- Title Pages
- [UNTITLED]
- Acknowledgements
- List of Contributors
- List of Abbreviations
- How Fighting Ends: A History of Surrender
- 1 Surrender and Prisoners in Prehistoric and Tribal Societies
- 2 Surrender in Ancient Greece
- 3 Surrender in Ancient Rome
- Introduction
- 4 Surrender in Medieval Europe—An Indirect Approach<sup>*</sup>
- 5 Surrender and Capitulation in the Middle East in the Age of the Crusades
- 6 Basil II the Bulgar-slayer and the Blinding of 15,000 Bulgarians in 1014: Mutilation and Prisoners of War in the Middle Ages
- Introduction
- 8 Surrender in the Northeastern Borderlands of Native America
- 9 Surrender in the Thirty Years War
- 10 Surrender and the Laws of War in Western Europe, <i>c.</i> 1660–1783
- 11 Ritual Performance: Surrender during the American War of Independence
- 12 Going Down with Flying Colours?
- Introduction
- 13 ‘Civilized, Rational Behaviour’? The Concept and Practice of Surrender in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, 1792–1815
- 14 Robert E. Lee, the Army of Northern Virginia, and Confederate Surrender
- 15 Surrender in Britain’s Small Colonial Wars of the Nineteenth Century
- 16 Surrender of Soldiers in World War I
- 17 By the book? Commanders Surrendering in World War I
- 18 The Breaking Point: Surrender 1918
- Introduction
- 19 French Surrender in 1940: Soldiers, Commanders, Civilians
- 20 The Issue of Surrender in the Malayan Campaign, 1941–2
- 21 ‘Neither Defeat nor Surrender’: Italy’s Change of Alliances in 1943
- Index
French Surrender in 1940: Soldiers, Commanders, Civilians
French Surrender in 1940: Soldiers, Commanders, Civilians
- Chapter:
- (p.321) 19 French Surrender in 1940: Soldiers, Commanders, Civilians
- Source:
- How Fighting Ends
- Author(s):
Martin S. Alexander
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
French surrender in 1940 is typically written as a misleading narrative of wholesale collapse. This chapter re-assesses the surrenders in a variety of sites, scales and contexts: by disorientated army stragglers, by field units, by decisions of commanding generals, city councils and military governors, and by the national political leadership. At all levels, leadership proved decisive. The closer defeat came, though many soldiers actually showed better combat effectiveness, the more the civilians wanted a ceasefire. French surrender is a case of how fighting can end without ending the war for which the fight had been joined.
Keywords: capitulation, ceasefire, civilians, collapse, combat effectiveness, generals, leadership, stragglers, surrender, troops
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- Title Pages
- [UNTITLED]
- Acknowledgements
- List of Contributors
- List of Abbreviations
- How Fighting Ends: A History of Surrender
- 1 Surrender and Prisoners in Prehistoric and Tribal Societies
- 2 Surrender in Ancient Greece
- 3 Surrender in Ancient Rome
- Introduction
- 4 Surrender in Medieval Europe—An Indirect Approach<sup>*</sup>
- 5 Surrender and Capitulation in the Middle East in the Age of the Crusades
- 6 Basil II the Bulgar-slayer and the Blinding of 15,000 Bulgarians in 1014: Mutilation and Prisoners of War in the Middle Ages
- Introduction
- 8 Surrender in the Northeastern Borderlands of Native America
- 9 Surrender in the Thirty Years War
- 10 Surrender and the Laws of War in Western Europe, <i>c.</i> 1660–1783
- 11 Ritual Performance: Surrender during the American War of Independence
- 12 Going Down with Flying Colours?
- Introduction
- 13 ‘Civilized, Rational Behaviour’? The Concept and Practice of Surrender in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, 1792–1815
- 14 Robert E. Lee, the Army of Northern Virginia, and Confederate Surrender
- 15 Surrender in Britain’s Small Colonial Wars of the Nineteenth Century
- 16 Surrender of Soldiers in World War I
- 17 By the book? Commanders Surrendering in World War I
- 18 The Breaking Point: Surrender 1918
- Introduction
- 19 French Surrender in 1940: Soldiers, Commanders, Civilians
- 20 The Issue of Surrender in the Malayan Campaign, 1941–2
- 21 ‘Neither Defeat nor Surrender’: Italy’s Change of Alliances in 1943
- Index