By David H. Lippman
The orders he received didn’t make much sense to Lord Gort, but he was going to obey them.
By the middle of May, 1940, the Allied situation in France was desperate. Hitler’s panzers had cut a bloody swath across the nation from Sedan nearly to the English Channel, trapping the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) to the north, putting its back against the sea, severing its link with the disintegrating French armies to the south.
To regain the situation, the War Office in London ordered General Viscount Gort— John Standish Surtees Prendergast Vereker—the BEF’s Commander-in-Chief, to counterattack and punch a hole in the German drive, cutting it off from its extended supply base across the Meuse River. The attack would be supported from the south by two French armored divisions.
It didn’t seem to be the best of ideas to Gort, who was personally a brave soldier—he held a Great War Victoria Cross, Distinguished Service Order with two Bars, and was wounded four times—but an indifferent strategist. He spent a good deal of time during the “Phony War” fretting over trivia such as whether soldiers should wear their gas mask straps on the right or left shoulder.
NO CREDIT CARD NEEDED
Read this article now for Free!
Enter your email address and a password to finish reading this article now.
— OR —
Subscribe Now!
Subscribe now to All Access Digital for only $3.99 a month and finish reading this article. Unlimited Website Access, Thousands of Searchable Articles, Warfare Newsletter, and more.
Join The Conversation
Comments