Tuesday, 21st May 1940

1pm
Dear Mother,

Please excuse this writing, but I am writing this in a lorry on the way to Dover.

We were on our way back from St. Mary's Bay to Camberley when at Dorking, a despatch rider caught up with us with a message for the officer.

This message simply order's us to Dover and that's all I can tell you about that.

Well it means that we are for France or Belgium tonight.  As soon as I can I will drop you a line from the other side to put your fears at rest.  We are near Guildford at the moment, we have over 100 miles to go, so I will add some more later on, I might have a bit more news then.

8pm

Only a few miles from Dover now, please excuse writing, we're going at 35 mph and the road is bumpy.

Have travelled 180 miles today, through Maidstone and Canterbury, and lots of other places.

Well, I will have to finish now.  Give my love to Dad and Dorothy.

Your loving son
Arthur



Arthur thrust this letter into a young woman's hands as they drove through Dover, and asked her to post it for him. She did, as his parents received it.




On this day;



On the Western Front...Rommel's division is sharply attacked around Arras by British tank forces. The attack does very well at first largely because of the comparative invulnerability of the Matilda tanks to the standard German antitank weapons. After some panic on the German side the attack is halted, principally because of the fire of a few 88mm guns. The British force is too small to repeat the advance or to shake free from this setback. Weygand visits the commanders of the northern armies to try to coordinate attacks from north and south of the German corridor to the coast. By a series of accidents he misses seeing Gort, and Bilotte, to whom he has given the fullest explanation of his plans, is killed in a car accident before he can pass them on. The attack will never take place. The small British effort has already been made. The Belgians will try to free some more British units for a later effort but this will not be possible. The French themselves, both north and south, are already too weak.
In Norway... The French, Polish and Norwegian forces moving in on Narvik advance another stage and gain positions on the northern side of Rombaksfiord.
In Berlin... In a conference Admiral Raeder mentions to Hitler for the first time that it may be necessary to invade Britain. The German navy has made some preliminary studies before this but they have not been based on the availability of French bases. Little though is given to the possibility at this stage even after this conference.