Between September 1939 and June 1940, the British Expeditionary Force confronted the German threat to France and Flanders with a confused mind-set, an uncertain skills-set and an uncompetitive capability. This book explores the formation's origins, the scale of defeat in France and the campaign's considerable legacy.
The British Expeditionary Force 1939-40 shines a new light on the British Army's campaign in continental Europe between September 1939 and June 1940. Extensive archival research within the essential areas of training, communications, discipline, headquarters and staff reveals how military performance was undermined by a confused mind-set, an uncertain skills-set and an uncompetitive capability. Many of the debilitating flaws in British operating procedure were long-standing, foreseeable and self-inflicted; systems were neither efficient in peacetime nor resilient in wartime. Edward Smalley explores the British Expeditionary Force's origins, the reasons for the catastrophic defeat in France, and the campaign's considerable legacy for the British Army.
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