Battle of France

Can anyone recommend a good book on the Battle of France 1940? I am especially interested in the post-Dunqerque timeframe. My understanding
is that the French army actually fought better after Dunqerque. My knowledge of this period is limited so I could have my facts wrong. Thanks!
 
Ironically enough they did fight better post-Dunkirk, but they'd lost so many men in the campaign by that point that they just didn't have the reserves. Having Gamelin benched was an excellent idea. As for books, I thoroughly recommend To Lose A Battle: France 1940 by Alistair Horne, which is extremely good. Depressing, but good.
 
I can also recommend The Fall Of France by Julian Jackson, which is probably a broader brush than you are looking for, but still very informative, and if you can speak German, Die Blitzkrieg Legende (produced by Spiegel TV) has interviews with eye witnesses. Most of it seems to be on youtube, but I can't find part one. Maybe after more coffee...

http://youtu.be/W6auC4VN8BU
 

Cook

Banned
I thoroughly recommend To Lose A Battle: France 1940 by Alistair Horne, which is extremely good.
Agreed, it is one of the most informative out there, and Horne's style of writing is excellent. A definate page turner.
 
While I do agree that "To Loose a Battle" is a very good read, you could also check out "The Blitzkrieg Legend - The 1940 Campaign in the West" by Karl-Heinz Frieser, available in English from Naval Institute Press. Frieser is a colonel of the German Army and the book was originally published as the official German history of the campaign.

It is extremely interesting to read the German perspective on the battle, especially with regards to the logistics and strategy and the fluid way the German units reacted to changing circumstances in the field. If you compare that analysis with Horne's description of French decision making procedures and Gamelin's general staff you will probably learn all there is to know about why the Germans won so quickly. And want to knock your head against a wall. Hard.
 
I can highly recommend both "The blitzkrieg Legend" by Karl-Heinz Frieser and

Ernest R. May: "Strange Victory - Hitler's conquest of France"

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Strange-Victory-Hitlers-Conquest-France/dp/1848851456/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1360147038&sr=8-1

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/56312/eliot-a-cohen/strange-victory-hitlers-conquest-of-france

Strange Victory: Hitler's Conquest of France
Ernest R. May
Reviewed by Eliot A. Cohen
September/October 2000

This book shows how a campaign scrutinized by scores of highly competent historians can nonetheless yield fresh insights to a scholar of the first rank. Drawing on primary and secondary sources from both sides, May argues that the fall of France resulted neither from the supposed rot of French society nor from the uniform military superiority of Germany. Instead, a variety of contingent causes were to blame for France's catastrophe in 1940: the conjunction of governmental crises, misperception of Hitler by English and French politicians, a few poor military decisions, and sheer bad luck. Unlike most historians, May does not hesitate to draw lessons -- most notably, the fearful consequences of military hubris that stalked victim and (later) victor alike.
 
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