HistoryExtra
type: channel
link: https://www.historyextra.com
description: Home of Britain’s bestselling history magazine and award-winning podcast
date: 2023-10-06T11:50:15.000Z
update period: hourly
update frequency: 1
update base: 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00
items: Indian soldiers at Dunkirk
items: 9 things you (probably) didn’t know about Dunkirk
items: Churchill’s days of destiny
items: Dunkirk: 6 big questions on a remarkable rescue mission
items: In search of the Dunkirk spirit
items: Where history happened: Dunkirk
items: The Battle of Marathon plus Dunkirk and WWII refugees
items: The fall of France: Hitler’s greatest gamble

Indian soldiers at Dunkirk
type: item
date: 2020-05-29T14:47:53.000Z
subject: 20th Century
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Second World War
description: Ghee Bowman tells the stories of a group of Muslims in the British Expeditionary Force who were part of the famous evacuation of 1940
encoded: Historian Ghee Bowman, author of The Indian Contingent, tells the stories of a group of Muslims in the British Expeditionary Force who were part of the famous evacuation from the beaches of France in 1940.

Podcast-Ghee-Bowman-Web-large-50ead69.jpg
width: 620
height: 413

9 things you (probably) didn’t know about Dunkirk
type: item
date: 2020-05-26T14:45:11.000Z
creator: James Holland
subject: Period
subject: Second World War
subject: Family and parenting
subject: Second World War battles
description: In 1940, as British troops retreated through France under fire from an advancing German Army, a massive evacuation was launched to bring the soldiers safely home. Between 26 May and 4 June 1940, a mammoth 338,000 troops were rescued from the beaches of Dunkirk, France, in the remarkable Operation Dynamo. Here, military historian James Holland shares some lesser-known facts about the evacuation at Dunkirk, and the fighting that led up to it...
encoded: Dunkirk: what happened? On 10 May 1940, Adolf Hitler began his long-awaited offensive in the west by invading neutral Holland and Belgium and attacking northern France. Holland capitulated after only five days of fighting, and the Belgians surrendered on 28 May. With the success of the German ‘Blitzkrieg’, the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and French troops were in danger of being cut off and destroyed. To save the BEF, an evacuation by sea was organised under the direction of Admiral Bertram Ramsay. Over nine days, between 26 May and 4 June 1940, warships of the Royal and French navies together with civilian craft successfully evacuated more than 338,000 British and Allied troops from the beaches of Dunkirk, in the remarkable Operation Dynamo. The success of the evacuation strengthened not only Britain’s defences in the face of a German invasion threat, but also Churchill’s position against those like the foreign secretary, Lord Halifax, who favoured discussing peace terms. Seventy years later, Dunkirk is still synonymous with refusing to give up in times of crisis. But did you know... Britain had the only 100 per cent mechanised army in 1940 Britain in the early years of the war has often been perceived to have been full of Blimpish commanders, out-of-date equipment and antiquated, stuck-in-the-mud tactics. In fact, the British Army’s equipment in 1940 was certainly a match for that of the Germans. The Bren light machine-gun did not have the rate of fire of the German MG34, but was solid, accurate, and more dependable than its far friskier German rival. Meanwhile, the new British uniforms were the most modern in the world at the time, and unlike anything any soldier had worn before. The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) was also entirely mechanised, which was certainly not the case for the German Army. In fact, of the 135 German divisions used in the attack in the West, only 16 were mechanised; the other 119 used horses and their soldiers' own two feet. Britis…

GettyImages-154423696-2-0116d9a.jpg
width: 800
height: 530

Churchill’s days of destiny
type: item
date: 2018-01-01T12:26:22.000Z
subject: 20th Century
subject: Membership
subject: Second World War
subject: Period
subject: British prime ministers
subject: Second World War battles
subject: Wartime Britain
description: The new film Darkest Hour focuses on a few crucial days when Britain’s war cabinet weighed an immense question – to seek terms with Germany or fight to the last. Allen Packwood reveals how Winston Churchill carried the argument to seek “victory at all costs”
encoded: It is 3pm on Monday 13 May 1940. Winston Churchill has just made his first speech as prime minister to the House of Commons. He has announced that he has “nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat”, and has pledged himself to a policy of waging war “by sea, land and air” with the single aim of victory: “victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however hard and long the road may be”. This short speech is now seen as an iconic moment in British history, one that is commemorated on the reverse of the new £5 note, where the hands of Big Ben are set to reflect the hour of this celebrated address. But our view of that moment is coloured by hindsight, and by our knowledge that victory was achieved. No such luxury was granted to Churchill and his audience at the time. The prime minister’s speech, at six minutes long, was lacking in detail, and his position was far from secure. In the short term, things would only get worse – much worse. Churchill became prime minister on 10 May 1940, the very day that Hitler launched his blitzkrieg offensive against France and the Low Countries. He was not elected prime minister – he was there because the Labour party would not serve under Neville Chamberlain in a national coalition; and because Lord Halifax, the Conservative foreign secretary, was not willing to try to lead a wartime government from the House of Lords rather than the Commons. It was a Westminster coup from which he emerged as the only leading Conservative with the popular credibility and political ability to form a government. True, Churchill’s long record of warning about Nazi Germany – coupled with his obvious determination to take the fight to the enemy – had won him public and press support, but there were many throughout the corridors of power, and even within his own party, who regarded him with suspicion, as an opportunist and a maverick who might lead the country into the most dangerous paths. He had no political powerbase of his own. …

GettyImages-3247654-0041893.jpg
width: 3604
height: 2795

Dunkirk: 6 big questions on a remarkable rescue mission
type: item
date: 2017-07-30T09:21:55.000Z
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Second World War
subject: Second World War battles
description: As Christopher Nolan's new film is released about the rescue of 338,000 Allied troops from the clutches of the Germans, Tim Benbow considers six of the biggest questions on 'the miracle of Dunkirk'
encoded: 1) Did Hitler let the British get away? The German order of 23 May to halt the advancing panzers has led to a claim that Hitler deliberately allowed the British to escape – the idea being that avoiding humiliation would make them more willing to accept a peace deal that would free him to turn his attention to the east. This is utter nonsense. First, it does not make sense. Capturing most of the trained strength of the British Army would have provided a weighty bargaining chip. Second, the claim does not reflect what happened: only one of the two advancing German armies halted (and only for two days, pushing on when it became clear that an evacuation might be under way). The other pressed on and the Luftwaffe continued to attack. If this was an attempt to allow the BEF to escape, it was distinctly half-hearted. Third, there is a perfectly adequate explanation for the halt order. The German armoured forces were stretched after a long advance and needed a pause to recover, to allow infantry and supplies to catch up, and to prepare for the next stage of the campaign, pushing for Paris and fighting the large French forces to the south. Some German commanders were nervous that their progress had been too good to last, influenced by a minor British counterattack near Arras on 21 May, which raised groundless fears that a larger Allied counterstroke might be imminent. What’s more, Hermann Göring, the commander of the Luftwaffe, insisted that his force could mop up the remnants of the encircled Allied forces. Given the understandable assumption that their enemies were cornered with nowhere to go, why take a risk pushing on? Even the British did not believe that a large-scale evacuation was feasible, so why would the Germans? The decision to halt was a grave error that greatly assisted the British, gifting them time to continue their withdrawal and to strengthen the defences around Dunkirk. This does not mean that it can only be explained by a conspiracy theory. 2) Did the RAF…

GettyImages-2658751-7eaa662-754c057.jpg
width: 720
height: 479

In search of the Dunkirk spirit
type: item
date: 2011-05-19T15:48:38.000Z
subject: Membership
subject: Second World War
subject: Period
subject: Second World War battles
description: Paul Addison and Jeremy Crang consider the role of the Ministry of Information in assessing popular morale during the onslaught of 1940
encoded: Among the files in the National Archives at Kew is a little known chronicle of life on the home front during Britain’s ‘finest hour’. From 18 May to 27 September 1940, the Home Intelligence department of the Ministry of Information compiled daily reports (Sundays excepted) on the morale and opinions of the British public. From Dunkirk, through the fall of France, the Battle of Britain and the opening stages of the London Blitz, they monitored the hopes and fears, and the everyday complaints, of a people under threat from invasion and falling bombs. The reports were a reflection of the increasing dependence of wartime officials on the trust and co-operation of the general public. At the outbreak of war the Chamberlain government had set up a Ministry of Information (MOI) with the task of handling the government’s public relations and, more generally, of sustaining morale. The MOI, however, was handicapped by the fact that it was trying to communicate with the public without any means of assessing the public's response. Hence the ineptitude of its very first poster, which bore the slogan: "Your courage, your cheerfulness, your resolution will bring us victory." All too easily misread as an appeal to the many to exert themselves on behalf of the few, it exposed a gulf between the leaders and the led. Home Intelligence was set up with the aim of bridging that gulf. It was largely the creation of its first director, Mary Adams, who recognised that good intelligence depended on a wide range of sources. She commissioned reports from Mass-Observation (M-O), the social survey organisation already famous for its research into the behaviour of people in pubs and the activities of holidaymakers on the beach at Blackpool. M-O was a controversial organisation whose methods were attacked by academics as being unscientific. As a counterweight Adams enlisted the services of a statistical unit, the Wartime Social Survey, that employed more orthodox methods of market research. She cou…

GettyImages-3421689-93108b1.jpg
width: 2505
height: 3538

Where history happened: Dunkirk
type: item
date: 2010-05-29T08:00:00.000Z
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Second World War
subject: Second World War battles
subject: Where history happened
description: We visit 10 places connected with the remarkable evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from northern France in 1940
encoded: This feature was first published in the May 2010 edition of BBC History Magazine When the German Blitzkrieg in the west broke over Belgium and Holland, at 05.35 on 10 May 1940, British and French troops who had been assembling during the ‘Phoney War’ period rushed to assist the Belgian army. While the British were engaged on the river Dyle (in central Belgium), and the French concentrated their efforts on north Belgium, the Germans broke through the Ardennes, which had been considered impassable by the Allies. Spearheaded by armoured formations, Hitler’s forces burst out into a weakly defended eastern France and advanced on Cambrai, and then beyond to the Somme and the coast. As a result of the lightning German advance, Lord Gort, commanding the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), found his forces not only split in two but cut off from the bulk of his French allies. He therefore ordered troops to fall back to defences along the Lys and La Bassée canals in northern France. On 26 May, as fighting raged both in Flanders and along the thin corridor bordering on the canals, Churchill sanctioned the withdrawal of British forces from the continent. The British selected Dunkirk as the last remaining port in their hands that could be secured and defended – and quickly formulated ideas for doing just that. Vice Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay, flag officer commanding Dover, was appointed to plan and direct the withdrawal. The name he gave the operation was Dynamo. Operation Dynamo was nothing if not bold. The Germans were now in possession of Calais, and so, in many respects, commanded a whole section of the channel, making all proposed routes to Dunkirk from Dover circuitous. To make matters worse, as the Royal Navy despatched warships to Dunkirk, it soon became clear that there weren’t enough vessels to evacuate all the troops. This led to the mobilisation of the now famous ‘little ships’. Everything from motor launches to fishing boats to paddle steamers were taken under admiral…

GettyImages-615312286-4f3a6ac.jpg
width: 3304
height: 2591

The Battle of Marathon plus Dunkirk and WWII refugees
type: item
date: 2010-05-19T13:50:25.000Z
subject: Ancient Greece
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Second World War
subject: Second World War battles
description: Laurence Rees explains why Hitler didn't press his advantage at Dunkirk in 1940. Plus Michael Scott offers his insights into the 490 BC Battle of Marathon. Also this month Gillian Mawson tells the stories of Guernsey's Second World War child refugees
encoded: How to download the History Extra podcast

podcast-logo v4 31-21a6c69-5f608e3.jpeg
width: 620
height: 413

The fall of France: Hitler’s greatest gamble
type: item
date: 2010-05-09T04:00:00.000Z
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Second World War
subject: Second World War battles
description: Laurence Rees, a former BBC filmmaker who specialises in the Second World War, considers why the German drive into France in 1940 was such a risk and why it stopped short at Dunkirk
encoded: Adolf Hitler was one of the greatest risk takers in history. As he told Hermann Göring, just before the Second World War began: “I always go for broke!” So, in a lifetime of living on the edge, what do you think was the single greatest gamble Adolf Hitler ever took? Most people, I think, would point to the decision to invade the Soviet Union in the summer of 1941 as the craziest of all Hitler’s risks. Not least because it was Red Army troops who would, as a consequence, eventually enter Berlin in victory nearly four years later, after the most destructive single war ever fought – and so this gamble obviously went spectacularly wrong for the Germans. But that is not how it seemed to most people at the time. Both the British and Americans thought that the Germans would win against the Soviet Union in 1941. So it’s only with hindsight that we see the catastrophic error of Hitler’s ways. In fact, to contemporaries, the most ridiculously risky decision Hitler ever took was to invade western Europe and try to conquer France in the spring of 1940. “None of the higher headquarters think that the offensive has any prospect of success,” wrote General Franz Halder, chief of the German General Staff, in his diary on 3 November 1939. One of today’s leading historians of the Second World War confirms that Halder was not alone in thinking Hitler was mad to contemplate invading France. “It’s not for nothing that the commander of the German navy is in a thoroughly suicidal mood in the autumn of 1939,” says Professor Adam Tooze of Yale University, talking of the disquiet in the higher reaches of the German armed forces. “It’s not for nothing one of the key figures in the German army is going to his meetings with Hitler with a loaded pistol in his pocket, and but for his oath of loyalty which ran deep in somebody whose entire family had for generations served in the German army, would have quite happily assassinated Hitler.” All of these military experts were against Hitler’s decision…

2663043 10hitlergambnle sml-2-127fd70.jpg
width: 801
height: 530