At this point, Germany was riding high, having seized the initiative in this super-war.
After taking control of all of Belgium, Germany split its forces to attack the Netherlands and Luxembourg on one hand, while attempting to drive deep into Amiens alone on the other, surrounding the Anglo-French-Belgian forces west of Lille and Kortrijk.
According to the records, the armies of the three countries stationed in these regions numbered at least 400,000, including 150,000 British troops and 200,000 French troops.
If Germany could encircle and swallow all these forces, its offensive against France would become much easier, while the Anglo-French forces would also suffer considerable losses.
However, the Anglo-French forces naturally understood the disaster that would follow an encirclement. Back when Kortrijk was under siege, the Anglo-French joint command had already held an emergency meeting and chosen an evacuation point for the 400,000 troops along the Franco-Belgian border: Dunkirk, the port at the northernmost tip of France.
Speaking of Dunkirk, the port city occupied a fairly important geographical position along the Franco-Belgian border.
As France's northernmost city, Dunkirk was actually located deep behind the entire Belgian front. It was also the best evacuation point for the Anglo-French Allied Forces in Belgium.
More importantly, it faced the British city of Dover across the sea, and the straight-line distance between the two cities was only about seventy kilometers.
On June 29, the German Army launched an all-out offensive along the line from Dunkirk to Lille.
As long as either city fell, the Anglo-French Allied Forces' retreat plan would collapse, and these 400,000 troops would officially enter the German Army's encirclement.
At the beginning of the offensive, the German Army's advance went extremely smoothly.
The elite German Armored Corps left the Anglo-French forces utterly powerless to resist. Even the defensive line the French