Anyone know of any good sites re: France 1940

[Sam H.]

Looking for some good resource material or internet sites concerning the German invasion of France in May 1940.

[David Lehmann]

Hello,

I know no entire website dedicated to the campaign ... Here are several related to the French Army in 1940.
Many books are related to the campaign in the West, the best one from French, German and British sources usually. I tried to provide a small list ...

I think for you the best think to do would be to join the France 1940 mailing list (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/France1940/) related to the http://france1940.free.fr/ url (even just the time to ask your quesiton).
I am there too but since you are US citizen you will find there several fellows and also British people that are more used than me to have sources in english language. I think they will give you better advice about where to find good books and above all which books are the best ones. Hopes that will help you.

David

Websites :

Armée de Terre (French Army) OoB and ToE
http://enpointe.chez.tiscali.fr/oobs.html
http://france1940.free.fr/
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/lepoilu/ww2/ww2intro.htm (several errors)

Guns, tanks, armored cars ...
http://www.info-micro.com/engins/
http://users.swing.be/tanks.edito/edito ... tml#207317
http://members.aol.com/counterpaneland/Fr1940m.htm - APCs
http://www.landships.freeservers.com/37mm_gun.htm

Small arms
http://armesetpassion.free.fr/sommaire.html
http://users.bigpond.net.au/feckless/index.html
http://www.stormpages.com/garyjkennedy/ ... war_tw.htm
http://membres.lycos.fr/manusnake/index2.html
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/sturmpionier.ww2.grades/
http://membres.lycos.fr/grandearmurerie/ac-sommaire.htm

Chasseurs Alpins
http://guysylvain.chez.tiscali.fr/index.htm

Maginot Line
http://www.lignemaginot.com/index10.htm
http://www.maginot.org/
http://www.maginot67.com/

Marine Nationale (French Navy)
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/bertrand.daubigny/MnHmPg.htm

Armée de l'Air (French Air Force)
http://frenchaces.free.fr/
http://aerostories.free.fr/
http://flyinglegends.free.fr/
http://mapage.noos.fr/papeguay/
http://anampara.chez.tiscali.fr/pages/h ... 0l'air.htm (Airborne Infantry)

Java tool for metric conversions
http://www.worldwidemetric.com/metcal.htm


Books and magazines :

- "1939-40 : L'Automobile sous l'uniforme", F. Vauvilier et J.M. Touraine, Massin Editeur.
- "L'Arme Blindée Française (Tome 1) : Mai-juin 1940 ! Les blindés français dans la tourmente", Gérard Saint-Martin, Economica.
- "Belgique et Nord, 1940 - Blitzkrieg à l'Ouest", Yves Buffetaut, Collection hors-série Militaria n°8, Histoire & Collections.
- "A l'assaut de la ligne Weygand (1) : De la Somme à la Seine", Yves Buffetaut, Collection hors-série Militaria n°31, Histoire & Collections.
- "Guderian perce à Sedan", Yves Buffetaut, Collection hors-série Militaria n°4, Histoire & Collections.
- "La 1ère DLM dans les combats de 1940 : de la Hollande à Dunkerque", Erik Barbanson, 39-45 magazine n°150.
- "La 1ère DLM dans les combats de 1940 : la campagne de France", Erik Barbanson, 39-45 magazine n°151.
- "Les DLC françaises, 1939-1940", Philippe Naud, Vae Victis magazine n°20.
- "The French Army 1939-45 (1)", Ian Sumner, François Vauvillier and Mike Chappell, Men-at-arms series n°315, Osprey.
- "The French Army 1939-45 (2)", Ian Sumner, François Vauvillier and Mike Chappell, Men-at-arms series n°318, Osprey.
- "Faites sauter la ligne Maginot", Roger Bruge, Fayard.
- "Offensive sur le Rhin", Roger Bruge, Fayard.
- "On a livré la ligne Maginot", Roger Bruge, Fayard.
- "Juin 40 le mois maudit", Roger Bruge, Fayard.
- "France 40, l'armement terrestre", Stéphane Ferrard, Editions ETAI.
- "La campagne de 1940", Levisse-Touzé, Tallandier.
- "La défaite 10 mai-25 juin 1940", P. Le Goyet, Economica.
- "Chars B au combat, hommes et matériels du 15e BCC, Stéphane Bonnaud and François Vauvillier, Histoires & collections
- "L'armée de l'air dans la tourmente – la bataille de France 1939-1940", Patrick Facon, Economica.
- "Hommes et ouvrages de la ligne Maginot" , Jean-Yves Mary and Alain Hohnadel, Histoire & collections (Tome I, II and III)
- "Blitkrieg in the West" (Belgian and French campaign), Jean-Paul Pallud, After The Battle
- "Blitzkrieg à l'Ouest : Mai -Juin 1940", Jean-Paul Pallud, Heimdal
- "From Munich to the Liberation 1938-1944", Jean-Pierre Azema (translation Janet Lloyd)
- "The fall of France", General André Beaufre (Beaufre was a member of French General Staff. Preface by Sir Basil Hart), Alfred A Knopf, 1968
- "The French Defeat of 1940 : Reassessments, Joël Blatt, Berghahn Books (Providence) 1998
- "Military Technology in Republican France : The Evolution of the French Armored Force 1917-1940", Jeffrey J. Clarke, Duke University, 1969
- "The Seeds of Disaster : The Development of French Army Doctrine 1919-1939", Robert Allan Doughty, Archon Books (Hamden) 1986
- "The fall of France", George Forty and John Duncan, Nutshell, 1990
- "Arming Against Hitler : France and the limits of military planning", Jenny Hiesling, Eugenia.
- "Duel 10 May-31 July 1940", John Lukacs, Ticknor (NY) 1991
- "The French Order of Battle in World War II 1939-1945 : An Organizational History of the Divisions of the French Army", George F. Nafziger, Nafziger (West Chester OH) 1995
- "Fall of France 1940 : Causes and Responsibilities", Samuel M. Osgood, 1965

[Christoph Awender]

And maybe my little site http://www.wwiidaybyday.com with the daily reports.

\Christoph

[Sam H.]

hey guys, thanks for the information, I'll check it out

[David Lehmann]

Just in case tou would like to order French books, you should be glad with these two websites :

http://www.store4war.com/

http://www.histoire-fortifications.com/index.asp

David

[David Lehmann]

An other good reflexion book about French defeat / German victory has been written together by many foreign historians (foreign in my French point of view). I don't know if there is a translated version.

"Mai - Juin 1940 : défaite française, victoire allemande, sous l'oeil des historiens étrangers" (Autrement)
ISBN : 2-86260.991.9

http://www.defense.gouv.fr/actualites/l ... es/55.html

under the direction of Maurice Vaïsse and with the contributions of
Martin S. Alexander (UK - Salford university)
Nicholas Atkin (UK - Reading university)
Philip M.H. Bell (UK - Liverpool university)
Robert A. Doughty (US - West Point)
Karl-Heinz Frieser (Germany - Bundeswehr)
Julian Jackson (US - Swansea university)
Klaus-Jürgen Müller (Germany - Bundeswehr / Hamburg university)
Dennis E. Showalter (US - Colorado Springs university)
Martin Thomas (UK - Bristol university)
Maurice Vaïsse (France - Reims university and CEHD)

David

[David Lehmann]

Hello,

Regarding good English-language books, there is Julian Jackson's recent opus with the imaginative title of "The Fall of France" (OUP 2003). This is
absolutely excellent, probably the best English-language overview available. Jackson goesbeyond military history, though, and discusses society etc as well, so if you want a strict blow-by-blow account you're better off sticking to older works like Horne's classic "To Lose A Battle".

Jackson makes a nice tour d'horizon of the France 1940 historiography. ie has a good bibliography for those who want to dig a little deeper, but he also seems to have actually read the books !

Perhaps other very good books in English would be
"Divided and Conquered" by Gunsberg and
"The Breaking Point" by Doughty.

Karl-Heinz Frieser (Germany - Bundeswehr) wrote a very interesting book "Le mythe de la guerre-éclair" (Belin). It's a german researcher, in German the book is entitled "Blitzkrieg Legende". heard some years ago that Frieser was supposed to be translated into English so it shouldn't be too long now.

As reported he also participated to the book "Mai-Juin : défaite française, victoire allemande, sous l'oeil des historiens étrangers" (Autrement).
This one is compiling recent views of foreign (not French) researchers about this campaign and it is very interesting. It also destroys several stereotypical views and myths like Frieser's book.

Otherwise a very good French book especially about armor fightings is :
"L'Arme Blindée Française (Tome 1) : Mai-juin 1940 ! Les blindés français dans la tourmente", Gérard Saint-Martin, Economica.

David

[David Lehmann]

Among other books in English are these older ones :
"The Collapse of the Third Republic" by Shirer
"Why France Fell" by Guy Chapman
"The War in France & Flanders" by Ellis
a picture book with text "The Fall of France-Act With Daring" by Martin Evans.

David

[USAF1986]

I've always been fond of Telford Taylor's The March of Conquest: The German Victories in Western Europe, 1940 (Simon and Schuster, Inc., New York, New York, 1958). Good overview of German operations against Denmark, Norway, and France and the Low Countries.

Regards,
Shawn

[davidedwardmawer]

For organisation details of French units in 1940 (gliederung, toe, oob):

http://www.atf40.fr/ATF40/divers/français4.html