http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1940
Wikipedia
1940
June 12 – WWII: 13,000 British and French troops surrender to Field Marshal Erwin Rommel at St. Valery-en-Caux.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/timeline/factfiles/nonflash/a1120861.shtml
BBC
Fact File : Battle for St Valéry-en-Caux
4 to 12 June 1940
Theatre: France
Area: The area in and around the town of St Valéry-en-Caux, northern France.
Players: Allies: 51st Highland Division, 1st Armoured Division; French 9th Army Corps. Germany: 7th Panzer Division; 2nd Motor Division; 5th and 31st Infantry Divisions.
Outcome: The 51st Highland Division was forced to surrender after days of desperately defending the town while waiting for an evacuation that never happened.
As British forces were withdrawing from France, Churchill placed the 51st Highland Division under French command after assuring the French that Britain would 'never abandon her ally in her hour of need'. The move was intended to persuade the French to fight on against Hitler as Britain withdrew from the continent.
The bulk of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) had been evacuated from Dunkirk, but the 51st Highland Division was charged with recapturing the Abbeville bridgehead on the Somme. The plan suffered from poor co-ordination between Allied artillery, tanks and infantry, and the attack on 4 June resulted in heavy casualties.
The Germans launched a counter-attack the next day, outflanking the Allies and trapping the 51st Highland Division and elements of the French 9th Army Corps, who withdrew to the coastal town of St Valéry-en-Caux.
Major General VM Fortune, commander of the 51st, asked to be evacuated on 11 June. But the Germans were determined to avoid another Dunkirk and four divisions were put into attack to prevent an evacuation.
Despite fierce Allied defence, the 7th Panzers soon held cliff-top ground overlooking the harbour, making an evacuation highly dangerous. The Highlanders were conducting a desperate defence against advancing Germans while trying, without success, to eject the 7th Panzers from their positions.
The night of 11 June was the Highlanders' last chance to evacuate, but Fortune remained unable to contact the ships he hoped would rescue him and his men. That night, although Fortune was still hoping for evacuation and elements of the 51st were still counter-attacking, the French surrendered. By 12 June, Fortune realised that his position was hopeless and also surrendered.
Dense fog had delayed the Navy's rescue attempt and, although they intended to arrive the next day, it was too late to save the men who fought at St Valéry-en-Caux from spending the war in a PoW camp.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00vs47x
BBC
The Forgotten 51st
In the summer of 2010 the entire country commemorated the heroes of Dunkirk, when an armada of small boats helped save a third of a million Allied troops from France in May 1940. Days later Churchill told the Commons we "would fight them on the beaches" in the next phase of the war. What he neglected to tell them was that we were still fighting as he spoke - members of the 51st Highland Division, alongside their French allies, were still fighting their way across France long after the last boat had left Dunkirk. At the time their story was simply not told, possibly because Churchill didn't want the British public to hear any further bad news. They vanished from France and from the history books simultaneously.
In 'The Forgotten 51st' Iain Macdonald tells the remarkable story of what happened to the men of the 51st Highland Division. The story of those forced to surrender at St Valery en Caux, the story of those that escaped and of those who spent the rest of the war in prison camps. Rich with archive and poignant first hand accounts, this colourful and moving programme brings a rarely aired story back to life to claim its rightful place in history 70 years on.
