Contingencies and Consequences

Carswell, Richard

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-03955-4_7

Richard Carswell²

386 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter traces the evolution of historians’ writings on the military aspects of the Fall of France since 1940. It shows how originally only a small minority of writers attributed France’s defeat to mainly military factors. In the last forty years, that minority has grown into an academic consensus that argues that the Fall of France was first and foremost a military defeat. The chapter examines the role of contingency at important points in the battle and signposts several possible alternative outcomes. Nevertheless, the consensus has its detractors.

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Notes

1.
Pierre Grosser (1999) Pourquoi la Seconde Guerre Mondiale? (Brussels: Editions Complexe), 193–194.
2.
Patrick Finney (2011) Remembering the Road to the World War: International History, National Identity, Collective Memory (London: Routledge), 177.
3.
Julian Jackson (2003) The Fall of France: The Nazi Invasion of 1940 (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 219–227.
4.
Helmut James von Moltke (1995) Briefe an Freya 1939–1945 (Munich: Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag), 20 May 1940, 135.
5.
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6.
Colonel [Michel] Alerme (1941) Les Causes Militaires de Notre Défaite (Paris: Centre d’Etudes de l’Agence Inter-France), 33–37, 60–68.
7.
Theodore Draper (1946) The Six Weeks’ War: France May 10–June 25, 1940 (London: Methuen), 80–81.
8.
Edmond Ruby (1948) Sedan, terre d’épreuve: avec la IIe Armée, mai-juin 1940 (Clamecy: Flammarion); General P. Gendry (1946?) La Guerre 1939-40 sur le front occidental (Paris: Publisher unknown); Gaston Roton (1947) Années cruciales: la course aux armements (1933–1939) la campagne (1939–1940) (Paris: Charles-Lavauzelle); Raphaël de Bardies-Monfa (1947) La Campagne de 39-40 (Paris: Fayard); and Pierre Lyet (1947) La Bataille de France mai-juin 1940 (Paris: Payot).
9.
Jean-Louis Crémieux-Brilhac (2014) De Gaulle , la République et la France Libre 1940–1945 (Paris: Perrin), 461.
10.
Mungo Melvin (2001) ‘The German View’, in Brian Bond and Michael D. Taylor (eds.), The Battle for France and Flanders 1940: Sixty Years On (Barnsley: Leo Cooper), 207–226.
11.
However, the French Ministry of Defence has recently published a historical atlas and statistical digest of the conflict, reflecting also the modern historiographical consensus on the battle of France. See Jean-Luc Leleu , Françoise Passera, and Jean Quellien (2010) La France Pendant la Seconde Guerre Mondiale: Atlas Historique (Paris: Fayard Ministère de la Défense).
12.
Crémieux-Brilhac , De Gaulle , la République et la France Libre, 461.
13.
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14.
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15.
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16.
Hervé Cras (alias Jacques Mordal) (1960) Dunkerque (Paris: Editions France-Empire).
17.
For the proceedings of the High Court of Justice, see Jean-Louis Aujol (ed.) (1948) Le Procès Benoist-Méchin 29 mai-6 juin 1947 (Paris: Albin Michel).
18.
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19.
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20.
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21.
Horne, To Lose a Battle, 672–675.
22.
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23.
Henri Michel (1966) Vichy Année 40 (Paris: Robert Laffont), 22.
24.
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25.
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26.
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27.
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28.
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31.
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32.
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33.
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34.
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35.
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36.
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37.
Rolf-Dieter Müller (2005) Der letzte deutsche Krieg 1939–1945 (Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta), 44–55; Rainer F. Schmidt (2008) Der Zweite Weltkrieg: Die Zerstörung Europas (Berlin: Berlin-Brandenburg Verlag), 49–63.
38.
Jörg Echternkamp (2010) Die 101 Wichtigsten Fragen: Der Zweite Weltkrieg (Munich: Verlag C. H. Beck), 33.
39.
Bruno Chaix (2000) En mai 1940, fallait-il entrer en Belgique? Décisions stratégiques et plans opérationnelles de la campagne de France (Paris: Economica).
40.
Philippe Burrin (1995) La France à l’Heure Allemande 1940–1944 (Paris: Seuil), 11.
41.
Jean Pierre Azéma (1993) ‘Le Choc Armé et les Débandades’, in Jean-Pierre Azéma and François Bédarida (eds.), La France des Années Noires Tome 1: De la Défaite à Vichy (Paris: Seuil), 97–109.
42.
Dominique Lormier (2010) La Bataille de France jour après jour mai-juin 1940 (Paris: Cherche-Midi), 593–594.
43.
Philip Nord (2015) France 1940: Defending the Republic (New Haven and London: Yale University Press); Lloyd Clark (2016) Blitzkrieg: Myth, Reality and Hitler’s Lightning War: France 1940 (London: Atlantic); Robert Forczyk (2017) Case Red: The Collapse of France (Oxford: Osprey); and Jackson, The Fall of France.
44.
Nord , France 1940, 100–104.
45.
Clark , Blitzkrieg, 381–389.
46.
Forczyk , Case Red, 407–409.
47.
Nicolas Beaupré (2015) Les Français dans la guerre 1939–1945 (Paris: Belin), 57–66. See also Serge Berstein and Pierre Milza (2009) Histoire de la France au XXe siècle II. 1930–1958 (Paris: Perrin), 299–305; Jean-François Muracciole (2002) La France pendant la Seconde Guerre Mondiale: De la Défaite à la Libération (Paris: Le Livre de Poche), 51–56; Jean-Pierre Azéma (2002) De Munich à la Libération (1938–1944) (Paris: Seuil), 55–64; Bruno Leroux (2015) ‘La Campagne de France’, in Jean-François Muracciole and Guillaume Piketty (eds.), Encyclopédie de la Seconde Guerre Mondiale (Paris: Robert Laffont Ministère de la Défense), 471–473.
48.
Fabrice Grenard avec Jean-Pierre Azéma (2016) Les Français sous l’Occupation en 100 questions (Paris: Tallandier), 16.
49.
Thomas R. Christofferson with Michael S. Christofferson (2006) France During World War II: From Defeat to Liberation (New York: Fordham University Press), 32–33.
50.
Charles Sowerwine (2018) France Since 1870: Culture, Politics and Society (London: Palgrave), 167–172.
51.
Gerhard L. Weinberg (2005) A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 122–131, 138–140.
52.
Maurice Vaïsse (2015) ‘La défaite de 1940 était inéluctable’, in Jean Lopez and Olivier Wieviorka (eds.), Les Mythes de la Seconde Guerre Mondiale (Paris: Perrin), 45.
53.
Robert Frank (2015) ‘Juin 1940’, in Alya Aglan and Robert Frank (eds.), 1937–1947: La Guerre-Monde I (Paris: Gallimard), 209.
54.
Evan Mawdsley (2009) World War II: A New History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 118, 124.
55.
Max Hastings (2011) All Hell Let Loose: The World at War 1939–1945 (London: Harper), 53–77.
56.
Antony Beevor (2012) The Second World War (London: Phoenix), 91, 94, 119.
57.
Richard Overy (2015) ‘The German Wars’, in Richard Overy (ed.), The Oxford Illustrated History of World War II (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 117.
58.
James Holland (2018) Blitzkrieg (London: Ladybird), 14.
59.
Jon Kimche (1968) The Unfought Battle (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson), 145–158.
60.
Alexander (1992) The Republic in Danger, 315, 321–322. Alexander describes Kimche’s book as ‘a highly polemical and skimpily documented interpretation’. See note 6, page 496.
61.
Dutailly , Les problems de l’armée de terre, 287–290.
62.
Alexander, The Republic in Danger, 345–348. See also Martin S. Alexander ‘Gamelin et les leçons de la campagne de Pologne’, in Vaïsse, Mai-Juin 1940, 59–74.
63.
André Maurois (1970) Memoirs 1885–1967 (London: The Bodley Head), 233–234.
64.
Michel, World War II, 5.
65.
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66.
Dutailly , Les problèmes de l’armée de terre, 287–290.
67.
David Reynolds (2004) In Command of History: Churchill Fighting and Writing the Second World War (London: Penguin), 164–169.
68.
Stanley Hoffmann (1998) ‘The Trauma of 1940: A Disaster and Its Traces’, in Joel Blatt (ed.), The French Defeat of 1940: Reassessments (Providence and Oxford: Berghahn), 354–370.
69.
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70.
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71.
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72.
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73.
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Charles de Gaulle (1954) Mémoires de guerre: L’appel 1940–1942 (Paris: Plon), 52, 54.
75.
Horne, To Lose a Battle, 257–637, 638–662.
76.
Frieser , The Blitzkrieg Legend, 195–197.
77.
Forczyk , Case Red, 10–12.
78.
Martin S. Alexander (2007) ‘After Dunkirk: The French Army’s Performance Against “Case Red” 25 May to 25 June 1940’, War in History, 14:2, 219–264.
79.
Rocolle , La guerre de 1940 La défaite, 348.
80.
Frank ‘Juin 1940’, in Aglan and Frank, Guerre-Monde I, 218.
81.
Doughty , The Breaking Point, 343.
82.
May , Strange Victory, 408–412.
83.
Forczyk , Case Red, 172.
84.
See, for example, Jean-Louis Crémieux-Brilhac (1990) Les Français de l’An 40 II: Ouvriers et Soldats (Paris: Gallimard), 601–603.
85.
Peter Mangold (2012) Britain and the Defeated French: From Occupation to Liberation 1940–1944 (London: I.B. Tauris), 25, 28.
86.
Vincent Arbaretier (2012) L’école de guerre: Sedan 1940 ou la faillite du système de commandement français (Paris: Economica), 109–110.
87.
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88.
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89.
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90.
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91.
Henri de Wailly (2012) L’Offensive blindée alliée d’Abbeville 27 mai–4 juin 1940 (Paris: Economica).
92.
Charles de Gaulle (1954) Mémoires de guerre: L’appel 1940–1942 (Paris: Plon), 48, 52.
93.
Azéma , De Munich à la Libération, 56.
94.
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95.
Lormier , La bataille de France, 272–277.
96.
James Holland (2015) The War in the West: A New History, Volume 1 Germany Ascendant: 1939–1941 (London: Bantam), 315–316.
97.
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98.
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99.
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100.
P. M. H. Bell (1974) A Certain Eventuality: Britain and the Fall of France (Farnborough: Saxon House), 31–54.
101.
Prior , When Britain Saved the West, 95–97.
102.
For an interesting vignette on the reception of French troops in England, see Rhiannon Looseley (2006) Le Paradis après l’Enfer: The French Soldiers Evacuated from Dunkirk in 1940 (London: Franco-British Council).
103.
Robert Frank (2013) ‘The Second World War Through French and British Eyes’, in Robert Tombs and Emile Chabal (eds.), Britain and France in Two World Wars: Truth, Myth and Memory (London: Bloomsbury), 179–191.
104.
Quoted in Jean-Louis Crémieux-Brilhac (1990) Les Français de l’An 40 I: La Guerre Oui ou Non? (Paris: Gallimard), 572.
105.
Draper , The Six Weeks’ War, 184, 212–213. For a laudatory biography of Gort, see J. R. Colville (1972) Man of Valour: The Life of Field-Marshal the Viscount Gort (London: Collins).
106.
Martin S. Alexander ‘“Fighting to the Last Frenchman?” Reflections on the BEF Deployment to France and the Strains in the Franco-British Alliance 1939–1940’, in Blatt, Reassessments, 326.
107.
Arthur J. Barker (1977) Dunkirk: The Great Escape (London: Dent), 224–229.
108.
Frieser , The Blitzkrieg Legend, 291–314.
109.
Forcxyk, Case Red.
110.
Azéma , De Munich à la Libération, 57–58.
111.
Beevor , The Second World War, 91, 94, 119.
112.
David Watson (2003) ‘France, Europe, and the World: International Politics Since 1880’, in James McMillan (ed.), Modern France 1880–2002 (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 115.
113.
Williamson Murray and Allan R. Millett (2000) A War to Be Won: Fighting the Second World War (Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University Press), 82–83.
114.
Hastings , All Hell Let Loose, 53–74.
115.
Holland , Blitzkrieg, 48.
116.
Dominique Lormier (2005) Comme des lions: le sacrifice héroïque de l’armée française en mai-juin 1940 (Paris: Calmann-Lévy).
117.
Crémieux-Brilhac , Les Français de l’An 40 II, 673–681.
118.
Alexander, ‘After Dunkirk’, War in History, 14:2, 219–264.
119.
Gilles Ragache (2010) La Fin de la Campagne de France: les combats oubliés de l’Armée du Centre 15 juin-25 juin 1940 (Paris: Economica), vii–x, 267, 279.
120.
Julian Jackson (2001) France the Dark Years 1940–1944 (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 118–121.
121.
Andrew Shennan (2000) The Fall of France 1940 (Abingdon: Routledge), 6–9.
122.
Jean-Paul Cointet (2003) Histoire de Vichy (Paris: Perrin), 83–84.
123.
Jean-Pierre Azéma (2010) 1940 L’année noire (Paris: Fayard), 119–131; Crémieux-Brilhac , Les Français de l’An 40 I, 573–575.
124.
Azéma , ‘Le choc armé et les débandades’, Azéma and Bédarida , La France des Années Noires 1, 109–113.
125.
Avi Shlaim (1974) ‘Prelude to Downfall: The British Offer of Union to France June 1940’, Journal of Contemporary History, 9:3, 27–28.
126.
Prior , When Britain Saved the West, 147.
127.
Azéma , 1940 L’année noire, 180–190. See also Christiane Rimbaud (1984) L’Affaire du Massilia (Paris: Seuil).
128.
Paul Baudouin (1948) The Private Diaries (March 1940 to January 1941) of Paul Baudouin (London: Eyre & Spottiswoode), 109–110; Yves Bouthillier (1950) Le Drame de Vichy: Face à l’ennemi, face à l’allié (Paris: Plon), 107–108; both quoted in Shirer , The Collapse of the Third Republic, 894–895.
129.
André Truchet (1955) L’Armistice de 1940 et l’Afrique du Nord (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France), 349–350.
130.
Shirer , The Collapse of the Third Republic, 891–899.
131.
Martin Thomas (1998) The French Empire at War 1940–45 (Manchester: Manchester University Press), 31–45.
132.
Forczyk , Case Red, 406–407.
133.
Azéma , 1940 L’Année Noire, 220.
134.
Daniel Todman (2016) Britain’s War: Into Battle 1937–1941 (London: Allen Lane), 330–331, 353.
135.
Philip Warner (2011) The Battle of France: Six Weeks That Changed the World (Mechanicsburg: Stackpole), 9, 40, 72. For a similar work, see Martin Marix Evans (2000) The Fall of France: Act with Daring (Oxford: Osprey).
136.
Lormier , La Bataille de France, 9.
137.
Dominique Lormier (2011) L’Apport Capital de la France dans la Victoire des Alliés (Paris: Le Cherche Midi), 103–106.
138.
François Delpla (2010) Churchill et les Français: Six hommes dans la tourmente Septembre 1939-Juin 1940 (Paris: François-Xavier de Guibert), IX, 570–572.
139.
Claude Quétel (2010) L’impardonnable défaite 1918–1940 (Paris: Jean-Claude Lattès), 12, 350, 380, 390–392.
140.
Hastings , All Hell Let Loose, 53–74.
141.
Jackson, The Fall of France, 197–213.
142.
Jacques Belle (2007/2014) La Défaite française: un désastre évitable, Volume 1 Le 16 mai 1940: il fallait rester en Belgique; Volume 2 Le 16 juin 1940: Non à l’armistice! (Paris: Economica).
143.
Jacques Sapir , Frank Stora, and Loïc Mahé (2010/2012) 1940 Et si la France avait continué la guerre? 1941–1942 Et si la France avait continué la guerre? (Paris: Tallandier).
144.
Martin S. Alexander , ‘French Grand Strategy and Defence Preparations’, in Ferris and Mawdsley, The Cambridge History of the Second World War Volume 1, 106.

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Carswell, R. (2019). Contingencies and Consequences. In: The Fall of France in the Second World War. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03955-4_7

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03955-4_7
Published: 02 February 2019
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-03954-7
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