Hitler's Blitzkrieg in the West: The Truth Behind the German Breakthrough in the Ardennes in 1940, From a French Perspective

In the early hours of 10 May 1940, German forces launched their Blitzkrieg in the West, invading Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and France.One of the main thrusts of this lightning offensive came through the Ardennes Forest, a region of dense woodland, rough terrain, and rolling hills.At the time, the French Army considered that the Ardennes was impassable to a large-scale mechanized attack, this being a stance that stemmed from no less a person than Marshal Pétain.The well-trodden myth of the fighting that followed tells us the French, when faced with General Rommel’s Panzers, simply surrendered rather than fight.But is this really true?In this ground-breaking study, Paul Dawson reveals that Pétain’s supposed view - shared by later commanders such as Maxime Weygand and Maurice Gamelin - was deliberately misquoted after the war.What Pétain actually said was: ‘The Ardennes are impassable for tanks provided enough anti-tank measures are taken.’ The second half of this statement is