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Assignment to Catastrophe, Volume 1, Prelude to Dunkirk, July 1939-May 1940
In May 1940, when the Panzer divisions of the Wehrmacht invaded the Low Countries and France, when the fate of Britain and France hung in the balance. Prime Minister Winston Churchill appointed his long time friend, General Edward Spears, to be his personal representative to the French Government. "PRELUDE TO DUNKIRK" is a brilliant, fascinating, eyewitness account of this mission. Here is history as it is made, firsthand, authentic, written by a man uniquely equipped and placed to tell the momentous behind-the-scenes story.
General Spears flew to Paris to observe, to listen and to act for Churchill. The German peril grew, it became clear that the Maginot Line would be turned and that the Allies were on the brink of disaster. Spears attended the secret cabinet meetings of France and reported directly to the Prime Minister. Behind the façade of French greatness he saw the corrupt and sinister forces which operated to the fall of France itself. Here are intimate portraits of Daladier, Weygand, Reynaud, Gamelin, Pétain, and the other French leaders. Spears relates the curious incidents, the jealousies, the vacillation, the blind self-interest on the part of the relatively few who brought catastrophe to France. Here for the first time is new information about the Chamberlain policy of appeasement and the "phony" war: the startling fact that the German plans for the invasion of Europe were captured before Holland was attacked.
"PRELUDE TO DUNKIRK" describes Europe in its darkest hours with unforgettable vividness and clarity.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 54-11363
General Spears flew to Paris to observe, to listen and to act for Churchill. The German peril grew, it became clear that the Maginot Line would be turned and that the Allies were on the brink of disaster. Spears attended the secret cabinet meetings of France and reported directly to the Prime Minister. Behind the façade of French greatness he saw the corrupt and sinister forces which operated to the fall of France itself. Here are intimate portraits of Daladier, Weygand, Reynaud, Gamelin, Pétain, and the other French leaders. Spears relates the curious incidents, the jealousies, the vacillation, the blind self-interest on the part of the relatively few who brought catastrophe to France. Here for the first time is new information about the Chamberlain policy of appeasement and the "phony" war: the startling fact that the German plans for the invasion of Europe were captured before Holland was attacked.
"PRELUDE TO DUNKIRK" describes Europe in its darkest hours with unforgettable vividness and clarity.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 54-11363
332 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 1954
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September 7, 2025
No doubt about it, it’s an out and out catalogue of disasters. And in the middle of it all, trying his very best to fix a Band-Aid on non-existent liaison and undisguised mistrust between the French and British command is Major-General Sir Edward Louis Spears, sent to Paris by Churchill himself on the principle of better late than never. But by 1939 it was way past late and everybody knew it.
Spears’ account of Nazi forces getting ever nearer the outskirts of Paris and the desperate attempts of the allies to fight them off is breathtaking in its unsparing detail and acute analysis. This is no second-hand account. He was there - witness to deepening divisions in the attitudes and aims of the French political and military leaders.
It’s a sorry tale. Spears, like Churchill, carries on carrying on but as the weeks go by, it’s obvious the French command have their own agenda.
It’s a thrilling read. And best of all, when you turn the last page, there’s another volume waiting for you.
Spears’ account of Nazi forces getting ever nearer the outskirts of Paris and the desperate attempts of the allies to fight them off is breathtaking in its unsparing detail and acute analysis. This is no second-hand account. He was there - witness to deepening divisions in the attitudes and aims of the French political and military leaders.
It’s a sorry tale. Spears, like Churchill, carries on carrying on but as the weeks go by, it’s obvious the French command have their own agenda.
It’s a thrilling read. And best of all, when you turn the last page, there’s another volume waiting for you.
January 1, 2021
"ASSIGNMENT TO CATASTROPHE, Volume 1, Prelude to Dunkirk, July 1939-May 1940" is the first of a 2-volume set detailing Sir Edward Spears' experiences as a special representative of the British government to the French during a crucial period of the late prewar era thru the early months of the Second World War.
Spears, who at the time of the events he describes, was a Conservative Member of Parliament for Carlisle, had served as a British officer and special liaison to the French Army during the First World War. The latter position was attributable to Spears' linguistic acumen. For Spears had been born in Paris of British parents and had grown up in France. So, he was very well attuned to the nuances of the French language and culture.
Volume 1 begins in August 1939. The atmosphere is tense in Europe. There is an increasing sense of inevitability in both London and Paris that war with Germany over Poland was just over the horizon. Neville Chamberlain is the British Prime Minister who is desperate to keep the peace. But in his heart of hearts, he knows that war is unavoidable. Winston Churchill - with whom Spears shares a close friendship -- is out of government. In the meantime, Poland wants to be assured that the guarantees France and Britain had extended to it earlier that year - i.e., to go to war against Germany should Hitler invade Poland -- would be honored.
From reading what Spears had to say about the situation in mid to late August 1939, I had the sense that both Britain and France were faint-hearted with their assurances to Warsaw. Yet both countries knew that Hitler had to be confronted by force of arms should he attack Poland. So, when the attack came on September 1, 1939, Britain and France were in a sort of holding pattern for the next 48 hours, though both countries were in the process of mobilization. Chamberlain had sent an ultimatum to Hitler stating that unless he received a guarantee from him that German forces were being evacuated from Poland as of noon on September 3rd, a state of war would exist between the 2 nations. So, when it became clear that Hitler was bent on conquering Poland, Britain and France declared war on September 3rd.
I was fascinated to learn from Spears' insights and observations of the Phoney War period (September 1939 - May 9, 1940) the ways in which Britain and France went about preparing their citizenry for total war. While the British were assembling and sending an expeditionary force and an Advanced Air Striking Force from the Royal Air Force (RAF) to bolster the French along the Franco-German border, France had embarked on a brief, half-hearted incursion into Germany while the bulk of the Wehrmacht was committed to the Polish campaign. It was clear to Spears that the French no longer had the spirit of 1914-18 in which it was determined to defend its frontiers and defeat Germany. But he showed a reluctance to concede those feelings to many people in government that he knew. Indeed, France had gone to war with the sense of "oh, let's get this over with." Britain, for its part, was finding its feet and putting itself on a war footing, showing more of a resoluteness than the French to win the war.
Notwithstanding that, it became all too clear to me as I read deeper into Volume 1 that in Chamberlain, Britain had an ineffectual war leader. Spears noted the following on November 1, 1939: "{Georges] "Mandel [then the French Minister for the Colonies]... went on to say that it was imperative that the English should take over the direction of the war, and, as this rôle was apparently beyond Chamberlain, the sooner Churchill was in charge, the better."
But it wasn't until Chamberlain's failure in the Norwegian campaign during April and May of 1940, that his shortcomings as a wartime Prime Minister --- as was evidenced by his failure to adequately equip British troops for the operation, which was precipitated by the April 9th invasion by Germany of both Denmark and Norway --- could not be ignored. During this time, Spears observed that "... the general impression [from the meeting of Parliament on May 7th, 1940] was that the Government was doomed. That the Prime Minister would be forced to reconstruct it, there was no doubt. Even the most fervent Conservatives agreed that most of the old gang must go, but would the Socialists serve under Chamberlain? If they would not, then he would have to resign."
Over the next 3 days, there were spirited debates in Parliament in which Chamberlain lost the confidence of his party, the Conservatives. On the day Germany launched its Blitzkrieg in the West (May 10, 1940) against France and the Low Countries, Chamberlain was out and Churchill was in as Prime Minister, heading a coalition government. Sweeping, dynamic events over the next 3 weeks would see Germany overrunning Luxembourg, Holland, and Belgium and splitting Allied forces in two once its Panzers had reached the English Channel.
Spears throughout May of 1940 was acting as Churchill's Special Representative to the French government in Paris. Many of the leaders he dealt with there he had also known from the First World War and interwar period. Here are a couple of observations he made during the month: "Weygand [General; the C.-in-C. of the French Army]... turned his head towards [the French Premier] Reynaud [during a meeting on May 25, 1940 in Paris], and said with a voice like a saw on steel: 'This war is sheer madness, we have gone to war with a 1918 army against a German Army of 1939. It is sheer madness. What sort of air force have we got? ...; our tanks are inadequate and insufficient, ridiculously few in number.' " And --- "My job [as of May 30th, 1940] seemed odious. I talked while lives, younger and more valuable to the country than mine, were being destroyed. And it seemed suddenly unbearable to see at close hand the France I had cared for so very much collapsing before my eyes."
Volume 1 concludes with the meeting of the Allied Supreme War Council in Paris (which Churchill had attended; arriving by air from Britain via a circuitous route so as to avoid being set upon by Luftwaffe fighters operating from newly conquered territory in Northeastern France). The reader is left with the increasing likelihood that a colossal French defeat can't be long delayed.
Spears, who at the time of the events he describes, was a Conservative Member of Parliament for Carlisle, had served as a British officer and special liaison to the French Army during the First World War. The latter position was attributable to Spears' linguistic acumen. For Spears had been born in Paris of British parents and had grown up in France. So, he was very well attuned to the nuances of the French language and culture.
Volume 1 begins in August 1939. The atmosphere is tense in Europe. There is an increasing sense of inevitability in both London and Paris that war with Germany over Poland was just over the horizon. Neville Chamberlain is the British Prime Minister who is desperate to keep the peace. But in his heart of hearts, he knows that war is unavoidable. Winston Churchill - with whom Spears shares a close friendship -- is out of government. In the meantime, Poland wants to be assured that the guarantees France and Britain had extended to it earlier that year - i.e., to go to war against Germany should Hitler invade Poland -- would be honored.
From reading what Spears had to say about the situation in mid to late August 1939, I had the sense that both Britain and France were faint-hearted with their assurances to Warsaw. Yet both countries knew that Hitler had to be confronted by force of arms should he attack Poland. So, when the attack came on September 1, 1939, Britain and France were in a sort of holding pattern for the next 48 hours, though both countries were in the process of mobilization. Chamberlain had sent an ultimatum to Hitler stating that unless he received a guarantee from him that German forces were being evacuated from Poland as of noon on September 3rd, a state of war would exist between the 2 nations. So, when it became clear that Hitler was bent on conquering Poland, Britain and France declared war on September 3rd.
I was fascinated to learn from Spears' insights and observations of the Phoney War period (September 1939 - May 9, 1940) the ways in which Britain and France went about preparing their citizenry for total war. While the British were assembling and sending an expeditionary force and an Advanced Air Striking Force from the Royal Air Force (RAF) to bolster the French along the Franco-German border, France had embarked on a brief, half-hearted incursion into Germany while the bulk of the Wehrmacht was committed to the Polish campaign. It was clear to Spears that the French no longer had the spirit of 1914-18 in which it was determined to defend its frontiers and defeat Germany. But he showed a reluctance to concede those feelings to many people in government that he knew. Indeed, France had gone to war with the sense of "oh, let's get this over with." Britain, for its part, was finding its feet and putting itself on a war footing, showing more of a resoluteness than the French to win the war.
Notwithstanding that, it became all too clear to me as I read deeper into Volume 1 that in Chamberlain, Britain had an ineffectual war leader. Spears noted the following on November 1, 1939: "{Georges] "Mandel [then the French Minister for the Colonies]... went on to say that it was imperative that the English should take over the direction of the war, and, as this rôle was apparently beyond Chamberlain, the sooner Churchill was in charge, the better."
But it wasn't until Chamberlain's failure in the Norwegian campaign during April and May of 1940, that his shortcomings as a wartime Prime Minister --- as was evidenced by his failure to adequately equip British troops for the operation, which was precipitated by the April 9th invasion by Germany of both Denmark and Norway --- could not be ignored. During this time, Spears observed that "... the general impression [from the meeting of Parliament on May 7th, 1940] was that the Government was doomed. That the Prime Minister would be forced to reconstruct it, there was no doubt. Even the most fervent Conservatives agreed that most of the old gang must go, but would the Socialists serve under Chamberlain? If they would not, then he would have to resign."
Over the next 3 days, there were spirited debates in Parliament in which Chamberlain lost the confidence of his party, the Conservatives. On the day Germany launched its Blitzkrieg in the West (May 10, 1940) against France and the Low Countries, Chamberlain was out and Churchill was in as Prime Minister, heading a coalition government. Sweeping, dynamic events over the next 3 weeks would see Germany overrunning Luxembourg, Holland, and Belgium and splitting Allied forces in two once its Panzers had reached the English Channel.
Spears throughout May of 1940 was acting as Churchill's Special Representative to the French government in Paris. Many of the leaders he dealt with there he had also known from the First World War and interwar period. Here are a couple of observations he made during the month: "Weygand [General; the C.-in-C. of the French Army]... turned his head towards [the French Premier] Reynaud [during a meeting on May 25, 1940 in Paris], and said with a voice like a saw on steel: 'This war is sheer madness, we have gone to war with a 1918 army against a German Army of 1939. It is sheer madness. What sort of air force have we got? ...; our tanks are inadequate and insufficient, ridiculously few in number.' " And --- "My job [as of May 30th, 1940] seemed odious. I talked while lives, younger and more valuable to the country than mine, were being destroyed. And it seemed suddenly unbearable to see at close hand the France I had cared for so very much collapsing before my eyes."
Volume 1 concludes with the meeting of the Allied Supreme War Council in Paris (which Churchill had attended; arriving by air from Britain via a circuitous route so as to avoid being set upon by Luftwaffe fighters operating from newly conquered territory in Northeastern France). The reader is left with the increasing likelihood that a colossal French defeat can't be long delayed.
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