Lutzow was hit AFTER she turned about (assuming Blucher had hit mines)....
Calais was bypassed as it wasn't a threat. It surrendered September 1944....
Get better history books.
Here I assume you both are talking about different attacks.
Calais surrendered in May 1940, after a 5 day siege. On the final day as England was sending ships to evacuate the surviving members of their expeditionary force, the Germans attacked and overwhelmed the exhausted defenders.
Many believe that Calais was a sacrifice move, in order to help prepare for the evacuation of Dunkirk. They surrendered on 26 May, the same day that the evacuations started at Dunkirk. In fact, the ships and boats assembled to evacuate Calais were the first ones used at Dunkirk.
3,500 captured, so that 338,226 could be evacuated.
But yea, bragging that it did not "evacuate until May" kind of strikes me as rubbish. The Battle of France did not even begin until 10 May, and the surrender of Calais was only 16 days later. Not sure what there is to brag about that to be honest.
But indeed, after Operation Overlord Calais was largely ignored. It was entirely an outward pointed threat, and one that was easily ignored. The troops that garrisoned the town were mostly sailors without ships, and soldiers of questionable abilities (and frequently either ethnic Germans born outside of Germany, or foreign volunteers). Even their own commander called them "rubbish". Most of the Soldiers in the unit were those to old for front line service, or injured in previous engagements.
The one exception was the Luftwaffe AA gunners, who were mostly young and highly motivated. The rest of the defenders (sailors manning the coastal defense guns and soldiers defending the area) were all of very low morale, and poorly equipped. The taking of this port was left to the Canadian 7th Brigade, as a prelude to the invasion of Belgium. Calais had largely been cut off for almost 3 months, and it was considered of no importance. However, it was a large pocket of German forces that had to be eliminated in the event they tried to break out and cause havoc behind the lines.
But the guns were unimportant. They were easily avoided, the only reason it was taken out was because of the threat that 10,000 German forces posed behind their lines should they decide to attack.
