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Title: Lightning War : Blitzkrieg in the West, 1940 by Ronald E. Powaski ISBN: 0-471-39431-9 Publisher: Wiley Pub. Date: 13 December, 2002 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.75 (4 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Some inaccuracies
Comment: Just to add to one of the other reviews. The accusation of massacre at the Battle of Arras is based upon very flimsy evidence and should not be repeated in print. Powaski says that the French 1st Army marched by night as well as by day to reach Gembloux by 14th May. He should of course have said that it marched by day as well as by night ( day marches were not common due to the threat of air attack). Basic mistakes for a professional historian.
Rating: 4
Summary: "I'm Not Going To Die Dressed Like A Third-Rate Chauffeur"
Comment: This is a very solid book on the May 1940 German invasion of Belgium, Holland, and France and the subsequent Allied evacuation of troops from Dunkirk. The casual reader (I'm including myself, here) may be a bit put off by the first half of the book, which details the German thrust through the Ardennes forest into Belgium. I found this section to be overly technical, with the chessboard maneuverings of troops on both sides gone into in great detail. It also didn't help that the maps are few and far between, and are too general. For all the detail that the author goes into he really needed more maps, with each one covering a smaller area. (The maps were not created for this book, by the way. They are all borrowed from William Shirer's "Collapse Of The Third Republic.") So, that's on the downside. But here's the good news: the book really picks up in the second half, with a much better balance of technical description with human interest. I don't think you will find a better-written account of the Dunkirk evacuation, with many first-person accounts of the action- and the behind the scenes political action in London, Paris, and Brussels, as well. The author is very even-handed in his account and, in my opinion, he draws the proper conclusions from the evidence presented. The British intentionally delayed, almost to the last moment, telling the French that the retreat to Dunkirk was only the prelude to the British intention of evacuating all troops from the Continent. They wanted the French to fight on to "cover" the evacuation, so the French were allowed to believe that Dunkirk was going to be turned into a gathering point from which to launch a counterattack. British claims that the French soldiers "threw in the towel" were erroneous. The author shows that the common soldiers fought well and bravely. They were let down by the political and military leadership. The officer corps was too old and stuck in the past. They were still thinking in terms of WWI, with tanks in support of infantry. They didn't understand mechanized warfare. If they did, they would have realized that the Ardennes forest was definitely a possible invasion route, and they wouldn't have diverted so many men and so much equipment to the North. The Germans concentrated their tank forces for maximum effectiveness. The French and Belgians spread their tanks out and used them piecemeal. The Germans also used air support, which the French and Belgians didn't. The German commanders were right at the front, and were allowed to think independently and show initiative. Allied commanders were expected to stick to the "game plan" devised by generals who stayed back from the front- and who, therefore, didn't know what was going on. The lessons from the 1939 Nazi invasion of Poland were there for all to see- but the lessons weren't learned. The evacuation from Dunkirk, however, was a remarkable achievement. It is ironic that Hitler, who was bold enough to approve the thrust through the Ardennes which precipitated the Allied military collapse, was instrumental in assisting the success of the evacuation. The panzers got so far ahead of the German infantry that even Hitler reverted to a WWI mentality and worried about a counterattack. Against the wishes of his top brass, he halted the panzers for several crucial days- allowing the Allies to re-group and to organize the evacuation. You may be wondering about the significance of the title of this review. I chose it as being representative of the many wonderful first person accounts that are included. It is part of a quotation from Major Angus McCorquodale, a company commander in the British Expeditionary Force. He was an "old-fashioned" soldier, and didn't like the modern uniform. He preferred the old, polished brass and leather. As the major said, "I don't mind dying for my country, but I'm not going to die dressed like a third-rate chauffeur." Later on, after his men had stopped a German infantry advance, McCorquodale pulled out some bottles of sherry and some glasses and proposed a toast "To a very gallant and competent enemy."
Rating: 3
Summary: A Good Account, but some basic mistakes
Comment: This is a pretty good account of the fall of France in 1940 and the "miracle" at Dunkirk. The author writes fairly vividly. The book has good maps.
However, there are a number of problems with the book:
1. It's not very well-sourced. There are hardly any footnotes (just very limited "chapter notes" in the back)
2. The author gets it wrong about a widely known fact. Hitler did not "dance a jig" at Versailles. He stamped his foot and the British did a film loop of that.
3. Another basic error is when the author says the SS grew into a force of several divisions. The SS eventually comprised 38 divisions which is a lot more than several.
4. The author raises the possibility that British soldiers massacred members of the SS after a battle. There is no specific sourcing for that (see #1).
5. The narrative gets a little confusing near the end (the maps).
6. The author doesn't present an accurate number of the French evacuated at Dunkirk (he states a number that is exceeded by the number he mentioned as being evacuated in a single day).
Bottom line: Worthwhile to read but the sloppiness makes it impossible to give it 4 or 5 stars.
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Title: The Fall of France: The Nazi Invasion of 1940 (Modern World S.) by Julian Jackson ISBN: 019280300X Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: 01 June, 2003 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
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Title: The Iraq War: A Military History by Williamson Murray, Robert H., Jr. Scales ISBN: 0674012801 Publisher: Belknap Press Pub. Date: 01 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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Title: Storm of Steel: The Development of Armor Doctrine in Germany and the Soviet Union, 1919-1939 (Cornell Studies in Security Affairs) by Mary R. Habeck ISBN: 0801440742 Publisher: Cornell University Press Pub. Date: 01 February, 2003 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: The Path to Victory: The Mediterranean Theater in World War II by Douglas Porch ISBN: 0374205183 Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux Pub. Date: 01 May, 2004 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: Hitler Strikes Poland: Blitzkrieg, Ideology, and Atrocity (Modern War Studies) by Alexander B. Rossino ISBN: 0700612343 Publisher: University Press of Kansas Pub. Date: 01 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $34.95 |
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