My dad was one of the 3,000 heroes sacrificed by Winston Churchill to save Dunkirk [tr]

The Daily Mail ^ | February 2, 2018 | John Jay

[beaversmom]

They were the lost brigade, just a few thousand British soldiers, doomed by a mortified Winston Churchill to fight to the last man to hold up the Germans at the French port of Calais.

They courageously did as ordered, sacrificing their futures and lives to delay the advance of Hitler’s armies, buying time for the miracle evacuation from the beaches of Dunkirk, just 30 miles up the coast, in May 1940.

And at last the heroic stand of the Calais garrison has been widely recognised, figuring prominently in Darkest Hour, the marvellous film starring Gary Oldman that depicts those desperate days when Churchill inspired the nation to defiance rather than surrender.

I have just watched it at the cinema, choking back the tears. I have a very personal interest. My father, Alec Jay, then just a 20-year-old rifleman, was one of those who fought in that battle — and at great cost. It left scars on his mind from which he never recovered. And nor, indirectly, have I.

I never really understood my Dad when he was alive. He was a remote figure, angry, impatient and rude, both in his job as a City stockbroker and at home with his family. I wasn’t close to him.

In truth, I barely knew him and much of what I knew I didn’t like. When he died suddenly in 1993, aged 73, from a ruptured aorta, I deeply regretted our failure to talk more.

Only years later did I sift through dusty papers he’d left in carrier bags, notes summarising the chapters of the autobiography he never got round to writing. He had made a start, though — just seven precious pages.

As I read them, my real father emerged. Not the curmudgeon of my childhood, but a hero--first on the battlefield...

[mass55th]

Thanks for posting this article. I read it through tears.

[jimmygrace]

I think the bravery and ferocity at Calais forced the German generals to approach Dunkirk with more caution than was needed. In truth, they could have easily overrun Dunkirk and won the war in Europe. Those British and French soldiers in Calais did not die in vain.

[DWar]

Words fail to describe this kind of heroism.
There are only tears.

[laplata]

It’s a good thing Hitler held back the Panzers so they could rest and re-fit.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks beaversmom. They knew what they were there to do, and did it. And as in other critical situations, Hitler lost what little nerve he had and refused to listen to his commanders who told him to close the bag.

Contrast that with some of his adversaries:

[snip] I would observe that there has never been a period in all these long centuries of which we boast when an absolute guarantee against invasion, still less against serious raids, could have been given to our people. In the days of Napoleon the same wind which would have carried his transports across the Channel might have driven away the blockading fleet. There was always the chance, and it is that chance which has excited and befooled the imaginations of many Continental tyrants. Many are the tales that are told. We are assured that novel methods will be adopted, and when we see the originality of malice, the ingenuity of aggression, which our enemy displays, we may certainly prepare ourselves for every kind of novel stratagem and every kind of brutal and treacherous maneuver. I think that no idea is so outlandish that it should not be considered and viewed with a searching, but at the same time, I hope, with a steady eye. We must never forget the solid assurances of sea power and those which belong to air power if it can be locally exercised.

I have, myself, full confidence that if all do their duty, if nothing is neglected, and if the best arrangements are made, as they are being made, we shall prove ourselves once again able to defend our Island home, to ride out the storm of war, and to outlive the menace of tyranny, if necessary for years, if necessary alone. At any rate, that is what we are going to try to do. That is the resolve of His Majesty’s Government-every man of them. That is the will of Parliament and the nation. The British Empire and the French Republic, linked together in their cause and in their need, will defend to the death their native soil, aiding each other like good comrades to the utmost of their strength. Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God’s good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old. [/snip]

“We Shall Fight on the Beaches... We Shall Never Surrender” — Sir Winston Churchill
The Winston Churchill Homepage | June 4th, 1940 | Winston Churchill
Posted on 09/21/2001 12:01:56 PM PDT by StoneColdGOP
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/529370/posts

“It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.” — General Dwight D. Eisenhower