Best Books on France 1940?
Brett
I'm mainly an American Civil War enthusiast, but I also have several
books each on the World Wars. Lately, I've become interestd in the
German invasion of France in 1940. In your opinion, what are the best
books covering the campaign? I prefer tactical level studies on the
Civil War, but I realize that most books are going to be grand tactical
or operational in scope for World War 2.
Brett
--
James Linn
He is very thoughtful and thorough.
James
--
Pjk
Brett wrote:
>
> Lately, I've become interestd in the
> German invasion of France in 1940. In your opinion, what are the
best
> books covering the campaign?
>
IMO the most readable book is Alister Horne's To Lose A Battle.
Pjk
--
yaakov_...@hotmail.com
Two books I have read are (1) William Shirer's "Collapse of the Third
Republic". This book was heavily criticized by members of this
group for various reasons. For example, Shirer claims that there were
more French aircraft available at the time of the surrender then there
were at the time of the German invasion, and yet the French army was
always bellyaching that there weren't enough planes in the sky.
Members
of this group said that this was not really the case and the French Air
Force was using its resources to the maximum. Shirer has a lot of
anger
at the French military and civilian leadership in 1940 and that comes
across a lot. Having said this, I thought the book was still very good
and I like the fact that he is not a "dispassionate, neutral
historian". He also gives a lot of information on French history
leading up to 1940. I just recommend reading the book with an open
mind.
(2) Len Deighton's "Blitzkrieg". If you like technical details, this
book has them. I can't say the book made a major impression on me, but
he is an entertaining writer. He is not a professional historian and
he likes to bring out a lot little known facts.
--
PaulJ
As a young subaltern on NATO duty in Germany, one summer, on a couple
weeks leave, I retraced the Germany invasion route in my car with
Deighton's work, staying in hotels along the route. One evening, eating
on the patio of a cafe, I think in Dinant, the elderly waitor saw the
book with me and recognized it. He came forward with the story of how
one of the 1940 photos in the book had been taken just around the
corner, and gave a local's account of the panzers' move through the town
that summer.
--
Andrew Warinner
I would recommend:
'Strange Victory: Hitler's Conquest of France' by Ernest R. May
and
'To Lose a Battle' by Alistair Horne
Both spend considerable time on pre-war politics and personalities and
so fall on the grand strategic side of things. I think that's fair,
given the general consensus is that France and Britain's failures were
at the leadership level rather than the operational or tactical level.
Once the campaign is set in motion, it played out largely as planned and
so to understand what went on you have to understand how things stood
prior to its start.
'To Lose a Battle' also spends a considerable amount of time on
operational aspects as well as being covering the high level politics.
'Strange Victory' doesn't cover the actual fighting in much detail. It's
thesis, that in 1940 Hitler was the best informed and most perceptive
leader, dominates the description.
Andrew Warinner
wari...@xnet.com
http://home.xnet.com/~warinner
--
Louis Capdeboscq
> German invasion of France in 1940. In your opinion, what are the best
> books covering the campaign?
Best overall: "The Fall of France" by Jackson. This is an excellent
synthesis of recent scholarship, it is balanced and all-encompassing. It
is not only a military history, though, and includes chapters on British
and French societies during 1939-40.
Other good books are (no particular order):
- Horne: "To Lose A Battle". I personally don't like the way that Horne
writes history to sound like "the French Premier's mistress was against
the war so France surrendered", or "a British tourist heard French taxi
drivers making anti-Parliament statesments, which illustrates why France
collapsed", just as I don't like his claim that, studying Falkenhayn's
photograph you can see lack of character and the reason for the German
failure at Verdun (the latter is from his book on Verdun "The Price of
Glory"). But my personal prejudices aside, it's a remarkably accurate
book, includes details on the fighting, on the politics involved, etc.
- Chapman: "Why France Fell". Another British history written at about
the same time as Horne's, about as good.
- May: "Strange Victory". The one thing that has to be said about this
book is it reads very well. Also, the author is an American writing in
2000 which should make the book both more available and readable to the
US public. That being said, the book bends the historical record to suit
his thesis (i.e. that the French Army would have flattened the Wehrmacht
but the defeat was caused by a failure of French military intelligence),
so I wouldn't recommend it but it's a popular book.
- Deighton: "Blitzkrieg". Like May for readability, a bit better on the
accuracy score. A good primer that reads like a novel.
> I prefer tactical level studies on the
> Civil War, but I realize that most books are going to be grand tactical
> or operational in scope for World War 2.
Try Doughty's "The Breaking Point" about the Sedan breakthough which is
an excellent book and a study of the battle.
There are also a couple of articles by Gunsburg about the battle of
Gembloux.
Finally, Karl-Heinz Frieser's excellent "Blitzkrieg Legende" is in the
process of being translated in English so you may want to look it up.
The other good tactical accounts that I'm aware of are in French or
German, but you may want to look up the various BEF unit histories which
are in English. The British official history (Ellis: "The War In France
And In Flanders") is also available as a reprint.
LC
--
Remove "e" from address to reply
--
Brett
these.
Brett
--
Charles Sten
I, for one, would be very grateful for recommendations for the best accounts
in French and German.
Chuck Sten
San Diego, Calif
--
dub
the author at the moment). It's the autobiography of a young man
living in france with a german mother and a french father who joins the
Whermacht (sp?) after the invasion of france. He gets sent off to the
eastern front and somehow survives the entire war. It's not really
very tactical, but it gives a great sense of the experience of being an
ordinary, not particularly nazi, soldier caught up in the war through
many many battles. I know his nazi-ness is a matter of debate, but
that's not what I'm trying to get across.... it's just gritty and
realistic without a tendency to glorify things. He's just trying to
survive, not fight.
This book is very popular in military colleges and what not.
Dub
--
Michael Emrys
wrote on 3/27/05 5:26 PM:
> ..."The Forgotten Soldier"...
...Is not a book about the Battle for France 1940, which unfortunately is
what the original poster is seeking.
Michael
--
Tony Zbaraschuk
Besides May, Horne, and the others mentioned in this thread, you may
want to look up Marc Bloch's _Strange Defeat_ -- it's extremely useful
to have one of France's foremost historians analyzing the defeat shortly
after it happened.
Tony Z
--
Reputation is a side effect of conduct; the notion that it can be
created as a direct effect of promotion is one of those unfortunate
ills of thought plaguing the 20th century.
-- Graydon Saunders
--
Louis Capdeboscq
> I, for one, would be very grateful for recommendations for the best accounts
> in French and German.
I'll post some German references later: I remember a few good books but
forget the titles at the moment.
In French, you can try the following:
De Wailly: "De Gaulle sous le casque" and "La victoire evaporee" about
Abbeville - these are still in print.
Roger Bruge: "Les combattants du 18 juin" (5 volumes), a bit harder to
find but almost the only books on the topic. There's also his "Faites
sauter la Ligne Maginot". His analysis isn't as complete as de Wailly's,
but as a narrative he's pretty good.
Otherwise, here are a few books by Belgian authors about Gembloux:
Laurent: "L'échec tactique du XVIème PzK allemand face au IVème Corps
d'armée français dans la bataille de Gembloux du 14 au 16 mai 1940."
Sarton: "Les combats de Jauche: récits des combats soutenus à Jauche les
12 et 13 mai 1940 par le 1er Cuirassiers"
Or Laby: "En Hesbaye, mai 40 - septembre 44", that one includes lots of
pictures for those who don't want to read too much French.
You may also want to check the Histoire & Collections books
http://www.histoireetcollections.com/ they publish quite a few books in
both English and French (both languages on the same page), or in an
English version. The one about the B1 bis tanks has quite a few battle
accounts.
Then there are all the unit histories, etc.
If you read German or French, I would very strongly recommend Karl-Heinz
Frieser's "Blitzkrieg Legende" (in German) or "Le Mythe de la Guerre
Eclair" (in French) which is very good and comprehensive except on a few
issues (like the air forces), and includes some battle accounts
illustrated by the best maps that I've seen for a long time. They're
better (because of equivalent graphic quality but more detailed) than
those in the US Green Book official histories, if it gives you an idea.