"A Year-End Potpourri Y2K Wrap-Up"

-- Steve (hartsman@ticon.net), December 26, 1999

Answers

Fascinating article, except that he's wrong on one key statement re. Franch, Britain and the Maginot Line.

The "defeated British" did not "abandon their allies" and head for the coast. Lord Gort, the commander of the British Expeditionary Force, received a warning from the King of the Belgians that in six hours he would surrender to the invading Germans. Gort realized that that would leave his small army's left flank completely uncovered. At the same time, a spate of reports began arriving from British liaision officers attached to the French regiments on his right flank that many French officers [who, like many of the class from which they were drawn, harboured pro-Nazi sympathies which were later fully displayed during the occupation] were simply abandoning their troops in the face of the Nazi onslaught. The ordinary French soldiers were fighting on heroically but, with their officers gone, many of these regiments were close to disintegrating.

Gort commanded Britain's only available Army. In the face of those two reports, he instantly organized a superb fighting retreat to Dunkirk, a brilliant feat of generalship. He saved the Army, and he saved Britain's ability to defend itself, block Hitler's advances in North Africa, and thus later - together with the Americans - carry the war back into Europe.

I'm surprised at Eric Margolis' parrot-like repetition of this shoddy canard. Gort's remarkable achievement was soon overshadowed as the war progressed, but he was an exemplary soldier who brought back a fighting Army, not a defeated one.

-- John Whitley (jwhitley@inforamp.net), December 26, 1999.

I believe you are correct.

At that *TIME* there was no army on Earth that could have stood up to the new modern Nazi army.

Generals tend to refight the last war, as the Maginot Line shows. The French (winners) were ready to fight in the manner in which they had won the first time. The Germans (loosers) were looking for a new way so as to avoid the problems encountered last time.

At that point in time the English had no choice but to retreat.

-- David Craig (DesertDave@aol.com), December 26, 1999.