The Retreat from Dunkirk, 1940

Dunkirk was a pretty good movie. And, it was fairly accurate by Hollywood standards. However, they left an important part out of this story. How were those thousands of soldiers, the cream of the British crop, able to escape running with their backs to German guns? German forces clearly dominant, pushed the British and their allies into a pocket in Northwestern France but could not finish them off there. Why?

Early in the war England raised some civilian help in North Africa. They enlisted Egyptians but because of their lack of discipline and natural slowness to get the job done it became clear very quickly to hold onto the Middle East they would need more than that. London made the decision “to have in addition (to Egyptian volunteers a) disciplined military labour force for work in the forward areas and for this Pioneer Corps companies were raised in Palestine and Cyprus.” (E.H. Rhodes-Wood, “A History of the Royal Pioneer Corps, 1939-1945”)

But not all of these companies were assigned to the Western Desert.

There were some foreign soldiers fighting among the British, refugees, dominion and colonial recruits who were sent to France in the first part of 1940 to support the fighting force there ready to meet the Germans. After defeat it was those companies that stayed behind to make sure the British expeditionary force (BEF) were protected as well as possible to allow for their escape. Since these soldiers were not British and did not have the experience and trained skill that the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) had, they were considered somewhat expendable.

These were desperate times. The Allies, or what was left of them by the middle of May were trying desperately to hang on to stopping Nazism at all costs. Germany was rampaging through Western Europe and surrender was in the air. London drew from its colonies for the resources and manpower it needed. One of the first to step up was the Jews of Palestine. On September 3, 1939, one day after England declared war on Germany, Chaim Weizmann presented Neville Chamberlain with a proposal to utilize Jewish help in defeating Nazi Germany.

But, it wasn’t easy for the Jews to become part of the fighting force to defeat Germany. The English tried to block them from doing so almost every step of the way. Even though the British had a natural fighter in the Jew against Germany they held certain political reasons to hold them back, not the least of which was it would anger their Arab allies who were intentionally holding back complete support. In some cases they even went over to the German side as in the Iraqi military coup of 1941, which is another story.

On September 3, 1939, the same day England declared war on Germany, Chaim Weizmann presented Neville Chamberlain with a proposal to utilize Jewish help in defeating Nazi Germany. Over the next several days, 136,000 Palestinian Jews, 80,000 men and 56,000 women offered their support for the war effort. That was quite an offer considering the entire Jewish population of Palestine at the time was 450,000 people. That probably accounts for just about every able bodied man and woman in the country. Chamberlain was impressed but he turned the offer down, setting in place a British policy that would extend almost to the end of the war in not building a Jewish army for the fight.

After England began to form the AMPC a unit was recognized in Palestine. They wanted Arab Muslims to fight on their behalf, in order to curry favor with the Arab Muslim world. London sought 700 Palestinian Arabs among their youth to work on the British behalf. In May of 1940 all odds were on Germany ending the war within the year. The Arabs were reluctant to show such material support for the ally side preferring to play two ends against the middle and waiting for a victor to arise from the European war.

The turnout to form a Palestinian Arab company was dismal. The British then went to the prisons and promised Arab prisoners that if they worked for the allies they would be freed after the war and their crimes commuted. Four hundred Arab prisoners answered the call. That still was 300 below their quota for the company.

London finally went to the Jewish Agency and asked if they would fill the void. The Jews who had been clamoring London since the previous September 3rd, filled the void within 24 hours.

The 401 was sent to France in February 1940. Stationed at Rennes along with several other companies from England composed of alien groups, mostly Jews from Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Poland according to Rhodes-Wood. All of these companies were on the ground and working by the time of the German invasion of France on May9th and tenth.

Parity between Jews and Arabs in the Palestine effort was not policy at the time but did become so later.

Part of the contingent that stayed behind was Auxiliary Military Pioneer Corp (AMPC). The 401 Palestine Company of that Corp was one of those units commanded by Major H.J. Cator. Palestinian Jews had a difficult time getting into the army to fight the Germans.

According to Ashley Jackson, (The British Empire and the Second World War, 2006) “they saw action” during their time in France. Where the saw action was in covering for the BEF escaping taking on German troops, sacrificing themselves in order to save the only army left that could put up a fight at a later time. Rhodes-Wood describes their stay in France during the evacuation as “Following the evacuation of the B.E.F. the company crossed to England where it remained until August 1940.”

Weapons, especially rifle and pistol issues were still scarce in the Spring of 1940 due to inaction and reticence of Baldwin and Chamberlain to re-arm, rather than taking the stance they could pacify Hitler into working for a peaceful Europe. Germany was way ahead of the allies when the war started. This translated to preferences as to who got weapons and who didn’t. Palestinian Jews along with their alien counterparts who fled to England, were denied rifles until the rest of the British army could come up to speed on it.

The last of the BEF left by the end of June, the last of the stay-behind companies did not leave France until July 24th. Although I can’t confirm at this time, it is likely that the 401 was one of those companies.