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

The Germans, he told them, were now very close on all sides. He called for
a vote of confidence and told them to be ready throughout the night to
defend the farm until there was not a man left to do so. The men, although
utterly exhausted, agreed.
But while the majority of the BEF were successfully falling back within
the main perimeter and the defence line along the River Yser, some were
not so fortunate. As those at Calais had sacrificed themselves in an effort to
delay the advancing Germans, so too had the 2nd Gloucesters and 4th Ox
and Bucks at Cassel and nearby Ledringhem. For three days they had
fought off one attack after another. Although they had been eventually
surrounded and cut off from the rest of the BEF, they had fought on,
holding up large numbers of German troops and with it their advance, and
thus enabled many more troops behind them to fall back than might
otherwise have been the case. On the night of the 28th, the survivors
attempted to break out, and although a few small groups eventually
managed to reach Dunkirk, most were caught and taken prisoner. However,
their epic defence proved what could be achieved when troops stood and
fought with grim determination rather than fleeing in panic.
‘Apparently the lack of news was not a good thing,’ noted Daidie Penna,
after hearing the news of the Belgian surrender. She wondered how the BEF
could possibly be saved. ‘Nothing short of a miracle,’ she added, ‘could
save the situation on that part of the front now.’ Nonetheless, Daidie sensed
a renewed feeling of determination – not just within herself, but amongst
everyone. And she was enjoying the reports of the RAF’s ‘wonderful’
performance. ‘The daily bag of enemy planes,’ she scribbled, ‘is now
almost a commonplace.’
Certainly Fighter Command had been playing its part in covering the
evacuation. Air Chief Marshal Dowding had placed tactical control of his
fighters with Air Vice-Marshal Keith Park. It had been an obvious step,
because any fighters operating over Dunkirk would have to be based at
airfields in the south-east of England; Fighter Command was divided into
four groups – 10 Group in the south-west, 12 in the middle, 13 in the north
and Scotland and 11 in the south-east, of which Park was commander. A
New Zealander, Park was the son of a Scottish geologist. In the previous
war, he had served in the artillery at Gallipoli, but later joined the British
army and was moved to the Western Front. Wounded in October 1916, he