![]() ![]() Instead of four armored divisions equipped with 200 tanks each, the country now had three, each equipped with 40. From the day of the German invasion on May 10 through the evacuation of Dunkirk, France had lost 24 infantry divisions, including six of seven motorized divisions. Meanwhile, the French military was in tatters and seemed poised for defeat. If you don't get the confirmation within 10 minutes, please check your spam folder. Click the link to confirm your subscription and begin receiving our newsletters. You are fighting to keep alive.”įor your security, we've sent a confirmation email to the address you entered. You didn’t have time to analyze yourself. But you took it because it was part of life. “The Kommandant, a German we called the ‘Purple Emperor,’ told us, ‘If you look out of the window you are going to be shot.’ One officer said he was still going to do it - and he was shot. Just 20 when he was captured, Wagstaff and his fellow POWs were threatened by their Nazi captors. Those are things you never forget.”īritish soldier Peter Wagstaff recalled similar treatment. But in 1945, we had the additional challenges of one of the coldest winters on record that January, of having suffered years of misery, fear, exhaustion and starvation and of watching fellow men die and helping to bury them by the roadside. He described his two forced marches, one when he was captured in 1940 and the second in 1945, in his book, Survivor of the Long March: Five Years as a POW: “ was in hot weather and I was still wearing my greatcoat but I was in good physical shape. He finally was rescued in April by Allied forces as the war was drawing to a close. In the frigid winter of 1944–45, on a forced march of nearly a thousand miles from Poland to just outside of Berlin, Waite almost died. He was moved from place to place and kept prisoner on a farm in Poland and forced to work the fields with Nazi guards watching. A 20-year-old from Essex, Waite was captured on May 20. Yet they had been forgotten while those who escaped and made their way back home were hailed as heroes.”īritish soldier Charlie Waite’s story was not uncommon. Their sacrifice had brought the salvation of the British nation. They had fought the battles to ensure the successful evacuation of over 300,000 fellow soldiers. ![]() As noted by Longden: “These dreadful days were never forgotten by those who endured them. They were forced to drink ditch water and eat putrid food. To lower officer morale, the Nazis told British officers that they would lose their rank and be sent to the salt mines to work. The POWs were denied food and medical treatment. As described in Dunkirk: The Men They Left Behind, by Sean Longden, some were summarily executed. Theirs is a story that is often overlooked, but for the next five years, until the war’s end, large numbers of these POWs would be mistreated and abused in violation of Geneva Convention guidelines governing the sick, wounded, prisoners of war and civilians. The following is an excerpt from TIME-LIFE’s new special edition, World War II: Dunkirk, available on Amazon.Īfter the last rescue boats left Dunkirk harbor on June 4, 1940, the Germans captured some 40,000 French troops who’d been left behind as well as at least 40,000 British soldiers in the Dunkirk vicinity. However, for many troops, Dunkirk was only the beginning. ![]() The 1940 evacuation at Dunkirk - the subject of Christopher Nolan’s critically acclaimed new film - remains one of World War II’s most striking episodes. ![]()
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