Why France CollapsedThe history of the conquest of Gaul, it has been said, would be far more obscure if twenty of Caesar's generals had written commentaries. In June 1940 the armies of France, Great Britain and Belgium succumbed to the onslaught of the German armies in less than six weeks. How this could have come about has hardly been illuminated by the accusations and counter-accusations of prominent French politicians and senior officers. The crossfire of charges is as blinding as a hailstorm. This book is a bold attempt to clarify responsibilities and to answer the question of how an army-not greatly inferior to the enemy's and only ten years before believed to be the strongest in Europe- met such an ignominious defeat. First it tells the story of the reconstitution of the army after 1919 and of the French defence preparations. It shows the chiefs' of staff lack of imagination: how dull were their analyses of the recent war, how blind they were to the outside world, how negligent of such matters as the increase in speeds and range of armaments, how incurious as to their enemies, and how subservient to the politicians who courted an electorate which loathed war but was not ready to pay for peace, while an out-of-date armament industry existed on high protective tariffs. In 1939 France had an army and an air force trained for defeat. |
Contents
Arms for Defeat | |
The Betrayal of an Ally | |
On the Brink Part II Drôle de Guerre | |
The Disarming of the 2nd Armoured Division 1321 | |
The End of the Ninth Army 1519 | |
The Loss of Maubeuge and the Oise 1519 | |
Reaction in Paris 1517 | |
Stopgaps 1620 | |
The End of Gamelin and Arrival of Weygand 1719 | |
The British at Arras 2021 | |
The Widening of the Gap 1723 | |
The Loss of a Second Ally | |
Illusions and Disillusion | |
Deficiencies and Defects | |
Forecasts and Plans | |
The Eleventh Hour Part III The Disaster | |
The Seventh Army and the Islands 1017 | |
The First Army and the Dyle Line 1014 | |
The Meuse Dinant 13 | |
The Meuse Sedan 1014 | |
The Meuse Monthermé 1315 | |
G Q G Action 13 | |
Dismemberment of the Ninth Army 1315 | |
The Splitting of the Centre 1316 | |
Consultations and Orders 1923 | |
Confused Discussion 2326 | |
Lille and Dunkirk 26 May2 June | |
Failure on the Somme 25 May4 June | |
Fall Rot to the Oise 510 June | |
The End of IX Corps | |
Army Groups Four and | |
Across the Loire | |
Armistice | |
Epilogue | |
B The German Forces | |
Select Bibliography | |
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Common terms and phrases
1st Panzer 3rd Armoured 5th North African 7th Panzer 8th Panzer Division afternoon Air Force Aisne Alpine anti-tank guns armoured cars armoured divisions Army Group artillery attack battalions batteries Belgian Billotte Blanchard bombers bridgehead bridges Brigade British canal Cavalry Division Chasseurs Colonial commander Corps crossed Daladier defences divisional Dunkirk east enemy evacuation Fagalde Ferté fighters fighting Flize fortress Fourth Army France French Army frontier Gamelin Gaulle German German armour Gort Guderian’s Hotchkiss Huntziger III Corps infantry infantry divisions Infantry Regiment June kilometres Laurencie Light Armoured Loire machine-gun Maginot Line Maubeuge Meuse Minister Monthermé morning Moroccans Motorized move night Ninth Army occupied officers Oise ordered Panzer Division Panzer Korps Paris Pétain Prételat Prioux reached reconnaissance group Renault reserve retreat Reynaud river road Rommel Second Army sector sent Seventh Army Somme Spahis squadrons staff tanks Tenth Army told troops Weygand withdrawal X Corps XXIII Corps