Chapter 17
Panzers advance again: Stoves, Churchill ii, Draper, Jacobsen (1), Christophe, Manteuffel, Starcke, Haupt, Halder, Murawski, Wehrmacht communiqués. End of Ninth Army and capture of Giraud: Vasselle (1), Habe, Draper, Doumenc, Guderian (2), Ellis, Minart, Middleton, Roton. Fugitives and refugees: Accart, Sarraz-Bournet, Muray, Mendès-France, Bardoux, Jong, Kosak, Koestler, Waterfield, Maurois, Carron, Beauvoir, Chambrun, Bryant, Kielmansegg, Boothe, Chastenet (3), Bardies, Chautemps, St.-Exupéry. The ‘Fifth Column’: Barlone, Jong, Waterfield, Habe, Vilfroy (The War in the West), Werth, German archives, Tissier, Spears ii, Conrad, Pertinax, Reile, Telford Taylor, Menu, Ruby, Lerecouvreux, Reynaud (1), Rauschning, Shirer (1), Beaufre, personal correspondence, Bayet, Koestler, Gamelin iii, French periodicals. French High Command recognizes German objective: Minart, Roton, French periodicals, Baudouin, Weygand (1), Voisin, personal correspondence, Baudouin, Gamelin iii, Reynaud (1), Bardoux, Spears i, Ironside, Benoist-Méchin. Operations on 19 May: French and German periodicals, Kielmansegg, d’Astier, de Gaulle (2), Salesse, Voisin, Halder, Gontaut-Biron, Vasselle (1), Wittek, Ellis, Stoves. Fighting on Maginot Line: Prételat, Rowe, Picht, Benoist-Méchin. Withdrawal from northern Belgium and rumours of British evacuation intent: Ellis, Roton, Prioux, Reynaud (1), French periodicals, Barlone, Draper, Lyet, Richards & Saunders, Ironside, Detrez & Chatelle (Tragédies en Flandres), Churchill ii, Benoist-Méchin. ‘Instruction No. 12’ and end of Gamelin: Minart, French and German periodicals, Roton, Reynaud (1), Gamclin i & iii, Beaufre. Weygand takes over: Lévy, Reynaud (1), Spears i & ii, Greenwall, Werth, Beaufre, Jamet, Bois, Waterfield, Weygand (1) & (2), Baudouin, Minart. Germans reach Channel: Manteuffel, d’Astier, Kielmansegg, Stoves, Draper, Bryant, Shirer (1), Telford Taylor, Guderian (3), Lyet.
Chapter 18
German ‘pause’ of 21 May: Halder, Goutard (1), Telford Taylor, Guderian (2). Allied High Command, Ironside’s plan: Reynoud (1), Lyet, Baudouin, Detrez & Chatelle (Tragédies en Flandres), Benoist-Méchin, Chambrun, Ellis, Ironside, Weygand (1), French periodicals, Müller, Churchill ii, Gort’s dispatches. Gort, background: Draper, Thompson, Spears i, Ellis, Maurois, Bryant. The Arras attack: Detrez & Chatelle (op. cit.), d’Astier, Bardies, Bryant, Chambrun, Draper, Ellis, Prioux, Roton, Weygand (2), Telford Taylor, Goutard, Guderian (2), Churchill ii, Gort dispatches, Reynaud (1), Jacobsen (1), Flack, Halder, Mellenthin, Haupt, Manteuffel, Rommel, Starcke, Sieg im West, German archives, personal correspondence. Weygand’s visit to Ypres: Baudouin, Churchill ii, Weygand (1) & (2), Reynaud (1), French periodicals, Bardies, Ellis, Lyet, Benoist-Méchin, Beaufre, Goutard (1), Bauer, Hartog. Reynaud and Churchill in Paris, 22 May: Bois, Bardoux, Werth, Goutard, Baudouin, Draper, Roton, Weygand (1), Reynaud (1), Churchill ii, Ellis, General Ismay (Memoirs), Ironside. German operations, 22 May: Christophe, Shirer (1), Mende, Stoves, Manteuffel, Ellis. French counter-strokes, 22 May: Detrez & Chatelle (op. cit.), d’Astier, Bekker, Prioux, Ellis, Lyet, Roton, Weygand (2), Goutard (1), Gort dispatches, Bardies, Vasselle (2). Gort withdraws: Ellis, Churchill ii, Gort dispatches, Weygand (1), French periodicals, Draper, Richards, Detrez & Chatelle (op. cit.), Bryant, Prioux, Weygand (2), Telford Taylor, Bardies, Reynáud (1), Ironside.
Chapter 19
The German ‘Halt Qrder’ of 24 May: Taylor (1), Ellis, Halder, Rommel, Telford Taylor, German periodicals, Guderian (2), Fechner, Haupt, Goutard (1), Bekker, Blumentritt, Warlimont, Heusinger, Benoist-Méchin, Churchill ii. Growing French despair, rancour among Allies: Werth, Jamet, Bardoux, Spears i, Koestler, Picht, Sheean, Waterfield, Telford Taylor, Prioux, Draper, Boothe, Baudouin, Benoist-Méchin. Weygand, beginnings of ‘separate peace’ lobby: Waterfield, Telford Taylor, Draper, Baudouin, Benoist-Méchin, Müller, Chautemps, Spears i, Reynaud (1). French Cabinet session of 25 May: Müller, Baudouin, Spears i, Reynaud (1), Benoist-Méchin. Footnote on air strengths: Bauer, Baudouin, Jacobsen (1), Ellis, Paquier (1), Richards & Saunders. French attacks from south, fading of Weygand plan: Goutard, Vasselle (1) & (2), Benoist-Méchin, Weygand (2), Reynaud (1), Baudouin, Draper, Churchill ii. Dunkirk: Jacobsen (1) & (2), Bekker, Spears i, Draper, Lyet, Ellis, Weygand (1), Ironside, Richards & Saunders, Gort dispatches, d’Astier, Goutard, Benoist-Méchin, Churchill ii.
Chapter 20
‘Operation Red’ begins: Draper, d’Astier, Weygand (1), Warlimont, Spears ii, Goutard, Richards, Churchill ii, Halder, Reynaud (1), Telford Taylor, Sieg im West, Manteuffel, Rommel, Guderian (2), Benoist-Méchin. Paris falls: Draper, Shirer (1), Werth, Telford Taylor, Ehrenburg, Waterfield, Maurois, Fabre-Luce, Benoist-Méchin, Halder. Italy attacks: Reynaud (1), Benoist-Méchin, Goutard, Richards & Saunders. Last resistances: Draper, Spears i & ii, Chastenet (3), Benoist-Méchin, Beaufre. Political struggle between ‘softs’ and. ‘hards’: Spears i & ii, Churchill ii, Benoist-Méchin, Bois, Koestler, Lévy, Weygand (1), Reynaud (1), Baudouin, Benoist-Méchin, Maurois. Reynaud at breaking-point, his plea to America: Spears ii, Bois, Benoist-Méchin, Baudouin, Boothe, personal correspondence, Reynaud (1), Churchill ii. Reynaud resigns: Reynaud (1), Spears ii, Benoist-Méchin, Churchill ii, Baudouin, Shirer (1), Chastenet (3).
Chapter 21
The armistice: Shirer (1) & (2), Halder, Mende, Warlimont, Sieg im West, Weygand (1), Benoist-Méchin. Casualties: Haupt, Manteuffel, Chastenet (3), Werth, Picht, Ellis, Webster & Frankland, Richards & Saunders, Tissier, Starcke, Spaeter, personal correspondence. First days after cease-fire: Stackelberg, Halder, Beauvoir, Ehrenburg, Shirer (1), Middleton, Thompson, Spaeter, Mende. Shadows of defeat for Hitler: Mende, Warlimont, Shirer (1) & (2), Telford Taylor, Blumentritt, Jacobsen (1), Klein, Murawski, Sieg im West, Bauer, Ellis. Post-mortems: French & German periodicals, Spears i, Jong, Habe, Doumenc, Ellis, Goutard (1), Telford Taylor, Koestler, personal correspondence. Subsequent careers of principals: Reynaud (1), Gamelin ii, Prioux, Telford Taylor, Baudouin, d’Astier, Benoist-Méchin, Greenwell, Harold Nicolson (Diaries ii), personal correspondence, The Times, Chambers Encyclopaedia, Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Notes to Foreword
1. Time, 14 August 1939, 21
2. He did add that the Germans might catch up by 1940. Edmund Ironside, Time Unguarded: The Ironside Diaries, 1937-1940 (New York, 1962), 40.
3. Herbert Hoover, Address Upon the American Road, 1940-1941 (New York, 1941), 108-9.
4. Roosevelt to Ramsay MacDonald, 30 August 1933, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1933 (Washington, 1950), I, 210-11.
5. Roosevelt to W. C. Bullitt, 21 April 1935, F.D.R. His Personal Letters, 1928–1945, Elliott Roosevelt and Joseph P. Lash, eds. (New York, 1950), I, 476.
6. Franklin D. Roosevelt, Annual Message to the Congress, 3 January 1936, Public Papers and Addresses… 1936 (New York, 1938), 12.
7. La Grange to Joseph Caillaux, 21 January 1938, La Grange, “Final Report on American Trip, February 15, 1938,” La Grange Papers, J. McV. Haight, Jr., American Aid to France, 1938–1940 (New York, 1970), 7.
8. Haight, American Aid to France, 231.
9. Haight, American Aid to France, ch. 9.
10. Harold L. Ickes, The Secret Diary of Harold L. Ickes: III, The Lowering Clouds, 1939–1941 (New York, 1954), 202.
11. Marc Bloch, Strange Defeat: A Statement of Evidence Written in 1940 (1949; Norton paperback, 1968), 25.
12. Ickes, Lowering Clouds, 181.
13. Franklin D. Roosevelt, press conference, 28 May 1940, Complete Presidential Press Conferences (New York, 1972), xv, 360.
14. Franklin D. Roosevelt, Address at the University of Virginia, 10 June 1940, Public Papers and Addresses… 1940 (New York, 1941), 263.
15. British Library of Information Report 226, 21 May 1940, Foreign Office Papers 371/24240.
16. Lord Lothian to Lord Halifax, 24 May 1940, Foreign Office Papers 371/24233.
17. Frank Knox to FDR, 7 June 1940, Roosevelt Papers.
18. Adolf A. Berle, Navigating the Rapids, 1918–1971, B. B. Berle and Travis Jacobs, eds. (New York, 1973), 321.
19. William Allen White to FDR, 10 Ju
ne 1940, Roosevelt Papers.
20. Forrest Davis and Ernest K. Lindley, How War Came (New York, 1942), 52.
21. British Library of Information Report 280,12 June 1940, Foreign Office Papers 371/24240.
22. Cordell Hull, Memoirs (New York, 1948), 769, 788
23. Winston S. Churchill, Their Finest Hour (Boston, 1949), 184–5.
24. W. L. Langer and S. E. Gleason, The Challenge to Isolation (New York, 1952), 535.
25. FDR to Reynaud, 15 June 1940, Public Papers… 1940, 267.
26. British Library of Information Report 292, 21 June 1940, Report 301,27 June 1940, Foreign Office Papers 371/24240; Lothian to Halifax, 21 June 1940, Foreign Office Papers 371/24233.
27. Anne Morrow Lindbergh, The Wave of the Future (New York, 1940), 19, 21, 34, 37.
Index
Aa Canal, 597–8, 617
Abbeville, 517, 527, 558, 560–2, 565–6, 583, 629–30
Abetz, Otto, 130–1, 225
Abwehr, 246–7, 262, 266, 530–1
Agny, 578, 581
Aisne, River, 494, 534, 540, 545, 627, 630, 639, 643–4
Albert, 517, 559–60
Albert Canal, 170, 267–71, 288, 295
Altmayer, General René, 574–5, 587, 594, 601
Altmayer, General Robert, 594, 602, 642
Amiens, 454, 517–19, 521–2, 545, 548, 558–60, 572, 590, 594, 629, 639–42
Anor, 474, 500
Anthée, 378–80
anti-Nazis, French internment of, 157–8, 527, 619
Antwerp, 515, 542
Archdale, Major A.O., 586
Ardennes: ‘impenetrable’, 114, 238, 243; German plan to attack through, 207, 209–10; Belgian plan to abandon, 242; terrain, 242–4; German advance through, 261, 381; French Army in, 273–7; traffic jams in, 279, 284, 335, 337, 355, 366, 380; reconnaissance reports, 292
Ardennes Canal, 387–8, 392, 419, 423
Armengaud, General A., 84, 177–8
Arras, 542, 545, 546, 561–2, 564, 568, 573–82, 590, 598–9, 604–5, 610
Arnhem, 266
Astier de la Vigerie, François d’: visits Heinkel, 123–4; and Z.O.A.N., 233, 277, 289, 299, 339–40, 407, 431–2, 504–5, 540, 543, 576, 627, 640
Astor, Lady, 249
Austria, 133, 355
Authie, River, 597
Avesnes, 475–7, 498–500, 561
Balan, 346–8
Balbaud, René, 143, 154, 506, 534
Balck, Lieutenant-Colonel Hermann, 300, 322, 352–5, 357, 365–6, 383, 392, 394, 426–7, 541, 558–9, 644, 647, 676
Bar, River, 334, 356, 392–4
Barbusse, Henri, 97, 108
Bardies, Colonel R. M., 377, 404, 410
Bardoux, Jacques, 180–1, 222, 454–5, 509–10, 525, 550, 590, 619
Barlone, Major D., 152, 182, 227, 241, 249, 290, 527, 546–7, 663
Barratt, Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur: on Gamelin, 162; and A.A.S.F., 165, 277–8, 340, 640; and reconnaissance flights, 244; on French Air Force defeatism, 245; frustrated by French, 277–8; and ‘Dirty Dozen’, 298, 391; and bombing of Sedan, 388–92; moves back to Coulommiers, 434, 504; cannot accommodate Hurricanes, 462; forbids bombing on estimated time of arrival, 505; communication with Air Component cut, 543
Barthou, J.L., 83, 167
Battle bombers, 278, 288, 298–9, 301, 340, 389–92, 432, 504–5
Baudet, General, 236, 316, 339, 363, 385
Baudouin, Paul: on Gamelin, 164, 457; and Narvik, 215; Secretary to War Cabinet, 226, 625, 628; and Reynaud, 227, 271, 444–5, 448, 458, 628–9; attempts to gain information, 371; bad news, 404–5; on Churchill, 461; on mood in Paris, 510; and Weygand, 558, 602, 622–3; and ‘separate peace’ lobby, 622–5, 628–9, 652, 656–7, 659–60; on Vuillemin, 626–7; and Hélène de Portes, 654–5, 656; abandons Pétain, 680
Bauer, Eddy, 246, 531
Bazeilles, 304, 326, 334, 346
Beaufre, General André, 71, 77, 80, 239, 272, 370–1, 403, 429, 557
Beaurains, 578, 581
Beauvoir, Simone de, 61, 99, 111, 134, 138, 147, 237, 521, 533, 668
Beck, Colonel-General, 191, 196
Beck-Broichsitter, Lieutenant, 420–2
Belgian Army: and defence of Ardennes, 241–3; retreats, 295, 369, 431, 588, 599; Weygand’s plans for, 584–5, 593; at ‘limits of… resistance’, 616; surrenders, 619–21; losses, 667
Belgium: France’s ally, 75; French plan to advance into, 75, 80, 84–5, 169–72; revokes Franco-Belgian Treaty, 84; Hitler’s designs on, 169, 172–3, 185; High Command, 173; invaded, 259, 263–5, 267–71, 275, 281–7, 289–90; refugees from, 453; Allied retreat from, 507–8, 546; surrenders, 619–21; French and later British bitterness at, 621
Benoist-Méchin, J., 587–8
Berlin: affray in (1919), 54; ceremony in Opera House (1935), 86; troops for Poland in, 137; Christmas in, 149; ample food, 154, 249–50; no excitement at victories, 481–2, 661–2; ceremony in Opera House (1940), 669
Bertin-Boussu, General, 395, 419
Besançon, 647, 659
Billotte, General: and No. 1 Army Group, 165; and Dyle-Breda Plan, 171, 175, 290–1; blind to threat to Sedan, 246; ‘nothing will happen’, 249; and Blanchard, 295; and Belgians, 296–7; and air operations, 299, 339–40; and Bruneau, 377; and Corap, 406–7, 412, 429; and Giraud, 430, 518; orders retreat to Escaut, 431; and to Dendre, 507; reports failure to Georges, 537; and Prioux, 547; and British ‘evacuation at Calais’, 547–8; and plans for Gort to counter-attack, 548–50, 568, 572; and communications with G.Q.G., 566; Ironside and, 571–2; and Weygand’s meeting with Leopold, 583–6; signs of breakdown, 586; meets Gort at Ypres, 588; drinks milk, dies, 589; rumours of suicide, 589–90
Bismarck, Colonel von, 325, 373–4, 411, 676
Blanchard, General, 174, 290, 295, 402, 428, 430–1, 542, 546, 572, 574–6, 585–6, 589, 601, 603–5, 616, 621, 632
Bletchley Park, 634, 636
Bloch, Marc, 129, 168–9
Blomberg, General von, 82–3, 86, 190
Blum, Léon: forms Popular Front, 107–8; and 1936 strikes, 109; Matignon Agreement, 110–11; distrusts professional army, 117; blind to threat of Hitler, 128; resigns, 132; ‘shame’ at Munich, 134; renounces Communists, 156; and folly of banning L’Humanité, 158; ostracized, 219; later career, 678
Blumentritt, General G. von, 261, 287, 485–6
Bock, Field-Marshal Fedor von, 185, 193, 197–8, 201–2, 206–9, 265, 292, 402, 485, 507, 565, 599, 620, 639, 641, 649
Bois, Élie, 101, 131, 223, 224, 227–8, 444, 450, 455
Bond, Brian, 586
Bonnet, Georges, 101, 124, 133, 137, 219–20, 226
Boothe, Clare, 145, 154, 219, 224, 248, 252, 290, 451, 522, 532–3, 535, 620
Bordeaux, 649, 654, 658, 661
Boucher, General, 311–12, 330, 373, 479
Bouffet, General, 310, 479
Bouillon, 276, 286, 300–2, 316–17, 680
Boulogne, 548, 597, 617
Bouvellemont, 418, 426–7, 467
‘Brandenburgers’, 209, 265–7, 270, 528
Brauchitsch, Field-Marshal Heinrich von: character, 188; exercises in motorization, 90; and ‘Directive Yellow’, 185–7; and Hitler, 188–90, 200, 482, 487, 515, 565, 613–14, 639; caution, 194; and Manstein Plan, 197–9, 206; and Army Group ‘A’, 284; later career, 677
Braun, Wernher von, 121
Briand, Aristide, 61, 65
Briare, 644, 650
Britain: and treatment of Germany at Versailles, 56–7; French debt to, 59; and reparations, 59–60; fear for Germany, 67; war production, 134; declares war, 137; French Anglophobia, 152; propaganda against, 158; and Belgium, 169; possible invasion of, 212; wasted amphibious tradition, 217; Hitler’s designs on, 534–5; Dunkirk evacuation, 610–11; reaction to French Armistice, 668–9; lack of German plans to invade, 671
British Army, 50, 76, 79–80, 91, 148, 158, 230; see also British Expeditionary Force
British Expeditionary Force: arrives in France, 1
39; bustle in ‘Phoney War’, 150, 236; in Dyle-Breda Plan, 173–4; advances into Belgium, 289–90; on Dyle, 295, 296, 369, 430–1; and Louvain, 296, 402; ‘stunned’ by retreat to Escaut, 431; Air Component removed to England, 504, 543–4; extremely tired, 546; plans for evacuating, 548–50, 604–5; German view of fighting qualities, 561; plan for counter-attack, 567–8; Ironside’s pessimism, 572–3; attack on Arras, 573–82; Weygand’s plans for, 593–4; on half-rations, 603; too late to save?, 604; Gort decides to save, 608; falls back to Dunkirk, 616–17; French bitterness, 619–21; evacuated, 632–3; intelligence service, 635, 636, 637; losses, 667
British Signals Intelligence. (‘Sigint’), 634
Brocard, General, 395–8, 419, 423–4
Brooke, Lieutenat-General Alan, 151–2, 234, 272, 311, 430, 507, 523, 569, 604
Bruché, General, 427–9, 469–70, 496–7, 512
Bruneau, General, 376–7, 408–10, 477, 518
Brunehamel, 416–17, 428, 520
Bullitt, William, 442, 550, 658
Bulson, 359–63, 383–4, 531
Busch, General, 212, 366
Bussche, Axel von dem, 381
Cachin, Marcel, 55
Cadogan, Sir Alexander, 458
Calais, 547–8, 582, 584, 597, 617–18
Cambrai, 513–17, 526, 541–2, 547, 572, 576, 585, 601
Campinchi, César, 627, 652
Canal du Nord, 517, 541–2
Canaris, Admiral, 246, 265–6, 531
Capelle, La, 474, 477, 501
Cateau, Le, 478, 497–500, 513, 516
Catelet, Le, 512, 518
Cerfontaine, 407, 411–12
To Lose a Battle Page 72