OTL, Britain and its Allies lost 9 destroyers with another 19 damaged, along with over 190 other vessels sunk, and a similar number damaged. Yes the loss of men would be bad, but infantry can't protect convoys from U-boats, so losing ships would be bad too.
Sir John Valentine Carden survives.
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Yes you may save a ship or two from sinking or damage from the Dunkirk evacuation but the risk of sending more ships than absolutely necessary to Calais that is completely surrounded and cut off mean you may undo some of the benefits their. All it needs is one of the extra ships sent to go down in or around the harbour to make further operations difficult. Besides all current planning is focussed on evacuation so I doubt much thought will be put to sending troops Back to France.
If you're sending ships into Calais at this point they're shipping in food and ammunition and taking out those who need it or are just useless mouths. Calais is now a shrinking pocket, it will either collapse quickly or slowly shrink until just a rear guard is left around the docks surrounded by a ruined town.
If Calais falls while ships are transiting Route Z, those ships will be in artillery range. Also, you will need to reorganise your evacuation plan on-the-fly, because Route Y is much longer (87 miles, vs. just 39 miles for Route Z), which, guess what, means you'll need more ships to keep up the same operational tempo.
Calais COULD be turned into a meat grinder if Gort and Churchill are prepared to sacrifice the garrison to protect the evacuation route.
Yeah, a battalion of infantry per day is worth Route Z as destroyers can probably do 2 runs a night from Dunkirk and the RAF has a much easier daytime cover problem on Route Z vs Y as it is deeper in the radar net and much more loiter time on station
Yep. A 10 knot steamer can do Route Z in under 3½ hours, but would take over 7½ to do Route Y.
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So here is the thing. We can sit here and theorise that if we put x number of troops into Calais we can evacuate x+n number of troops from Dunkirk quicker. That makes it all make sense, the thing is we are doing that based on hindsight. OTL the estimate was that 20-30000 men would be evacuated and the initial plan was for only 45000 before the perimeter would be overrun. The thing is all the British troops and over 100000 French were evacuated. If Britain were to send men to Calais they would be buying time for more French troops to be evacuated not more British, the British troops are getting out and no-one is going to make the call in Britain.
We also have to think about the mentality of the people making the call at the time. Given how dire the predictions were it is entirely possibly that sending troops to Calais proves pointless as whilst the troops are unloading the defences give and Calais falls. The decision that will be made is that whilst Calais holds it holds and if we can get the men out from their we will, if not tough. This is not let's make the correct call with 80 years of hindsight it's lets make the best call we can with the information to hand.
We also have to think about the mentality of the people making the call at the time. Given how dire the predictions were it is entirely possibly that sending troops to Calais proves pointless as whilst the troops are unloading the defences give and Calais falls. The decision that will be made is that whilst Calais holds it holds and if we can get the men out from their we will, if not tough. This is not let's make the correct call with 80 years of hindsight it's lets make the best call we can with the information to hand.
Calais is going to fall period, it's only a matter of time. The mindset at the time was the whole thing is going to go under sooner rather than later so you could end up sending men to Calais in order to make the Dunkirk evacuation smoother only for Dunkirk to fall and then Calais falls before you can get those men out and the whole exerciser is pointless. As it stands Britain is evacuating the continent, they aren't about to start sending men back on a hope, they want as many men out as possible now.
The German forces besieging Calais aren't besieging Durkirk, so things in Durkirk are significantly better than OTL. In addition, when Calais falls, Route Z becomes unusable, which will jeopardise the entire evacuation. Feeding a few thousand men in will likely mean getting tens of thousands more out of Dunkirk.
Original Timeline, I think Churchill had plans to send troops back to France to try to hold the Brittany Peninsula and to encourage the French to keep fighting.
It's not a bad idea, provided the French keep fighting.
Probably a case of holding them back for future needs. Battleships have a serious turning circle and in the water off Calais and Dunkirk there's sandbanks and shallows all of which restrict mobility and movement. So off Calais you've got a fairly limited area of sea which you can move about in, and the attendant risk of sub and air attacks.
They did OTL use a few destroyers to bombard German assault forces, I think Alan has featured this too in a couple of posts.
The results of ship v tank gunnery duels were not good . . . For the tanks.
Its actually a lot more difficult to board a cruiser from a small boat - higher sides and all. Plus the cruiser had a deeper draft, so the boats have to go out further. And while they can take more men, that means longer stationary taunting the LW.
If had been necessary, the RN would have committed a battleship. That's what they do. As OTL worked out, it wasn't necessary. It actually would only have been a good idea if they had a juicy tank target and some form of spotting, which the Army probably wasn't in a position to do at the time.
If had been necessary, the RN would have committed a battleship. That's what they do. As OTL worked out, it wasn't necessary. It actually would only have been a good idea if they had a juicy tank target and some form of spotting, which the Army probably wasn't in a position to do at the time.
Allan would need to move the thread to ASB
More seriously, no, they simply aren't equipped for this - pretty sure at this point in time the ships couldn't even talk to the aircraft (only the carrier force would be capable of this, and they aren't going anywhere near the channel. And even then, I'm not sure if the FAA and RAF radio setups are compatible.
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