Dunkirk and France 1940 Campaign Books

Discussion in '1940' started by Drew5233, Dec 26, 2009.

  1. Peccavi

    Peccavi Senior Member

    I have not seen this one mentioned - French but there is a good English translated version.

    "60 days that Shook the West" by J Benoist-Mechin. A bit wobbly on the fighting but Benoist-Mechin was a politician and eventually joined the Vichy Government. Consequently the book is excellent on detail of the in-fighting in the French Government, Weygand, de Gaulle and Petain et al. I found it very readable and fascinating.

    Benoist-Mechin narrowly avoided execution after the War as a traitor and remains so for many French people today.

    Also "Why France Collapsed" Guy Chapman - not bad and very good with info on the last two days of Dunkirk when the French fought on alone.
     
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  2. Tony56

    Tony56 Member Patron

  3. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

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  4. JCB

    JCB Senior Member

    51ZtYGxskaL._SX323_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg Medic- Saving Lifes from Dunkirk to Afghanistan by John Nicol.
    One chapter featuring three doctors experiences with the BEF , a salutary reminder of how how horrific it really was.
    Craig
     
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  5. Guy Hudson

    Guy Hudson Looker-upper

  6. Orwell1984

    Orwell1984 Senior Member

  7. Orwell1984

    Orwell1984 Senior Member

  8. Rich Payne

    Rich Payne Rivet Counter Patron 1940 Obsessive

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  9. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

    Attached Files:

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  10. Orwell1984

    Orwell1984 Senior Member

  11. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    I have a copy already - Have I mentioned I like pictures in books :D
     
  12. Rich Payne

    Rich Payne Rivet Counter Patron 1940 Obsessive

    Mine actually arrived yesterday - we don't get post on a Saturday here so it must have come with a courier and they stuck it in the post box without knocking. There are some nice photos but a quick shufti showed that some of the captions are more than a little pisspotical. It's not gone to the top of my favourites pile.

    Clanger No.1 - The 'Refurbished Bedford 15cwt' with French mechanic....

    Afbeelding (246).jpg

    It's not a 15cwt and it's not even British ! It's a 13 Cab CMP and he looks to be wearing late-war denims and a GS cap...I'd say late-war or post-war France or Belgium. It rather makes it difficult to trust the rest of the captions.
     
    Last edited: Oct 1, 2017
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  13. Rich Payne

    Rich Payne Rivet Counter Patron 1940 Obsessive

    Another top caption. Hotel de Aur/Aaal my elbow ! You don't have to be an expert in reading continental art-deco to see that it says 'Hotel Du Kursaal'....and it's on the Zeedijk at De Panne, not Dunkerque. Quite frankly, every single caption needs looking at properly before relying on it.

    Afbeelding (247).jpg
     
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  14. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    Have you wrote to the author yet?
     
  15. stevej60

    stevej60 Active Member

    Great to see an up to date history of the 50th, I read Clay's the path of the 50th many moon's ago,"wherever I go I shall
    send for my 50th Division" said Monty,which must have been "great" news for the troop's who were in the thick of it through
    five long year's,My Uncle Bob(avatar) was one of those hard up territorial's thrown into the fray in 1940 and never made it
    back to Gateshead.
     
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  16. Rich Payne

    Rich Payne Rivet Counter Patron 1940 Obsessive

    Erm no, but why should I ? He's an 'acknowledged expert' and I'm simply an itinerent alcoholic with an interest in old vehicles and vernacular architecture.
     
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  17. Markyboy

    Markyboy Member

    I've just picked up a copy of 'And then there was one' by Sir Gareth Clayton, who was a 107 sqn blenheim pilot during the Battle of France. It appears to have been independently published (good quality hardback though) by his daughters in 1992. The introduction (written by Clayton in 1985) acknowledges it's written in a 'Boys Own' style but says that's how it was! I've only had a quick scan through, but this is seems to be a real gem to add to the very few RAF memoirs I've come across for this period.
     
  18. Osborne2

    Osborne2 Well-Known Member

    Specific Recommendation on the Home Front and the Evacuations from France
    There are a bewildering number of books on the subject and I cannot possibly read them all. My scope of original research on the reception of evacuated troops covers men coming back from ports from Dunkirk to St Nazaire. Can anyone recommend a book that has an idea of how the War Office started to sort out which units went where, how they requisitioned the sites and the priority given to the order in which units were reformed. My overall research, based on Western Command sources and Op Dynamo plan in the NA, gives a good idea in the latter case of railway movements and crude geographical intentions for temporary deployment (which was not always followed), but nothing gives me an overview of how the War Office was planning and reacting, or not, as the case may be. Any suggestions of reading with a bias to what was happening at home would be most welcome, or where to look in Kew. Thank you
     
  19. Osborne2

    Osborne2 Well-Known Member

    Update on #239 Specific Recommendations on Home Front Response to France Evacuations
    This is written for the benefit of others.There may be evidence I am looking for on how the War Office coped with the 338,000 from Dunkirk, (Dynamo) 30,00 or so from Le Havre Cherbourg (Cycle) and 190,00 or so from Brest to Spain (Aerial) in the following files WO 106/1618, 260/37,361/21,106/1739,222/1529,222/1530 197/105 and 106/1615. 106/1618 is useful on priorities for redeployment in the UK and railway movement around the UK. I should have looked harder much earlier.
    However, any suggestions of reading with a bias to what was happening at home amongst the War Office planners and home commands would be most welcome. Thank you
     
    Last edited: Nov 3, 2017
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  20. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    I've got quite a few Dunkirk books but nothing I have springs to mind on what you are after I'm afraid.
     

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