Norman Force

In the Battle of France in June 1940, Norman Force was a formation of units of the British Expeditionary Force, following the Dunkirk evacuation (Operation Dynamo).

On 12 June 1940, Lieutenant-General Sir Alan Brooke returned to France and next day, assumed command of all British troops in the country.[1] He placed the British units fighting with the Tenth Army under the command of Lieutenant-General J. H. Marshall-Cornwall. This improvised formation was known as Norman Force and on 15 June comprised the 3rd Armoured Brigade of the 1st Armoured Division, the 157th (Highland Light Infantry) Brigade, 71st Field Regiment R.A. and the Troop Carrying Company of the 52nd (Lowland) Infantry Division.[2]

Next day, Brooke was able to prevent the rest of the 52nd (Lowland) Division being sent to join the 157th Infantry Brigade, and during the night he was informed that he was no longer under French command and must prepare to withdraw the British forces from France. Marshall-Cornwall was ordered to withdraw towards Cherbourg while continuing to co-operate with the French. The rest of the 52nd (Lowland) Division was ordered back to a defence line near Cherbourg to cover the evacuation on 15 June. The RAF Advanced Air Striking Force (AASF) was also directed to send its last bomber squadrons back to Britain and use the fighter squadrons to cover the evacuations. The German advance over the Seine had paused while bridges were built but the advance began again during the day, with the 157th Infantry Brigade engaged east of Conches-en-Ouche with the Tenth Army. The army was ordered to retreat to a line from Verneuil to Argentan and the Dives river, where the British took over an 8 mi (13 km) front either side of the Mortagne-au-Perche–Verneuil-sur-Avre road. German forces followed up quickly and on 16 June, Altmayer ordered the army to retreat into the Brittany peninsula.

Following Operation Cycle (10 to 13 June), Operation Ariel, the final Allied evacuation, began on 15 June.[3]

Footnotes
  1. AlanbrookeDanchev & Todman 2002, pp. 74–75.
  2. Ellis 2004, pp. 367–368.
  3. Ellis 2004, pp. 300–302.
gollark: I just use the AOSP keyboard and overmuch predictive text for my phone typing needs, or an actual keyboard for anything typey.
gollark: WHY
gollark: There really is a Wordart, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the system they use. Wordart is the kernel: the program in the system that allocates the machine's resources to the other programs that you run. The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete operating system. Wordart is normally used in combination with the GNU operating system: the whole system is basically GNU with Wordart added, or GNU/Wordart. All the so-called Wordart distributions are really distributions of GNU/Wordart!
gollark: Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of GNU which is widely used today is often called Wordart, and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the GNU system, developed by the GNU Project.
gollark: I'd just like to interject for moment. What you're refering to as Wordart, is in fact, GNU/Wordart, or as I've recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Wordart. Wordart is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning GNU system made useful by the GNU corelibs, shell utilities and vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX.

References
  • Alanbrooke, Field Marshal Lord (2002) [2001]. Danchev, Alex; Todman, Daniel (eds.). War Diaries (Phoenix Press, London ed.). London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 978-1-84212-526-7.
  • Ellis, Major L. F. (2004) [1st. pub. HMSO 1953]. Butler, J. R. M. (ed.). The War in France and Flanders 1939–1940. History of the Second World War United Kingdom Military Series. Naval & Military Press. ISBN 978-1-84574-056-6. Retrieved 1 September 2015.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.