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3 - Case Yellow

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 August 2022

Douglas Porch
Affiliation:
Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California
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Summary

The debate over the Fall of France has pivoted on whether its causes were rooted in a structural dysfunction of the French Republic and a defeatism that infected its citizens and soldiers, or were merely contingent – that is, a combination of the surprise and speed of the German advance, and Gamelin’s Dyle–Breda plan miscalculation, that allowed the Germans to concentrate their best troops on the French hinge at Sedan, which gave way when French soldiers panicked at Bulson.Using the documents on the secret post-war “Committee for the Investigation of Suspicious Withdrawals,” this chapter sequences the French collapse at Sedan and Bulson. Because soldier panics are not an exceptional event in warfare, Bulson does not by itself offer evidence of a lack of French will to fight. What made Bulson critical was its strategic consequences. The chapter also examines the three armored counterattacks conducted by de Gaulle. Although they became part of his legend as a man of tactical and operation prescience, in fact, they were improvized and totally ineffective.

Type
Chapter
Information
Defeat and Division
France at War, 1939–1942
, pp. 124 - 179
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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  • Case Yellow
  • Douglas Porch, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California
  • Book: Defeat and Division
  • Online publication: 25 August 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781107239098.004
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  • Case Yellow
  • Douglas Porch, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California
  • Book: Defeat and Division
  • Online publication: 25 August 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781107239098.004
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Case Yellow
  • Douglas Porch, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California
  • Book: Defeat and Division
  • Online publication: 25 August 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781107239098.004
Available formats
×