Western Front: Guderian's 1st and 2nd Panzer divisions race to the Channel Coast, despite gallant but ineffectual resistance by troops from British 12th and 23rd (Territorial) divisions. 1st Panzer division captures Amiens at midday and 2nd Panzer division reaches Abbeville and Noyelles, at mouth of river Somme, in the evening, after advancing 240 miles in 11 days. Germans capture Laon, 60 miles in front of Paris.

Picture: Panzer 38(t) have reached the Channel coast.

Air War: RAF attack German tanks in Arras-Cambrai sector, carry out night raid on Rotterdam oil storage tanks, and attack German communications at Givet, Dinant and Charleville.

Secret War: Tyler Kent, cipher clerk in US Embassy, London, detained by British police and charged with copying hundreds of confidential documents over five-year period (some had been passed on to Nazi sympathizers and thence to Italian Embassy, London).

TUESDAY, MAY 21, 1940

Western Front: British and French armour counter-attack Rommel's 7th Panzer divison at Arras. After initial success attacks fail and end May 23. Germans besiege Maubeuge on river Sambre, west of Dinant.
Anglo-French Army commanders, Weygand, Billotte and Gort, confer at Ypres. While returning to his HQ, Billotte is injured in car accident (he never regains consciousness and dies May 23). General Blanchard, CO of French 1st Army, assumes command of Anglo-French Army Group 1.
Belgian government move to Bruges.

Picture: some of the few Matilda II tanks of the BEF are burning after been hit.

Air War: Intensive RAF daylight operations over battle fronts in south Belgium and north France. Nights raids on road and rail targets in Namur, Dinant and Aachen and troop concentrations at Arras (night May 21-22).

Sea War: French destroyer L'Adroit bombed and sunk off Dunkirk.

Home Front France: Premier Reynaud tells Senate: 'France cannot die ! .... if I were told tomorrow that only a miracle could save France, I should reply: I believe in miracles because I believe in France ! '.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 22, 1940

Western Front: Guderian's Panzer Corps strikes north from Abbeville towards Boulogne, Calais and Dunkirk.

Sea War: French destroyers give covering fire to Anglo-French forces in Boulogne.

Air War: RAF bomb German communications and dumps on river Meuse near Namur and north of river Aisne. Attempted raid on Leipzig power station (night May 22-23).

Home Front Britain: Emergency Powers Defence Act passed through Parliament.

Secret War: British Government Code and Cipher School breaks Luftwaffe Enigma cipher for May 20. Luftwaffe Enigma Code now read almost daily for rest of war.

THURSDAY, MAY 23, 1940

Western Front: Germans cross river Scheldt at Oudenarde. BEF in Belgium put on half-rations following loss of supply depots.

Sea War: Six British destroyers evacuate 4,400 troops from Boulogne, under heavy fire. French destroyers Jaguar and Drage sunk.

Air War: 18 Latecoere seaplanes dive-bomb bridges and road junctions between Boulogne and the Somme. Me 109s shoot down three.

Picture: a Me109 is landing on a captured French airfield. On the ground are destroyed Morane-Saulnier MS406 fighters.

Home Front Britain: Sir Oswald Mosley, leader of British Union of Fascists, and Captain Ramsay, president of Right Club and Conservative M.P. for Peebles, arrested. 76 IRA men arrested in North Ireland.

FRIDAY, MAY 24, 1940

Western Front: German infantry storm old Citadel, Boulogne. Guderian seals off Calais pocket. HITLER AND RUNDSTEDT HALT PANZER CORPS at Gravelines, southwest of Dunkirk.
French fortress of Maubeuge surrenders, after destruction of many reinforced concrete works by heavy artillery and demolition charges. Fall of Ghent and Tournai.

Picture: the flame thrower, the feared close combat weapon of the German engineers, in action against a French fortification.

Sea War: British cruisers and destroyers give supporting fire in Calais sector. French destroyer Chacal bombed and sunk off Boulogne.

Air War: Scattered raids over Yorkshire, East Anglia and Essex (night May 24-25); 8 people injured at Middlesbrough - first civilian casualties in air-raid on England. RAF bomb Cologne marshaliing yards (night May 24-25).

Secret War: British Government Code and Qypher School begins regular transmissions of de-coded German Enigma messages to GHQ, BEF and RAF HQ in France.

SATURDAY, MAY 25, 1940

Western Front: BEF despatch two divisions to block the gap between Menin and Ypres. Germans capture 5,000 British and French troops at Boulogne. British garrison repels assault on Calais Citadel and rejects surrender call. French recapture part of Amiens.

Sea War: Cruisers Arethusa and Galatea, six British destroyers and Polish destroyer Bzura give covering fire to small British garrison besieged in Calais Citadel. Destroyer Wessex bombed and sunk.
German aircraft drop mines off English South Coast ports (night May 25-26).

Diplomacy: Belgian Prime Minister Pierlot and Foreign Minister Spaak in London.

Home Front Britain: Munitions factories now working round the clock.

Secret War: Highly secret documents discovered in captured German staff car reveal German plan to attack gap between Menin and Ypres with two corps.

SUNDAY, MAY 26, 1940

Sea War: (MAIN EVENT) DUNKIRK EVACUATION (Operation Dynamo) begins. Zeebrugge harbour sabotaged by Royal Navy; 4 block ships sunk.

Picture: Evacuation of wounded British soldiers with lifeboats from Dunkirk.

Air War: Spitfires destroy six Me 109s and six Ju 87s over Dunkirk. Stukas pound British forces in Calais Citadel. Berlin falsely claims Calais has fallen. RAF bomb railway targets in Rhineland (night May 26-27).

Western Front: German ground and air forces crush stubbom British resistance in Calais Citadel. Hitler orders Rundstedt to resume advance by 'armoured groups and infantry divisions in direction Tournai-Dunkirk' .
German 6th Army launches powerful assault on Belgians holding Allied left flank. BEF send reinforcements. French and Belgians withstand violent German attacks between Courtrai and Valenciennes. French recapture several bridgeheads over river Somme east of Amiens.

Home Front Britain: General Sir Edmund Ironside appointed CinC Home Forces; General Sir John Dill appointed CIGS. Day of National Prayer.

Secret War: Admiral Schniewind, Chief of German Naval War Staff, predicts: 'Evacuation of [BEFJ troops without equipment .... is conceivable by means of large numbers of smaller vessels .... even from the open coast. '