Without warning, on 10 May 1940, the German Blitzkrieg smashed into Holland, Belgium, France and Luxembourg. Disaster consumed the Allies, the unprecedented German advance to the Channel coast slicing the Allied armies in two and threatening the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) with envelopment.
German fighters ruled the air, enabling the Stuka dive-bombers and panzers to roam at will. On 24 May 1940, Hitler halted at the Aa Canal, confident that the Luftwaffe could pulverise the BEF, concentrated in a pocket, the base of which rested upon the port of Dunkirk, into submission or annihilation.
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