Operation Ariel

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Operation Ariel was the name given to the World War II evacuation of Allied forces from western France following the collapse of the country by the invasion by Nazi Germany.

Operation Ariel commanded by admiral William Milbourne James C-inC, Portsmouth Command began on June 14 being conducted from the ports of Cherbourg and St Malo, ending on June 25, 1940 in accordance with the armistice terms signed by the French Government. During this time, further to the south in the Bay of Biscay area, evacuations were also being carried out from St Nazaire, Brest and Nantes led by Admiral Sir Martin Eric Nasmith C-inC, Western Approaches Command.

Over 215,000 British, French, Polish and Canadian soldiers were evacuated, to be combined with the 11,000 men evacuated from Le Havre in Operation Cycle and the 338,226 men that were evacuated from Dunkirk (the miracle of Dunkirk, as Winston Churchill called it). The British evacuation of Dunkirk through the English Channel was codenamed Operation Dynamo.

Operation Ariel was less desperate in some ways, and less well known, than the earlier heavy fighting around Dunkirk during the German invasion in 1940 (when a lull in the fighting allowed an unexpectedly large number of French and British soldiers to escape to Britain). The only major loss during the evacuation from western France occurred off St Nazaire on 17 June. The liner RMS Lancastria was bombed and sunk, by Junkers Ju 88s of Kampfgeschwader 30 killing some 5,800 personnel^[1].

On the final day of the evacuation, 25th June, Canadian destroyer HMCS Fraser was rammed and sunk by the anti-aircraft cruiser HMS Calcutta in the Gironde estuary, leading into Bordeaux. About 4,000 were awaiting evacuation.

[edit] References

• Hooton, E.R. (2007). Luftwaffe at War; Blitzkrieg in the West. London: Chervron/Ian Allen. ISBN 978-1-85780-272-6.