The Breaking Point: Sedan and the Fall of France, 1940 in THE WORLD WAR TWO GROUP

Feb 02, 2018 Mike rated it it was ok

Shelves: history, non-fiction, europe, military, ww2

If you are going to do a terrain walk or in-depth study of the 1940 attack through the Ardennes, then this is the book for you. If you are looking for an engaging, entertaining book on a key turning point in the Battle of France, you will have to look elsewhere. The start of the book is strong but after the initial discussion of the German progress through the Ardennes, the narrative breaks down into a lengthy and, frankly, boring accounting of who moved where and when. Except for some accounts If you are going to do a terrain walk or in-depth study of the 1940 attack through the Ardennes, then this is the book for you. If you are looking for an engaging, entertaining book on a key turning point in the Battle of France, you will have to look elsewhere. The start of the book is strong but after the initial discussion of the German progress through the Ardennes, the narrative breaks down into a lengthy and, frankly, boring accounting of who moved where and when. Except for some accounts from German soldiers on specific actions crossing the Meuse and taking objectives, there are no vignettes of interest despite a heavy focus on small unit action. There are good discussions of the clash of wills between Guderian and Von Kleist, very interesting.

The short and clear explanation of French and German strategy and doctrine is excellent. The French "methodical battle" with step-by-step centralized control is contrasted with the German emphasis on decentralized control and initiative. German "Auftragstaktik" or mission-oriented tactics is explained. The author gives a good explanation of how difficult a problem the Germans had in attacking through the Ardennes. He also gives a decent account of the greatly outnumbered Belgian Chasseurs Ardennais fight at Bodange which held up the 1st Panzer Division for about 10 hours on the first day (view spoiler) I learned about the airlanding of commandos and a 400-man battalion (2-3 men at a time) by Fieseler Storch airplanes at key bridges and crossing on the first day-did not know that before.

Where the book falls down is maps. He started out with a good one but he gets deep down into the moves of all the formations in the Ardennes and does not include any maps that guide you. The lack of maps only gets worse as the books progresses. Here is one online map that would help: http://totallyhistory.com/wp-content/...

The operations order for the main thrust is precise and clear:

(view spoiler)

I can only give 2 Stars for a book that started out promising but did not carry through. This one does not make the permanent shelf.
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