Diary May 26, 1940

War Diary, 05-1940, Diary WW2, Year 1940 / 1 minute of reading

Dunkirk Evacuation — Evacuation of wounded British soldiers with lifeboats from Dunkirk.

Diary for Sunday, May 26, 1940:

Sea War

DUNKIRK EVACUATION (Operation Dynamo) begins. Zeebrugge harbor sabotaged by Royal Navy; 4 block ships sunk.

Air War

Spitfire Mk Is destroy 6 Me 109 Es and six Ju 87s over Dunkirk. Stukas pound British forces in Calais Citadel. Berlin falsely claims Calais has fallen. RAF bomb railway targets in Rhineland (night May 26-27).

Western Front

German ground and air forces crush stubborn British resistance in Calais Citadel. Hitler orders Rundstedt to resume advance by ‘armored groups and infantry divisions in direction Tournai-Dunkirk’.
German 6th Army launches powerful assault on Belgians holding Allied left flank. BEF sends reinforcements. French and Belgians withstand violent German attacks between Courtrai and Valenciennes. French recapture several bridgeheads over river Somme east of Amiens.

Home Fronts

Britain: General Sir Edmund Ironside appointed CinC Home Forces; General Sir John Dill appointed CIGS. Day of National Prayer.

Secret War

Admiral Schniewind, Chief of German Naval War Staff, predicts: ‘Evacuation of (BEF) troops without equipment …. is conceivable by means of large numbers of smaller vessels …. even from the open coast. ‘

About The Author

Kretaner

My name is Norman 'Kretaner' and since my childhood I am interested in history and strategy games. Later, I have learned programming and the development of computer games, and finally with the Internet, also web design. I'm in the fortunate position to combine all my interests with my work and to live on a place of my choice, on Crete. All information, figures, specifications and statistics used here had been compiled from a variety of sources and the large, over decades collected, library of the author about military history, WW2 and weapons.