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Assignment to Catastrophe, Vol. 2, The Fall of France, June 1940
The German victory in France at the onset of the Second World War was sudden, brutal and brilliant; by contrast the British and French preparations were miserable, faulty, badly carried through and fraught with mistrust. In the midst of these Allied responses was the eminent liaison officer Major-General Sir Edward Louis Spears, sent by the new Prime Minister Winston Churchill to be his representative to the French Prime Minister. Spears was very well suited to his role as he had seen much military service and he had served in a senior liaison capacity between the British and French armies during the First World War. Keenly observant, well connected, urbane and respected by many of the French politicians and generals, his two volume memoirs are justly famous.
333 pages, Unknown Binding
Published January 1, 1954
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February 16, 2021
In "ASSIGNMENT TO CATASTROPHE, Volume II, The Fall of France, June 1940, " Edward Spears shares with the reader the challenges he faced in a France, that --- following the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and several thousand French troops from Dunkirk to Britain --- was inexorably moving towards total defeat.
By the first week of June 1940, the Germans embarked on another offensive poised to break through the hastily organized defenses by Franco-British forces along the Aisne-Somme front. Though the French troops in many instances fought more bravely and with more determination than had been shown since the German Blitzkrieg in the West began the previous May 10th, it was of no avail. German armored strength, coupled with the Luftwaffe's overwhelming dominance in the skies, proved to be too much for the Allied forces to withstand.
Here are some quotes that I think best convey the chaos that was overtaking France up to June 17, 1940, when the French Premier (Paul Reynaud), after much acrimony within his own cabinet, resigned and a new government - under Marshal Pétain - was formed, which went on to seek an armistice with Germany:
"A French General Staff note of June 6th, 1940, gave the French losses in Belgium and at Dunkirk as 370,000. It was claimed that 150,000 escaped, of whom two-thirds were evacuated from Dunkirk and the remaining third fell back behind the Somme." - p. 37.
"The sketchy news of the fighting that came in driblets in the late evening [of June 6th, 1940] did not sound very good. The enemy had reached the Bresle River south of Tréport, and appeared to have gained a footing on the heights overlooking the Aisne. Again the Chemin des Dames of horrible memory [from the First World War] was mentioned." - p. 100.
"[General] Weygand [commander of the French armies in the West] had ... informed [Lord] Lloyd [a Conservative M.P.] that he had taken upon himself [on June 10th, 1940] the decision to declare Paris an open town, and had written to [Premier Paul] Reynaud to tell him so. The politicians could not make up their minds, and he [Weygand] was not going to allow Paris to be destroyed for no purpose." -- p. 134.
"The [French] Ministers would not accept [Premier Paul Reynaud] as a substitute for Churchill, ... They naturally believed that [as of June 13th, 1940] a defenceless Britain could not succeed where their Army, which they had thought so strong, had failed. Only Churchill could have persuaded them that Britain not only had a chance but genuinely believed in ultimate victory." - p. 232.
For anyone interested in gaining a better appreciation for the increasingly desperate situation in which France found herself in June 1940, I can think of no better book than "ASSIGNMENT TO CATASTROPHE, Volume II, The Fall of France, June 1940." Edward Spears was a member of the British establishment uniquely qualified (by virtue of his fluency in French, his previous military experience from WWI, and longstanding relationships with officers in the French Army and government) to relate what happened during those crucial weeks.
By the first week of June 1940, the Germans embarked on another offensive poised to break through the hastily organized defenses by Franco-British forces along the Aisne-Somme front. Though the French troops in many instances fought more bravely and with more determination than had been shown since the German Blitzkrieg in the West began the previous May 10th, it was of no avail. German armored strength, coupled with the Luftwaffe's overwhelming dominance in the skies, proved to be too much for the Allied forces to withstand.
Here are some quotes that I think best convey the chaos that was overtaking France up to June 17, 1940, when the French Premier (Paul Reynaud), after much acrimony within his own cabinet, resigned and a new government - under Marshal Pétain - was formed, which went on to seek an armistice with Germany:
"A French General Staff note of June 6th, 1940, gave the French losses in Belgium and at Dunkirk as 370,000. It was claimed that 150,000 escaped, of whom two-thirds were evacuated from Dunkirk and the remaining third fell back behind the Somme." - p. 37.
"The sketchy news of the fighting that came in driblets in the late evening [of June 6th, 1940] did not sound very good. The enemy had reached the Bresle River south of Tréport, and appeared to have gained a footing on the heights overlooking the Aisne. Again the Chemin des Dames of horrible memory [from the First World War] was mentioned." - p. 100.
"[General] Weygand [commander of the French armies in the West] had ... informed [Lord] Lloyd [a Conservative M.P.] that he had taken upon himself [on June 10th, 1940] the decision to declare Paris an open town, and had written to [Premier Paul] Reynaud to tell him so. The politicians could not make up their minds, and he [Weygand] was not going to allow Paris to be destroyed for no purpose." -- p. 134.
"The [French] Ministers would not accept [Premier Paul Reynaud] as a substitute for Churchill, ... They naturally believed that [as of June 13th, 1940] a defenceless Britain could not succeed where their Army, which they had thought so strong, had failed. Only Churchill could have persuaded them that Britain not only had a chance but genuinely believed in ultimate victory." - p. 232.
For anyone interested in gaining a better appreciation for the increasingly desperate situation in which France found herself in June 1940, I can think of no better book than "ASSIGNMENT TO CATASTROPHE, Volume II, The Fall of France, June 1940." Edward Spears was a member of the British establishment uniquely qualified (by virtue of his fluency in French, his previous military experience from WWI, and longstanding relationships with officers in the French Army and government) to relate what happened during those crucial weeks.
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