Evacuate the heavy equipment also.
Whilst it would all be nice the only thing that's absolutely vital, aside from the men themselves, are the anti-tank guns. The British had the new 6-pounder ready to begin production about then but they lost so many of the already in-service 2-pounder guns and had the invasion scare that the decision was made to continue 2-pounder production to replace them rather than switch over to 6-pounder production which would have seen a six month or so gap in production. They get enough 2-pounder guns out and they'd feel safe enough to make the switch over.
The Rifle Brigade is evacuated from Calais as it should and could have been rather than a bullshit Churchillian reason to try and show the French Britain was still fighting so leaving it there knowing it could not hold out for longer than it did. It had done its job and it should have been withdrawn via destroyers.
Makes sense.
Also the 51st (Highland) Division being withdrawn sooner from the River Somme positions which it clearly could not cover and ultimately 2 of its Brigades and Divisional troops not going into the bag when all of their 'allies' surrendered around them at St Valery.
That's something I've wondered about, what the hell were the 51st (Highland) Division doing down there anyway? Considering that the rest of the British Expeditionary Force stayed under British command, with the slightly complicated chain of command associated with that, and fought as a group it just seems rather puzzling.
Somehow doing more damage to the probing German armored corps, so they are a little weaker in June and the advance south is delayed by another week the help recover the panzer divisions strength.
The counter-attack at Arras seems the most likely choice for something like that. If they'd been a touch more lucky and things had gone a bit better with 7th Panzer Division being given a seriously mauling before the Anglo-French troops retreat is could have made Hitler and
Oberkommando der Wehrmacht even more cautious than our timeline. Less pressure allows the British to evacuate more men and materiel whilst also delaying
Fall Rot and the advance south.
It seems to me the Brits asked about evacuating the German prisoners. Including ground pounders there were a few thousand. The French wanted them to swap in the cease fire.
Annoying but certainly understandable.
There were several hundred thousand Polish soldiers in France, including two new trained infantry divisions. Getting all those Poles to the ports & getting them all out is almost the reverse of losing the BEF at Dunkirk, 100,000 plus Polish soldiers added to the Commonwealth forces in 1940 makes for some interesting possibilities in the autumn and winter of 1940-41.
I actually
started a thread partly about that, alongside the British playing hardball a bit with the Soviets and in-part basing their supplies on the Soviets evacuating the 200,000 or so Polish prisoners of war via Persia, but it didn't get much interest. By 1944 more evacuees would potentially give them three full corps of an armoured and two infantry divisions each allowing them to form their own small two corps army in Normandy, probably under 21st Army Group. Would extra weight of troops allow them to close the Falaise gap? It's certainly a tempting idea.
How about making Dunkirk into a Tobruk and holding it instead of evacuating? A Asterix version of ww2. "Hitler has taken all of Europe. All of Europe? All except one city in the north of France"
Tobruk held because it was at the end of a long and tenuous Axis supply line. A small enclave in northern France is going to allow the full might of the
Luftwaffe to bomb it around the clock whilst they're fully supplied and operating from close home bases, likewise expect constant artillery shelling from batteries being constantly supplied by railway. Without the distraction of the Eastern front it's going to be nothing but a meat grinder for the British and Commonwealth troops unfortunate to be sent there.
The docks were trashed because some bloody fool ordered that all the guns (including the AA guns) were disabled or destroyed. Having someone actually think about what the evacuation will need in terms of resources will change things a great deal.
That actually happened? Sometimes I'm still honestly surprised that Britain was able to survive and stay in the war during the early years. A bit better planning and co-operation doesn't cost anything and would certainly seem liable to help immensely.