29 May 1940. Calais, France.
The firing died away, as the Citadel, 30th Brigade’s HQ, finally fell to the Germans. Brigadier Nicholson and his staff were captured and marched off into captivity. There were still one or two strongpoints in the town and around the docks, but for the 10th Panzer Division, capturing the Citadel marked the completion of a most difficult and costly operation.
The British and French defenders had sold themselves highly, overcome as much by the lack of ammunition and water as by enemy action. The Infantry Tanks of the 8th Bn RTR had provided the infantry with much needed support, but the lack of ammunition had meant that they were abandoned and destroyed by their own crews more than by German fire.
The Royal Navy had provided much needed fire support and a number of small craft, such as echo-sounding yacht Conidaw and the launch Samois had ran in and out carrying in supplies and carrying out the wounded. For five days a Brigade of Infantry, with two companies of tanks, had held off a Panzer Division. The decision not to evacuate the 30th Brigade from Calais the way the 20th Guards Brigade had been pulled out of Boulogne, was done partly to placate the French. Holding Calais to the last man and last round had been the sacrifice asked of Nicholson and his men. They had done more than had been expected of them.
29 May – 3 June 1940. Dunkirk, France.
During the night of 28/29 May more of the BEF had withdrawn in line with the plans made for them. Things became a bit more complicated as the roads towards the coast were congested as both the French and British withdrew, the French heading for the western side of the pocket, the British to the eastern side, often crossing across one another. The French were further hampered by still being mostly horse-powered rather than the motorised British formations.
Daylight saw the procession of ships and boats back and forth between the mole and the beaches, all the while an aerial battle took place above them. Lord Gort had received a request from the Prime Minister to look at sending a relief force to Calais. The commander of the BEF could only imagine someone poring over a map, and not being fully aware of the situation, and so decided it was request to be ignored.
What worried Gort more was the position of the French on the Aa from Gravelines, they had been under heavy pressure from the Germans and, with some British support in the form of Infantry Tanks from 8th Bn RTR had managed to hold. If they withdrew to the canal at Mardyck, as they were threatening to do, then the Germans would be in position to bring up their artillery to within range of Dunkirk. Gort therefore ordered that the remnant of the First Army Tank Brigade to support the French to hold back the Germans to the best of their ability. For the first time elements of the 4th, 7th and 8th Battalions Royal Tank Regiment finally came together, originally all three were meant to form the Tank Brigade. This hadn’t happened before the disaster of the German attack had unfolded. The surviving A11 and A12 Infantry Tanks were barely more than two full Companies worth, but they stiffened the French forces, until the tanks were destroyed by enemy action, or by their own crews after running out of fuel and ammunition.
Over the days that followed the British and French rear-guard troops held off repeated attacks, while the evacuation carried on apace from the beaches and the mole. As far as possible the British troops carried their personal weapons as they evacuated. Some of the units which were in better shape also managed to take some of their heavier support weapons, but most heavy machine guns, mortars, anti-tank guns, and almost all ammunition, were left with the rear-guard to strengthen their positions.
At 23:30hrs on 3 June the signal was received in Dover from Captain Tennant, the RN commander of the evacuation “BEF evacuated.” He had sent it after he, accompanied with General Harold Alexander, the senior Army Officer, toured the beaches and harbour in a motorboat calling for any British troops to show themselves, none did.
193000 BEF soldiers had been evacuated, part of the total of 388000, which would include French troops evacuated the following day and night.
NB Text in italic differs from OTL. Obviously Calais fell earlier, but I think I've added about a day extra of holding out. The other change if the French continuing to hold the line at Gravelines, which takes some pressure off the defenses as the German artillery are a bit farther away. The rest of the evacuation has to be carried out pretty much as OTL. Personal weapons would have been easier to be carried aboard ship from the mole rather than the beaches, but there aren't that many drivers to say that the evacuation could have been done that much better than it was. It was extraordinary in itself, and anything much better is heading for ASB. As OTL all the infantry tanks are lost (except the 3 Valiants of course) and having the 8 RTR in Calais rather than 3 RTR means that there's about fifty less infantry tanks in the UK.
