Operation Aerial

Operation Aerial
Part of the Battle of France
Ports used during the evacuation of Allied forces
Date Template:Start and end date Location French Atlantic coast
Belligerents
United Kingdom Canada French Third Republic Belgium Polish government-in-exile Czechoslovak government-in-exile	Nazi Germany
Commanders and leaders
Alan Brooke	Gerd von Rundstedt Helmuth Förster

Operation Aerial (also Operation Ariel) was the name given to the Second World War evacuation of Allied forces and civilians, from ports in western France, from 15 to 25 June 1940. The evacuation followed the military collapse in the Battle of France against Nazi Germany, after Operation Dynamo, the evacuation from Dunkirk and Operation Cycle, an embarkation from Le Havre, which finished on 13 June. British and Allied ships were covered from French bases by five Royal Air Force (RAF) fighter squadrons and assisted by aircraft based in England, to lift British, Polish and Czech troops, civilians and equipment from Atlantic ports, particularly from St Nazaire and Nantes.

The Luftwaffe attacked the evacuation ships and on 17 June, evaded RAF fighter patrols and sank the Cunard liner and troopship HMT Lancastria in the Loire estuary. The ship sank quickly and vessels in the area were still under attack during rescue operations, which saved about 2,477 passengers and crew. The liner had thousands of troops, RAF personnel and civilians on board and the number of the passengers who died in the sinking is unknown, because in the haste to embark as many people as possible, keeping count broke down. The loss of at least 3,500 people made the disaster the greatest loss of life in a British ship, which the British government tried to keep secret on the orders of Winston Churchill, the British Prime Minister.

Some equipment was embarked on the evacuation ships but lack of reliable information about the progress of the German Army towards the coast, rumours and alarmist reports, led some operations to be terminated early and much equipment was destroyed or left behind. The official evacuation ended on 25 June, in conformity with the terms of the Armistice of 22 June 1940 agreed by the French and German authorities but informal departures continued from French Mediterranean ports until 14 August. From the end of Operation Dynamo at Dunkirk, Operation Cycle from Le Havre, elsewhere along the Channel coast and the termination of Operation Aerial, another 191,870 troops were rescued, bringing the total of military and civilian personnel returned to Britain during the Battle of France to 558,032, including 368,491 British troops.

Background

Royal Navy

See also: Norwegian Campaign

The evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) from Dunkirk left a surplus of men on the lines-of-communication, base depots and other establishments among the 140,000 troops still in France. Sufficient lines-of-communication personnel for an armoured division and four infantry divisions and an Advanced Air Striking Force (AASF) were to be retained and the rest returned to Britain. Naval operations in the Norwegian Campaign and the evacuation of Dunkirk had suffered losses, which temporarily weakened the Home Fleet, particularly in smaller vessels needed to escort evacuation ships from the French Atlantic coast. Losses inflicted on the surface ships of the Kriegsmarine made it impossible for the Germans to challenge British naval supremacy in the English Channel and the Bay of Biscay. Seven German submarines patrolling off the west coast of France made no attempt to interfere and only the Luftwaffe was used against the evacuations. Operation Aerial was commanded by Admiral William Milbourne James, the Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth. James lacked the vessels necessary for convoys and organised a flow of troopships, storeships and motor vehicle vessels from Southampton, coasters to ply from Poole and the Dutch schuyts to work from Weymouth, while such warships as were available patrolled the shipping routes. Demolition parties sailed in the ships but it was hoped that supplies and equipment could be embarked as well as troops.

RAF

See also: Haddock Force

Satellite photograph of the western English Channel between south-west England and north-west France

After Dunkirk, the AASF squadrons in France had been moved to the area between Orléans and Le Mans during the lull before Fall Rot, the German offensive over the Somme and Aisne rivers. From the new bases, the AASF was able to operate anywhere along the front but after the German breakthrough on 11 June, British Air Forces in France (Air Vice-Marshal Arthur Barratt) was warned by the Air Ministry to be ready for a quick getaway from France. The British squadrons were moved west to bases around Angers, Saumur, Rennes and Nantes, which were already full of French aircraft and severely congested. Barratt sent the light bomber squadrons back to England on 15 June and kept the five fighter squadrons to cover the evacuation of RAF ground staff and the three British divisions commanded by Brooke.

After Marshal Philippe Pétain requested an armistice on 17 June, Barratt had to defend seven ports on the Atlantic coast and sent the AASF anti-aircraft batteries to La Pallice and La Rochelle, the least important embarkation harbours. Nantes and St Nazaire, the most important ports, were covered by 1 Squadron, 73 Squadron and 242 Squadron, with a small detachment covering Brest. Saint-Malo and Cherbourg were protected by 17 Squadron and 501 Squadron from the aerodrome at Dinard across the bay from Saint-Malo, then later from the Channel Islands. Fighter Command squadrons from RAF Tangmere were also available for Cherbourg and Coastal Command prepared to escort returning ships. Once the arrangements were made, Barratt left for England and the Senior Air Staff Officer (SASO), Air Vice-Marshal Douglas Evill took over.

Operations Dynamo and Cycle

Main articles: Operation Dynamo and Operation Cycle

Abbeville

St Valery

Le Havre

Rouen

Cherbourg

Brest

Channel Coast ports

Operation Dynamo, the evacuation at Dunkirk from 26 May to 3 June, had rescued much of the fighting element of the BEF. Some combat units from the 1st Armoured Division, the Beauman Division and more than 150,000 support and line-of-communication troops, had been cut off in the south by the German dash to the sea. By the end of May, medical stores had been removed from Dieppe and a demolition party landed, ready to blow up the port infrastructure. A big depot at Le Havre had been run down by using it to feed troops in the area and removing the military stores not immediately needed. A reserve of motor transport collected at Rouen had been used as transport for improvised units and specialised ammunition had been moved from the reserve around Buchy but the removal of the huge quantity of ordinary ammunition accumulated there was impossible.

On 9 June, the French commander at Le Havre contacted the 10th Army and the 51st (Highland) Division with a message that the Germans had captured Rouen and were heading for the coast. Ihler, the IX Corps commander and Major-General Victor Fortune, commander of the 51st Highland division, decided that the only hope of escape was through Le Havre and abandoned the plan to retire through Rouen. The port admiral requested enough ships from the Admiralty to remove 85,000 troops but this contradicted the plans of the French supreme commander Maxime Weygand and the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, General John Dill hesitated, ignorant that Weygand's delay in issuing the orders had made it impossible. Karslake had also urged several times that the retirement be accelerated but had no authority to issue orders. Only after receiving a message during the night from Fortune, that the 51st Division was participating in a retreat by IX Corps towards Le Havre, did Dill learn the true situation.

Fortune detached a force to guard Le Havre comprising the 154th Infantry Brigade, A Brigade of the Beauman Division, two artillery regiments and engineers, known as Arkforce (Brigadier Stanley-Clarke), which moved on the night of 9/10 June towards Fécamp, where most had passed through before the 7th Panzer Division arrived. A brigade forced its way out but lost the wireless truck intended to keep contact with the 51st (Highland) Division. The possibility of holding a line from Fécamp to Lillebonne was discounted and Stanley-Clarke ordered Arkforce on to Le Havre. A Royal Navy demolition party had been in Le Havre since late May and the port was severely bombed by the Luftwaffe on 7 June and two days later, the Admiralty sent orders for an evacuation. James sent a flotilla leader, HMS Codrington, across the Channel, accompanied by six British and two Canadian destroyers, smaller craft and many Dutch schuyts.

A hasty plan was made to block Dieppe harbour and on 10 June, HMS Vega (Captain G. A. Garnon-Williams) escorted three blockships to the port. Two were sunk in the approach channel but the third ship hit a mine just outside, which prevented it being sunk at the entrance to the inner harbour. Beach parties landed at Le Havre to take control of the evacuation on 10 June and after a 24-hour postponement, the evacuation began on 11 June. The embarkation was hindered somewhat by the damage to the port caused by Luftwaffe bombing, damaging the troopship SS Bruges, which had to be beached and cut the electric power, rendering the cranes on the docks useless; loading vehicles via ramps was tried but was too slow. On 12 June, RAF fighters began patrolling the port and deterred more raids and an attempt was made to save the transport and equipment by diverting it over the Seine via the ferry crossings at Caudebec or the ships at Quillebeuf at the river mouth. The quartermaster of the 14th Royal Fusiliers succeeded in getting the transport away. The greatest number of troops were removed on the night of 12/13 June and the evacuation was completed by dawn; of 11,059 British troops evacuated, 9,000 men of A Brigade of the Beauman Division were taken to Cherbourg and the 154th Infantry Brigade sailed via Cherbourg to England.

St Valery-en-Caux

On 10 June British destroyers reconnoitred the smaller ports to the east of Le Havre. HMS Ambuscade was damaged by artillery-fire from the cliffs near St. Valery-en-Caux during the evening. Troops not needed to hold the perimeter at St Valery moved down to the beaches and the harbour but no ships arrived, because thick fog prevented them from moving inshore. An armada of 67 merchant ships and 140 small craft had been assembled but few had wireless and the fog ruined visual signalling; only at Veules-les-Roses were many soldiers rescued, under fire from German artillery, which damaged the destroyers HMS Bulldog, HMS Boadicea and Ambuscade. Near dawn, the troops at the harbour were ordered back into the town, then discovered that the local French commander had negotiated a surrender. A total of 2,137 British and 1,184 French soldiers were rescued but over 6,000 men of the 51st (Highland) Division were taken prisoner on 12 June.

Prelude

2nd BEF

On 2 June, Lieutenant-General Brooke visited the War Office, having returned from Dunkirk on 30 May and was told by Dill to go back to France to assemble another BEF. In the emergency, the force would be the 51st (Highland) Infantry Division and 1st Armoured Division already in France, with the 52nd (Lowland) Infantry Division and the 1st Canadian Infantry Division from Britain, to be followed by the 3rd Infantry Division as soon as it was re-equipped. The II Corps headquarters was spread around Britain after its return from Dunkirk and his first choice of chief of staff was busy with General Lord Gort, the former BEF commander, writing dispatches. Brooke warned Dill and the secretary of state for war, Anthony Eden, that the enterprise was futile, except as a political gesture. He was told that on return to France he would come under the authority of Weygand. In France, Fonblanque was still in command of the lines-of-communication troops of the original BEF and lieutenant-generals Henry Karslake and James Marshall-Cornwall were assisting with command. A brigade group (the 157th Infantry) of the 52nd (Lowland) Division departed for France on 7 June and Brooke returned five days later.

On 13 June, the RAF made a maximum effort to help the French armies that had been broken through on the Marne. The Germans were across the Seine in the west and the French armies near Paris fell back, isolating the Tenth Army on the Channel coast. The German advance threatened the airfields of the AASF, which was ordered to retreat towards Nantes or Bordeaux, while supporting the French armies for as long as they kept fighting. The AASF flew armed reconnaissance sorties over the Seine from dawn and German columns were attacked by a force of 10 Battles, then a second formation of 15 Battles followed by 15 Blenheims. On the Marne, 12 Battles attacked a concentration of German troops and tanks, followed by an attack by 26 Battles, which lost six aircraft and then a third attack by 15 Blenheims from Bomber Command, that lost another four. RAF attacks continued through the night, with 44 sorties over the Seine, 20 north of Paris, 41 on the Marne and 59 against road and rail communications and against woods reported by the French to be full of German troops. Fighter sorties had been hampered by bad weather and were limited to coastal patrols.

Next day, attacks resumed against German units south of the Seine but the weather had worsened and fewer sorties were flown. A raid by 24 Blenheims with fighter escort was made on Merville airfield for a loss of 7 aircraft and ten Fighter Command squadrons patrolled twice in squadron strength or provided bomber escorts, in the biggest effort since Dunkirk, as fighters of the AASF patrolled south of the Seine. During the night, 72 bombers attacked German marshalling yards forests and dropped mines in the Rhine river for a loss of two aircraft. The remnants of the 1st Armoured Division and two brigades of the Beauman Division were south of the river, along with thousands of lines-of-communication troops but only the 157th Infantry Brigade of the 52nd (Lowland) Division, which had commenced disembarkation on 7 June, engaged in military operations, occupying successive defensive, positions under command of the Tenth Army. The French armies were forced into divergent retreats, with no obvious front line; on 12 June, Weygand had recommended that the French government seek an armistice, which led to the abortive plan to create a defensive zone in Brittany.

On 14 June, Lieutenant-General Alan Brooke was able to prevent the rest of the 52nd (Lowland) Division being sent to join the 157th Infantry Brigade Group and during the night Brooke was informed that he was no longer under French command and must prepare to withdraw the British forces from France. Marshall-Cornwall was ordered to take command of all British forces under the Tenth Army as Norman Force and while continuing to co-operate, withdraw towards Cherbourg. The rest of the 52nd (Lowland) Division was ordered back to a defence line near Cherbourg, to cover the evacuation on 15 June. The AASF was also directed to send the last bomber squadrons back to Britain and use the fighter squadrons to cover the evacuations. The German advance over the Seine had paused while bridges were built but the advance began again during the day, with the 157th Infantry Brigade Group engaged east of Conches-en-Ouche with the Tenth Army. The army was ordered to retreat to a line from Verneuil to Argentan and the Dives river, where the British took over an 8 miles (13 km) front either side of the Mortagne-au-Perche–Verneuil-sur-Avre road. German forces followed up quickly and on 16 June, 10th Army commander General Robert Altmayer ordered the army to retreat into the Brittany peninsula.

Breton redoubt

Topographic map of Brittany

.

On 29 May, the Prime Minister of France, Paul Reynaud, replied to Weygand, rejecting his recommendation that an armistice be considered and asked him to study the possibility that a national redoubt could be established around a naval port in the Brittany peninsula, to retain freedom of the seas and contact with French allies. The idea was discussed by the French and British governments on 31 May and an operational instruction was drawn up on 5 June, in which Brooke was appointed to command the new BEF ("2nd BEF") being prepared for France. Plan W, the original plan to land the BEF in 1939 was used, with the 52nd (Lowland) Infantry Division being directed to Cherbourg, to assemble at Evreux, ready to support the 51st (Highland) Infantry Division north of the Seine. On 6 June, Weygand issued orders to begin work on the redoubt, under the command of General René Altmayer.

German forces crossed the Seine on 9 June, cutting off the 51st (Highland) Division north of the river, two days after 52nd (Lowland) Division had begun to land and the assembly point of the division was changed to Rennes in Brittany; the 157th Infantry Brigade which had arrived first, was directed to Beaumont near Le Mans, the rest of the division to follow on. The 1st Canadian Infantry Brigade of the 1st Canadian Infantry Division began its arrival at Brest on 11 June and was sent to Sablé-sur-Sarthe, on the assumption that two fresh divisions would be enough to allow the Tenth Army to retreat through them and take up positions prepared around the Brest peninsula. That day, the Anglo-French Supreme War Council met at Briare and General Charles de Gaulle (minister of war) was sent to Rennes to survey progress on the redoubt; on 12 June, de Gaulle reported that Quimper would be a favourable place for the government to retreat to, since it would be easy to take ship to England or Africa, since the prospect of maintaining a redoubt in Brittany was non-existent.

Altmayer had reported that work had begun on defences, civilian labour had been recruited and 3,000 Polish troops had arrived to begin work, despite a lack of civil engineering machinery. Churchill visited France for the last time on 13 June, met Reynaud and approved the project. Brook had visited the 1st Canadian Division in England to give the gist of the plan and met Weygand and Georges at Briare on 14 June, where all agreed that the plan was futile; the will of the civilian leadership had to be respected and the generals signed a joint agreement. Brooke telephoned Dill in London to find that no agreement had been made with the French and after checking called with the news that "Mr. Churchill knew nothing about the Brittany project". Churchill was of the view that the new corps forming in France should stay, at least until the final French collapse then return through the nearest port. Without the support of the 52nd (Lowland) Division on the left flank, the Tenth Army was cut off from Brittany, when two German divisions got into the peninsula first and forced the French line of retreat south to the Loire. French troops already in the area were able to join the main French force, after the Canadians had departed for England.

Evacuations

Cherbourg and Saint-Malo

Initially headquarters in England were reluctant to accept that evacuation was necessary, and on 15 June Alan Brooke was told by Dill that "for political reasons" the two brigades of the 52nd Division under Drew could not be embarked from Cherbourg at present. After further telephone discussions that day with Dill and Eden, when he said shipping and "valuable hours" were being wasted, he got permission to embark the gunners but not the infantry. Most of the 52nd Lowland Division and the remnants of the 1st Armoured Division embarked from 15 to 17 June. The Beauman Division and Norman Force, both improvised formations, left on the evening of 17 June and the rearguard battalion was evacuated in the afternoon of 18 June. A total of 30,630 men were rescued from Cherbourg and taken to Portsmouth. At Saint-Malo, 21,474 men, mostly of the 1st Canadian Division, were evacuated from 17–18 June; all but 789 passengers being British; no-one was killed and no ship was damaged. The Luftwaffe tried to intervene but was thwarted by the RAF and the 1st Canadian Division suffered only six losses during its brief excursion to the Continent; five men were reported missing and one man was killed; four of the missing were interned and then made it back to England.

Brest

RAF personnel being evacuated from Brest

The evacuation from the southern ports on the Bay of Biscay was commanded by Admiral Sir Martin Dunbar-Nasmith, the Commander-in-Chief of Western Approaches Command based in Devonport. The evacuation was made more difficult by a lack of information from Brest, St Nazaire and Nantes. Brest is a port city in the Finistère département in Brittany in north-west France, where a sense of urgency was communicated by the Cabinet in London and the evacuation was conducted quickly, albeit with some confusion; guns and vehicles which could have been removed were destroyed needlessly. The Germans were known to be in Paris and advancing southwards, but information about German progress was inaccurate, mainly being rumour. The ships, including the Arandora Star, Strathaird and Otranto rescued 28,145 British and 4,439 Allied personnel, mostly RAF ground crew from 16–17 June and the ships with room to spare were sent south to St Nazaire and the French wrecked the harbour facilities with assistance from the British demolition party. The French ships sailed and on 19 June the demolition party was removed aboard the destroyer HMS Broke.

St Nazaire and Nantes

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References

• Alanbrooke, Field Marshal Lord (2002). Danchev, Alex; Todman, Daniel. eds. War Diaries (Phoenix Press, London ed.). London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 978-1-84212-526-7. 
• Brodhurst, R. (2001). "The Royal Navy's Role in the Campaign". In Bond, B.; Taylor, M. D.. The Battle for France & Flanders Sixty Years On. Barnsley: Leo Cooper. ISBN 978-0-85052-811-4. 
• Ellis, Major L. F. (2004) [1st pub. HMSO 1953]. Butler, J. R. M.. ed. The War in France and Flanders 1939–1940. History of the Second World War United Kingdom Military Series. Naval & Military Press. ISBN 978-1-84574-056-6. http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/UN/UK/UK-NWE-Flanders/. Retrieved 1 September 2015. 
• English, John (1993). Amazon to Ivanhoe: British Standard Destroyers of the 1930s. Kendal: World Ship Society. ISBN 978-0-905617-64-0. 
• Fenby, Jonathan (2005). The Sinking of the Lancastria: Britain's Greatest Maritime Disaster and Churchill's Cover-up. London, England: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0-7432-5930-9. 
• Horne, A. (1982). To Lose a Battle: France 1940 (Penguin repr. ed.). London: Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-14-005042-4. 
• "Lancastria Sunk Says U.S.". Hull Daily Mail. 25 July 1940. OCLC 787793762. http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000324/19400725/028/0004. Retrieved 19 June 2015. 
• Karslake, B. (1979). 1940 The Last Act: The Story of the British Forces in France after Dunkirk. London: Leo Cooper. ISBN 978-0-85052-240-2. 
• Milner, Marc (1985). North Atlantic Run. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-0-87021-450-9. 
• Richards, Denis (1974). Royal Air Force 1939–1945: The Fight At Odds. I (pbk. ed.). London: HMSO. ISBN 978-0-11-771592-9. http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/UN/UK/UK-RAF-I/UK-RAF-I-5.html. Retrieved 16 September 2015. 
• Roskill, S. W. (1957). Butler, J. R. M.. ed. The War at Sea 1939–1945: The Defensive. History of the Second World War United Kingdom Military Series. I (4th impr. ed.). London: HMSO. OCLC 881709135. http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/UN/UK/UK-RN-I/index.html. Retrieved 14 March 2016. 
• Roskill, S. W. (1998). The Navy at War 1939–1945 (Wordsworth, London ed.). Annapolis, MD: United States Naval Institute. ISBN 978-1-85326-697-3. 
• Sebag-Montefiore, H. (2006). Dunkirk: Fight to the Last Man. London: Penguin. ISBN 978-0-14-102437-0. 
• Stacey, C. P. (1956). Six Years of War: The Army in Canada, Britain and the Pacific (pdf). Official History of the Canadian Army in the Second World War. I (2nd rev. online ed.). Ottawa: Queen's Printer and Controller of Stationary. OCLC 606401122. http://www.cmp-cpm.forces.gc.ca/dhh-dhp/his/docs/Sixyrs_e.pdf. Retrieved 1 September 2015. 
• Terraine, J. (1998). The Right of the Line: The Royal Air Force in the European War 1939–1945 (Wordsworth Editions ed.). London: Hodder and Stoughton. ISBN 978-1-85326-683-6. 
• Warner, P. (2002). The Battle of France, 1940: 10 May – 22 June (Cassell Military Paperbacks repr. ed.). London: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0-304-35644-7. 

Further reading

• Bond, Brian (1990). Britain, France and Belgium 1939–1940 (2nd ed.). London: Brassey's Publishing. ISBN 978-0-08-037700-1. 
• Cooper, M. (1978). The German Army 1933–1945, its Political and Military Failure. Briarcliff Manor, NY: Stein and Day. ISBN 978-0-8128-2468-1. 
• Corum, James (1997). The Luftwaffe: Creating the Operational Air War, 1918–1940. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas. ISBN 978-0-7006-0836-2. 
• Frieser, K-H. (2005). The Blitzkrieg Legend (English trans. ed.). Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-59114-294-2. 
• Guderian, Heinz. Panzer Leader (2001 ed.). New York: Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0-306-81101-2. 
• Harman, Nicholas (1980). Dunkirk; The Necessary Myth. London: Hodder and Stoughton. ISBN 978-0-340-24299-5. 
• Hastings, Max (2009). Finest Years: Churchill as Warlord 1940–45. Harper Press. ISBN 978-0-00-726368-4. 
• Marix Evans, Martin (2000). The Fall of France: Act with Daring. Oxford: Osprey. ISBN 978-1-85532-969-0. 
• Martin, R. V. (2018). Ebb and Flow: Evacuations and Landings by Merchant Ships in World War Two (2nd ed.). via Amazon: CreateSpace. ISBN 978-1-984082-92-3. 
• Winser, John de D. (1999). B.E.F. Ships Before, At and After Dunkirk. Gravesend: World Ship Society. ISBN 978-0-905617-91-6. 

External links

• Operation Aerial – Admiralty War Diary
• "Second BEF Home Again" – Pathé News reel
• Allied Warships of WWII, Destroyer HMCS Fraser at uboat.net (22 October 1940)
• Operation Ariel (sic)