Apart from a handful of troops that crossed the border in Dutch police uniforms there were no fifth columnists. The extreme right and left factions in Europe in the 1930s led to suspicion of Nazi sympathisers and fears of fifth columnists and spies. There were instances where German troops executed prisoners of war and civilians. The invasion was accompanied by a mass flight of Belgian and French civilians who clogged the roads. Between 25 and 28th May soldiers from the German 225th Division executed between 85 and 170 Belgian civilians in the village of Vinkt after using them as human shields. Rotten Fabric of the Third RepublicĪlthough the SS perpetrated most of the war crimes in 1940, the German Army was also capable of barbarity. However, the Fort des Dunes near Dunkerque has a good audio visual display about the course of the 1940 campaign, in a location that is also a reminder of the gallant defence by the many French soldiers who fought bravely despite the disadvantages. There is no French national museum of the Second World War. Bloch’s own observations left him very critical of the General he served under, and of the French state. The Plan D strategy was predictable and left the allied armies unbalanced and without a reserve. The French “Methodical Battle” assumed that warfare had not changed significantly since 1918 and operated at a pedestrian pace. The French Army was poorly prepared and under trained for modern war. There were many shortcomings in French generalship. The German triumph was a triumph of intellect. His thesis was that the French generals had not noticed that the rhythm of modern warfare had changed its tempo and were incapable of thinking in terms of a new war. It would only be published in 1947, two years after his execution in June 1944 as a member of the resistance. He wrote his book “Strange Victory” in September 1940 while in hiding. The first historian to write objectively about the Fall of France was a medieval historian called Marc Bloch, who served as a staff officer in the French First Army 1940 and was evacuated through Dunkirk. One of the briefing maps in the Fort Des Dunes,
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