A Lightning War: Dunkirk
Having got ahead of events in describing Belgium's surrender, we must now go back for the eight days that had elapsed between that and the arrival of the first panzers at Abbeville. Weygand's cancellation of a crucial order on 19th May, had left the Allied armies from Antwerp to Arras in a state of suspension - if that is what it can be called as the troops continued to defend a shrinking perimeter. The breakthrough had, militarily, made the position of all these troops impossible. They were hemmed in, in the north, by the 6th and 18th German Armies, with the former's panzer division, now released by the fall of Holland. Further south, the artillery and infantry of the 4th, 12th and 16th Armies were advancing through country already nominally taken by the panzer divisions who had streamed down towards the Somme, and of which two were already on the road north to Boulogne and Calais.
After the attempted breakout by the British , supposedly to join up with the French 2nd Army coming up from the south but who never moved, Lord Gort withdrew north towards Lille on 24th. At this date, with the encirclement taking more effect as the full strength of the German armies reached the front lines, the Allied armies were contained within a relatively small pocket having its base on the coast from Gravelines to Terneuzen, and extending and narrowing inland to the area around Valenciennes. Having gained some time for the withdrawal of various divisions, now Gort and the BEF were presented with a further respite from a completely unexpected source - Hitler! For, on 24th, as Guderian's panzers reached the Aa Canal near Gravelines, and were already preparing to advance to take Dunkirk, the order came to halt. Although it came direct from Hitler, it seems certain now that it was on the advice of Rundstedt. As a good general, he could only look on the extended lines of the panzers as dangerous and he argued for the halt to allow the regular units to catch up, to protect his supplies and communications. Somehow he blinded himself to the reality of the situation whereby a continued advance to take Dunkirk would completely entrap the Allied armies with no hope of rescue or retreat by sea. Hitler later said he had other, political, reasons for the order but they are obscure and only bring one back to the conclusion that he and Rundstedt were overwhelmed by the extent of their success and did not know how to exploit it. Whatever the reason, the Allies were made a present of a delay, and Gort, who had already been ordered to evacuate the BEF, used it effectively in deploying three divisions and a mass of heavy artillery to oppose the panzer divisions and other German units now drawn up along the Aa Canal between the coast and Douai.
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