Qualla: Battle of Boulogne https://qualla.com/battle-of-boulogne en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:32 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/1/0/battle-of-boulogne-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Battle of Boulogne https://qualla.com/battle-of-boulogne Battle of Boulogne: Introduction https://qualla.com/battle-of-boulogne/ Photo credit Karldupart  This file was uploaded with Commonist., Public domain. They were not supposed to be soldiers. The 1,500 men of No. 5 Group, Auxiliary Military Pioneer Corps, were construction labourers - recalled reservists and half-trained reinforcements waiting to be shipped home from France in May 1940. Then the 2nd Panzer Division appeared on the ridges south of Boulogne. The Pioneers were combed for anyone who had ever fired a rifle, handed the weapons of the rest, and rushed into the gap between two Guards battalions. Their commander, Lieutenant Colonel Donald Dean, already wore the Victoria Cross from another war. For three days they fought tanks with hunting rifles and petrol bombs while the Royal Navy shot its way in and out of the harbour - and while, behind them, the road to Dunkirk stayed open one more day.

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]]> Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/1/0/battle-of-boulogne-wp/u110-battle-of-boulogne-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Battle of Boulogne: The Wrong Side of the Channel https://qualla.com/battle-of-boulogne/ Photo credit David-waterways, CC BY-SA 4.0. By 21 May 1940 the Channel ports had become catastrophe corridors. The German breakthrough at Sedan had cut the British Expeditionary Force off from its southern bases. Rear headquarters had retreated from Arras to Boulogne; supply troops, labourers and stragglers were piling up ...

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]]> Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/1/0/battle-of-boulogne-wp/u110-battle-of-boulogne-the-wrong-side-of-the-channel.mp3 0:06 2 full Battle of Boulogne: The Welsh and the Irish https://qualla.com/battle-of-boulogne/ Photo credit Karldupart  This file was uploaded with Commonist., Public domain. Brigadier William Fox-Pitt's two battalions - 2nd Welsh Guards and 2nd Irish Guards - had been training at Camberley in Surrey the previous morning. By the next dawn they were digging in on the high ground around Boulogne with a single anti-tank battery between them and the Germa...

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]]> Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/1/0/battle-of-boulogne-wp/u110-battle-of-boulogne-the-welsh-and-the-irish.mp3 0:06 3 full Battle of Boulogne: Pioneers with Rifles https://qualla.com/battle-of-boulogne/ Photo credit Karldupart  This file was uploaded with Commonist., Public domain. By dawn on 23 May the situation had changed. Fort de la Creche above Wimereux had fallen. German armour blocked any reinforcement from Calais. Fox-Pitt realised he would have to defend a Channel port with two infantry battalions and a brigade of labourers. Lieutenant Colonel Dean...

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]]> Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/1/0/battle-of-boulogne-wp/u110-battle-of-boulogne-pioneers-with-rifles.mp3 0:06 4 full Battle of Boulogne: The Destroyers Shoot Their Way In https://qualla.com/battle-of-boulogne/ Photo credit Surgeon Oscar Parkes, Public domain. What followed remains one of the Royal Navy's most extraordinary close actions. Destroyer after destroyer ran the gauntlet of German tanks now firing directly onto the quays. HMS Vimy and HMS Keith berthed and began embarking wounded and Pioneers; both captains were killed by sni...

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]]> Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/1/0/battle-of-boulogne-wp/u110-battle-of-boulogne-the-destroyers-shoot-their-way-in.mp3 0:06 5 full Battle of Boulogne: The Last Stand at the Gare Maritime https://qualla.com/battle-of-boulogne/ Photo credit Karldupart  This file was uploaded with Commonist., Public domain. Not everyone got out. Three companies of Welsh Guards lost their radios and the evacuation order never reached them. Major Windsor Lewis's 3 Company reached the quayside at dawn on 24 May to find HMS Vimiera already gone. He gathered a mixed force of guardsmen, Engineers, unarmed...

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]]> Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/1/0/battle-of-boulogne-wp/u110-battle-of-boulogne-the-last-stand-at-the-gare-maritime.mp3 0:06 6 full Battle of Boulogne: What Three Days Bought https://qualla.com/battle-of-boulogne/ Photo credit Karldupart  This file was uploaded with Commonist., Public domain. Guderian later wrote that the halt order, and the German decision to keep the 10th Panzer Division in reserve during the attacks on Boulogne and Calais, cost his army the chance to destroy the BEF outright. The Welsh and Irish Guards received the battle honour "Boulogne 1940." Op...

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]]> Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/1/0/battle-of-boulogne-wp/u110-battle-of-boulogne-what-three-days-bought.mp3 0:06 7 full