Blitzkrieg: Myth, Reality, and Hitler's Lightning War: France 1940

by Lloyd Clark

Overview

In the spring of 1940, Nazi Germany launched a military offensive in France and the Low Countries that married superb intelligence, the latest military thinking, and new technology. In just six weeks the Nazis outflanked the large French army, sewed chaos, and took Paris, achieving what the Germans had failed to accomplish in all four years of the First World War. The Fall of France was a stunning victory. It altered the balance of power in Europe in one stroke and convinced the entire world that the Nazi war machine was unstoppable.

But as Lloyd Clark, a leading British military historian and academic, argues in Blitzkrieg, much of our understanding of this victory, and blitzkrieg itself, is based on myth.

The tactic was not really new, and far from being a forgone victory, Hitler’s invasion was incredibly risky and could easily have failed had the Allies been even slightly less inept or the Germans less fortunate. And while speed and mechanization were essential, ninety percent of Germany’s ground forces were still reliant on horses, bicycles, and their own feet for transportation. Their surprise victory proved the apex of their achievement; far from being undefeatable, Clark argues, the campaign revealed Germany’s vulnerabilities, lessons not learned by Hitler as he began to plan for the invasion of the Soviet Union. A definitive history of the events of 1940, Blitzkrieg is Lloyd Clark at his best.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802127211
Publisher:	Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
Publication date:	09/19/2017
Pages:	480
Sales rank:	1,085,939
Product dimensions:	8.20(w) x 5.30(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Lloyd Clark is a senior academic in the Department of War Studies at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and professorial research fellow in War Studies at the University of Buckingham’s Humanities Research Institute. One of the UK’s leading military historians, he is the author of several books, including The Battle of the Tanks, Crossing the Rhine, and Anzio.

Read an Excerpt

In the early hours of 10 May, a proclamation was issued by Hitler which was to be read by officers to all personnel the Western Front. Nervous and already tired, their minds in a whirl of imagination, the Reich’s warriors listened intently. The last sentences were poignant: “The battle which begins today will decide the fate of the German nation for the next thousand years. Now do your duty. The German people give you their blessing.”

Most remained silent when the message ended, but those in the SS cheered. The opening of Fall Gelb was a momentous moment after seven months of the Phoney War as the posturing, planning and preparation came to an end. Europe would never be the same again and those involved felt it, some that were privy to Fall Gelb because they had no faith in it, others because they did. The opening moves, they understood, would be critical. Would the Allies fall into the trap or was Germany inviting disaster? Gefreiter Otto Gull, an engineer in 1st Panzer Division, was at the vanguard of the attack and later recalled:

I had no real sense of the general plan—that was for the generals—and only an outline of what our division had to achieve. We had been told the night before that all our training had been done to push us through the Ardennes and across the Meuse. That was our objective. We were given a vague that what we were doing was vital to the operation and that speed was vital. No time wasting!

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations ix

List of Maps xi

Prologue 1

Introduction 3

Chapter 1 Ingredients 7

Chapter 2 Plans 41

Chapter 3 Final Preparations 72

Chapter 4 10 May - Forward 102

Chapter 5 11-12 May - To the Meuse 129

Chapter 6 13 May - Crossing the Meuse 159

Chapter 7 14-15 May - Counter-Attacks and Exploitation 191

Chapter 8 16-20 May - Crisis of Command and the Coast 231

Chapter 9 21-24 May - Arras, Weygand and the Halt Order 260

Chapter 10 25 May-4 June - Withdrawal and Evacuation 288

Chapter 11 5-8 June - Fall Rot and Resilience 317

Chapter 12 9-22 June - Driving South, Paris and Armistice 341

Epilogue 377

Conclusion 380

Order of Battle 392

Endnotes 399

Select Bibliography 420

Acknowledgements 437

Index 440

Editorial Reviews

Praise for Blitzkrieg:

New York Times Paperback Row Choice

“In Blitzkrieg, Clark . . . provides a good battlefield view of a crucial phase of World War II . . . More than earlier studies, like Alistair Horne’s To Lose a Battle, Clark focuses not on generals and premiers but on the voices and experiences of the soldiers involved.”—New York Times Book Review

“Blitzkrieg is a particularly successful synergy of correspondence and interviews, archival material from four countries, and the massive body of published literature . . . Lloyd Clark—a prolific military historian and a master of sources—makes a strong case for an alternative perspective . . . Blitzkrieg emphasizes operational and tactical evidence to persuasively argue that the 1940 campaign was decided not by tanks and dive-bombers alone, but through an updating of German military experience infused, but not dominated, by technology.”—World War II Magazine

“A masterly account teeming with vivid personalities and the usual mixture of heroism, incompetence, and luck . . . Clark provides plenty of juicy details and a mildly controversial reinterpretation.”—Kirkus Reviews

“In this new volume, acclaimed historian Lloyd Clark . . . paints a very different look at the German victory . . . Clark does an excellent job of describing the first critical five days of the campaign . . . He highlights multiple opportunities the French and British had to stop the German advance at vulnerable moments . . . Lloyd presents a well-balanced narrative that highlights the knife-edge victory of the German forces.”—New York Journal of Books

“This genuinely revisionist account of the Battle of France in 1940 proves a deeply shocking fact—we are essentially still in thrall to the view of Blitzkrieg tactics that Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goebbels wanted us to have, even over three-quarters of a century later. Lloyd Clark’s brilliant analysis proves that Fall Gelb wasn’t all about unstoppable, superior panzers and Stukas, but was in fact an audacious, highly risky infantry-based plan that could have gone badly wrong given a different Allied mindset.”—Andrew Roberts, New York Times bestselling author of The Storm of War: A New History of the Second World War and Napoleon: A Life

“Lloyd Clark has written a lucid, intelligent and thought provoking re-appraisal . . . His ground breaking detailed research will make it the seminal work on the fall of France in 1940. The story of the break-through unfolds at a fascinating and cracking pace . . . Blitzkrieg is a remarkable book.”—Robert Kershaw, author of 24 Hours at the Somme, 24 Hours at Waterloo, and It Never Snows in September

“A breakthrough book, bringing the drama of Hitler’s May 1940 offensive in France vividly to life—alongside a major re-appraisal of the campaign’s significance. Excellent.”—Michael Jones, author of After Hitler and Total War

From the Publisher

In Blitzkrieg, Clark…provides a good battlefield view of a crucial phase of World War II…that Americans often neglect because it preceded by 18 months the United States' entry into the war. More than earlier studies…Clark focuses not on generals and premiers but on the voices and experiences of the soldiers involved.

The New York Times Book Review - Thomas E. Ricks

08/01/2016
Prominent military historian Clark (modern war studies, Univ. of Buckingham; The Battle of the Tanks) seeks to present new ideas about what happened along the western front May–June 1940. He examines how well, or poorly, all sides conducted operations during the German invasions of France, Belgium, Holland, and Luxembourg. Clark provides significant detail regarding planning among all militaries involved, with emphasis on changes to German war plans and French defensive preparations. Conditions of German, French, and British armies are described in detail. Throughout, Clark's objective tone impassively analyzes the evolving situations. Personalities of the various military and diplomatic officials demonstrate how their qualities and characteristics impacted the conflict. States of mind of soldiers on the ground reveal the rampant fatigue present in soldiers on all sides. Most German troops are shown to be gentle in their treatment of several prisoners of war, who were generally glad to be free from fighting, while some SS units are shown to have committed atrocities against soldiers and civilians. VERDICT A solid, well-documented military history, Clark's newest work will appeal to anyone interested in World War II and early operations on the western front. [See Prepub Alert, 3/21/16.]—Matthew Wayman, Pennsylvania State Univ. Lib., Schuylkill Haven

Library Journal

2016-07-04
A leading British historian delivers a new history of Germany’s 1940 invasion of France.Hitler’s invasion was a daring operation in which troops pierced the seemingly impassible Ardennes Forest and shattered the Allied army. This is the traditional account, and, according to Clark (Modern War Studies and Contemporary Military History/Univ. of Buckingham; The Battle of the Tanks: Kursk, 1943, 2011, etc.), that’s pretty much what happened. Without a doubt, it was spectacular, and the author writes a masterly account teeming with vivid personalities and the usual mixture of heroism, incompetence, and luck. Clark emphasizes that Germany’s high command was as unimaginative as France’s. When Hitler’s generals proposed invading through Belgium, he objected, stressing that it hadn’t worked in 1914. Furthermore, France expected it. It took more rejections before a few adventurous generals produced the plan that caught his fancy. However, it was not a given that it would succeed. On May 10, 1940, an army attacked the Low Countries, preoccupying the main Allied force. When German troops emerged from the Ardennes three days later, they faced the Meuse River, a substantial barrier. Had the Allies rushed reinforcements at that moment, the outcome might have been different. As it was, Wehrmacht forces poured across and raced to the Channel, cutting off the main Allied army. The remainder retreated for a month until Marshal Pétain took office and, overcoming modest opposition, requested an armistice. Clark maintains that this was not a blitzkrieg—i.e., a massive attack spearheaded by tanks—but an extremely risky traditional operation, carried out energetically and significantly aided by chance, weather, and an inflexible enemy. It’s a dismal piece of history, well told and familiar, but Clark provides plenty of juicy details and a mildly controversial reinterpretation.

Kirkus Reviews