Siege of Calais (1940) 1940
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate. Wikidata lists more than one location for this battle; the first is shown.
Key facts
| Year | 1940 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
|---|---|---|
| Era | World War II era (1939–1945) | derived from year |
| Location | France | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | World War II | Wikidata P361 |
| Coordinates | 50.9561, 1.8414 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The siege of Calais (1940) was a battle for the port of Calais during the Battle of France. The siege was fought at the same time as the Battle of Boulogne, just before Operation Dynamo, the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) through Dunkirk. After the Franco-British counter-attack at the Battle of Arras (21 May), German units were held back to be ready to resist a resumption of the counter-attack on 22 May, despite the protests of General Heinz Guderian, the commander of the XIX Armee Korps, who wanted to rush north up the Channel coast to capture Boulogne, Calais and Dunkirk. An attack by part of the XIX Armee Korps was not authorised until 12:40 a.m. on the night of 21/22 May.
By the time the 10th Panzer Division was ready to attack Calais, the British 30th Infantry Brigade and 3rd Royal Tank Regiment (3rd RTR) had reinforced the French and British troops in the port. On 22 May, the British troops had established roadblocks outside the town and French rearguards skirmished with German armoured units, as they advanced towards Calais. British tanks and infantry had been ordered south to reinforce Boulogne but were too late. They then received orders to escort a food convoy to Dunkirk but found the road blocked by German troops.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Siege of Calais (1940) (revision 1370739983), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
Nearby battles
- Siege of Calais (1346–1347) 1346 · 1 km
- Siege of Calais (1558) 1558 · 1 km
- Siege of Calais (1436) 1436 · 1 km
- Siege of Calais (1596) 1596 · 1 km
- Battle of Calais 1350 · 1 km
- Channel Dash 1942 · 8 km
Other battles of the World War II
- Battle of Tomaszów Lubelski 1939
- Battle of Wilno (1939) 1939
- Battle of Władypol 1939
- Defense of Ochota and Wola (1939) 1939
- Siege of Warsaw (1939) 1939
- Action in the Strait of Otranto 1940
- Altmark incident 1940
- Attack on Convoy BN 7 1940
- Battle of Abbeville 1940
- Battle of Arras (1940) 1940
All 178 battles of the World War II →
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