The Fall of France The Nazi Invasion of 1940

by Jackson, Julian

• ISBN13: 9780192805508
• ISBN10: 0192805509
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-05-27
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

The Fall of France in 1940 is one of the pivotal moments of the twentieth century. If the German invasion of France had failed, it is arguable that the war might have ended right there. But the French suffered instead a dramatic and humiliating defeat, a loss that ultimately drew the whole world into war. This exciting new book by Julian Jackson, a leading historian of twentieth-century France, charts the breathtakingly rapid events that led to the defeat and surrender of one of the greatest bastions of the Western Allies. Using eyewitness accounts, memoirs, and diaries to bring the story to life, Jackson not only recreates the intense atmosphere of the six weeks in May and June leading up to the establishment of the Vichy regime, but he also unravels the historical evidence to produce a fresh answer to the perennial question--was the fall of France inevitable. Jackson's vivid narrative explores the errors of France's military leaders, her inability to create stronger alliances, the political infighting, the lack of morale, even the decadence of the inter-war years. He debunks the "vast superiority" of the German army, revealing that the more experienced French troops did well in battle against the Germans. Perhaps more than anything else, the cause of the defeat was the failure of the French to pinpoint where the main thrust of the German army would come, a failure that led them to put their best soldiers up against a feint, while their worst troops faced the heart of the German war machine. An engaging and authoritative narrative, The Fall of France illuminates six weeks that changed the course of twentieth-century history.

Author Biography

Julian Jackson is Professor of French History at the University of Swansea and the author of several books on twentieth-century France, including France: The Dark Years 1940-1944, which was a finalist for a Los Angeles Times Book Award.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	xii
List of Maps	xiv
Brief Chronology	xv
Abbreviations	xvii
Introduction	1	(8)
PART I: THE STORY
1. 'We Are Beaten'	9	(51)
16 May 1940: Churchill in Paris	9	(1)
The Mysterious General Gamelin	10	(2)
'Ready for War': Tanks and Guns	12	(5)
The Air Force	17	(4)
French Military Doctrine: 'Retired on Mount Sinai'?	21	(4)
Fighting in Belgium: The Dyle Plan	25	(5)
The Matador's Cloak	30	(3)
The Allied Order of Battle	33	(4)
10-15 May: Into Belgium	37	(2)
10-12 May: Through the Ardennes	39	(3)
13 May: The Germans Cross the Meuse	42	(5)
14-15 May: The Counter-attack Fails: The Tragic Fate of the Three DCRs	47	(8)
17-18 May: The Tortoise Head	55	(3)
19-20 May: 'Without Wishing to Intervene...': The End of Gamelin	58	(2)
2. Uneasy Allies	60	(41)
21 May 1940: Weygand in Ypres	60	(2)
Looking for Allies: 1920-1938	62	(4)
Elusive Albion: Britain and France 1919-1939	66	(5)
The Alliance That Never Was	71	(3)
Gamelin's Disappointments: Poland, Belgium, Britain	74	(5)
Britain and France in the Phoney War	79	(6)
10-22 May: 'Allied to so Temperamental a Race'	85	(3)
22-25 May: The 'Weygand Plan'	88	(5)
The Belgian Capitulation	93	(1)
26 May-4 June: Operation Dynamo	94	(3)
After Dunkirk: 'In Mourning For Us'	97	(4)
3. The Politics of Defeat	101	(42)
12 June 1940: Paul Reynaud at Cange (Loire)	101	(5)
The French Civil War	106	(6)
'Rather Hitler than Blum?'	112	(4)
April 1938-September 1939: The Daladier Government	116	(4)
Daladier at War	120	(3)
Reynaud v. Daladier	123	(2)
Reynaud at War	125	(4)
25-28 May: Weygand's Proposal	129	(5)
29 May-9 June: Reynaud's Alternative	134	(1)
12-16 June: Reynaud v. Weygand	135	(3)
16 June: Reynaud's Resignation	138	(5)
4. The French People at War	143	(42)
17 June 1940: Georges Friedmann in Niort	143	(2)
Remembering 1914	145	(1)
A Pacifist Nation	146	(5)
Going to War: 'Something between Resolution and Resignation'	151	(1)
Phoney War Blues	152	(3)
Why Are We Fighting?	155	(3)
The French Army in 1940	158	(3)
Soldiers at War I: 'Confident and Full of Hope'	161	(2)
Soldiers at War II: 'The Germans Are at Bulson' (13 May)	163	(4)
Soldiers at War III: The 'Molecular Disintegration' of the 71DI	167	(7)
The Exodus	174	(4)
Soldiers at War IV: 'Sans esprit de recul' (5-10 June)	178	(7)
PART II: CAUSES, CONSEQUENCES, AND COUNTERFACTUALS
5. Causes and Counterfactuals	185	(43)
July 1940: Marc Bloch in Gueret	185	(3)
Historians and the Defeat	188	(9)
Counterfactuals I: 1914	197	(3)
Counterfactuals II: Britain's Finest Hour	200	(13)
The Other Side of the Hill: Germany	213	(6)
Explaining Defeat: 'Moving in a Kind of Fog'	219	(5)
Army and Society	224	(4)
6. Consequences	228	(22)
June 1940: Francois Mitterrand at Verdun: 'No Need to Say More'	228	(4)
Vichy: The Lessons of Defeat	232	(3)
'Fulcrum of the Twentieth Century'	235	(4)
Gaullism and 1940	239	(4)
National Renewal after 1945	243	(2)
1940 and Colonial Nostalgia	245	(2)
1940 Today	247	(3)
Guide to Further Reading	250	(7)
Notes	257	(8)
Index	265