What did the British actually do at the start of WWII?

From my understanding (before the Dunkirk evacuation):
>they showed up with their army in france
>at least 400k trained soldiers with the support of the french military
>a bit of fighting happens I guess?
>after like 2 weeks the entire fucking army tries to run back to Britain
>Dunkirk happens
>"ooo we'll fight on the beaches guv"
>They never step foot in a significant way in Europe again

I do know they did work in Italy and North Africa etc., but my question is more focused on the European theatre

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upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/55/21May-4June1940-Fall_Gelb.svg/1200px-21May-4June1940-Fall_Gelb.svg.png
youtu.be/BZwuTo7zKM8
youtu.be/14IVzLjoFBQ?t=550
twitter.com/SFWRedditGifs

The only option was to retreat or risk losing all 400,000 men and they lost a not insignificant amount of equipment in France
>They never step foot in a significant way in Europe again
Well not by themselves

When the Nazis invaded Poland at the start of WW2 the bongs did SFA.

I know it makes sense to retreat and not fight to the last man wasting lives. I don't know how big the German forces were in that area at that time; but the British should have had a sizable force with their French allies. Were there any real battles even fought? Some fighting had to have happened and then suddenly the entire army retreats. Why even show up to begin with if they were so outmatched? It just looks weird.

The plan was for the main forces to hold the Germans in Belgium along the Escaut, but Germany went around as is well known and then there was a risk of encirclement after Sedan was opened up giving the Germans almost no resistance in their advance to the channel

I mean all those trained men, all those rifles and equipment, material in general just left behind. Describing it like that they seem like a shitty middle eastern army today. Just drop their equipment and run.

Did they not anticipate how fast the Germans could move and became encircled immediately? I don't know.

Encirclement is the fate of armies but it just looks silly how fast they showed up and left. I guess it simply makes sense, but if they only sent over a company of soldiers we would have had the same result.

The main German breakthrough was at Sedan, and afterwhich, you had this envelopment upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/55/21May-4June1940-Fall_Gelb.svg/1200px-21May-4June1940-Fall_Gelb.svg.png

like so.

It's more that they did not anticipate that anyone would be crazy enough to send units away from their artillery support, nor that such a thing would be effective. That ran counter to every lesson of how they won WW1, so of course it would be insanity to do something like that.

But it does give you more speed, and that speed turned out to be very important.

If they had only sent a company of reserves, they would be forcing the French to cover the same area with fewer forces, which makes the breakthrough quicker and more decisive.

That's a great map, thanks.

They sent a small expeditionary force to France that did absolutely nothing and tried to invade Norway with the intention of blocking swedish iron shipping to Germany, which prompted the German preventive invasion of Denmark and Norway. They also sank the Graf Spee in Buenos Aires and later made an epic movie about it.

Eternal Anglo stuff.

>accomplished nothing
thats what it looks like to me. one week of fighting, get encircled and then drop their stuff and run.

One of the problems with the speed of the German Army is that it was speed, as in amphetamines. Burned them out and they could not follow through and the English got away.

They sent all they could faggot. BEF fought well in 1940, it was French lines near Sedan that collapsed and it led to an encirclement of French and British troops.
If you want to blame someone blame Gamelin and French leadership in general. Making it look like British are to blame is ridiculous.
Gort smartly decided to withdraw BEF instead of launching a pointless attack south, and indulging into the delusions of GQG. Evacuation of BEF removed the chance Britain would capitulate, and in four years British troops were back in France, and French state was restored.
>mmuh perfidious anglo
Kys.

>They never step foot in a significant way in Europe again

Is this bait?

>Italy
>Not European theater
American education everyone

They ran away

youtu.be/BZwuTo7zKM8

...

youtu.be/14IVzLjoFBQ?t=550
What the fuck went wrong? Was the fall of France the single most surprising event of WW2?

>What the fuck went wrong?
Just about everything to be honest

They did fly nighttime bombing raids over germany to kill civilians but there wasn't much anyone could do when you had france sucking german dick and helping the Reich

face it, clement, half of france capitulated and the other sided with your conquerors
the anglo tried to help you and made a tactical retreat
interesting how it's shameful to retreat across the channel, but not to retreat halfway across france
does crossing water somehow make it worse?
fucking gallic cunts

Well, you sure showed them at Mers el Kebir, perfidious albion.

lmao you mean when the nazis french supporters had assumed rule of france and britain took precautionary measures to stop them utilising military equipment that posed a threat to their navy?
you dumb, dumb cunt

>tactical retreat
more like an ''''''organised''''' rout. And all that with the french offering the whole country as a sacrifice to the anglos so that they can keep up the fight on their own during the followup Batlle of Britain

When it appeared the Nazis would take possession of French Navy units along their coast, the French themselves sank those units, which puts the lie to your blathering, lad.

Perfidious Albion always liked the lie though.

Don't be a retard. Even if it's true that the french navy would have not fallen to the nazis, Churchill had no way to know that in 1940 ; Mers el-Kébir was a disaster and helped the Vichy regime, but it was not like Churchill wasn't trying to lit off all fires that could engulf Britain at this time.
And if it weren't for the UK's resistance, the French Free Forces could have never fought in North Africa on in mainland France.

t. Frenchman.

Britain in WW2 is an insignificant faction that was a thing because Hitler was too kind and repeatedly wanted and offered them peace. The only reason why they are being talked about is because they themselves manufactured an entire bullshit narrative about how awesome they are after WW2. In the actual war once Britain realized it is shit they immediately went to grovel at America's feet for them to come save them.

They also did this in WW1, except then it was France who did their dirty work.

Britain is the Italy of the Atlantic, and we should stop pretending they matter. There's no motive anymore. There's no need to impress them, because they barely exist today.

>breaks every treaty they signed sudetenland etc.
>we are to believe they would keep this one
The state of brainlets

> win a war by sacrificing men and materiel
or
> win a war by persuading a rich ex-colony to join the fight

Britain did nothing wrong.

> they barely exist today
Soft power rivals, and sometimes tops, that of the US.
Permanent Security Member.
Huge economy.

No.

...

Absolutely flattened smelly dumb Aryan scum with sweet, incendiary, cleansing flame. Is that enough?

"We will not commit the RAF to the defense of France"
t. Winston Churchill

Enough said.

Except they did for example (don't know how you missed this) D-Day landings is a big fucking example. Also they cracked German codes, fucked their navy and airforce, slowed and halted German expansion etc. Altogether they probably did the most to beat Germany alongside Russia

You do know when Churchill took office, right?

Imagine being THIS retarded

Forgot bombed the shit out of Germany and destroyed shipping that the population began to starve. They had Germany in a chokehold and Russia came in to break the neck

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Why are you laughing? Everything he said is true.

Nice bait. I'll bite though and point out that Britain probably did the most in both wars combined and calling them irrelevant is like saying 2+2=3. They're the most relevant country in history thanks to [Insert everything] and even today are the 4th most powerful country

This tbfh.

I'd say Russia was bigger in WW2 though. But it's fair to call Britain the main character of history.

Now, lets not get carried away here. Britain was the airbase for the US to invade europe. They helped a little.

>Soft power
If by soft you mean flaccid.

Hey look i can generalise too: America is just Britain's factory

>Russia GDP: 1.283 trillion USD
>UK GDP: 2.619 trillion USD

That article is pretty hilarious considering Russia has an economy smaller than Italy.

Are you retarded? The British had a larger airforce, and lost more men throughout the war, as well as comprising around 40% of soldiers in the westenr front, and over half if you include canada.

And still nobody gives a shit about what Britain has to say.

Actually USA lost more men than UK

And nobody gives a shit what a couple of poor drunk slavs have to say

Literally just not true. US death toll at around 419,000. British at 450,000. More if you add civilian casualties from Blitz.

That's counting civilians too

>all the American media and politicians shitting themselves senseless thinking Russia hacked their election and their own president is a mere Russian puppet
>half of the world is scared of Russian nukes
>Russia annexing Crimea sends the entire western world into a frenzy
Russia is right behind the US and China in global relevance. Meanwhile the only people who think Britain matters are the Brits, you're a complete joke, like a little child stomping his feet.

Nope. And it gets higher when you add the Commonwealth.

>they probably did the most to beat Germany alongside Russia
Even fucking Stalin said that the Russians couldn't have won in the Eastern front without the United State's help.

Holy shit, are you 14? That isn't power. If you think a few people thinking Russia hacked the election makes them the most dangerous nation, i guess all other nations with hackers breaching the US like Iran, Libya and Belarus are too?

And Britain has nukes too. It jsut doesn't wave them around like a retard.

Russia annexing crimea has done far more harm to russia than it has to the west. They're in the middle of a recession.

When you look at the fact London is the western world's capital of finance next to New York, and the UK is tied with France as the most powerful Euro Military, you might realize there's more to power than just shooting up the AE modifier and making your neighbours hate you, you utter cretin.

>Russia is relevant because they're autistic enough to keep threatening the west
Yes while you're at it North Korea is the most relevant country in history because they're going to destroy the world.
Stop being retarded. London is literally the financial capital of the world.

>it's 'muh lend lease!' argument again

Britain has no power, it's little more than a generic American bitch. From time to time you underlings need to be reminded of your place when adults are talking.

Yet he committed more squadrons once French demanded the first time.
By the time they cried for entire fucking RAF, France was already beaten and sending RAF to get raped in France would mean Britain would be left without air defense.

>Italy
>Europe

>they cracked German codes
That was the Polish.
> Altogether they probably did the most to beat Germany alongside Russia
lmfao

Wow, look at this argument!

You literally have 0 debating skills lmao

The us will literally be irrelevant in 30 years

>le polish cracked enigma

That's the first form you mong

And London is owned by Russians and Arabs anyway.

>The us will literally be irrelevant in 30 years
That may be, but Britain is irrelevant NOW lmao.

Not really. 5th biggest economy on earth. 5th biggest army.
>small property development is owning a city

>who is Alan Turing

>In the interview, Mr Cameron angrily rejected the Russian dismissal of British influence. “I don’t accept that for a moment,” he said, insisting that Britain remained a power in world affairs.
If you're so desperate that your nation's leader has to go on stage and screech "We matter!" then you probably don't.

>relevance is chimping out about everything by making nuclear threats
Gee if that's relevance i think I'd like to stay irrelevant

That pic is the answer.

>i think I'd like to stay irrelevant
Consider that wish granted.

...

You're one of the retards that tried to get Turing castrated because he was gay

You’re so assmad.

Why do you hate Brits so much? lmao

Kinda stupid seeing that everybody in Britain is gay.

No hate, just mockery.

>he thinks the Germans built one enigma machine and just used it for years and years

The absolute state.

t. Ex-colonial whose shithole village was burned down by brits

Whatever you say replying to 4 different people for nearly an hour is, lol.

did a bong cuck you? or are you irish?

Churchill knew that French fleet wasn't a threat, and ordered Mers el Kebir anyway. That idiot made many mistakes, and that was one of them.

Swing and a miss.

My first post ITT is just 30 minutes old.

Definitely Irish

The retarded bongs got their shit pushed in in both wars, you mean. Relevant? Kek.

>there's only 2 wars in history
>Britain lost the world wars

How? Literally how?

>But it's fair to call Britain the main character of history.
... in a comedic role, I agree.

What’s your nationality? I’m curious. Plus we all kinda wanna laugh at you more.

>literally behind evolution, penicillin, the industrial revolution, and the largest language on earth

>Soft power rivals, and sometimes tops, that of the US.

When exactly did this happen? I remember Germany being totally unable to knock them out of both wars

>Everything he said is true.
>Soft power rivals, and sometimes tops, that of the US.

Guarantee someone Will try and deconstruct each point by referencing some esoteric knowledge about how a dutch farmer in 1548 created rudimentary teleportation

Except it does. The world fears the colonial history of Britain. Everyone called them a small rainy island back then as they do now but then they were invaded...

The Russian inteligence,resources and military make the more relevant than the UK by any means. If you seriously believe that the UK has a sphere of influence bigger than the jershey islands and the isle of Mann you are deluded as fuck

>literally behind evolution
The brits have been creating mankind since the dawn of time!

The poor bongs, always with the "we wuzz empire kangs and sheeit" wheeze.

t. Irrelevant country who has never had an empire

Russian you dumb bong. Is it really this hard to figure out considering we've just been talking about Russia for half the thread?

>Except it does
If the US tells a country to stop doing something they do. If the UK demands something they would just start laughing at the delusion of the mongs