The Fall of France in the Second World War pp 209-258 | Cite as
Contingencies and Consequences
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Abstract
This chapter traces the evolution of historians’ writings on the military aspects of the Fall of France since 1940. It shows how originally only a small minority of writers attributed France’s defeat to mainly military factors. In the last forty years, that minority has grown into an academic consensus that argues that the Fall of France was first and foremost a military defeat. The chapter examines the role of contingency at important points in the battle and signposts several possible alternative outcomes. Nevertheless, the consensus has its detractors.
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