The Fall of France, 1940

Journal of Strategic Studies

Volumn 13, Issue 1, 1990, Pages 10-44

  Alexander, Martin S ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 84928831508     PISSN: 01402390     EISSN: 1743937X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/01402399008437399     Document Type: Article

References (112)

1. Alexander Werth, The Last Days of Paris: A Journalist's Diary (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1940), p.40
2. Marc Bloch, L'Etrange Défaite: Témoignage écrit en 1940(Paris: Edns. Franc-Tireur, 1946); Strange Defeat: A Statement of Evidence Written in 1940 (English-language ed.trans. Gerald Hopkins, New York: W.W.Norton, 1968)
3. Henri Michel, Le Procès de Riom (Paris: Albin Michel, 1979). After the war the Fourth Republic conducted an inquiry: see Commission d'Enquête parlementaire sur les événements survenus en France de 1933 à 1945 (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1951–52, 2 vols, of report; 9 vols, of testimony and annexed documentation)
4. John C. Cairns, ‘Some Recent Historians and the “Strange Defeat” of 1940',Journal of Modem History 46 (March 1974), 60–85 (quote from p.84)
5. For example, Col. Paul de Villelume, Journal d'une Défaite. Août 1939 – juillet 1940 (Paris: Fayard, 1976); Sir John R. Colville, The Fringes of Power: Downing Street Diaries, 1939–1955 (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1985); Charles de Gaulle, Lettres, Notes et Carnets. Tome II: 1919 – juin 1940 (Paris: Plon, 1980); Jacques Rueff, De l'Aube au Crépuscule (Paris: Plon, 1977); Jean Daridan, Le Chemin de la Défaite, 1938–1940 (Paris: Pion, 1980); Charles Rist, Une Saison Gâtée (Paris: Fayard, 1984); Hervé Alphand, L'Etonnement d'être:Journal, 1939–1973 (Paris: Fayard, 1977); Michel Debré, Mémoires. Tome I: Trois Républiques pour une France (Paris: Plon, 1985); Charles Ritchie, The Siren Years: A Canadian Diplomat Abroad, 1937–1945 (Toronto: Macmillan of Canada, 1974 and Laurentian Library, 1977); Orville H. Bullitt, For the President: Personal and Secret: Correspondence between Franklin D. Roosevelt and William C. Bullitt [US ambassador to France, 1936–40] (London: André Deutsch, 1973); Miles Reid, Last on the List (London: Leo Cooper, 1974)
6. Cairns, ‘Some Recent Historians'67–71. French journalists, however, still remain encamped in force in the field of recent French history. See, for example, Claude Paillat, Dossiers Secrets de la France Contemporaine (Paris: Laffont, 7 vols., 1979–86); Henri Amouroux, La Grande Histoire des Français sous l'Occupation, 1939–1945 (Paris: Fayard, 6 vols., 1977–83); see Rémy (pseud, of Gilbert Renault-Roulier), Chronique d'une Guerre Perdue (Paris: France-Empire, 5 vols., 1979–82) [Rémy was an important wartime France Libre agent and Resistance leader]
7. The works were John Williams, The Ides of May: The Defeat of France, May–June 1940 (London: Constable, 1968); Alistair A. Horne, To Lose a Battle: France 1940 (London: Macmillan, 1969); Guy Chapman, Why France Collapsed (London: Collins, 1968); William L. Shirer, The Collapse of the Third Republic: An Inquiry into the Fall of France in 1940 (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1969)
8. Cairns, ‘Some Recent Historians', 63; for a comparison between British and French record-conservation and record-access policies and practices see Julia G.A. Sheppard, “‘Vive la différence!”: An Outsider's View of French Archives', Archives: The Journal of the British Records Association 14, No. 63 (Spring 1980)
9. Cairns, ‘Some Recent Historians', 73
10. Gen. Charles Christienne, ‘La R.A.F. dans la bataille de France au travers des rapports Vuillemin de juillet 1940', in Recueil d'articles et études (1981–1983) (Vincennes: Service Historique de l'Armée de l'Air, 1987), pp.313–32. (The article began as a paper under the same title, delivered to the Franco-British historians' colloquium on ‘Relations between France and Great Britain from 1935 to 1940', fifth meeting: ‘La rupture franco-britannique, mai–juillet 1940', London, 14–16 Dec. 1983.) ‘It is said', wrote Christienne, that Air Chief Marshal Barratt [commander of Britain's Advanced Air Striking Force in France in 1940], an outspoken defender of French standpoints moreover, observed one day ‘that the R.A.F. could not win the war if the French infantry had lost it'. I have not been able to prove the veracity of the remark but I find myself compelled to admit its force … Today, with the passage of time, problems take on a different light and one cannot but offer thanks that Fighter Command managed to convince the politicians not to make it a useless sacrifice in a hopeless cause (ibid., pp.328, 330)
11. Cairns, ‘Some Recent Historians', 69 (n.33)
12. See idem, ‘Along the Road back to France, 1940', American Historical Review 64 (April 1959), 583–603
13. These included Gen. Jean Delmas, head of the SHAT, 1978–86; General Christienne (SHAA head, 1974–85) and his successor, Gen. Lucien Robineau, as well as the chiefs of the SHAT section d'études from the late 1970s to the mid-1980s, Cols. Michel Turlotte and Henry Dutailly – to all of whom I am grateful for co-operation and scholarly comradeship over many years
14. See Henri Dubief, Le Déclin de la Troisième, 1929–1938 and Jean-Pierre Azéma, De Munich à la Libération, 1938–1944 (Paris: Seuil, 1979,1980) now in English translation as volumes in the Cambridge History of Modem France (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984–86); René Rémond, Histoire de France. Tome 6: Notre Siècle, 1918–1988 (Paris: Fayard, 1988); Jean Doise and Maurice Vaïsse, Politique Etrangère de la France, 1871–1969: Diplomatie et Outil Militaire (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1987); Pour Une Histoire Politique sous la dir. de René Rémond (Paris: Seuil, 1988). The IHTP, directed by Professor François Bédarida, is located at 44 rue de l'amiral Mouchez, 75014 Paris, and produces the quarterly journal Vingtième Siècle (launched 1985). The CHDGM has been reorganised as the Institut d'Histoire des Conflits Contemporains, under Professor Guy Pédroncini of the Sorbonne. Its periodical, the Revue d'Histoire de la 2e Guerre Mondiale was founded in 1951 and renamed, in 1983, the Revue d'Histoire de la 2e Guerre Mondiale et des Conflits Contemporains
15. Jeffery A. Gunsburg, Divided and Conquered: The French High Command and the Defeat of the West, 1940 (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1979)
16. Cairns, ‘Some Recent Historians', 64, n. 18. Cairns's other relevant publication include ‘International Politics and the Military Mind: The Case of the French Republic, 1911–1914', Journal of Modem History 25 (Sept. 1953), 272–85; ‘Great Britain and the Fall of France: A Study in Allied Disunity 'Journal of Modern History 27 (Dec. 1955), 365–409; ‘A Nation of Shopkeepers in Search of a Suitable France', American Historical Review 79 (1974), 710–43
17. Cairns, ‘Some Recent Historians', 75. See the remark by Richard D. Challener (‘The Third Republic and the Generals: The Gravediggers Revisited', in Harry Coles [ed.], Total War and Cold War. Problems in civilian control of the military [Columbus, OH: Ohio State University Press, 1962] pp.91–107) that: ‘In the memoirs of General Weygand… France emerges as the advance guard of a world coalition which had not as yet fully mobilized' (p.92). The same line was argued earlier in respect of Germany's initial conquest of Poland, by the head of France's air liaison mission in Warsaw in 1939, General Jules Armengaud, who tried to comfort the defeated Poles, saying: ‘The battle of Poland was only the first battle of the war… The Polish army was only the advance guard of the armies of the coalition' (Batailles Politiques et Militaires sur L'Europe: Témoignages, 1932–1940 [Paris: Editions du Myrte, 1948] pp.133, 138)
18. Cairns,‘Some Recent Historians',75–6
19. Jeffery A. Gunsburg, ‘General Maurice-Gustave Gamelin, 1872–1958', in Patrick Hutton (ed.), Historical Dictionary of the Third Republic (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2 vols., 1986), I, pp.412–13
20. Idem., Divided and Conquered, passim
21. Robert J. Young, In Command of France: French Foreign Policy and Military Planing, 1933–1940 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1978). The influence of the ‘revisionist' case for 1930s France is generally visible in such modern syntheses as Philip M.H. Bell, The Origins of the Second World War in Europe (London: Longman, 1986), pp.90–100,135–8,166–74,208–12,233–4; Paul M. Kennedy, The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers: Economic Change and Military Conflict from 1500 to 2000 (London: Unwin Hyman, 1988), pp.310–15, 335–9. See also Robert J. Young, ‘A.J.P. Taylor and the Problem with France' in Gordon Martel (ed.), The Origins of the Second World War Reconsidered: The A.J.P. Taylor Debate after Twenty-five Years (London: Allen &C Unwin, 1986), pp.97–118
22. Vivian Rowe, The Great Wall of France: The Triumph of the Maginot Line (London: Putnam, 1959), p.94
23. Susan Bindoff Butterworth, ‘Daladier and the Munich Crisis: A Reappraisal', Journal of Contemporary History 9 (July 1974), 191–216; René Rémond, Janine Bourdin (eds.), Edouard Daladier: chef de gouvemment and La France et les Français en 1938–39 (Paris: Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques, respectively 1977, 1979); J. Kim Munholland, ‘The Daladier Government and the “Red Scare” of 1938–1940', in John F. Sweets (ed.), Proceeding of the Tenth Annual Meeting of the Western Society for French History, 14–16 Oct. 1982 (Lawrence, KA: The Regents' Press of the University of Kansas, 1984), pp.495–506; idem, ‘Between Popular Front and Vichy: The Decree Laws of the Daladier ministry, 1938–40', unpublished paper read at the Fourteenth annual meeting of the Western Society for French History, Baltimore, MD, 19–22 Nov. 1986. A full reassessment of Daladier awaits the forthcoming book, Edouard Daladier et la sécurité de la France, by Elizabeth du Réau of the Université du Maine, Le Mans
24. Jean Vanwelkenhuyzen, Neutralité armée: la politique militaire de la Belgique pendant la drôle de guerre (Brussels: La Renaissance du Livre, 1979); idem, Les Avertissements qui venaient de Berlin, 1939–1940 (Paris and Gembloux: Duculot, 1983); idem., ‘L'Alerte du 10 janvier 1940. Les documents de Mechelen-sur-Meuse', Revue d'Histoire de la 2e Guerre Mondiale 3, 12 (Sept. 1953), 33–54; Jean Stengers, Léopold III et le Gouvernement: aux origines de la Question Royale belge (Paris and Gembloux: Duculot, 1980); Jonathan E. Helmreich, Belgium and Europe: A Study in Small Power Diplomacy (The Hague: Mouton, 1976). Cf. Daniel H. Thomas, The Guarantee of Belgian Independence and Neutrality in European Diplomacy, 1830s–1930s (Kingston, RI: D.H. Thomas Publishing, 1986), pp.553–98
25. Louis de Jong, Het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden in de tweedewereldoorlog ('s-Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff for the Rijksinstituut voor Oorlogsdocumentatie, 1969–86, vols.1–11 c)
26. Vanwelkenhuyzen, Les Avertissements, passim
27. André Ausems, ‘The Netherlands Military Intelligence Summaries 1939–40 and the Defeat in the Blitzkrieg of May 1940', Military Affairs 50, 4 (Oct. 1986), 190–99; idem., ‘Ten Days in May: The Netherlands and Fall Gelb', unpublished Master's dissertation, San Diego State University, 1983
28. Cairns, ‘Some Recent Historians'
29. This convened major international history colloquia, holds research seminars at the Université de Paris I (Panthéon–Sorbonne) and sponsors the important periodical, Relations Internationales, founded in 1972
30. Jean-Baptiste Duroselle, Politique Etrangère de la France, 1871–1969: La Décadence, 1932–1939 (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1979); idem, L'Abîme, 1939–1945 (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1983)
31. Williamson Murray, The Change in the European Balance of Power, 1938–1939: The Path to Ruin (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1984). See its critical appraisal by Wesley K. Wark, ‘Williamson Murray's Wars: A Review Essay', Intelligence and National Security 1, No.3 (Sept. 1986), 472–81
32. Murray has entire chapters on German strategic problems (pp.3–49) and British (50–92), analysing political structures, economic constraints and rearmament. France, however, is relegated to a survey section on ‘The Rest of Europe' and allotted barely 18 pages (93–110). Further, though still limited, attention to French perspectives occurs at pp.162–9,190–3, 197–8, 211–2, 241–3, 262–3, 274–8, 348–51, 364–5. A weakness throughout is the tendency to evaluate French policy according to British sources from the 1930s. More satisfying are the essays in La Puissance en Europe, 1938–1940, sous la dir. de René Girault et Robert Frank (Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne, 1984)
33. See Anthony P. Adamthwaite, France and the Coming of the Second World War (London: Frank Cass, 1977), pp.224–5; also the special issue of the Revue des Etudes Slaves (1979), devoted to a fortieth anniversary assessment of ‘La France et la crise de Munich'
34. Cabinet Gamelin – Journal de Marche, 9 Oct. 1939, Fonds Gamelin 1K 224 Carton 9, SHAT. I am indebted to M. Pierre Uhrich, Lt. Col. Jacques Uhrich and the late M. Paul Gamelin for permission to use the Gamelin archives
35. General Maurice Gamelin, Servir (Paris: Plon, 3 vols., 1946–7), III: La guerre: Septembre 1939–19 Mai 1940, p. 115; L'Ambassade de Belgique en France. L'Attaché militaire et de l'Air, No.l O.D./ 5836/ 210 c: le Colonel Maurice Delvoie au Lieutenant-Général… chef d'état-major général de l'armée, 2e section: 21 Oct. 1939 (Archives du Ministère des Affaires Etrangères et du Commerce Extérieure, Brussels: microfilmed copy of the dispatches of Belgian military attaché in France, 1937–39)
36. Fonds Gamelin 1K 224, Carton 7, Dossier labelled ‘Le Problème des Effectifs, 1939–40', sub-dossier III ‘Le Plan de Cinq Mois', SHAT; Minart, II, pp.51–78; Gamelin, Servir, III, pp.228–44
37. General Gaston Billotte, ‘Etude sur l'emploi des chars', No.3748 S/3, 6 Dec. 1939 [sent to Gamelin and Georges], Archives Daladier 4 DA 7, Dossier 1, sub-dossier a, FNSP; see Gamelin, Servir, III, pp.275–81
38. François Bédarida, La Stratégie secrète de la drôle de guerre. Le Conseil Suprême interallié, septembre 1939–avril 1940 (Paris: Centre Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique, 1979), p.553
39. See Brian Bond and Martin S. Alexander, ‘Liddell Hart and De Gaulle: The Doctrines of Limited Liability and Mobile Defense', in Peter Paret (ed.), Makers of Modern Strategy: From Machiavelli to the Nuclear Age (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1986), pp.598–623. Cf. Bradford A. Lee, ‘Strategy, Arms and the Collapse of France, 1930–40', in R.T.B. Langhorne (ed.), Diplomacy and Intelligence during the Second World War: Essays in Honour of F.H. Hinsley (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985), pp.43–67
40. For Anglo-French relations see Eleanor Gates, End of the Affair: The Collapse of the Anglo-French Alliance, 1939–40 (London: Allen & Unwin, 1981); Nicholas Rostow, Anglo-French Relations, 1934–36 (London: Macmillan, 1984); Philip M.H. Bell, A Certain Eventuality: Britain and the Fall of France (Farnborough: Saxon House, 1974); on Belgian diplomacy, Fernand Vanlangenhove, L'élaboration de la politique étrangère de la Belgique entre les deux guerres mondiales (Gembloux: Duculot, 1980)
41. See recent variations on this theme in Murray, pp.347–53, 361, 369
42. Harold C. Deutsch, The Conspiracy against Hitler in the Twilight War (Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1968)
43. Col. Jacques Minart, P.C. Vincennes: Secteur 4 (Paris: Berger-Levrault, 2 vols., 1945), I, p.48. See Brian J. Bond (ed.), Chief of Staff: The Diaries of Lieutenant-General Sir Henry Poumall (London: Leo Cooper, 1972; Hamden, CT: Archon Books, 1973, 2 vols.), I, pp.249, 279, 283. The poilu's experience emerges in Robert Felsenhardt, 1939–40 avec le 18e corps d'armée (Paris: Editions La Tête de Feuilles, 1973); Georges Sadoul, Journal de Guerre, 2 septembre 1939–20 juillet 1940 (Paris: Les Editeurs français réunis, 1977); Jean-Paul Sartre, Carnets de la drôle de guerre: novembre 193 9-mars 1940 (Paris: Gallimard, 1983), English edn., The War Diaries of Jean-Paul Sartre: November 1939–March 1940 (London: Verso, 1984), trans. Quintin Hoare
44. Gamelin –Journal, 18 Sept. 1939,1 K 224/9, SHAT
45. The formations visited and subordinate commanders briefed are listed in ibid., 27 Sept., 7 Oct., 15–16 Oct. 1939. The later missions were to the French 7th, 1st and 9th armies and the BEF (8–9 March 1940), and to the French 2nd and 3rd armies (22 March 1940). See Colonel Roderick Macleod, Denis Kelly (eds.), The Ironside Diaries, 1937–1940 (London: Constable, 1962), pp.231–3; Gamelin, Servir, III, pp.116–7,292
46. Minart, I, p.77
47. Gamelin, Servir, I: Les Armée Françaises de 1940, pp. 15–16; III, pp.405,414–9,427–33; Minart, II, pp.176–7,189–92
48. Quoted in Maurice Percheron, Gamelin (Paris: Editions Documentates Françaises, 1939), p.27
49. Cairns, ‘Some Recent Historians', 81
50. Douglas Porch, ‘French Intelligence and the Fall of France, 1931–1940', Intelligence and National Security, 4, 1 (Jan. 1989), 28–58 (quote from p.45). See also Jeffery A. Gunsburg, ‘Coupable ou non? Le rôle du général Gamelin dans ia défaite de 1940', Revue Historique des Armées, 4 (1979), 145–63; Martin S. Alexander, ‘Soldiers and Socialists: The French Officer Corps and Leftist Government, 1935–7', in Martin S. Alexander and Helen Graham (eds.), The French and Spanish Popular Fronts: Comparative Perspectives (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), pp.62–78. A full appraisal of Gamelin will occur in Martin S. Alexander, The Republic in Danger: Maurice Gamelin, The Defence of France and the Politics of French Rearmament, 1933–1940 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, forthcoming)
51. See Gamelin – Journal, 9, 10, 14, 21 Sept. 1939, 7 Oct. 1939; Servir, I, pp.294–6; III, pp.61–4, 88–91, 94–7,101–5; Pierre Le Goyet, Le Mystère Gamelin (Paris: Presses de la Cité, 1976), pp.235–9
52. Gamelin–Journal, 9 Oct. 1939
53. Commission du Commerce et de l'industrie: Chambre des Députés. Audience de M. F. Gentin, ministre, le 18 Octobre 1939: procès-verbal, pp.13–14 (Archives de l'Assemblée Nationale, Palais Bourbon, Paris)
54. Gamelin – Journal, 12 Sept., 18 Sept. 1939. Cf., Gamelin, Servir, I, pp.215–20; III, pp.65–8,224–8; Minart, II, pp.41–9
55. Présidence du Conseil: ‘Directives de la politique économique française: Programmes de production et d'achat pour 1940', 24 Feb. 1940, pp.2–4, Archives Edouard Daladier, Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques, Paris: 3 DA 5, Dossier 2, sub-dossier c
56. Gamelin-Journal, 11 March 1940; cf. Servir, III, p.125
57. See Bond, Chief of Staff, I, p.292 (Pownall diary, 21 March 1940); Sir John R. Colville, Man of Valour: The Life of Field-Marshal the Viscount Gort (London: Collins, 1972), pp.170–80
58. Robert J. Young, ‘La guerre de longue durée: some reflections on French strategy and diplomacy in the 1930s', in Adrian Preston (ed.), General Staffs and Diplomacy before the Second World War, (Totowa, NJ and London: Croom Helm, 1978), pp.41–64
59. Le Goyet, pp. 18–38; General Maurice Gamelin, Manoeuvre et Victoire de la Marne (Paris: Grasset, 1954); René-Gustave Nobécourt, ‘Gamelin et la bataille de la Marne (septembre 1914)', Bulletin de la Société d'Histoire de Rouen, 10 Nov. 1973,181–7; idem, ‘Gamelin, 1914–1918' (unpublished typescript consulted through the generosity of M. Nobécourt)
60. Especially illuminating for French perspectives on these projects are, Charles O. Richardson, ‘French Plans for Allied Attacks on the Caucasus Oil Fields, January–April 1940', French Historical Studies 8, No.l (Spring 1973), 130–56; R.A.C. Parker, ‘Britain, France and Scandinavia, 1939–40', History 61 (1976), 369–87; Jukka Nevakivi, The Appeal that was Never Made: The Allies, Scandinavia and the Finnish Winter War, 1939–1940 (London: Hurst, 1976); Patrice Buffotot, ‘Le projet de bombardement des pétroles soviétiques du Caucase enl940', Revue Historique des Armées No.4 (1979); François Kersaudy, Stratèges et Norvège, 1940: Les jeux de la guerre et du hasard (Paris: Hachette, 1977); Duroselle, L'Abîme, pp.87–94,108–16; Villelume, pp.90–104, 114 ff., 262–327; Martin Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill: Finest Hour, 1939–1941 (London: Heinemann, 1984); Ronald Wheatley, ‘La guerre russo-finlandaise, les plans d'intervention alliés et les relations britanniques avec la Russie'; René Girault, ‘Les relations franco-soviétiques après septembre 1939'; François Bédarida, ‘Convergences et divergences stratégiques franco-britanniques'; Philippe Masson, ‘La préparation de la campagne de Finlande', all in Français et Britanniques dans la drôle de guerre: Actes du colloque franco-britannique tenu à Paris du 8 au 12 décembre 1975 (Paris: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1979), pp.245–61,263–79,359–77,583–7
61. A. J. Liebling (Paris correspondent for The New Yorker, 1939–40), ‘Paris Postscript', The New Yorker Book of War Pieces: London 1939 to Hiroshima 1945 (New York: Schocken, 1988 [reprint of 1947 original]), pp.39–53 (quote from p.49). See Gamelin – Journal, 15 Sept., 20 Sept., 22 Sept. 1939; Armengaud p.201; Bond, Chief of Staff I, pp.268–72, 293
62. Bell, Origins, pp.269,271–2
63. Gamelin –Journal, 19 Sept. 1939,3 Oct. 1939. Cf. Bullitt, p.373; Jean-Louis Crémieux-Brilhac, ‘L'opinion publique française, l'Angleterre et la guerre (septembre 1939-juin 1940)'; Philip M.H. Bell, ‘L'évolution de l'opinion publique anglaise à propos de la guerre et de l'alliance avec la France (septembre 1939 – mai 1940)'; Guy Rossi-Landi, ‘Le pacifisme en France (1939–1940)'; Philippe Masson, ‘Moral et propagande', ail in Français et Britanniques dans la drôle de guerre, pp.l–79, 123–51, 163–71; Guy Rossi-Landi, La Drôle de Guerre: la vie politique en France, 2 septembre 1939–10 mai 1940 (Paris: Pedone, 1971)
64. See Gamelin–Journal, 14 Sept. 1939,18 Oct. 1939,11 March 1940
65. John Harvey (ed.), The Diplomatic Diaries of Oliver Harvey, 1937–1940 (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1971), pp.339–40; Paillat, Dossiers Secrets: La Guerre Immobile, pp.411–43
66. See Anatole de Monzie, Ci-devant (Paris: Flammarion, 1941), pp.173, 176–7, 182–3, 188–9,190–92,194–5,198,200–201,203–7; Gamelin, Servir III, pp.187–205,287–90
67. Challener, p.96; cf. Harvey, pp.341–2; Minart, I, pp.167–89
68. Gamelin –Journal, 3–4 April 1940; Servir, III, pp.292–311. On the CHEDN, established as an inter-service college for senior officers and civil servants by Daladier in 1936, see Eugenia C. Kiesling, ‘A Staff College for the Nation-in-Arms: The Collège des Hautes Etudes de Défense Nationale, 1936–1939' (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Stanford University, 1988)
69. Gamelin – Journal, 8,9,10 April 1940; Servir, III, pp.312–18; Minart, 1, pp.189–99; Le Goyet, pp.257–8; Harvey, pp.346–8
70. Gamelin, Servir, III, pp.312–14; Gamelin–Journal, 31 March 1940; Paul Paillole, Notre Espion chez Hitler (Paris: Laffont, 1985), pp.173–81; Minart, I, pp.139–49; Porch, 48–9
71. Minart, I, p.225. Cf. Armengaud, p.205
72. Gamelin–Journal, 10 April 1940; see Monzie, p.209; Gamelin, Servir, III, pp.315–30; Le Goyet, pp.271–4,292–7; Bédarida, Stratégie Secrète, passim
73. Minart, I, p.229
74. See Harvey, pp.348–9; Pertinax (pseud, of André Géraud), Les Fossoyeurs: Défaite militaire de la France. Armistice. Contre-révolution (New York: Editions de la Maison Française, 1943: 2 vols.), I, pp.192–233
75. Gamelin–Journal, 12 April 1940
76. See Philip C.F. Bankwitz, Maxime Weygand and Civil–Military Relations in Modem France (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1967), pp.95–105,165–7
77. Jules Romains, Sept Mystères du Destin de L'Europe (New York: Editions de la Maison Française, 1940), pp.99–100. Cf. A. J. Liebling, The Road back to Paris (New York: Paragon House, 1988), pp.25–33
78. Porch, 52
79. Gamelin – Journal, 12 April 1940; Servir, III, pp.336–8
80. Ibid.; on the origins of Gamelin's political friendships and alliances see Servir, II (Le Prologue du Drame, 1930–Août 1939), pp.xxvii–xxx
81. Gamelin–Journal, 13 April 1940; Servir, II, pp.3–4; III, pp.338–52; Paul Baudouin, Neuf Mois au gouvernement, avril–décembre 1940 (Paris: La Table Ronde, 1948), pp.22–34; translated as The Private Diaries of Paul Baudouin, March 1940–January 1941 (London, 1948)
82. Harvey, pp.349–50
83. Gamelin – Journal, 16 April 1940; Servir, III, pp.352–5. Cf. Minart, I, pp.191–210; Pertinax, I, pp.212–7,229–38; Le Goyet, pp.258–9
84. de Monzie, p.216; Bond, Chief of Staff, I, pp.296–303; Colville, Fringes, pp.96–104
85. Harvey, p.354; Colville, Fringes, pp.105–15; Bond, Chief of Staff, I, pp.304–5; Gamelin, Servir, III, pp.356–79
86. Gamelin – Journal, 3 May; cf. ibid., 30 April 1940: ‘Au cours de la nuit, plusieurs coups de téléphone annoncent de très bonne source l'attaque allemande à l'ouest pour le 1er ou le 2 mai'. See Servir, III, pp.380–82; Paillote, p.183 (which describes Allied consternation when ULTRA fell silent on 2 May, the Germans having abruptly changed their ENIGMA settings; Bletchley broke back into the new codes on 22 May but by then the débâcle in France was well under way). See also General Louis Rivet [chief of French secret intelligence, 1934–40] ‘Le camp allemand dans la fièvre des alertes (1939–1940)', Revue de Défense Nationale RDN, 5e année, IX (juillet 1949), 33–48; idem, ‘Etions-nous renseignés en mai 1940?', Part I, RDN 6e année, X (juin 1950), 636–48, Part II, RDN, 6e année, XI (juillet 1950), 24–39; Gerd Brausch, ‘Sedan 1940: Deuxième Bureau und strategische Überraschung', Militärgeschictliche Mitteilungen 2 (1967), 15–92; General Maurice-Henri Gauche, Le Deuxième Bureau au Travail (Paris: Amiot-Dumont, 1953), pp.206–13
87. De Monzie, pp.218–19; Harvey, p.355
88. Gamelin – Journal, 9 May 1940; cf. Servir, III, pp.382–3; Pertinax, I, pp.238–9; Paul Reynaud, La France a sauvé L'Europe (Paris: Rammarion, 1947,2 vols.), II, pp.22–43, 51–4; Le Goyet, pp.300–301
89. Daladier, letter dated 20 May 1966 in response to Colonel Adolphe Goutard's article, ‘La surprise du 10 mai', Revue de Paris, 10 May 1966, in Archives Daladier, 4 DA 7 Dossier 1, sub-dossier a, FNSP
90. Gamelin, Servir, I, pp.6–8; III, pp.427–34; Gamelin – Journal, 19 May 1940; Minart, II, pp. 183–98; Pertinax, I, pp.95–6. On the question of the extent of Weygand's powers and whether they extended (as Gamelin's had not) to command of all French naval and air forces as well as the armies, see Colonel Robert Villatte, ‘Le changement de commandement de mai 1940', Revue d'Histoire de la 2e Guerre Mondiale II, 5 (Jan. 1952), 27–36; André Reussner, ‘La réorganisation du Haut Commandement au mois de mai 1940', ibid. III, 10–11 (June 1953), 49–59
91. Bankwitz, Weygand and Civil–Military Relations, pp.290–96, 328–37; idem, ‘Maxime Weygand and the Fall of France: A Study in Civil–Military Relations', Journal of Modem History 31 (Sept. 1959), 225–42
92. Bankwitz, Weygand and Civil-Military Relations, pp.296–305; Pertinax, I, pp.258–70
93. Minart, II, pp.196–7; Bankwitz, Weygand and Civil–Military Relations, pp.299–300, 312
94. De Monzie, p.231; cf. Harvey, pp.360–68, 372–3; Colville, Fringes, pp.132–44, 151–68; Henri Michel, La Défaite de la France. Septembre 1939–Juin 1940 (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1980), pp.96–101,106–17
95. Cairns, ‘Some Recent Historians', 76
96. Colonel William Fraser, letter to his wife, 17Sept. 1939.I am indebted to Colonel Fraser's son, General Sir David Fraser, for permission to consult this correspondence
97. See, for example, the arrangements made from 1938 onwards to replace French imports of high-grade coal from Germany with British supplies in the event of war: de Monzie, pp.67–8, 93, 124–5, 139, 178–9, 196–8, 200, 208. Also Robert Frankenstein, ‘Le financement français de la guerre et les accords avec les Britanniques, 1939–40' and L.S. Pressnell, ‘Les finances de guerre britanniques et la coopération économique franco-britannique en 1939 et 1940', in Français et Britanniques, pp.461–87,489–510
98. See Alphand, pp.25–39; Jean Monnet, Mémoires (Paris: Fayard, 1976), pp.13–36,59–89, 137–78 (English edn., trans. Richard Mayne, Memoirs [London: Collins, 1978]); Lord [Arthur] Salter, Memoirs of a Public Servant (London: Faber & Faber, n.d.), pp.254–67; John McVickar Haight, American Aid to France, 1938–1940 (New York: Athenaeum, 1970); idem, ‘Jean Monnet and the American Arsenal after the Beginning of the War', in Evelyn M. Acomb, Marvin L. Brown (eds.), French Society and Culture since the Old Regime (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1966), pp.269–83. A key part was played by Méric de Bellefon, commercial counsellor at the French embassy in London, in arranging the coal supplies mentioned above, as well as requisitioning and pooling of Franco-British merchant shipping. (See Documents Diplomatiques Français, 1932–1939 [Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1963–85, two series], 2nd ser., XV, Docs, nos.19,39,284, 399, 517.) For embryonic coordination of arms procurement see the documentation in the files of the French military attaché in London: EMA/2 Grande-Bretagne, cartons 7N 2815–19 (Sept. 1938 to Feb. 1940), SHAT; in Fonds Gamelin IK 224 carton 7, Dossiers labelled ‘Correspondance avec les Britanniques' and ‘Problème des effectifs, 1939–40', SHAT; and in Archives Daladier, 3 DA 2 Dossier 3, sub-dossier c; 3 DA 5 Dossier 2, sub-dossier c; 4 DA 23 Dossier 1, sub-dossier b, FNSP
99. See Williamson Murray, ‘The German response to victory in Poland: a case study in professionalism', Armed Forces and Society 7, No.2 (Winter 1981), 285–98; idem, Change, pp.338–40; Charles W. Sydnor, Jr., Soldiers of Destruction. The SS Death's Head Division, 1933–1945 (Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, 1977), pp.37–119; Colonel Henry Dutailly, Les Problèmes de L'Armée de Terre Française, 1935–1939 (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1980), pp.175–204; Robert A. Doughty, The Seeds of Disaster: The Development of French Army Doctrine, 1919–1939 (Hamden, CT: Archon Books, 1985); idem, ‘De Gaulle's Concept of a Mobile, Professional Army: Genesis of French Defeat?', in Lloyd J. Matthews, Dale E. Brown (eds.), The Parameters of War (London and McLean, VA: Pergamon–Brasseys, 1987), pp.243–56; De Fabribeckers, La Campagne de L'Armée belge en 1940 (Brussels: Rossel, 1973)
100. See especially, John J. Mearsheimer, Conventional Deterrence (Ithaca, NY and London: Cornell University Press, 1983), pp.67–133; Donald W. Alexander, ‘Repercussions of the Breda Variant', French Historical Studies 8, No.3 (Spring 1974), 459–88
101. Examples include Pierre Le Goyet and Jean Fussureau, Calais: 1940 (Paris: Presses de la Cité, 1980); Brian Bond, France and Belgium, 1939–1940 (London: Davis-Poynter 1975; to be reprinted by Pergamon–Brasseys, 1990); Michael Glover, The Fight for the Channel Ports, Calais to Brest 1940: A Study in Confusion (London: Leo Cooper, 1985); Roy Macnab, For Honour Alone: The cadets of Saumur in the defence of the Cavalry School, France 1940 (London: Hale, 1988); Paul Huard, Le Colonel de Gaulle et ses blindés: Laon, 15–20 mai 1940 (Paris: Pion, 1980); General Sir David Fraser, Alanbrooke (London: Collins, 1982); Nigel Nicolson, Alex: The life of Field-Marshal Earl Alexander of Tunis (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1973); Nigel Hamilton, Monty: The Making of a General, 1887–1942 (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1981); also the forthcoming biography of Field-Marshal Lord Ironside being written by Professor Wesley Wark of the University of Toronto
102. Lt. Col. Charles de Cossé-Brissac, ‘Combien de chars français contre combien de chars allemands le 10 mai 1940?', RDN (Juillet 1947), 75–89; R.H.S. Stolfi, ‘Equipment for Victory in France in 1940', History 55 (Feb. 1970), 1–20
103. Jeffery A. Gunsburg, ‘L'Armée de L'Air versus the Luftwaffe, 1940', Defence Update International 45 (1984), 44–53; Herrick E. Chapman, ‘Reshaping French Industrial Politics: Workers, Employers, State Officials and the struggle for control in the aircraft industry, 1928–1950' (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Berkeley, 1983; microform edn., University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor, MI, 1984), pp.345–63; Jean Truelle, ‘La production aéronautique militaire française jusqu'en juin 1940', Revue d'Histoire de la 2e Guerre Mondiale 19e année, No.73 (Jan. 1969), 75–110; General Charles Christienne, ‘L'industrie aéronautique française de septembre 1939 à juin 1940', in Français et Britanniques, pp.389–410
104. Gary D. Sheffield, ‘Blitzkrieg and Attrition: Land Operations Europe, 1914–45', in Colin Mclnnes and G.D. Sheffield (eds.), Warfare in the Twentieth Century: Theory and Practice (London: Unwin Hyman, 1988), pp.51–79 (quote from p.69)
105. Some of these issues will doubtless be addressed in the forthcoming book on the battles for the Meuse crossings, 10–15 May 1940, by Colonel Robert A. Doughty, head of the military history department at the US Military Academy, West Point
106. John Ferris, ‘The British Army, Signals and Security in the Desert Campaign, 1940–1942' (revised typescript of a paper delivered at the Third US Army War College Conference on Intelligence and Military Operations, May 1988), 10–22; Robert A. Doughty, ‘The French Armed Forces, 1918–40', in Williamson Murray, Allan R. Millett (eds.), Military Effectiveness (London: Unwin Hyman, 1988, 3 vols.) II, pp.39–69; Anthony P. Adamthwaite, ‘French Military Intelligence and the Coming of War, 1935–1939', in Christopher M. Andrew, Jeremy Noakes (eds.), Intelligence and International Relations, 1900–1945 (Exeter: Exeter University Publications, 1987), pp.191–208; Robert J. Young, ‘French military intelligence and Nazi Germany, 1938–1939', in Ernest R. May (ed.), Knowing One's Enemies: Intelligence Assessment before the Two World Wars (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1984), pp.271–309; Jean Stengers, ‘Enigma, the French, the Poles and the British, 1931–1940', in Christopher M. Andrew, David Dilks (eds.), The Missing Dimension: Governments and Intelligence Communities in the Twentieth Century (London and Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1984), pp.126–37; F.H. Hinsley (with E.E. Thomas, C.F.G. Ransom, R.C. Knight), British Intelligence in the Second World War: Its Influence on Strategy and Operations (London: HMSO, 1979–83,3 vols.), I, pp.89–158
107. Minart, II, p.103
108. Pertinax, I, p.92
109. Minart, II, p.79 (n. 3)
110. Fred Kupferman, Laval (Paris: Fayard, 1987); Serge Berstein, Edouard Herriot ou la République en personne (Paris: Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques, 1985); Marc Ferro, Pétain (Paris: Fayard, 1987); William D. Irvine, French Conservatism in Crisis: The Republican Federation in the 1930s (Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1979); Serge Berstein, Histoire du Parti Radical (Paris: Editions de la FNSP, 2 vols. 1980–82). See Thomas Ferenczi, ‘Le retour du politique: La profession de foi d'une nouvelle génération d'historiens', Le Monde (18 Nov. 1988). A biography of Reynaud is currently being written by Dr Julian Jackson of University College, Swansea
111. Maurice Matloff, ‘Allied Strategy in Europe, 1939–1945', in Paret, pp.677–702
112. For the greater though still imperfect extent to which the changes and their consequences were grasped by Britain's leaders see David Reynolds, ‘Churchill and the British “Decision” to Fight on in 1940: Right Policy, Wrong Reasons', in Langhorne, pp.147–67; cf. Colville, Fringes, pp.150–77; David Dilks, ‘The Twilight War and the Fall of France: Chamberlain and Churchill in 1940', Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5th ser., 28 (1978), 61–86