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

Only once the raiders had passed did Bill disperse most of his men, then
head off towards Bastion 32, the underground bunker of Admiral Jean-
Marie Charles Abrial, the French Amiral Nord and naval commander at
Dunkirk. Picking their way through rubble and shards of broken glass,
burned-out vehicles and snapped tram wires, they reached Bastion 32 and
were led through the heavy steel doors into a long, damp corridor lit by
candles that took them to the Operations Room. Here Bill met with
Brigadier Reginald Parminter from Gort’s staff, Colonel G. P. H. Whitfield,
the Area Commandant, and Commander H. P. Henderson, the British Naval
Liaison Officer to Admiral Abrial. They all told him that there was no
chance of using the harbour for evacuation. Bill asked how long they had
got. Twenty-four to thirty-six hours was the reply. After that, the Germans
would probably be in the town.
Dunkirk was in a bad way. The water supply had been cut off by bomb
damage and there was only one telephone link left between the town and
London. On that Monday alone, the Luftwaffe had hit the port with some
30,000 incendiary bombs and more than 15,000 high explosives. The
railhead was largely destroyed and the docks and quays now lay ruined.
For those on the receiving end of this onslaught, Göring’s boast to
Hitler seemed justified, yet there was no denying the disquiet amongst the
commanders carrying out this sustained aerial assault. Operations had
begun against Dunkirk almost immediately Göring had given orders to
Kesselring, but other demands upon his planes – Calais, Boulogne and
operations in support of the army – meant that it was not until 26 May that
the town became the main target. Even then, many of Kesselring’s aircraft
were too far back to be able to operate effectively over Dunkirk. On the
25th, General von Kluge had met with General Wolfram von Richthofen,
commander of VIII Fliegerkorps, and had sarcastically asked whether he
had already taken Dunkirk. ‘No, Herr Generaloberst,’ von Richthofen had
replied, ‘I have not yet even attacked it. My Stukas are too far back, the
approach flights too long. Consequently I can use them twice a day at most,
and am unable to focus them at one point of effort.’
And the weather was terrible. All month, one fine day had followed
another but now the weather had turned. Low cloud hung over most of
Flanders and that included Dunkirk. It made accurate bombing very
difficult indeed. Furthermore, the Luftwaffe had now lost nearly a thousand