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

when this was completed, and having fought a valiant rearguard, they reembarked
on the night of 23 May. Calais was also reinforced, with a
battalion of the 3rd Royal Tank Regiment and 30th Brigade hastily
despatched from England to hold the town, block the roads in, and then help
relieve Boulogne. By the time 30th Brigade reached Calais on 23rd May, it
was too late to save Boulogne and instead Brigadier Claude Nicholson
began organizing the defence of the port. Later that day, Nicholson received
fresh orders to try to force a desperately needed convoy of rations and fuel
through to Dunkirk. By the following morning, with Guderian’s panzers
already surrounding the port, this too proved impossible. Instead, the order
to evacuate the port was given in principle.
However, on the 24th, control of all the Channel ports was handed to
Général Marie-Bertrand-Alfred Fagalde of the French XVI Corps and he
immediately forbade the evacuation, which was upheld by Churchill. The
old port now became something of a personal concern to the Prime
Minister. To evacuate would be madness, he said. ‘The only effect of
evacuating Calais would be to transfer the forces now blocking it to
Dunkirk,’ he told Ismay. ‘Calais must be held for many reasons, but
specially to hold the enemy on its front.’ This was relayed to Nicholson on
the morning of 25 May, with orders that in essence told him he was on his
own and could expect no reinforcements, but was to hold out for as long as
possible.
Later that day, Guderian’s 2nd Panzer sent a surrender demand to
Nicholson. The brigadier replied stoically, ‘The answer is no, as it is the
British Army’s duty to fight as well as it is the German’s.’
Having enforced the halt decision on the panzers on the afternoon of 24
May, Hitler then gave von Rundstedt complete authority to lift the order
whenever he saw fit. The outrage within the German units ranged along the
Canal Line was intense. Von Bock, commander of Army Group B, was
incensed. His infantry divisions, still mostly on foot despite the large
number of captured bicycles, had to advance fifty miles to reach Dunkirk,
and through organized and dug-in British divisions. The panzer and
motorized divisions, on the other hand, were all lined up almost within
spitting distance. General von Kluge, who had originally suggested the
close-up, was as one with von Kleist that the order should be rescinded
immediately. He had planned to push through the narrowest point of the