Battle of France and Churchill

[elkarlo]

I remember reading that when he Battle of France started going bad, that Churchill got one of his schemes going. He offered France to become part of the UK or something silly like that. But the actual insane part was his idea for keeping the Brittany Pen occupied by Allied forces.

What would have happened if the UK decided to really heavily invest in saving France post Dunkirk?

Another alt I was thinking of is if the Germans went about conquering France on a slower pace. If they managed to bait the UK to committing more ground forces to France.

Anyhow just wondering about feasibility. Yes womping France in 6 weeks is quite a prestiege victory. But I think getting the British to commit and possibly lose more men/equipment is an even bigger victory. 20/20 hindsight=)

 

[Cook]

What you are referring to as one of Churchill’s schemes is the offer of an Anglo-French Union:

http://www.ibiblio.org/pha/policy/1940/1940-06-16d.html

The British expeditionary Force was shattered by the fighting in North West Europe and left all of its equipment on the beaches and wharf at Dunkirk. They could not have been re-equipped and redeployed again to France before France fell.

The British 51st Highland division was not part of the B.E.F. and fought instead as part of the French Tenth Army. They were forced to surrender on June 12th.

The French Army was Germany’s primary opponent and its destruction and the conquest of France was neither a certainty nor something that could be gambled with in the hope of gaining more British prisoners. To the Germans the Fall of France meant the war was over; England would sue for peace. It was only after the English decided to play for double of nothing that the game continued.

 

[Grey Wolf]

My understanding of the Union was that it was a way to legally allow French forces overseas to continue to fight even if metropolitan France had to surrender. Reynaud was certainly in favour of it, but it was too late once agreement was reached as Petain et al had convinced the French cabinet to offer the Germans peace.

Best Regards
Grey Wolf