* Much of the bad feeling between France and Britain over the last seventy-seven years can be traced to this act of supposed betrayal. While this is understandable, two points need to be added. First, retreat and evacuation were the only sensible courses of action in the circumstances. By keeping alive his impractical plan to attack southwards, Weygand was endangering both his and the British forces. Second, British ships were to evacuate huge numbers of French troops alongside British troops. The exodus from Dunkirk was a desperate effort to keep the war alive, not a sly British bid to cut and run.