After the long winter of the Phoney War the invasion of the Low Countries and France by Hitler's rampaging armies threw the World into crisis. Chamberlain's Government fell, Churchill became Prime Minister. France was humiliated, the British Expeditionary Force was only saved by the miracle of Dunkirk but many men and huge amounts of equipment were lost to the Blitzkrieg. England trembled but the invasion never came. Philip Warner graphically recounts the momentous events of that terrible period thanks to his painstaking research and skilful writing. He demonstrates how the under trained and ill-equipped British forces gallantly but futilely resisted the German land and air onslaught. He emphasises the understated contribution of the French. This book provides a fresh and invaluable explanation of the military and political events of that extraordinary campaign, which continued on after Dunkirk.

Spartacus Review

This is a reprint of Philip Warner's 1990 book which was, and still is, a fine, comprehensive account of the Battle of France.
Warner opens with an investigation into the politics of the inter-war years. The German economy and its social and political structures had been so severely damaged after the First World War that it was believed in France that, regardless of Hitler's blustering, the Germans would never again be so foolish as to cross swords with the combined might of France and Britain. This led to
what the author defined as the "decade of illusion". Unfortunately for the world, many of the people in positions of power in 1939 were those that had been the most deluded.

The consequence of this was the unexpected and overwhelming German victory. Mr. Warner describes the actual battle more from a British perspective than an Allied one and much attention is paid to the retreat and evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force, including the evacuations from France after Operation Dynamo. Yet, as the sub-title reveals, the theme of the book is the effect the fall of France had upon world affairs.

The speed and ease of the German victory allowed Hitler to mount his fatal invasion of Russia. If, as in the First World War, the Germans had become bogged down for years in France, Hitler would not have been able to conduct, or even contemplate, an attack upon Russia. Nor would he have sent his troops to seize Greece or the Balkans. Also, had the Germans not succeeded so well in the fighting in France it is unlikely that Italy would have declared war. Mussolini, like Franco in Spain, may have sat cautiously on the fence.
But it is the impact of Hitler's invasion of Russia that was to have the most profound consequences.

The author ends his book by considering what would have happened if the Battle of France had dragged on for years. France, Germany and Britain would have become so weakened that Stalin might have had little difficulty in overwhelming all three combatant countries. "Perhaps, by collapsing in 1940", he concludes, "France saved the world from an Orwellian nightmare future".

Reviewed by John Grehan, Britain at War

After the long winter of the Phoney
War the invasion of the Low
Countries and France by Hitler's
rampaging armies threw the World
into crisis. Chamberlain's Government fell, Churchill became
Prime Minister. France was
humiliated, the British Expeditionary Force was only saved by the miracle of Dunkirk but many men and huge amounts of equipment were lost to the Blitzkrieg. England trembled but the invasion never came. Philip Warner graphically recounts the momentous events of that terrible period thanks to his painstaking research and skilful writing. He demonstrates how the under trained and ill-equipped British forces gallantly but futilely resisted the German land and air onslaught. He emphasises the understated contribution of the French.

This book provides a fresh and invaluable explanation of the military and political events ^59§3 extraordinary campaign, which continued on after Dunkirk. Price £19.99

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