France 1940: Massacre of the Innocents

France 1940: Massacre of the Innocents With Tim Lynch Part of Infantry Week on WW2TV    • Infantry Week   They called it ‘the slaughter of the innocents’. The barely trained and poorly equipped men of the Labour Divisions were never meant to fight, but when the German blitzkreig sliced through the Allied armies in 1940, they were all that stood in the way of the annihilation of the British Expeditionary Force. While the Allied generals bickered amongst themselves, all command and control lost, their men died to buy precious time as the main army fell back towards Dunkirk. Long after the last of the rescue ships reached home, the men of the Labour Divisions fought on. That summer saw a thousand small acts of heroism, from the officer with multiple wounds who refused to leave his command, to the lone infantryman who held off a German panzer with a single anti-tank gun; refusing to surrender, he died at his post, alone. Tim Lynch served in the Falklands and Northern Ireland. After his military career, he began working as a freelance writer, specialising in history and travel. He is an active member of the Western Front Association and has taken part in archaeological work on the battlefields of France. He is a regular contributor to magazines such as Britain at War, Military Illustrated, Skirmish and Stand To! Dunkirk 1940: 'Whereabouts Unknown': How Untrained Troops of the Labour Division were Sacrificed to Save an Army by Tim Lynch UK https://uk.bookshop.org/a/5843/978075... USA https://www.amazon.com/Dunkirk-1940-W... Dunkirk: The Real Story in Photographs by Tim Lynch UK https://uk.bookshop.org/a/5843/978075... USA https://bookshop.org/a/21029/97807509... Please click subscribe for updates and the bell icon for notifications You can become a Patron and support us here   / ww2tv   You can become a YouTube Member and support us here    / @ww2tv   Social Media links -   / ww2tv     / ww2tv     / ww2tv   For First World War content follow our sister channel WW1TV    / @ww1tvchannel   WW2TV Bookshop - where you can purchase copies of books featured in my YouTube shows. Any book listed here comes with the personal recommendation of Paul Woodadge, the host of WW2TV. For full disclosure, if you do buy a book through a link from this page WW2TV will earn a commission. UK - https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/WW2TV USA - https://bookshop.org/shop/WW2TV Patreon Brigadiers: Susan Yu Become a WW2TV Brigadier and become part of this Hall of Fame   / ww2tv