The Battle of Britain Five Months That Changed History, May—October 1940 by James Holland (z-lib.org).epub

rumour. At the farmhouse where the 4th Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment was
now based to the south-east of Lille, Stan Fraser heard first that Amiens had
fallen and then that Arras had too. In fact, Arras was not abandoned until
the night of the 23rd, but Stan and his colleagues knew enough already to
know that, whatever the truth, things were far from going well. They hastily
busied themselves strengthening the defences of their farmhouse HQ,
creating barricades with abandoned ploughs, a threshing machine and other
farm implements.
Nor had they received any rations for several days. The farm was thus
the best place to be as there were pigs and sheep to kill and cows to milk –
which they did as often as they could to relieve the poor animals. The
countryside around them was now deserted of civilians. More rumours
arrived, this time that they could expect parachutists any moment; it was not
only in Britain that parachutist fever had taken grip. Occasionally enemy
bombers came over, in which case they opened fire, but with ammunition
low they had to conserve what little they had. The rest of the time, they had
to stay where they were and anxiously wait.
On the night of the 22nd/23rd, the northern flank of the BEF fell back to
the French–Belgian border as planned. Second Lieutenant Norman Field,
just twenty-three and newly married before he was posted to France the
previous September, had just been appointed adjutant of the 2nd Battalion
Royal Fusiliers. Part of 4th Division in III Corps, they had followed the lead
units into Belgium and then had, bit by bit, retreated again. Occasionally
they had seen some action, but nothing much. Neither Norman nor the rest
of the battalion could really understand it. ‘We merely had some skirmishes
with the Germans,’ says Norman, ‘until we were told to withdraw again.
We wondered why we were going backwards all the time.’
Now they were digging in again at Halluin, a village south of Menin on
the French border. They were all exhausted, having marched thirty-one
miles through the night all the way from the Escaut. The battalion was
stretched over about one mile in a south-easterly direction with the canal in
front of it until it linked up with the South Lancashire Regiment. The 23rd
was spent consolidating their positions, preparing sangers and laying antitank
mines. Civilians were encouraged to leave. There were some defences
there already. ‘We were back on the line we had previously prepared,’ says
Norman. Like the men of the 4th HAA Regiment, it was then a question of
waiting for the enemy to catch up. By leaving during the night and covering