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

survive. To achieve that, he had belatedly realized, and as Rear-Admiral
Karl Dönitz, commander of the Kriegsmarine’s U-boat arm, had been
urging upon his superiors for years, that Germany did not need vast
battleships, cruisers and aircraft carriers. She needed U-boats. As
Kapitänleutnant Günther Prien had proved all too well when he had sunk
HMS Royal Oak the previous October, forty men in a small submarine
could destroy a 1,200-man British battleship more effectively than any
German surface vessel.
Günther and his crew need not have worried; there was no jinx on this,
their sixth patrol. Rather, the sinking of Balmoralwood was just the
beginning of a slaughter out on the Western Approaches. The U-boat men
would call it the ‘Happy Time’.
Back in France, the battle may have been over, but that did not stop
Churchill sending more reinforcements. On the same day that the 51st
Highland Division surrendered, the newly knighted General Sir Alan
Brooke landed back in France, at Cherbourg, to lead the newly reconstituted
BEF. He was there reluctantly, aware that it was a fool’s mission doomed to
fail. Receiving his orders had been one of the blackest moments of his life.
Already half his proposed force – those trapped in the Havre peninsula –
had gone. The 52nd Division had already landed and the 1st Canadian was
on its way, and Dill had further promised him the 3rd Division, but
organizing those into a coherent whole that could achieve anything
whatsoever was going to be impossible. Three British divisions amongst the
sixty-six French and more than 130 German was peanuts to say the least.
‘All that I found on my return,’ he noted, ‘were the remnants of one brigade
which had escaped capture, but were without much equipment and only fit
for evacuation. My Corps Headquarters was dispersed all over England
after its arrival back from Dunkirk. Chaos prevailed.’
Mercifully, however, Churchill had backed down over the sending of
more squadrons to France, persuaded by the united stance of Halifax,
Chamberlain, the Air Ministry and Dowding. Even so, it did not stop
aircraft operating from England being sent over; on 6 June, no fewer than
144 fighters flew over France. The Prime Minister simply felt unable to
abandon France completely, but that did not stop him becoming angry at
their incessant demands or hurt by French accusations of inadequate
support. ‘Winston is justifiably angry with Vuillemin,’ recorded Jock