DUNKERQUE 1944-1945
After the fall of the German fortress of Le Havre on 12 September 1944, Allied strategists succumbed to optimism and assumed that the same easy task would be to capture other German strongholds on the English Channel. However, the capture of the port of Le Havre during forty-eight hours of fighting was more of an exception and a rarity than anything the military commanders could count on. Notwithstanding this fact, as early as 13 September 1944, there was a lively correspondence between Allied commanders within the 21st Army Group on how to deal with the remaining German strongholds. The commander of the 1st Canadian Army, General Henry Duncan Graham Crerar, was even convinced that Boulogne, Calais and Dunkirk could also be captured during the advance. He attributed the failure of the first attempt to attack and capture Boulogne to poor leadership.
The commander of the 21st Army Group, Marshal Bernard Montgomery, initially did not object to Crerar's proposal, but later concluded that it was preferable to take Calais first, especially because of the surrounding German artillery batteries, which could still threaten shipping across the entire Channel. The units of the Canadian 1st Army were therefore involved first in the battle for the city of Calais. This operation was code-named Undergo. And the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division really liberated the French port city on 1 October 1944.
In the context of the development of the situation and the preference for the capture of Calais, Marshal Montgomery issued an order on 15 September 1944 that the capture of Dunkirk should not be given such attention and the Canadian 1st Army should prepare for the operation against the Belgian city of Antwerp. The same day and the following day, all infantry brigades of the Canadian 2nd Infantry Division – the 4th, 5th and 6th – were also ordered to move into the area of Antwerp.
General Charles Foulkes, commander of the Canadian 2nd Infantry Division, received reinforcements on the evening of 16 September 1944, in the form of Special Forces - the British 4th Special Service Brigade - to replace the detached Canadian units. A day later, units of the British Royal Army's 107th Heavy Anti-Aircraft (H.A.A.) Brigade also began to take up positions around "Festung Dünkirchen". Both units were temporarily placed under the command of the Canadian 2nd Infantry Division. British Marine Rangers from the 4th Special Service Brigade started to take over the area from the morning of 18 September 1944. And still that day, the Canadian 5th and 6th Infantry Brigades were able to move in two stages into the Antwerp area.
Apparently, the Allied command still did not know what to do with the German stronghold of Dunkirk. On 23 September 1944, Brigadier Bernard W. Leicester, commander of the 4th Special Service Brigade, received orders from Lieutenant General Guy Granville Simonds, the interim commander of the Canadian 1st Infantry Division, to move to the Netherlands. The new task of this brigade was to take Walcheren Island. The brigade was replaced by the 154th Infantry Brigade of the British 51st (Highlands) Division. The actual takeover of the area around Dunkirk took place on the night of 26-27 September 1944.
as Also on September 30, 1944, the 2nd Canadian Heavy Anti-Aircraft regiment, which had already previously been part of the 107th H.A.A. Brigade, moved from the Calais area to Dunkirk, just with the fact that this regiment was the only part of this brigade that arrived in this area with a delay.
The 1st Black Watch battalion had its headquarters in the town of Loon-Plage, the 7th Argylls battalion in the town of Bray-Dunes, and the 7th Black Watch battalion in Ghywelde. The latter two battalions had to face a fierce German attack on the night of 26 - 27 September 1944. During the operation of the 154th Infantry Brigade, an exchange of prisoners, wounded and the evacuation of civilians from Dunkirk took place. The French Red Cross initiated an initiative on the basis of which the Canadian and German commands agreed to conclude a temporary truce between 6:00 p.m. on 3 October 1944 and 6:00 a.m. on 6 October 1944. The purpose of this truce was to evacuate French civilians and wounded Allied soldiers from Dunkirk between 6:00 a.m. on 4 October 1944 and 6:00 p.m. on 5 October 1944. Later, the time for evacuation was extended by four hours until 10:00 p.m. on 5 October 1944. According to various sources, 218 Allied trucks from Dunkirk carried between 17,500 and 18,500 civilians to the rear, among whom were approximately 150 wounded German and Allied soldiers. Around 8,000 civilians were immediately transported by train to the Lille area, while the rest were placed in the region, with the exception of approximately 500 civilians who remained in Dunkirk. As for the evacuation, we may recall that it took place exactly within the limits of the orders of the German command, which, as early as late September 1944, alerted the commanders of the besieged fortresses to the difficulties that supplying the civilian population might cause and recommended sending all civilians from "Kanalfestungen" to the Allied troops.
The first units of the Czechoslovak Independent Armoured Brigade in Great Britain arrived in the Dunkirk area in the midday hours of 6 October 1944. The Czechoslovaks finally took over the area from the 154th Infantry Brigade on the night of 7/ 8 October 1944 and on the night of 8/9 October 1944. The British brigade moved to the area of the town of Sint-Oedenrode in the southern Netherlands. From 9 October 1944 until the end of the war, all units in the Dunkirk area were subordinated to the command of the Czechoslovak Independent Armoured Brigade in Great Britain.