The myth of the French Collapse in WW2
Reflections on Dunkirk Some popularly forgotten elements of the events surrounding the Dunkirk evacuation and the fall of France in 1940 With Christopher Nolan's highly anticipated 'Dunkirk' hitting cinemas this weekend, some facts surrounding the events of that epic evacuation sometimes deserve a bit more press. One of the most irritating injustices from a French historians' point of view is how the French soldiers who fought and died in 1940 have had their memory sullied by the narrative of the so-called 'collapse' against the German forces. It is often popularly forgotten that despite being isolated, the French continued to fight against all odds for another month after Dunkirk. Their resistance would continue of course by other means even after official surrender on June 25th. Despite defeat in June 1940, tenacious French resistance made Dunkirk possible. image courtesy of BBC News A useful and authoritative eye-witnes