Overview

Why did Hitler turn against France in the spring of 1940 and not before? And why were his poor judgement and inadequate intelligence about the Allies nonetheless correct? Why didn't France take the offensive earlier, when it might have led to victory? What explains the French failure to detect and respond to Germany's attack plan? ""Strange Victory"" is a riveting book about France and Germany in the years leading up to World War II, offering a dramatic new interpretation of the German lightning attack that swept the Wehrmacht to Paris in the spring of 1940. Skilfully weaving together decisions of the high commands with the confused responses from exhausted and ill-informed, or ill-advised, officers in the field, the distinguished diplomatic historian Ernest R. May offers many new insights into the tragic paradoxes of the battle for France. ""Strange Victory"" is a book of lasting importance to our understanding of WorldWar II, and its effect on both the German and the Allied sides.

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9781848851450

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Reviews

'A splendid revisionist work...A truly international study in European diplomatic and military history...May's description of the military campaigning of 1940 is superb.' - Paul Kennedy, Los Angeles Times Book Review; 'A beautifully written narrative, rendered in deft prose and in riveting and fascinating detail, Strange Victory will become a classic.' - Wm. Roger Louis, Kerr Professor at the University of Texas at Austin; 'A broad-shouldered, cogent, powerfully argued revisionist study of the battle of France of 1940.' - Richard Bernstein, The New York Times Review

Author Information

Emest R May, the distinguished diplomatic historian, is Professor of History at Harvard University and the author of eighteen books.

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