Remembrance is a Golden Chain that Binds Us Until We Meet Again

In Northern France Operation Dynamo at Dunkirk had evacuated most of the British Army as well as much of the French, still some combat units and more than 150,000 support and line-of-communication troops had been cut-off to the south by the German Blitzkrieg across France. In addition, the British 52nd Infantry Division and the 1st Canadian Division had been rushed to France to bolster the defence of the west of the country. All these forces became known as the “Second BEF” and General Sir Alan Brooke was returned from England to command them. Upon his arrival on 13 June, he quickly realised that there was no chance of success for them and that the French plan to fall back and make a stand in Brittany was unrealistic. Accordingly, in a telephone call on the evening of 14 June, he was able to persuade the British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, that all the British troops in France ought to be disengaged and evacuated. Future historians credit this decision with saving hundreds of thousands of troops from being killed or captured. Troops that later returned on the D-Day beaches.