[9] Between the wars, de Fonblanque held a number of staff posts, culminating in being appointed Chief Administration Officer of Scottish Command in 1937.

Originally, the materiel needed by the force was all channelled through depots at Nantes and Brest, but construction of an Advance Base Area began at Le Havre in November 1939.

[12] As the Battle of France progressed, de Fonblanque, whose headquarters were at Le Mans, and much of his logistic chain, became separated from the fighting formations of the BEF by the German Blitzkrieg.

The arrival of General Sir Alan Brooke on 13 June to command the remaining British troops in France, was the catalyst for the decision to evacuate all of them, an undertaking codenamed Operation Aerial.

De Fonblanque was heavily involved in organising the landward side of the evacuation, which was successful in getting away almost all the men, some 190,000 of them, as well as a great quantity of invaluable guns, vehicles and stores that could easily have been lost.