TNA ADM 234 360

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THE EVACUATION FROM DUNKIRK
CHAP. II
Defences of Dunkirk
It was would be Dunkirk¹. Its local were under the only port du
now obvious that if the B.E.F. defences was to be evacuated the
available Nord, Admiral Abrial, whose command included the Boulogne, Calais and Dun-
in these areas to General Fagalde.
kirk, but on this day (24th May) he delegated command of military forces
and comprised an inner and an outer sector; inner on
The French defences of Dunkirk extended only the as far as the Belgian frontier,
Mardyck Canal to Spyker, thence to Bergues to the frontier and so to the
the outer on the line of the river Aa to St. Omer, thence by Cassel and Steen- sea
voorde to the frontier.¹
the inundations which formed part of the defence scheme of Dunkirk.²
The French now took over the British posts on the Aa and began to operate
Belgian line penetrated
In the late evening the enemy attacked the Belgian line on the Lys, pene-
trating to a depth of 1] miles on a 13 mile front3 and endangering the security
of the British left flank.
It had become a matter of vital importance to keep open the B.E.F.'s line
of communication to the coast through a corridor of withdrawal which was
hourly narrowing. The penetration of the Belgian line made it certain that
before long the whole area east of the Yser canal would be in the hands of the
enemy, with the serious risk of the Belgian right becoming separated from the
British left at Menin, and of the Belgian Army being forced to fall back in a
northerly, rather than a westerly direction.³
25TH MAY
Enemy pincer attack
On the 25th May enemy activity intensified. He was across the canal at
St. Venant, and was developing the bridgeheads between that place and Aire
and also at St. Omer, while further north the situation on the river Aa remained
obscure.
During the day the Belgians continued to withdraw in a north-westerly
direction under enemy pressure.
General Sir John Dill, who had now succeeded General Sir Edmund Ironside
as C.I.G.S., visited Lord Gort in the morning. He then informed the Prime
Minister and the Secretary of State for War that there could be no disguising
the seriousness of the situation.3
By 1800, says Lord Gort, "I was convinced that the steps I had taken to
secure the north. my left flank would prove insufficient to meet the growing danger in
held; ment the the south-west on Dunkirk had already and being
The from pattern of the enemy pincer attack was becoming clearer. One move-
between counterpart was now developing on the developed, front. was The gap
the British left and the Belgian right which Belgian had been threatening
D.R.
3 Lord Lord Gort's Second Despatch, 41.
Gort's Second Despatch, para. para. 42.
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