Dunkirk Drivel

"Dunkirk proved the comparative advantage that democracies have in modern war: the ability of free people to self organize."   Private watercraft saved the day ... blah, blah, blah.

-- Michael Gerson, Amazon-Washington Post, AZ Republic, 7/30/2017

When will the Dunkirk drivel end?   All the little boats appearing from "nowhere" and saving the day makes for nice theater.   In fact, the Royal Navy and the British Ministry of Shipping organized the evacuation and supplied most of the big and little ships, which were either already in military service or hastily requisitioned by the Navy and Ministry of Shipping.   The Navy needed the shallow draft little boats to ferry troops from the beaches to the larger ships, requisitioned ferry boats and passenger ships out at sea.

The evacuation was effected because the British navy controlled the seas and  the French, who are given little credit by anyone, still had a powerful army in the field capable of protecting the Dunkirk perimeter.   The last important factor was the Royal Air Force's Spitfire aircraft.   It is little remembered today, but the British held this high tech airplane out of the Battle for France ... until Dunkirk when they committed the Spitfires to protect the evacuation.

Why Mr. Gerson of the Amazon-Washington Post interjected Charles Lindbergh and American "isolationism" into this story is puzzle ... other than it's another opportunity for the Left to flog America about isolationism.   Charles Lindbergh had nothing to do with Dundirk or the Battle for France.   The British and French did not need American soldiers in 1940.   What they needed were tanks and aircraft.   America had very few tanks back then to give, even if the British and French had asked for them.   Thanks to the Roosevelt rearmament, which had been going on since the day Roosevelt took office,  America did have competent aircraft to spare.   In fact the most effective airplane during the Battle for France was the American P-36, which held its own against the Germans and won the first allied air victory of WW2 in September of 1939, downing a celebrated Messerschmitt Bf 109E.   The French had ordered an additional 200  American P-40 fighters,  but were too cautious with their money and didn't order the P-40s in time for these to fight in the Battle for France.

It might have made sense for Mr. Gerson to mention the isolationism of the Pete Seeger American Left in 1940.  They were marching in lockstep with their hero, Joseph Stalin.   Perhaps the Amazon-Washington Post doesn't want America to remember that at the time of Dunkirk and the Battle for France,  Joseph Stalin was Hitler's ally, having helped Hitler invade Poland.   While France fell and England was left standing alone, Stalin sat on his hands and the Pete Seeger American Left screamed imperialist warmonger when Roosevelt sent aid to the British, including the P-40s that the French had ordered too late.

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Britain and France declared war on Germany when they weren't ready to fight.   Even after Hitler came to power and rearmed the left leaning governments of Britain and France neglected their militaries.

England manufactured some tanks most of which didn't have canons, on purpose.   They built a flotilla of destroyers that weren't seaworthy and couldn't sail across the Atlantic.  Their one triumph was the Spitfire fighter airplane, but they mismanaged manufacturing them and once the war started they couldn't build them fast enough.   Then they refused to send the ones they had to fight in the Battle of France where they were desperately needed -- this proved fatal in the battle at Sedan for critical bridges crossing the Meuse River.

The French built the Maginot Line an impregnable fortification on their border with Germany, but didn't extend the fortifications across the border with Belgium to the English Channel.  There were no fortifications strong enough to contain the German blitzkrieg in 1940.  The French had a strong tank force, but it lacked modern radio communications.   France's air force was over matched by the Germans in quality and numbers -- this proved fatal at the critical battle at Sedan.   The French realized their deficiencies and ordered American built P-36s to match the Germans, but more mindful of their pocketbooks than their border only ordered 316.   Later the French ordered 200 of the then technologically advanced American P-40s,  but not in time to prevent the defeat at Sedan.

In 1940 Joseph Stalin had more tanks and airplanes than anyone.   While France fell and England stood alone,  Stalin sat on his hands and did nothing.   He was still Hitler's ally after they invaded Poland together and divided it between them.

And who do the Lefties blame today for the debacle that left England standing alone and that opened the door to the Holocaust and all the other horrors of WW2?   The United States, of course.  For what?   Not telling the French in 1938 that they needed to order at least 1,000 P-36s and P-40s if they wanted to win the Battle for France.