The Bef In France 1939 1940

Download The Bef In France 1939 1940 full books in PDF, epub, and Kindle. Read online The Bef In France 1939 1940 ebook anywhere anytime directly on your device. Fast Download speed and no annoying ads. We cannot guarantee that every ebooks is available!

British Battles of the Crimean Wars 1854-1856

Author : John Grehan
Publisher : Pen and Sword
ISBN 13 : 1781593302
Total Pages : 334 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (815 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis British Battles of the Crimean Wars 1854-1856 by : John Grehan

Download or read book British Battles of the Crimean Wars 1854-1856 written by John Grehan and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2014-01-22 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Crimean War was the most destructive armed conflict of the Victorian era. It is remembered for the unreasoning courage of the Charge of the Light Brigade, for the precise volleys of the Thin Red Line and the impossible assaults upon Sevastopol's Redan. It also demonstrated the inefficiency and ineffectiveness of the British military system based on privilege and purchase.??Poor organisation at staff level and weak leadership from the Commander-in-Chief with a lack of appreciation of the conditions the troops would experience in the Crimea resulted in the needless death of thousands of soldiers. The Royal Navy, by comparison, was highly effective and successfully undertook its operations in the Baltic, the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.??The relative performance of the two branches of Britain's armed forces is reflected in the despatches sent back to the UK by the?respective commanders. The comparative wealth of detail provided by Admirals Napier, Dundas and Lyons contrast sharply with the limited, though frequent, communications from Generals Raglan, Codrington and Simpson.??The despatches of all these commanding officers are presented in this compilation just as they were when first published in the 1850s. They tell of the great battles of the Alma, Balaklava and Inkerman, of the continuing struggle against Sevastopol and the naval operations which cut the Russian communications and ensured an eventual, if costly, victory. They can be read, just as they were when revealed to the general public more than 150 years ago.

The French Defeat of 1940

Author : Joel Blatt
Publisher : Berghahn Books
ISBN 13 : 0857457179
Total Pages : 380 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (574 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The French Defeat of 1940 by : Joel Blatt

Download or read book The French Defeat of 1940 written by Joel Blatt and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 1997-08-01 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why France, the major European continental victor in 1918, suffered total defeat in six weeks at the hands of the vanquished power of 1918 only two decades later remains moot. Why the stunning reversal of fortunes? In this volume thirteen prominent scholars reexamine the French debacle of 1940 in interwar perspectives, utilizing fresh analysis, original approaches, and new sources. Although the tenor of the volume is critical, the contributors also suggest that French preparations for war knew successes as well as failures, that French defeat was not inevitable, and that the Battle of France might have turned out differently if different choices had been made and other paths been followed.

The British Expeditionary Force, 1939-40

Author : E. Smalley
Publisher : Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN 13 : 9781349504787
Total Pages : 272 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (47 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The British Expeditionary Force, 1939-40 by : E. Smalley

Download or read book The British Expeditionary Force, 1939-40 written by E. Smalley and published by Palgrave Macmillan. This book was released on 2015-01-01 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Between September 1939 and June 1940, the British Expeditionary Force confronted the German threat to France and Flanders with a confused mind-set, an uncertain skills-set and an uncompetitive capability. This book explores the formation's origins, the scale of defeat in France and the campaign's considerable legacy.

Strange Victory

Author : Ernest R. May
Publisher : Hill and Wang
ISBN 13 : 1466894288
Total Pages : 604 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (668 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Strange Victory by : Ernest R. May

Download or read book Strange Victory written by Ernest R. May and published by Hill and Wang. This book was released on 2015-07-28 with total page 604 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ernest R. May's Strange Victory presents a dramatic narrative-and reinterpretation-of Germany's six-week campaign that swept the Wehrmacht to Paris in spring 1940. Before the Nazis killed him for his work in the French Resistance, the great historian Marc Bloch wrote a famous short book, Strange Defeat, about the treatment of his nation at the hands of an enemy the French had believed they could easily dispose of. In Strange Victory, the distinguished American historian Ernest R. May asks the opposite question: How was it that Hitler and his generals managed this swift conquest, considering that France and its allies were superior in every measurable dimension and considering the Germans' own skepticism about their chances? Strange Victory is a riveting narrative of those six crucial weeks in the spring of 1940, weaving together the decisions made by the high commands with the welter of confused responses from exhausted and ill-informed, or ill-advised, officers in the field. Why did Hitler want to turn against France at just this moment, and why were his poor judgment and inadequate intelligence about the Allies nonetheless correct? Why didn't France take the offensive when it might have led to victory? What explains France's failure to detect and respond to Germany's attack plan? It is May's contention that in the future, nations might suffer strange defeats of their own if they do not learn from their predecessors' mistakes in judgment.

1940-the Last Act

Author : Basil Karslake
Publisher : Hamden, Conn. : Archon Books
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 296 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis 1940-the Last Act by : Basil Karslake

Download or read book 1940-the Last Act written by Basil Karslake and published by Hamden, Conn. : Archon Books. This book was released on 1979 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

When Britain Saved the West

Author : Robin Prior
Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 030018400X
Total Pages : 373 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (1 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis When Britain Saved the West by : Robin Prior

Download or read book When Britain Saved the West written by Robin Prior and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2015-05-26 with total page 373 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the comfortable distance of seven decades, it is quite easy to view the victory of the Allies over Hitler’s Germany as inevitable. But in 1940 Great Britain’s defeat loomed perilously close, and no other nation stepped up to confront the Nazi threat. In this cogently argued book, Robin Prior delves into the documents of the time—war diaries, combat reports, Home Security’s daily files, and much more—to uncover how Britain endured a year of menacing crises. The book reassesses key events of 1940—crises that were recognized as such at the time and others not fully appreciated. Prior examines Neville Chamberlain’s government, Churchill’s opponents, the collapse of France, the Battle of Britain, and the Blitz. He looks critically at the position of the United States before Pearl Harbor, and at Roosevelt’s response to the crisis. Prior concludes that the nation was saved through a combination of political leadership, British Expeditionary Force determination and skill, Royal Air Force and Navy efforts to return soldiers to the homeland, and the determination of the people to fight on “in spite of all terror.” As eloquent as it is controversial, this book exposes the full import of events in 1940, when Britain fought alone and Western civilization hung in the balance.

Dunkirk

Author : Hugh Sebag-Montefiore
Publisher : Penguin UK
ISBN 13 : 0141906162
Total Pages : 1005 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (419 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Dunkirk by : Hugh Sebag-Montefiore

Download or read book Dunkirk written by Hugh Sebag-Montefiore and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2007-05-31 with total page 1005 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: * * * Special 75th Anniversary Edition * * * Hugh Sebag-Montefiore's Dunkirk: Fight to the Last Man tells the story of the rescue in May 1940 of British soldiers fleeing capture and defeat by the Nazis at Dunkirk. Dunkirk was not just about what happened at sea and on the beaches. The evacuation would never have succeeded had it not been for the tenacity of the British soldiers who stayed behind to ensure they got away. Men like Sergeant Major Gus Jennings who died smothering a German stick bomb in the church at Esquelbecq in an effort to save his comrades, and Captain Marcus Ervine-Andrews VC who single-handedly held back a German attack on the Dunkirk perimeter thereby allowing the British line to form up behind him. Told to stand and fight to the last man, these brave few battalions fought in whatever manner they could to buy precious time for the evacuation. Outnumbered and outgunned, they launched spectacular and heroic attacks time and again, despite ferocious fighting and the knowledge that for many only capture or death would end their struggle. 'A searing story . . . both meticulous military history and a deeply moving testimony to the extraordinary personal bravery of individual soldiers' Tim Gardam, The Times 'Sebag-Montefiore tells [the story] with gusto, a remarkable attention to detail and an inexhaustible appetite for tracking down the evidence' Richard Ovary, Telegraph Hugh Sebag-Montefiore was a barrister before becoming a journalist and then an author. He wrote the best-selling Enigma: The Battle for the Code. One of his ancestors was evacuated from Dunkirk.

Building the Gort Line

Author : Dave Thurlow
Publisher : Helion
ISBN 13 : 9781911628767
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (287 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Building the Gort Line by : Dave Thurlow

Download or read book Building the Gort Line written by Dave Thurlow and published by Helion. This book was released on 2019 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The main theme of this book is the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and the defenses it constructed in France during September 1939-May 1940. Although there have been many books written about the BEF, virtually all deal with the campaign in France and Flanders that cumulated in the evacuation from Dunkirk. No detailed account has ever been published on the defenses the BEF built in the Secteur Défensive de Lille - the front allocated to it by the French - along the Franco-Belgium border. This account of the Gort Line aims to fill this gap in our knowledge of Second War defences. The book's objective is to broadly answer four questions: What events led to the Gort Line being built? What defenses were built and what were the ideas behind them - did they reflect a flawed 'Maginot' mentality? What exactly did the BEF do in France during the Sitzkrieg? How relevant was the Gort Line to what was done in Britain in respect of the anti-invasion defenses immediately after Dunkirk? The book starts by looking at the historical context, with a review of how the inter-war years shaped the grand strategy of Britain, France and Germany. In doing so, it can be understood why the BEF dug in along the Franco-Belgian border alongside their French allies. Having set the historical context, the book will describe how the Gort Line was set out with reference to British principles governing the employment of all arms in positional warfare. Chapters will deal with the construction of the Gort Line and its defenses: the pillboxes, field works, obstacles and demolitions. A chapter will describe the activities of the BEF - including training - and a glimpse at what life was like for the ordinary soldier while 'holding' the Gort Line. Allied higher strategy, determined by the French as the senior partner, is outlined in a chapter and this gives the context as to why the BEF did not fight on the Gort Line. Instead, French strategy committed it to rush into Belgium alongside the French Army and the Gort Line was in effect relegated to a reserve position. The Sitzkrieg ended violently with the German Blitzkrieg and the events of those three weeks are described, when the Gort Line was actually occupied - albeit briefly - by the BEF and French. Finally, the book will look at Britain's anti-invasion defenses immediately after Dunkirk and the influence the Gort Line had on these.

To Lose a Battle

Author : Alistair Horne
Publisher : Penguin UK
ISBN 13 : 0141937726
Total Pages : 1243 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (419 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis To Lose a Battle by : Alistair Horne

Download or read book To Lose a Battle written by Alistair Horne and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2007-06-28 with total page 1243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1940, the German army fought and won an extraordinary battle with France in six weeks of lightning warfare. With the subtlety and compulsion of a novel, Horne’s narrative shifts from minor battlefield incidents to high military and political decisions, stepping far beyond the confines of military history to form a major contribution to our understanding of the crises of the Franco-German rivalry. To Lose a Battle is the third part of the trilogy beginning with The Fall of Paris and continuing with The Price of Glory (already available in Penguin).

The BEF in France 1939-1940

Author : John Grehan
Publisher : Pen and Sword
ISBN 13 : 1783462116
Total Pages : 228 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (834 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The BEF in France 1939-1940 by : John Grehan

Download or read book The BEF in France 1939-1940 written by John Grehan and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2014-07-09 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) was the British force in Europe from 1939_1940 during the Second World War. Commanded by General Lord Gort, the BEF constituted one-tenth of the defending Allied force.??The British Expeditionary Force was started in 1938 in readiness for a perceived threat of war after Germany annexed Austria in March 1938 and the claims on the Sudetenland, which led to the invasion of Czechoslovakia in March 1939. After the French and British had promised to defend Poland, the German invasion of that country began and war was declared on 3 September 1939.??The BEF was sent to France in September 1939 and deployed mainly along the BelgianFrench border during the so-called Phoney War leading up to May 1940. The BEF did not commence hostilities until the invasion of France on 10 May 1940. After the commencement of battle, they were driven back through Belgium and north-western France, forcing their eventual evacuation from several ports along the French northern coastline in Operations Dynamo, Ariel and Cycle. The most notable evacuation was from the Dunkirk region and from this the phrase Dunkirk Spirit was coined.

The War in France and Flanders

Author : Lionel Frederic Ellis
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781845740566
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (45 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The War in France and Flanders by : Lionel Frederic Ellis

Download or read book The War in France and Flanders written by Lionel Frederic Ellis and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Covering the 1939-40 Phoney War in a single chapter, the focus of Major L.F. Ellis s official history of the campaign in France and Flanders falls on the role of the British Expeditionary Force in attempting to defend Belgium and France from the fury of the German Blitzkrieg in May-June 1940. He describes the BEF s advance into Belgium in response to the German attack in accordance with the pre-arranged Anglo-French Dyle Plan , and its rapid retreat as the Germans broke through on the River Meuse. Despite an attempted counter-attack around Arras, Ellis shows how the BEF and their French allies were forced back on the Channel Ports by the swift advance of the German armoured columns. The history culminates in the confusion caused by Belgium s sudden surrender, the failed British stand on the Somme, and the momentous decision to evacuate the BEF from Dunkirk. Illustrated by 7 general maps, 14 situation maps and 17 sketch maps, the book has eleven photographs, and additional appendices detailing the German planning of their spectacularly successful campaign, and listing the British and German forces engaged.

Hitler's Soldiers

Author : Ben H. Shepherd
Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 0300219520
Total Pages : 681 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (2 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Hitler's Soldiers by : Ben H. Shepherd

Download or read book Hitler's Soldiers written by Ben H. Shepherd and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2016-06-28 with total page 681 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For decades after 1945, it was generally believed that the German army, professional and morally decent, had largely stood apart from the SS, Gestapo, and other corps of the Nazi machine. Ben Shepherd draws on a wealth of primary sources and recent scholarship to convey a much darker, more complex picture. For the first time, the German army is examined throughout the Second World War, across all combat theaters and occupied regions, and from multiple perspectives: its battle performance, social composition, relationship with the Nazi state, and involvement in war crimes and military occupation. This was a true people’s army, drawn from across German society and reflecting that society as it existed under the Nazis. Without the army and its conquests abroad, Shepherd explains, the Nazi regime could not have perpetrated its crimes against Jews, prisoners of war, and civilians in occupied countries. The author examines how the army was complicit in these crimes and why some soldiers, units, and higher commands were more complicit than others. Shepherd also reveals the reasons for the army’s early battlefield successes and its mounting defeats up to 1945, the latter due not only to Allied superiority and Hitler’s mismanagement as commander-in-chief, but also to the failings—moral, political, economic, strategic, and operational—of the army’s own leadership.

A Great Feat of Improvisation

Author : Clem Maginniss
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781913336158
Total Pages : 432 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (361 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis A Great Feat of Improvisation by : Clem Maginniss

Download or read book A Great Feat of Improvisation written by Clem Maginniss and published by . This book was released on 2021-06-28 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Great Feat of Improvisation is a unique publication on a forgotten aspect of an important campaign for the British Army.

Case Red

Author : Robert Forczyk
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1472824431
Total Pages : 513 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (728 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Case Red by : Robert Forczyk

Download or read book Case Red written by Robert Forczyk and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2017-11-30 with total page 513 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Even after the legendary evacuation from Dunkirk in June 1940 there were still large British formations fighting the Germans alongside their French allies. After mounting a vigorous counterattack at Abbeville and then conducting a tough defence along the Somme, the British were forced to conduct a second evacuation from the ports of Le Havre, Cherbourg, Brest and St Nazaire. While France was in its death throes, politicians and soldiers debated what to do – flee to England or North Africa, or seek an armistice. Case Red captures the drama of the final three weeks of military operations in France in June 1940, and explains the great impact it had on the course of relations between Britain and France during the remainder of the war. It also addresses the military, political and human drama of France's collapse in June 1940, and how the windfall of captured military equipment, fuel and industrial resources enhanced the Third Reich's ability to attack its next foe – the Soviet Union.

Last Stand at Le Paradis

Author : Richard Lane
Publisher : Casemate Publishers
ISBN 13 : 1844685101
Total Pages : 261 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (446 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Last Stand at Le Paradis by : Richard Lane

Download or read book Last Stand at Le Paradis written by Richard Lane and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2009-04-21 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A chronicle of the WWII British Expeditionary Force unit that faced a German firing squad after surrendering at the Battle of Dunkirk. In 1939, the BEF was deployed to counter the German aggression in Europe. The men of 2nd Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment, were some of the first to land in France. Less than a year later, they would be massacred by the Waffen-SS in one of the most egregious war crimes of the Second World War. After deploying to the Maginot Line sector in January of 1940, the Norfolks experienced some of the war’s most monumental firsts—including the first decorations to be awarded, and the first British officer killed in action. But more tragedy was to come when the Germans launched their May offensive. As the Allies withdrew towards the English Channel, the Norfolks were ordered to defend a section of the Canal Line. After several days, they were surrounded and forced to surrender. The next morning, ninety-nine men of the Battalion were marched to a paddock and machine-gunned in cold blood by their SS captors. Miraculously, two men survived and helped bring the SS officer responsible, Fritz Knoechlien, to justice after the war.

The Blitzkrieg Legend

Author : Karl-Heinz Frieser
Publisher : Naval Institute Press
ISBN 13 : 1612513581
Total Pages : 594 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (125 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Blitzkrieg Legend by : Karl-Heinz Frieser

Download or read book The Blitzkrieg Legend written by Karl-Heinz Frieser and published by Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2013-01-15 with total page 594 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Here, for the first time in English, is an illuminating German perspective on the decisive blitzkrieg campaign. The account, written by the German historian Karl-Heinz Frieser and edited by American historian John T. Greenwood, provides the definitive explanation for Germany’s startling success and the equally surprising military collapse of France and Britain on the European continent in 1940. In a little over a month, Germany defeated the Allies in battle, a task that had not been achieved in four years of brutal fighting during World War I. First published in 1995 as the official German history of the 1940 campaign, this book goes beyond standard explanations to show that the German victory was not inevitable and that French defeat was not preordained. Contrary to most accounts of the campaign, Frieser’s illustrates that the military systems of both Germany and France were solid and that their campaign plans were sound. The key to victory or defeat, Frieser argues, was the execution of operational plans—both preplanned and ad hoc—amid the eternal Clausewitzian combat factors of friction and the fog of war. He shows why, on the eve of the campaign, the British and French leaders had good cause to be confident and why many German generals were understandably concerned that disaster was looming for them. This study explodes many of the myths concerning German blitzkrieg warfare and the planning for the 1940 campaign. Frieser’s groundbreaking interpretation of the topic has been the subject of discussion since the German edition first appeared. This English translation is published in cooperation with the Association of the United States Army.

The Fall of France

Author : Julian Jackson
Publisher : OUP Oxford
ISBN 13 : 019162232X
Total Pages : 449 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (916 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Fall of France by : Julian Jackson

Download or read book The Fall of France written by Julian Jackson and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2004-04-22 with total page 449 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On 16 May 1940 an emergency meeting of the French High Command was called at the Quai d'Orsay in Paris. The German army had broken through the French lines on the River Meuse at Sedan and elsewhere, only five days after launching their attack. Churchill, who had been telephoned by Prime Minister Reynaud the previous evening to be told that the French were beaten, rushed to Paris to meet the French leaders. The mood in the meeting was one of panic and despair; there was talk of evacuating Paris. Churchill asked Gamelin, the French Commander in Chief, 'Where is the strategic reserve?' 'There is none,' replied Gamelin. This exciting book by Julian Jackson, a leading historian of twentieth-century France, charts the breathtakingly rapid events that led to the defeat and surrender of one of the greatest bastions of the Western Allies, and thus to a dramatic new phase of the Second World War. The search for scapegoats for the most humiliating military disaster in French history began almost at once: were miscalculations by military leaders to blame, or was this an indictment of an entire nation? Using eyewitness accounts, memoirs, and diaries, Julian Jackson recreates, in gripping detail, the intense atmosphere and dramatic events of these six weeks in 1940, unravelling the historical evidence to produce a fresh answer to the perennial question of whether the fall of France was inevitable.