Fall of France/Dunkirk 1940 Related Statistics

41 Destroyers took part in operation Dyanamo of which 5 were lost. HMS Malcolm (Capt. (D) T E Halsey, RN) transported the most troops of the destryers involved carrying 5,851 to various destinations over seven journeys between 29.5.40 to 4.6.40.


Photo from naval-history.net

 

I think this is quite a important set of statistics as it shows and disproves the Myth about the RAF at Dunkirk, they that were not there. It clearly shows as Operation Dynamo started on the 26th May they dramatically increased their sorties over France.

I am certain that the RAF patrol lines were further in land in order to intercept the Luftwaffe before they reached the evacuation beaches, this would have added to the impression that the RAF were not there.

 

Not stictly the case Nicks. I believe that was the case when the RAF were actually in France but after they retreated back to the UK they had considerably less flying time over France and they devised a plan to do Combat Air Patrols over the beaches at certain times of the day. It was something along the lines that the RAF predicted when they thought the Luftwaffe would be over the beaches and planned to be there waiting for them. For example the RAF would be over the beaches in number at dusk and dawn and other specific times of the day. Sometimes the Luftwaffe arrived in time to be met by the RAF and at others they arrived as the RAF was leaving.

I think the 31st of May was a bad day and the Royal Navy sufered badly due to a lack of air cover. No ones fault, just bad luck that when the RAF were over France the Luftwaffe wasn't.

I can't remember the exact details but it is well documented regarding the tactics in quite a few related books. I guess its easy to appreciate when you look at the similiar problems the Luftwaffe had over England regarding fighter cover for their bombers.

The Germans used an increasing amount of artillery on Dunkirk towards the end of the evacuation and I've wondered of late if the average 'Tommy' blamed the Luftwaffe for that too in error.

 

Just thought:

They were also flying very high (as you would waiting for bombers) around 10,000 ft I think so with the best will in the world no one on the beach is going to be able to identify an RAF aircraft.

 

I think this just about covers all that we was said above.

Hurricane Aces 1939-40 - Google Books

 

Andy,
Outstanding research mate, thanks very much.
When I asked if you had any stats for 'pre Dynamo' and Dynamo Ops I didn't expect this sort of response!
I have to say the personnel losses were much higher than I had expected to see. I hadn't appreciated the ferocity of the fighting, even having read up on it a little.
I will take an even keener interest in this early phase of the War from now on.
Thanks again Andy.

Mike

 

I read, a long time ago, that many of the French servicemen rescued at Dunkirk etc were later returned to France only to go into captivity soon after.
Does anyone know anything of that?
John.

In the main the only French that stayed in England were those that were injured. Most of the French troops that landing as part of Operation Dynamo spent less than 25 hours in England and were shipped to ports further along the North/West Coast of France like Cherbourg, St Nazaire etc.


Hi Drew.
Can you tell me what your sources are for this, I'd like to read more and find out what happened to them. Having crossed the Channel once it can not have been an apealing prospect to have to do it again, this time knowing what was waiting for you.

 

It was either The Miracle of Dunkirk by Walter Lord or Dunkirk 1940: Operation Dynamo by Doug Dildy. I read it recently so I suspect it was the latter of the two. However it doesn't go into much detail other than mentioning what I've already said really. I suspect for details you would need a French book for that.

I suspect Dunkirk: Fight to the Last Man by Hugh Sebag-Montefiore may mention this too (He's mentioned everything else so far), but I'm only currently half way through it.

Cheers
Andy

 

The 41 Destroyers involved in Operation Dynamo transported some 96,197 troops.

Aswell as the ships already mentioned there was also the following involved in the evacuation.

6 Corvettes lifting some 1,100 troops with no losses. HMS Kingfisher evacuated the most with 640 troops.

1 Sloop and 2 Gunboats, 1 gunboat was sunk (Mosquito) and between the three of them transported 3,512 troops.

36 Minesweepers with 5 losses. HMS Gossamer having the honour of lifting the most troops-3,169. The Royal Navy's Minesweepers transported 46,434.

52 Trawlers of which 12 were lost. Saturn transported the most troops, 1,177 and between the 52 Trawlers they transported 5,396 troops.

61 Drifters including 5 losses. They transported a total of 12,370 with Fisher Boy transporting the most, 777 troops. 5 Drifters did not record how many they transported.

Special Service Vessels totalled 3 with 1 loss. Transporting 4,408 troops.

7 MA's and SB's etc. transporting 79 troops.

6 MTB's transporting 20 troops.

3 Armed Boarding Vessels with 1 loss. 4,848 transported.

40 Skoots (Dutch Schuits or Coasters) with 4 losses. 22,698 transported. Hondsrug transported the most-1,453.

26 Yachts with 3 losses. Grive transported the most-1,484 with a total of 4,681 transported by the Yachts.

Personal Ships totalled 45 including 3 store ships and 2 motor vessels. 8 were lost. 87.810 troops transported with Royal Sovereign transporting the highest amount- 6,772.

8 Hospital Carriers with one loss. 3,006 transported and the Isle of Guernsey transported the most - 836.

12 Naval Motor Boats of which 6 sunk. Total troops transported 96.

6 Blockships of which 2 were lost enroute.

40 Tugs with 3 losses. Total troops transported - 3,164

13 Landing craft with 8 losses. 118 troops transported.

8 War Department Motor Launches. 579 troops transported.

6 RAF Seaplane Tenders of which 3 were lost.

8 Dockyard Lighters with 2 lost. 418 troops transported.

7 Steam Hopper Barges, 2,166 transported.

8 Auxillary Barges with one lost. 1,256 troops transported.

25 Sailing Barges with 9 losses. 886 transported.

19 RNLI Lifeboats with 1 loss. 323 transported.

202 Motor Boats, Launches and Vessels of which 78 were lost. 5,031 troops transported.

56 Life Boats with 39 losses.

16 Wherries, Punts and Boats-all lost.

 

14 Torpedo Boats and Destroyers took part in Operation Dynamo of which 3 were sunk. The Torpedo Boat Bouclier commanded by Capt. de fre'gate de la Fourniere, commanding 14th Div. Torpedo Boats lifted the most troops which was 1,725.

Despatch Vessels totalled 5 which transported 1,000 men between them.

2 Minesweepers transported 2,038 troops.

5 Submarine Chasers - 203 troops.

2 MTB's unknown number of troops transported.

13 Minesweeping Trawlers with 5 sunk. 2,665 troops transported.

7 Patrol Vessels, 2,504 troops transported.

12 Cargo Ships of which 2 were sunk. 2,290 troops transported.

59 Trawlers and MFV's with 3 sunk. 4,814 troops transported.

 

Belgian

45 Trawlers with 4 sunk. 15 show no figures know but Lydie Suzanne (Z.50)- G F Ragaert, Master lifted 416 troops.

 

Polish

Destroyer Blyskawica

Dutch

Yacht Demok 1 transported 214 troops.

Motor Boat M.74

Norwegian

SS Hird transported 3,500 troops.

 

Deleted

 

Funny you should mention this Nick as I've been wondering about this recently myself.

The book I'm currently reading (Maj. Gen Spears Vol.2) makes a lot of the fact, the British want the Luftwaffe crews evacuated before France finally gives up the ghost. I've only got two more days to go before his 'diary' ends and on the 15th June Spears and the British ambassador to France put it in writing to Reynaud after mentioning it verbally in meeting over the previous days. They appear to be pretty desperate to get the air crews out so they can't be used in the Battle of Britain.

I have some PoW camp diaries on my list to get so I'll keep an eye out. I'm guessing those captured by the BEF came to the UK eventually and those by France were eventually liberated in 1940.

 

Just reading Invasion Scare 1940, in it it lists all the equipment less behind Vechiles Guns etc, anyone interested can post the list

 

This weekend I was looking through The Times for Monday 11 November 1940.

In it was published the casualties from a number of HMTs,unfortunately I did not record the transports but the naval losses from these ships was published and I got the impression that the deaths (before, possibility listed as missing) were confirmed deaths possibily through notification via the Protecting Power and related to the BEF evacuation from France.

The Army Council published quite a list of confirmed deaths from a number of army regiments and others listed as POWs.Again it would appear that these were confirned deaths from the BEF withdrawal from France.

No RAF deaths were reported in this edition.

Thanks Drew for some interesting information.

Incidentally the NAFFI reported a loss of 10 million cigarettes.No doubt it would have kept the Nazi hordes happy for sometime.Nothing like the inner feeling it gave some to be smoking the enemy's fags.

 

Have you any idea how many French Aircraft were involved. I have read somewhere that France had more aircraft at the end of May 1940 than at the beginning of the conflict. I have got the impression that French aircraft were outmoded and I saw that Gamelin at one stage lamented to Gort that if only France had invested in Spitfires instead of the Maginot Line, the outcome might have been different. Nevertheless was the French Airforce used at all?

But do you have any hard data?

 

On the outbreak of war France had over 3,600 aircraf in France of various types with another 350 the French Fleet Air Arm - half of these were ship borne. Strangely France could claim that at the end of hostilities in 1940 she had more aircraft than at the start of the Battle for France on the 10th May. Frances air force consisted of around 85% modern aircraft by May 1940 and her aircraft industry was delivering aircraft faster than crews could be trained from March 1940.

It's probably worth mentioning in this post that the French were also purchasing aircraft from the USA as well as making their own.

Between Sept to Dec 1939 the French lost 111 aircraft and 121 personnel

Between Jan to 10th May 1940 the French lost 175 aircraft and 163 personnel

Between 10th May to 31st May 1940 the French lost 860 aircraft and 600 personnel

Between 1st June to 24th June 1940 the French lost 1403 aircraft and 923 personnel

Figs are approx and all info was sourced from ATB's The Battle of France.

 

Thanks - very interesting

On the basis of these figures it does seem that the French Airforce made a significant effort to stem the German advance.

I must read more about this.

 

Light Tanks

Mk 6B = 345

Mk 6C = 62

Cruiser Tanks

A-9 Gun (Mk I) = 6

A-9 CS (Mk ICS) = 18

A-10 (Mk II) = 31

A-13 Mk 1 (Mk III) = 38

A-13 Mk 2 (Mk IV) = 57

A-13 (Mk IVA) = 8

Infantry Tanks

Matilda A-11 (Mk I) = 97

Matilda A-12 (Mk II) = 29

Armoured Cars

Guy Mk I = 6

Morris CS9 = 39

Scout Cars = 124

Carriers

Scout = 491

Bren = 84

OP = 87

Lloyd = 8

Some figures are questionable as Philson points out below but all his figures are from official sources and are as accurate as they can be.

The number of carriers listed as lost is very doubtful. At full strength the units of the BEF North of the Somme would have held over 1,400 of the three main types excluding reserve vehicles and as far as can be determined they were up to strength.