1940 - TRUTHS AND LEGENDS

The defeat of 1940: how did it come to this?

On 13 May 1940, three days after the start of the German offensive, the lines of the French army were breached. On 17 June, Pétain called for a cessation of fighting. On 22 June, the armistice was signed in the forest of Compiègne. On 10 July, deputies and senators voted full powers to the Marshal. In two months, France — the foremost European power, whose army had been considered the finest in the world in 1918 — had been brought to its knees. This political and military collapse, compounded by a mass exodus of the population, continues to haunt the memory of the French and to raise many questions. Did the Popular Front disarm the country? Was the Maginot Line a good idea? Was our army ready? Did it lack aircraft and tanks? Are the Belgians to blame? Could the war have been continued in Brittany or North Africa? Was the appeal to Pétain a conspiracy against the Republic? Was the Appeal of 18 June heard? It is to these questions, and many others, that this book responds — at once a chronicle of a defeat and a deep dive into the daily lives of the leaders of the Third Republic, the military, and the population.

Rémy Porte, a former officer and official historian for the entire French Army, holds a habilitated doctorate to supervise research. He devotes himself to the study of conflicts of the last two centuries and to the history of the French armed forces. He has published some twenty works, including a well-received biography of Marshal Joffre (Perrin).