without any means of communicating other than using runners, individual company commanders were left to guess at what might be happening. As the Germans pushed into gaps in the line, even runners had little chance of making it through. The two battalions fought on alone, neither knowing what the other was doing.

At around 1300hrs, the Buffs were ordered to pull back, but German infiltration by now made it almost impossible for units to communicate. One despatch rider from the left flank at La Herliere, for example, made the ten-mile journey into Doullens after having two bikes shot out from underneath him, narrowly dodging three tanks and killing two Germans with his revolver.14 Perhaps unsurprisingly, many messages did not get through to everyone and among those failing to make it was that to withdraw. Lone pockets of the Buffs held out, it was later found, for up to two hours, but with one Boys rifle for every 2 miles of front, there was little they could do but harass the enemy and delay the inevitable.15 Nevertheless, their defiance had not gone unnoticed. The German war diary notes that ‘ground could only be gained slowly and with continual fighting against an enemy who defended himself stubbornly.’

Meanwhile, to the south, General Guderian’s 2nd Panzer Division had taken Amiens with so little difficulty that he took time out to visit the cathedral before deciding to push on to the sea. In the city, the Germans discovered four American volunteer ambulance drivers, Jack Clement, George King and Gregory Wait under the leadership of Donald Q. Coster of Montreal. All four men had paid their own expenses in order to work for the Red Cross in France and had made a last-minute dash into Amiens to try to evacuate the wounded but were now sheltering in the cellars of the Chateaudun Hospital as it took a direct hit in one of the many raids that morning.

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