Tuesday 31 July 2012

Day 125 - Left in the Dark, May 10, 1940 - Belgium!

"In May 1940, Dunkirk, the biggest Churchill defeat of the lot....Letters between Churchill and the French Prime Minister, Paul Reynaud, revealed the ugly truth that Churchill, himself, gave the secret order to Lord Gort, the British General in command of the British expeditionary force at Dunkirk, "Withdraw, fall back," or as Churchill put it, "Advance to the coast." That was Churchill's wording. "And you are forbidden to tell any of your neighboring allies that you are pulling out. The French and the Belgians were left in the dark that we were pulling out."

I just found the above information on the Internet.  Churchill's decision had a big impact on my family in Belgium fThe most profound thing I have learned from my Dad's memoir and subsequent readings is that life is very random!

From May 10, 1940 onwards my dad, his family and the Belgian and French people were left very much in the dark and initially had to rely to a great extent on their own resourcefulness to survive what they were confronted with as events continued to unfold ...........

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