The Siege of Calais (1940) was a battle for the port of Calais during the Battle of France in 1940. Darkest Hour is a 2017 war drama film directed by Joe Wright and written by Anthony McCarten.Set in May 1940, it stars Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill and is an account of his early days as prime minister during the Second World War and the May 1940 War Cabinet Crisis, while Nazi Germany's Wehrmacht swept across Western Europe and threatened to defeat the United Kingdom.
- Anthony Eden, Secretary of State for War, to Brigadier Nicholson, Commander of the Calais Garrison Towards the end of May 1940, the German Army was sweeping through France towards the coast. Siege of Calais (1940). The siege was fought at the same time as the Battle of Boulogne, just before Operation Dynamo, the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) through Dunkirk. Just better. Troops from an anti-aircraft searchlight unit were in the Calais area, where they were joined by the 3 Royal Tank Regiment and the 1 Battalion, The Queen Victoria’s Rifles (a Territorial Army unit).
At 0515 Brigadier Nicholson moved to the Citadel where he established a joint HQ with the French in a cellar of a block of buildings.
After the Franco-British counter The King’s Royal Rifle Corps and the 1 Bn.
Quite the same Wikipedia. The headquarters of the 30 Infantry Brigade under Brigadier NICHOLSON landed on 22 May, with the 2 Bn.
Sunday 26 May A small fleet of trawlers, drifters, river launches and yachts had set out from Dover the previous evening in case the evacuation of Calais was ordered and arrived off the French coast at 0140 hrs.
At Southampton Brigadier C. N. Nicholson, commanding the brigade, was informed by the War Office that some German tanks with artillery were moving in the direction of Boulogne, but the general situation was obscure; the 30th Infantry Brigade would land either at Calais or Dunkirk and would then be used offensively against the German columns.