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

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effort it was not until late afternoon that he received these instructions. He

did manage to send a covering force – ‘Arkforce’ – of two brigades to

protect the approach to Le Havre, but the rest of the division and those

French units on their right could only fall back as far as Dieppe.

On 10 June, Rommel’s men reached the coast. ‘Am at sea,’ he signalled

to Army Group B. Then calling his commanders together, he explained his

plan. He was now going to drive up the coast to St Valéry sur Mer, but

wanted Hans von Luck, with a battery of 88 mm guns, to push west towards

the coastal town of Fécamp and secure the approach to Le Havre.

It was around 11 a.m. on the 10th that Fortune learned that the road to

Le Havre had been cut. There was now only one exit route for him, and that

was the tiny port of St Valéry, so what remained of his division and the

French IX Corps fell back on the port and began digging in. Meanwhile, at

Fécamp some British troops and a number of French had been captured by

Hans von Luck’s Reconnaissance Battalion, but most of Arkforce had

managed to successfully escape back to Le Havre. They were the lucky

ones. On the afternoon of 11 June, St Valéry came under fire. An attempt

was made to evacuate the troops that night but rain and fog hampered

efforts so that only 2,137 men were lifted.

At 8.15 a.m. the following morning a white flag was raised over the

town, which Fortune immediately demanded should be taken down as he

had no intention of surrendering – not yet, at any rate. His depleted forces

still had heart – they would fight on. Yet Général Ihler, commander of IX

Corps, had already accepted the hopelessness of the situation and called on

Fortune to give up. By ten, Rommel’s tanks were in the town but it was not

until 10.30 a.m. that Fortune finally agreed it was over. Proceeding to the

town square he discovered Général Ihler and his French commanders

already there facing none other than Generalmajor Rommel himself.

‘And what do you command?’ Rommel asked Fortune.

‘You, sir, should know that,’ Fortune replied tersely.

Rommel laughed and invited Fortune to have a meal with him, which

the British general declined even though he had no rations left.

‘Dearest Lu,’ Rommel wrote that night to his wife, ‘The battle here is

over.’

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