
David Vaughan-Birch
2K posts

David Vaughan-Birch
@zemblya
Baker of bread and other things. Also member of the Labour Party and solicitor.


86 years ago today, Winston Churchill, Prime Minister for exactly 5 days, was woken by his phone ringing at 7:30 a.m. It was Paul Reynaud, the French Premier. His voice was hollow. "We have been defeated. We are beaten; we have lost the battle." Churchill, half-asleep, couldn't process it: "Surely it can't have happened so soon?" Reynaud: "The front is broken near Sedan. They are pouring through in great numbers with tanks and armoured cars." The German invasion was 5 days old. The "impassable" Ardennes forest had just funneled seven Panzer divisions through France's weakest hinge. The next day, Churchill flew to Paris. He asked General Gamelin a single question: "Where is the strategic reserve?" Gamelin shrugged. "Aucune." None. France had no reserve. There was nothing behind the line that had just broken. Churchill later wrote that this was one of the greatest shocks of his life. The country he'd grown up believing had the finest army in Europe had already lost the war. They just didn't know it yet. Six weeks later, Paris fell.

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