Comments by "doveton sturdee" (@dovetonsturdee7033) on "The Armchair Historian" channel.

  1. Sorry, but they weren't saved by thousands of little ships, despite the nonsense peddled in that awful 'Dunkirk' film. They were saved by warships (around 200,000) and merchant navy personnel ships (around 120,000). The little ships mainly ferried troops from the beaches to the transports offshore.
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  2. Let them approach the beaches, and see what happens when they come within range of the Naval Gunfire Support.
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  3. Wrong about what?
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  4.  @OdPlomp89  What, then, should the Allies have done with their resources in the Mediterranean after May, 1943?
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  5.  @OdPlomp89  The problem then is, firstly, the Allies were already committed to Italy before the Italian surrender, and secondly almost 30 German divisions, most of which were better than the German divisions in France, were tied down in Italy. Where might they otherwise have been? France perhaps?
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  6. Surprising how many people actually believe that!
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  7.  @GeoNoob  In point of fact, the Belgian army had capitulated on 28 May, and trhe British had to move a division (actually Mongomery's 3rd) across the allied line on the night of 27/28 May to block the gap after ther Belgian army began to collapse. The evacuation also lifted around 120,000 French troops, and the British actually began landing troops in Cherbourg after Dunkirk, as part of a 'Reconstituted BEF' until told by General Weygand that the French army was no longer capable of 'organised resistance.' 'You have no respect.' Certainly not for ignoramuses like you, with your lack of actual knowledge, and your need immediately to resort to obscenity, I don't.
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  8. Indeed. About three divisions, whose actions made possible the escape of over 120,000 of their compatriots. The world might also ask, as the French army had over 90 divisions in 1940, what the rest of them were doing.
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  9.  @phlm9038  Except that Germany didn't 'make peace' with France, but invaded and defeated her. He was never in a position to do the same where Britain was concerned.
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  10.  @eizzatakrami6273  If you refer to partition, then that was the result of Jinnah''s intrigues.
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  11.  @eizzatakrami6273  Credible historians already know. Only those with an 'agenda' or who are educated by those with an 'agenda' seek to deny the facts of history.
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  12. He must have been a confused old chap if he wasn't aware of what happened at 2nd Alamein.
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  13.  @NoName-hg6cc  Where does bravery come into this? What matters in warfare are resources, supplies, tactics, and courage. In that order.
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  14.  @NoName-hg6cc  As my old tutor at Uni. often said, if people need to resort to insults, it merely proves that they cannot sustain their argument.
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  15.  @NoName-hg6cc  Unlike you, I haven't resorted to insults. I haven't needed to.
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  16.  @alessandrom7181  You mean like Operation Compass perhaps? Graziani's triumph over O'Connor, resulting in the Battle of Beda Fomm. Was the fact that hitler was forced to send German troops to North Africa to rescue his Italian allies 'British Propaganda?'
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  17. There are many. None of which have any real relevance to Dunkirk.
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  18.  @ebowden1168  Bullshit. The Americans were 'given' the two western beaches because their troops were based in the South West of England. The British & Canadians had the eastern beaches because their troops were based in the South East. No beach was more important than any other. Market Garden failed, but it wasn't a failure to anything like the same extent as the Hurtgen Forest, for which Bradley & Hodges should be given the 'credit.'
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  19. When do they intend to start?
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  20.  @UserName-om6ft  Perhaps you colonials haven't quite worked it out yet, but the whole of the civilised world is the creation of Britain/England. What language are you writing in, for example?
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  21. He would have celebrated his 130th birthday this year if he had been!
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  22. Why should it be? Sinking landing craft with troops aboard isn't.
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  23.  @Wehraboo-fi9vm  Well, Air Marshal Dowding didn't consider this to be the case. During the Battle of Britain, he informed his staff that German pilots were entitled to shoot at RAF aircrew bailing out over Britain, because they remained potential combatants, whereas British pilots were not entitled to shoot at German aircrew in the same position, as they were potential prisoners of war.
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  24. Perhaps you should read what the US army really thought about Patton's campaign in the Lorraine before you claim that about him. Look up 'The Lorraine Campaign - An Overview.'
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  25. Only 10,000? Hardly worth worrying about! Would you seriously wish to imply that?
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  26. A victory is only impressive if it makes a greater victory possible. Midway being the most obvious example. The Germans made little use of their occupation of Crete, and effectively destroyed their paratroop force achieving it. Pyrrhus of Epirus would have taken the point.
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  27. When over 100 Belgian & French divisions were defeated, what exactly would you suggest the 12 British divisions should have done?
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  28.  @josephanderson8655  The treaty the British and French made with Poland was an attempt to prevent further German expansion, and thus avert a European war. Why do you believe Germany should have been allowed to conquer most of Europe without let or hindrance in 1914 & 1939. I read your original post, and of course disagreed with it. Certainly, Germany made peace feelers in WW1 after the Royal Naval blockade began to bite, but in WW2 the 'Appeal to Reason' was the nearest they came to it, if 'surrender or we bomb you' can be so called.
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  29.  @josephanderson8655  Sorry? Who invaded Belgium in August 1914? Your nation which didn't want war managed to invade Poland, Denmark, Norway, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Belgium and the Soviet Union, all without any declarations of war. As for offering peace, what offers were made, and when? I assume that you are a neo-nazi? Many of your sort have the same delusions.
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  30. Not really. 51 Highland Division surrendered on 12 June, eight days after Dynamo had concluded. The Royal Navy had sent a fleet of 67 merchantmen and 140 smaller vessels to lift 51HD, but fog prevented the ships entering St. Valery. A second attempt was to have been made on the following day, but the French general under whose command 51HD was serving surrendered.
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  31. Such as?
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  32. 'By mid-1942, Mussolini's navy had fought its way back from crushing defeats to become the dominant power in the Mediterranean Sea.' Really? Your evidence for this being?
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  33. Did your grandfather have any views on the failure of the French High Command to defend the 'impassible' Ardennes, allowing the best French units, and the BEF, to be cut off? Did he express any opinion on what the 10 divisions of the BEF were supposed to do when the 100+ divisions of the French army were collapsing in disarray? Presumably, the manner in which the Royal, Merchant, and French, navies evacuated 338,000 men, whilst under heavy air attack much of the time, is demonstrative of their 'cowardice?' As for the Germans treating the French better than the British, odd that. I don't recall the British deporting thousands of Frenchmen to Britain to work as slave labour. Perhaps the history books missed that bit? The British evacuated over 100,000 French troops from Dunkirk, and were landing a new, 'reconstituted BEF' in Cherbourg under General Brooke, until Brooke was told by General Weygand that the French army was 'no longer able to offer organised resistance,' when they met on 14 June. Finally, it would presumably be inappropriate to refer to the thousands of Britons, Americans, and Canadians who gave their lives to give the French their own country back?
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  34. The cowards might be considered those who, when the British began landing divisions of the 'Reconstituted BEF' in the Cherbourg area on 7 June, told the commander, Alan Brooke, that the French army was no longer capable of offering organized resistance. The source of this information was one General Weygand. In point of fact, there were very few cowards involved at Dunkirk. The French (and British) rearguard fought bravely, and the Royal Navy & Mercantile Marine risked lives and ships to lift over 100,000 French troops from the pocket, as well as the 228,000 men of the BEF.
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  35. Firstly, because Kabul was shambolically unplanned. Admiral Ramsay's evacuation plan was brilliant. Secondly, because the Allies at Dunkirk systematically destroyed their equipment before abandoning it. Thirdly, because the British military did at least have the support of their government, and had not been abandoned by it. Fourthly, the Anglo-French were defeated by a modern military nation. The Americans (or, at least, their political leadership) were defeated by medieval tribesmen.
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  36.  @thundernuts0  Boney had it right when he said of the conflict between Britain and France 'can an elephant fight a whale?' No matter how strong Germany might have been at the time, without a serious navy, an invasion attempt on the UK was never a realistic possibility.
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  37. There was a Syrian Brown Bear called Wojtek which was acquired by the Poles in Iran, and remained with them until the end of the war, allegedly helping to carry boxes of 25 pounder shells to their field guns at Cassino. After the war, he arrived with the Polish 22nd Artillery Supply Company in Scotland (having by then attained the rank of corporal) and was handed over to Edinburgh Zoo after 'demob.' He subsequently lived a long, uneventful, life, until 1963, when he died at the age of 21, weighing 35 stones, and reaching over six feet tall. There are numerous memorials to him, including one in the Imperial War Museum.
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  38. The Halt order was given by von Rundstedt, not by Hitler, in order to rest & service his armour for the second phase of the campaign. Hitler could have countermanded it but didn't, because Goering had assured him that the Luftwaffe could finish off the Dunkirk pocket unaided. You regard David Irving as an authoritative source? Why not Völkischer Beobachter?' So much more impartial. Presumably you are unaware that the French government whose troops helped provide a rearguard at Dunkirk, so that British and (120,000) French troops could be evacuated, was not the French government in control of the French fleet, or France itself, after 22 June? 'Mad Dog Churchill' took action deemed to be necessary for the continued survival of Great Britain.
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  39. Possibly a Strasbourg. Either way, utterly irrelevant to what actually happened.
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  40. What subsequent use did the Germans make of Crete? A battle is usually fought to attain a wider objective. In this case, what was the wider objective?
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  41.  @tristanceld8208  If so, why were British operations not impeded by the loss of Crete? After the loss of Greece, Crete was, from the point of view of the North African Campaign, unimportant.
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  42.  @tristanceld8208  Malta was never taken by the axis, and if you think that Crete was relevant in the transportation of supplies to Tunisia, then I recommend you purchase a map.
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  43.  @tristanceld8208  Sorry, but it is difficult to interpret exactly what you are saying because your posts are difficult to understand. What, for example, does ' a thread for the supply lines to Tunesia' or ' Not my fold if you don't understand.' One thing which cannot be disputed, however, is that Crete was never, at any time, relevant to Tunisia.
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  44.  @tristanceld8208  Just look at a map. Crete is far way from Italy or Tunisia. Especially when the main RN bases were Alexandria, Malta, & Gibraltar.
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  45.  @tristanceld8208  Distance might or might not be a problem, but axis air and sea activity was. I suggest you read up on the naval & air war in the Mediterranean. Moreover, with bases in Gibraltar, Malta, and Alexandria, why should the British be perverse enough to us a base further away. Moreover one which, unlike the three I have named, was not in 1939-41 an established and operational one? As to air raids on Romanian airfields by the British from Crete, are you unaware of the fact that the whole problem faced by the British & Commonwealth army & navy at that time in the Mediterranean was the almost total absence of any sort of RAF support at all?
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  46. What with? The entire British army, other than small forces in places like Egypt, had been committed to the BEF.
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  47. 'Has anyone seen or read about the massive amount of German and Italian POW's after the north African campaign? Hundreds of thousands of men were crammed into small spaces like cattle and given very little food or water. Many of them died due to starvation, disease, or exposure.' I doubt anyone has seen or read of this. Probably because it isn't true? 'Crammed into small spaces like cattle?' Do me a favour. One thing North Africa has in vast abundance is SPACE, for heaven's sake. I suppose you have a credible source for your reference to all those who died in North Africa after they surrendered? What might it be?
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  48.  @killme2675  You can add to that number the nine or ten million Soviet citizens disposed of by genial Uncle Joe.
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  49. If any of them were in Italy they should also have received the Italy Star.
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  50. He had been in North Africa since 1939. He was killed when his aircraft was shot down & the survivors (including Gott) were machine gunned.
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