The Fall of the Low Countries.

On the 10th of May, after the Norway failure, Chamberlain resigned. Clearly, discussion has been intense behind the scenes and Winston Churchill was rapidly installed. Some had thought Halifax - seen as a peacemaker - would have ended the war. Churchill was a signal to the nation, and the world, that this is just the start. That same day, we invaded Iceland, a peaceful occupation to prevent the Germans from taking it and interfering with our supply lines.

Through the days of the Norway debate, it was clear that tension was rising on the German frontier with France and the Low Countries. The Royal Family of Luxembourg evacuated to France and Belgium put her forces on alert, even as the fighting was still continuing around Narvik in Norway. Every radio broadcast I listened to, every newspaper I grabbed, I was trying to scrabble together more detail. My wife asked me again and again if I thought that her parents in Belgium would be alright. I feel ashamed to admit it now but I was excited, thrilled at the fact that a war that had been without real incident for us until the debacle in Norway, seemed finally to be moving into it's 'main act'. The British army had had time to prepare, the French army was huge and had the prepared defences of the Maginot Line.

The Maginot Line

On the very day that Churchill became Prime Minister, 10th May, the Germans struck, and were seemingly everywhere. At dawn, they rolled into France, Belgium and the Netherlands, attacking in Zeeland and around Rotterdam, Fort Eben Emael in Belgium, The Hague and Maastrict. Luxembourg had fallen by the end of the day.

There were confused reports throughout the 11th, if they were to be believed, the Germans were winning everywhere and advancing at speed. Myself and the girls plotted everything we heard on maps I had ordered through the post during the quite of January and February. Only the Dutch seemed to offer any good news, beating back the Germans around The Hague. The German army was tearing through the 'neutrals' who's neutrality had not done them any good when their turn had come. Then, on the 12th, the Germans attacked at Sedan in France, clearly trying to gain a crossing of the Meuse.

By the 13th the Dutch were folding, their queen evacuating to London, scuttling their Navy on the 14th. They surrendered at a quarter past ten in the morning on the 15th. Through that day we heard that Rotterdam had been heavily bombed, and that Sedan had fallen.

The next few days were a blur of place names on maps, a strange mix of dread and excitement. We had no world from my wife's family, expected none. She had a relative in the Belgian army and I could only wonder at what he was going through. Her home, near Ypres, was close to the French border, but the speed of the German advance seemed to make that almost irrelevant. Brussels fell on the 17th, and Antwerp the day after. It was obvious that the Germans were swinging towards the coast.

I had a huge row with a neighbour who said it looked like it was all finished, and the French would be next. Churchill had broadcast, saying that the French army had not yet really been engaged. My neighbour had fought, like me, in the last war. I had been in Greece, mostly, fighting the Austrians, my Neighbour had been on the Somme. When I repeated what Churchill had said he laughed and said the French were useless bastards, and I'd see if he wasn't right - after all, he'd served next to them.

Broadcast: Churchill's first speech as Prime Minister.

French tank surrenders to the Germans

There was more confusion over the next few days - were we retreating to the coast or not?  We were attacking at Arras, but then we pulled back. By the 22nd the Germans were around Calais and Bologne, cutting off our army in Belgium and Northern France. All the while, fighting in Belgium continued, Ghent and Tournai falling on the 24th. Incredibly, almost forgotten, there were troops still fighting on in Norway.

Bologne went on the 25th, the B.E.F. now pinned in and around Dunkirk - we had been there once, on one of our trips to see my wife's family, and to visit the War Graves. It was a strange evening, and I think my wife had realised for the first time that what was happening was a true disaster, and admitted she had stopped listening to the radio news some days before. We dragged out some of the postcards I had collected, villages, cemeteries, one, Lijssenthoek, where her father had planted the trees.  She cried, and I put the postcards away.

News Reel: Troops and refugees in Louvain, Belgium, 1940

Newspaper Map, 20th May 1940

On the 28th King Leopold of Belgium announced his country's unconditional surrender. On the 29th of May Ostend, Lille, and most painfully of all Ypres, were all taken by the Germans. We had to explain to the girls that we had no idea what had happened to their grandparents, or their aunts and uncles. It was another day of tears, made worse by being surrounded by people for whom the war still felt distant, almost impersonal.

With my wife's home and quite possibly her family, now under German control, it feels very close to us indeed.