Case Red: The Collapse of France by Robert Forczyk

Author:Robert Forczyk
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: 20th Century, Europe, France, Germany, History, Military, World War II
ISBN: 9781472824431
Publisher: Osprey Publishing
Published: 2017-11-21T03:00:00+00:00

Councils of War, 25–31 May

After the British evacuation of Arras and the BEF’s retreat towards Dunkirk, Anglo-French relations became increasingly tense and prone to misunderstanding. Reynaud and most of his War Cabinet, including Weygand, believed that the BEF was running away from the fight and that the RAF had failed to properly support the AdA. Weygand was perturbed by Lord Gort’s decision to fall back upon Dunkirk and abandon any further attacks to link up with the French forces supposedly driving north from the Somme. Unfortunately, Weygand’s views were coloured by fragmentary information about British intentions and a mistaken belief that Frère’s 7e Armée could easily mop up the German bridgeheads on the Somme and then push on northwards. Weygand’s proposed pincer attack was a nice textbook solution to the Anglo-French debacle, but it was simply beyond Anglo-French means by 25 May. It took time for Weygand to grudgingly admit this reality.

In London, Churchill and his cabinet were perplexed by the flow of inaccurate information about actual battlefield conditions in Belgium and suspected the French High Command of gross incompetence. Although Britain already had two military liaison missions in France – Major-General Sir Richard Howard-Vyse’s mission at GQG and Brigadier Sir John Swayne’s at Georges’ headquarters – Churchill decided to send another. He appointed Edward Spears as his personal representative to Reynaud and sent him to Paris on 25 May with the rank of major-general. That evening, Spears was invited to a meeting of the CSG at the Elysée in Paris to discuss both the current situation and possible courses of action after Dunkirk. In attendance were President Albert Lebrun, Reynaud, Weygand, Darlan, Vuillemin and Pétain.

The 25 May conference initially focused on events in Belgium. During the conference, a Commandant Joseph Fauvelle, chief of operations for GA 1, arrived to report on conditions in Belgium. Fauvelle delivered a very pessimistic account of conditions within the Dunkirk perimeter, which put a damper on the entire meeting. He was also the first to raise the idea of capitulation – which was rejected by Weygand and Reynaud. Spears was surprised by the passive reaction in the room to Fauvelle’s impertinent suggestion and wrote in his diary that, ‘in my view, nothing short of throwing Fauvelle out of the window would have been adequate.’40 Soon afterward, Weygand went into a tirade that, ‘This war is sheer madness, we have gone to war with a 1918 army against a German army of 1939.’ Later, when discussing options for the 1ère Armée, Weygand said that, ‘Blanchard’s troops, if doomed, must disappear with honour.’ Rather than assessing a situation from a sober professional military viewpoint, Weygand was looking at conditions through highly emotional lenses.

Yet aside from the unfolding disaster in Belgium, the rest of the French front was beginning to stabilize. Touchon’s 6e Armée had established a strong front along the Aisne, with seven infantry divisions. Behind Touchon’s front, the 1ère DCR was rebuilding and would soon have three full tank battalions. Huntziger’s 2e Armée had also managed to stabilize the situation south of Verdun, in the area between the Aisne and the Meuse.

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