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This Episode:
Today we are joined by a member from the AskHistorians Community, /u/Coinsinmyrocket, flaired as Mid-20th Century Military | Naval History . He is joining us today to talk about the Phoney War, which touches on Dunkirk but also surrounds several of the events around it. Also included: discussion about the recent Dunkirk movie!
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Great episode!
If the Pacific War is u/Coinsinmyrocket 's area of expertise, it would be interesting to dive into that in a future episode, because I think that tends to get overlooked, relatively speaking.
A follow up question as well:
It was mentioned that the German armored breakthrough was tenuous. I vaguely recall that there were calls from General (or then a colonel?) de Gaulle to counterattack from both the north and south and cut off the "spearhead". Any thoughts why this didn't succeed? I believe it was tried, but the two attacks were uncoordinated, and that they didn't concentrate armor, but I have no idea how accurate all of that is.
Another question: I recall Jon Keegan specifically writing that the German halt for three days was in part due to the German army passing through the Somme area, and Hitler basically having flashbacks to his World War I service and worrying that failing to properly re-equip the German army would mean that they'd bog down there (much as they did in 1918). This sounds kind of like too good a story to be true. Any thoughts on that?
First of all, thx to the team for making these Podcasts possible. They are very much appreciated.
I have questions regarding military intelligence on both sides before the invasion: According to Wikipedia the Allies had intelligence suggesting that a major push through the Ardennes toward the Channel was part of German strategy. How did the Allied Command respond to this? Was it outright dismissed?
On the other hand the Wehrmacht must have been aware that positioning some of your best armored troops along the Ardennes forest would raise eyebrows among Allied High command and provoke a response that could have imperiled the whole plan. What kind of countermeasures did the Germans put in place to conceal their plans for as long as possible?