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Increadibly refreshing to hear a story told by a real person instead of all the suffocating AI crap we get fed nowadays

Speaking of Franco,  I'd love to see a series on the Spanish Civil War.

2 days until I turn 70. This series is a highlight of each week!

Don't forget the sacrifice of the Calais garrison that bought time for the evacuation.

I'm very pleased that you have pointed out that it was von Rundstedt who issued the halt order first, Hitler only approved it the following morning. However it was only Army Group A of the Wehrmacht that halted for those 3 days. Army Group B continued to press against the Dunkirk perimeter during that time. Many historians under-estimate the Allied defenders of the Dunkirk perimeter who delayed the German advance, especially the stubborn resistance by French forces.
In one sense, von Rundstedt was correct, his troops were exhausted- utterly so. The Germans had been on the move non-stop for over two weeks since May 10, day & night. The aircrews of the Luftwaffe were also exhausted by late May, having been in the air constantly since the invasion had begun. This would have surely affected their performance over Dunkirk. Surviving British bomber aircrews operating over France in late May did report that they noticed that Messerschmitt pilots were not pressing home their attacks with the same aggression or determination that they had in the early days of the campaign.
Not only that but many units had outrun their logistical lines. Even before the invasion had begun a fortnight earlier, the Wehrmacht was short of trucks and still relied heavily on foot and animal transport (and would do so for the remainder of the war despite the popular perception of it being a totally mechanised army).
The Germans were expecting a harder and more costly campaign to take Paris & southern France than it actually turned out to be which was why von Rundstedt was reluctantly to commit his armoured units to taking Dunkirk, given that the terrain around the town & port was ill-suited to tank warfare.
Another under-estimated factor is the limitations of German air-power at the time. In theory, it is easy to assume that the Luftwaffe should have been able to smash the evacuation at Dunkirk. But the sands on the beaches had the effect of muffling the explosive impact of the bombs, meaning that BEF and French casualties during Dynamo were actually fewer than popularly believed. Also, it is can be very difficult for bombers to sink smaller-sized warships such as destroyers and corvettes, even for the skilled Ju-87 dive-bomber pilots. The screaming Stukas may have been psychologically terrifying but their bombs missed more often than hit. The Royal Navy certainly suffered losses but was still strategically in good shape after the Operation was completed.
With regards to other German commanders who claimed in their memoirs and diaries that they questioned or disagreed with von Rundstedt's halt order, their claims should be taken with a big grain of salt. Postwar, a number of former German commanders tended to edit and self-censor their accounts in order to absolve themselves of any personal responsibility for Germany's defeat.

Sitting in my living room listening to your podcast  the 1st day of December watching the snow fall in Missouri. Love your take on history.

36:35 actually, there's a 2019 French movie about this very decisive moment up until the Appel du 18 juin, titled De Gaulle.

73 here. I think it's much harder for those of us who grew up in the shadow of the war to understand Holocaust skepticism.

There was some limited involvement of UK forces in the defence of Paris post Dunkirk (most but not the entirety of the BEF had been trapped inside the pocket). The 51st Highland Division were under French command and there were was the beginnings of an attempt to pull together a 2nd BEF under Brook. Eventually these plans were abandoned and the remains of British forces (including my Grandad whose squadron had lost every last one of its aircraft) were evacuated via Cherbourg (which interestingly was also used to repatriate some of the French evacuated at Dunkirk and wishing to continue the fight.

So glad you mentioned Sir Bertram Ramsay.  Not only did he organise the Dunkirk evacuation, but also the invasion of North Africa and then of Normandy.  Great man, killed in an air accident as the war was coming to an end so never received the recognition he deserved.

Best channel out there. Using the absolute descriptive nature of English makes the stories so much better

He who fights and runs away lives to fight another day. Wirked out in the end, I'd say.

as a child in 1970's Wales, we had a 30 foot motor yacht called the Daphne moored in Conway.  On the side of the cockpit was a brass plague saying Dunkirk 1940.  I was so proud of our little s hip, even though we acquired her long after the war.  I always look for her in film footage of the little ships, but haven't seen her yet.:penguin-blue-waving-tear:

Bristol hotels are named after the 18th century, Earl of Bristol who I think also was Bishop of Derry, a great Irish landowner and traveller on the continent hence the hotel name

So pleased that you made that positive reference to Baldwin.
The national government of 1940 shows the unity that existed in Britain.

Little personal anecdote. My wife and I worked out that there's a chance that both our grandfathers had involvement at Dunkirk during those fateful days. Mine was RAF bomber crew and hers a captured French infantryman.

Congratulations on being named Apple’s Podcast of the Year! It is well deserved! ~from Delaware, USA 🇺🇸

I believe there should be a contest between Tom and Dominic's Churchill impersonations.

I have to thank you for introducing me to the writing from Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky in this episode, in describing the life of refugees on the road from Paris. To learn of her own fate at the hand of the Vichy authorities and the Nazi's, is such a sad back story too, that is chilling and poignant when you read her novel as almost an account of her experience and testimony. A reminder too how quickly real individuals are turned into anonymous labels of a mass of people, without thought of their individual struggle, that many of us would do well to remember today.