Dunkirk and France 1940 Campaign Books

Andy, I presume you've read The Vengeance of Private Pooley by Cyril Jolly ?

 

Sorry Andy, forget the above.....of course you have. Need a delete button !

 

Read this and the Amazon blurb just covers the introduction. The book is about the BEF and I found it very good. The author has some interesting views on the British Army's doctrine and training or lack of them. Also an alternative opinion on who made the big decisions

 

Osprey are doing their reveal of upcoming 2022 titles and this one caught my eye.
It's in their general military releases so a "book book", not a shorter pamphlet.
No word on release date or length but I'm familiar with Robert Kershaw as an author and liked his Barbarossa title.

 

While I like Robert Kershaw, technically the topic has already been covered.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dunkirk-German-Operations-France-Wehrmacht-ebook/dp/B07S49FC45

 

It has been 6 years since I have been on the forum and by jingo that is a lot of books I need to buy! Certainly knocks my recent Gerry Anderson addiction into a cocked hat!

 

Dunkirk from a French perspective - highly recommended!

 

Oh look...More books

 

Just finished this one; a splendid first-hand account. The author was in charge of the Dunkirk Harbour PN (Police de la Navigation) from mid-1939 until the 1940 onslaught.

 

Coming from Helion

Their Greatest Hour | Military History Book | Helion & Company

Their Greatest Hour
The Rearguard Action of the 12th Lancers Dunkirk 1940

 

Just finished reading this one. Truly a hidden gem!
In the first chapters of this biography, the author, then a junior RAF Intelligence Officer, provides the reader with a very vivid account of his experiences in France and Belgium in May-June 1940.
The rest of the book is equally fascinating. The author describes his work in the various branches of the intelligence services throughout and just after the war.
An eye-opener in many respects (to me anyway).

 

Most contemporary books related to Dunkirk and the 1940-campaign are written by British authors and - evidently - lay the focus on the whereabouts of the BEF. As a result, the narrative regarding the subject is quite often one-sided. Take the test: how many books do you have in your library that are NOT written by a British author? How many of the sources you use for research are of French, German or Belgian origin? I would surmise not a great many.

If you are looking for a reliable and emotionally detached work regarding the role played by the French during the Battle of Dunkirk, I would highly recommend general J. ARMENGAULD's book 'Le drame de Dunkerque (mai-juin 1940), published in 1948. I am not known to be easily impressed but this book is truly a goldmine, well worth the price you may pay for it and the translation efforts you may face (sadly, it was never published in English). I thought of myself as being reasonably well versed on Dunkirk but, as form now, I shall never again post anything again without checking this source reference first.



Don't expect a glorious happy end though: those who fought the toughest rearguard combats were the ones that were left behind. This was the source of quite a lot of animosity towards the British as these men felt abandoned (not unlike what happened at Saint-Valery-en Caux somewhat later). The author, however, at the end of his book, analyses these reproaches one by one and consistently offers a factual explanation as to the reason things happened as they did.

Bottom line: as for the role played by the French, this is a need-to-have for any researcher. I guarantee that, after reading this book, you'll never downplay the role played by the French anymore (and for those who would doubt my objectivity: I am not French).

 

I feel compelled to caution you before you start reading this review: this is a ‘touchy’ one…



The author of this work, the Austrian journalist Leo Leixner, was clearly a die-hard national-socialist. As such, any casual reader should be advised that Leixner’s political views frequently transpire throughout his book. This is probably the reason why ‘Von Lemberg bis Bordeaux’ never got translated and is currently only available in German. Also, those who feel up to the challenge should be made aware that Leixner writes in a somewhat unique style that requires above-average understanding of German (he was a professional journalist with a degree in German literature and a doctor of philosophy). As a result, if you were considering running his texts through an online translation-matrix, be warned it may often produce some ‘psychedelic’ results… Finally, if reading texts in Gothic print gives you a headache as it does me, I strongly advise using a version in Arial font - a number of pdf-versions are freely available on the net.

At this point, you must naturally be asking yourself: why should I, as a researcher, make the effort?

Simply because - if one makes abstraction form the author’s nazi ideology - Leixner provides some very vivid accounts of the combats he witnessed on the western front throughout 1940. In spite of his political convictions, Leixner (who at the time was ‘embedded’ in an infantry regiment) certainly was a gifted observer with a keen eye for detail. It must also be noted that Leixner illustrated his book with a series of very interesting photos which he took during the campaign. Be warned though that, as with other nazi-publications, these photos, their arrangement and their narrative very skillfully tend to create an 'alternate reality' by twisting the overall context. I would therefor advise to strictly remain focused on the provided dates, locations and facts.

British researchers have the option to hit the fast-forward button and leap to the chapter ‘Stoßrichtung England — 'ran ans Meer! - Erste Kampfberührung mit den Briten’ where Leixner describes his first encounter with British troops (armoured cars, most probably belonging to the 12th Lancers) on the Ijser and the ensuing combats along the Nieuwpoort-Veurne canal.

Conclusion: as a reference source, this book unquestionably has added value. You must, however, be prepared (and willing!) to invest the necessary time in order to breach the language barrier, always remember to keep an open mind and – most importantly – be able to identify and filter-out the (sometimes very) subtle nazi propaganda-elements this book contains.

KR,
Christian

 

Thanks for this and for the thoughtful and thought-provoking notes:

Also along these lines are the published works of an SS-Kreigberichter, Hein Schlecht. At face value his contemporary account offers a relatively rare view to balance our inbuilt 'Allied' viewpoint and specifically for me, the British 'spin' on the campaign - something that, regrettably, is still happening in modern published works that restate false myths about the campaign and leave out uncomfortable truths. But we shouldn't take Schelct's accounts at face value because I have my doubts about Schlecht's actual viewpoint - he writes as if he was there, in the thick of it personally - but where in fact was he? It seems unlikely that he was at each incident so these are more likely a bunch of first-hand accounts (or maybe even 2nd or 3rd hand accounts) that he's amalgamated into a whole, and spun with a National Socialist bias. There is a basis of fact in his writing but alas, his work seems to have crept into more recent works without those caveats and warnings and without additional fact-checking. Christian sums this area of reasearch very well:

 

If anyone is interested i have just downloaded Volume 6 covering the 4th Battalion Queens own Cameron Highlanders on google. I have been looking for the book at a reasonable price, and this has not shown up before, but i had changed the 6 from Latin to normal and up it popped. I typed in (historical records of the Queen's own Cameron Highlanders vol 6) without brackets and at the top result it said Google books, and lo and behold its their. Free and downloadable, not tried for the other volumes.