A little-known story about one of  Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s schemes in 1940 to keep the French in the war.

While British troops were still being evacuated from Dunkirk, General Alan Brooke, who had already saved the British Expeditionary Force from being cut off from the sea, was dispatched, with four divisions, to create a redoubt in Brittany into which a defeated French Army could retreat. 

However, it soon became apparent that the French were beyond saving.  Instead Brooke found himself having to speedily evacuate his troops from Brittany before being captured by the Germans.  In France he also discovers thousands of British troops that had not been rescued at Dunkirk. And so the race was on to evacuate all British troops before capture by the Germans which he largely achieves except for the gallant 51st (Highland) Division.

This entire episode was hushed-up through a D-Notice especially news of the sinking of Cunard’s RMS Lanacastria with the loss of around 3,000 lives while trying to help evacuate British troops.