It was some 80 years ago that the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) sent to France found itself in headlong retreat towards the French Channel ports, pursued by the onrushing German Army. Luckily, the bulk of that force was evacuated from the beaches
Sent to France in 1939, the British Expeditionary Force was significantly larger and more powerful than its namesake of 1914. The British Army was, by the outbreak of World War Two, one of the most mechanised forces in the world, certainly more so than the German Army, but like its Great War predecessor was, at around only 13 Divisions, comparatively small, making up only 10% of the Allied ground forces in France.
The French army was considerably larger than the British and comparatively well-equipped, particularly in tanks, which were amongst the best in the world. Both France and the UK had, however, failed to invest in their defence to the same degree as Germany. While the French government built the Maginot Line as a physical buffer to German aggression, the UK government refused to accept that they would need to fight a war on the continent of Europe and consequently British military and naval power went into decline from 1919.
When the Germans launc…
