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Assignment to Catastrophe, Volume II, The Fall of France, June 1940
In "ASSIGNMENT TO CATASTROPHE, Volume II, The Fall of France, June 1940", General Spears continues his truly terrifying story of all that he saw happening in France after Dunkirk. The fears he expressed in his first volume are actually realised in this volume. The Maginot Line is overrun; German tanks and troops have encircled and outfought the French armies. The French leaders whom he meets, and whose conferences he so realistically records, have lost initiative and hope.
The final scenes in Bordeaux; the struggle to save France from the traitors and defeatists; the dramatic offer of the Act of Union with Great Britain, and the eclipse of Paul Reynaud --- all are infused with the very spirit of Euripidean tragedy.
The Pétain Government takes over to sue for an armistice. Out of the shipwreck of France that brought his mission to an end, Spears recues de Gaulle, the man most likely to keep alive the spirit of resistance.
The story ends with the hair-breadth escape of de Gaulle to Britain in Spears' plane.
The final scenes in Bordeaux; the struggle to save France from the traitors and defeatists; the dramatic offer of the Act of Union with Great Britain, and the eclipse of Paul Reynaud --- all are infused with the very spirit of Euripidean tragedy.
The Pétain Government takes over to sue for an armistice. Out of the shipwreck of France that brought his mission to an end, Spears recues de Gaulle, the man most likely to keep alive the spirit of resistance.
The story ends with the hair-breadth escape of de Gaulle to Britain in Spears' plane.
333 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 1954
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 15, 2025
Really. You Couldn’t make this up. You have Britain fearing Nazi invasion and having to send her troops into Europe; France demanding priority when it comes to using Britain's RAF; French military commanded by leaders that don’t have a plan and don’t want to fight anyway; and reports of the men of the French Air Force insisting on finishing their dinners before going up to tackle an ongoing air attack from Germany.
Assignment to Catastrophe – there never was a better title. But then there never was such a whirlwind of a read either. From the outset Spears describes the ratcheting tensions and the backstabbing politics, lightens the mood now and then with some astonishingly and vividly sketched portraits of the cast and methodically throughout, lays out the facts, the actions and inactions and their inevitable consequences.
Assignment to Catastrophe – there never was a better title. But then there never was such a whirlwind of a read either. From the outset Spears describes the ratcheting tensions and the backstabbing politics, lightens the mood now and then with some astonishingly and vividly sketched portraits of the cast and methodically throughout, lays out the facts, the actions and inactions and their inevitable consequences.
February 16, 2021
In "ASSIGNMENT TO CATASTROPHE, Volume II, The Fall of France, June 1940, " Edward Spears shares with the reader the challenges he faced in a France, that --- following the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and several thousand French troops from Dunkirk to Britain --- was inexorably moving towards total defeat.
By the first week of June 1940, the Germans embarked on another offensive poised to break through the hastily organized defenses by Franco-British forces along the Aisne-Somme front. Though the French troops in many instances fought more bravely and with more determination than had been shown since the German Blitzkrieg in the West began the previous May 10th, it was of no avail. German armored strength, coupled with the Luftwaffe's overwhelming dominance in the skies, proved to be too much for the Allied forces to withstand.
Here are some quotes that I think best convey the chaos that was overtaking France up to June 17, 1940, when the French Premier (Paul Reynaud), after much acrimony within his own cabinet, resigned and a new government - under Marshal Pétain - was formed, which went on to seek an armistice with Germany:
"A French General Staff note of June 6th, 1940, gave the French losses in Belgium and at Dunkirk as 370,000. It was claimed that 150,000 escaped, of whom two-thirds were evacuated from Dunkirk and the remaining third fell back behind the Somme." - p. 37.
"The sketchy news of the fighting that came in driblets in the late evening [of June 6th, 1940] did not sound very good. The enemy had reached the Bresle River south of Tréport, and appeared to have gained a footing on the heights overlooking the Aisne. Again the Chemin des Dames of horrible memory [from the First World War] was mentioned." - p. 100.
"[General] Weygand [commander of the French armies in the West] had ... informed [Lord] Lloyd [a Conservative M.P.] that he had taken upon himself [on June 10th, 1940] the decision to declare Paris an open town, and had written to [Premier Paul] Reynaud to tell him so. The politicians could not make up their minds, and he [Weygand] was not going to allow Paris to be destroyed for no purpose." -- p. 134.
"The [French] Ministers would not accept [Premier Paul Reynaud] as a substitute for Churchill, ... They naturally believed that [as of June 13th, 1940] a defenceless Britain could not succeed where their Army, which they had thought so strong, had failed. Only Churchill could have persuaded them that Britain not only had a chance but genuinely believed in ultimate victory." - p. 232.
For anyone interested in gaining a better appreciation for the increasingly desperate situation in which France found herself in June 1940, I can think of no better book than "ASSIGNMENT TO CATASTROPHE, Volume II, The Fall of France, June 1940." Edward Spears was a member of the British establishment uniquely qualified (by virtue of his fluency in French, his previous military experience from WWI, and longstanding relationships with officers in the French Army and government) to relate what happened during those crucial weeks.
By the first week of June 1940, the Germans embarked on another offensive poised to break through the hastily organized defenses by Franco-British forces along the Aisne-Somme front. Though the French troops in many instances fought more bravely and with more determination than had been shown since the German Blitzkrieg in the West began the previous May 10th, it was of no avail. German armored strength, coupled with the Luftwaffe's overwhelming dominance in the skies, proved to be too much for the Allied forces to withstand.
Here are some quotes that I think best convey the chaos that was overtaking France up to June 17, 1940, when the French Premier (Paul Reynaud), after much acrimony within his own cabinet, resigned and a new government - under Marshal Pétain - was formed, which went on to seek an armistice with Germany:
"A French General Staff note of June 6th, 1940, gave the French losses in Belgium and at Dunkirk as 370,000. It was claimed that 150,000 escaped, of whom two-thirds were evacuated from Dunkirk and the remaining third fell back behind the Somme." - p. 37.
"The sketchy news of the fighting that came in driblets in the late evening [of June 6th, 1940] did not sound very good. The enemy had reached the Bresle River south of Tréport, and appeared to have gained a footing on the heights overlooking the Aisne. Again the Chemin des Dames of horrible memory [from the First World War] was mentioned." - p. 100.
"[General] Weygand [commander of the French armies in the West] had ... informed [Lord] Lloyd [a Conservative M.P.] that he had taken upon himself [on June 10th, 1940] the decision to declare Paris an open town, and had written to [Premier Paul] Reynaud to tell him so. The politicians could not make up their minds, and he [Weygand] was not going to allow Paris to be destroyed for no purpose." -- p. 134.
"The [French] Ministers would not accept [Premier Paul Reynaud] as a substitute for Churchill, ... They naturally believed that [as of June 13th, 1940] a defenceless Britain could not succeed where their Army, which they had thought so strong, had failed. Only Churchill could have persuaded them that Britain not only had a chance but genuinely believed in ultimate victory." - p. 232.
For anyone interested in gaining a better appreciation for the increasingly desperate situation in which France found herself in June 1940, I can think of no better book than "ASSIGNMENT TO CATASTROPHE, Volume II, The Fall of France, June 1940." Edward Spears was a member of the British establishment uniquely qualified (by virtue of his fluency in French, his previous military experience from WWI, and longstanding relationships with officers in the French Army and government) to relate what happened during those crucial weeks.
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