![]() ![]() ![]() I recite them in order to explain why it was we did not have, as we could have had, between twelve and fourteen British divisions fighting in the line in this great battle instead of only three. That I judge to be utterly futile and even harmful. I am not reciting these facts for the purpose of recrimination. We sent every man we could to France as fast as we could re-equip and transport their formations. They have suffered severely, but they have fought well. Only three British divisions or their equivalent were able to stand in the line with their French comrades. However, General Weygand had to fight without them. When we consider the heroic resistance made by the French Army against heavy odds in this battle, the enormous losses inflicted upon the enemy and the evident exhaustion of the enemy, it may well be the thought that these 25 divisions of the best-trained and best-equipped troops might have turned the scale. This loss inevitably took some weeks to repair, and in the first two of those weeks the battle in France has been lost. Our Army and 120,000 French troops were indeed rescued by the British Navy from Dunkirk but only with the loss of their cannon, vehicles and modern equipment. This delay entailed the loss of fifteen or sixteen French divisions and threw out of action for the critical period the whole of the British Expeditionary Force. I spoke the other day of the colossal military disaster which occurred when the French High Command failed to withdraw the northern Armies from Belgium at the moment when they knew that the French front was decisively broken at Sedan and on the Meuse. ![]()
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