DUNKIRK 1940

During the opening weeks of world war II in the West, Thousands
of soldiers of the British Expeditionary Force and the French First Army,
with their backs to the sea, were evacuated from the European continent
in nine desperate days of fighting on the coast of the English Channel.

the rescue itself was deemed a 'miracle' as a hastily assembled flotilla of military and civilian
vessels of every description ran a gauntlet of air attacks by the German to ferry the troops to safety.
for eight months, the opposing armies had only watched one another warily.  was shattered with the German invasion of France and the Low Countries. in the north 30 division of army group advanced across the frontiers of The Netherlands and Belgium on front. Furher south division of army Group slashed through the Ardennes Forest and skirted the defenses of the Maginot line. Led by one of the world's foremost proponents of mobile warfare. German tanks and motorized infatry swept relentlessly northwest in a great arc reaching the coast in only a days.

The startling swiftness of the German offensive threatened to trap all Allied troops north of the thrust by Army group as Guderians send three panzer divisions racing towards the Channel ports of Boulogne, and Dunkirk. three key position, the French at Belgian Army units along the river and the British at offered resistance to the German onslaught. the Germans captured both boulogne and elements of the Panzer Division had advanced had advanced to within the sole remaining avenue of escape for Allied forces in northen France and Belgium. Although he had been ordered to mount a counterattack in support of the French, commander of the British Expeditionary Force, chose instead to concentrate his troops in the vicinity of dunkirk in order to evacuate as many soldiers as possible to the relative safety of England, the heroic defence of lille by the Franch Battalion Irish Guards and  a battalion of the welsh Guards, Calais by the infantry Brigade, bouht precious time for Gort to prepare a defensive perimeter around. but the effort appeared to be in German tank commanders peered at the town church spires through binoculars.

bombing had set the town of Dunkirk ablaze and the port facilities. Rescue vessels were compelled to risk running aground in the shoals along the beaches or to tie up at one of two 'moles' rocky breakwaters covered with planking wide enough for men to stand three abreast in order to take soldiers aboard. Countless acts of heroism occurred as vessels made numerous shuttle runs. while close to a hundred perished aboard the paddle wheel steamer when a German bomb ripped through its deck and detonated. Nearly one-third of the involved were destroyed but from may until the final rescue run in the predawn, a total Allied soldiers reached England. when the battered and exhausted Allied troops arrived they were welcomed as heroes. townspeople poured out of their homes with food and drink for the famished soldiers. Virtually all of their heavy equipment had been abandoned on the beaches, thousands of their comrades were killed or captured, and the armed forsces of Britain and France had suffered one of the greatest military defeats in their history. yet these men had survived. amid the celebration Churchill groused, wars are not won by evacuation. he late wrote there was white glow overpowering sublime which ran through our island from end to end . . . and the tale of the dunkirk beaches will shine in whaterver records are preserved of our affairs.



Junker's Ju-87 Stukka

The Ju-87 dive bomber was also an attacking aircraft carrying a 250 kg bomb later 500 under its fuselage, a formation of Stuka dive bombers can effectively destroy a formation of ground troops with armor, The Stuka was a form of a flying artillery that can pinpoint targets with deadly accuracy,
flying directly overhead the target, diving at an angle of 90 degrees that no other planes or dive bomber the allies can do , The stuka was unmistakably the only dive bomber that can
dive perfectly vertical.

It was first used in action at the Spanish Civil War where where it came to be effective and successful, In the invasion of France where it cooperated with Panzer forces,
The Stuka was also equipped with sirens making this horrific noise when diving that gives morale discouragement and fear to the enemies.

It has a automatic pull-up system that would kick in to help the aircraft zoom climb after dropping it's payload.

It was with no doubt the most famous  dive bomber of world war 2 with no other allied or soviet bombers can match it's record. In all over the war the Stuka has a distinctive record for the plane that has destroyed a lot and more tanks, vehicles
and ships than other planes.

AFTERMATH
Historians have debated Hitler's reasons for halting the panzers. Some assert that the focus of the Germans was already on the complete defeat of France and the capture of Paris. Others say that Hitler was concerned about the marshy terrain in Flanders, which was less than ideal for the manoeuvring of tanks. The tanks themselves had been driven rapidly and engaged for some time. Many of them undoubtedly needed refitting and some of their precious number would have been lost in an all-out attack on the Allied defenses. Horing had argued that the Luftwaffe was certainly more loyal and fervently Nazi than the leadership of the German Army: therefore, his air arm should be given the honour of annihilating the enemy, In the end, the Luftwaffe had failed to force an Allied capitulation. Thousands of Allied soldiers had escaped death or capture. The miracle of Dunkirk stands an a stirring moment in military history, and Hitler's decision to halt his panzers as one of the great 'what ifs' World War II