Current Reading - July 2018

Completed Hoplites at War: A Comprehensive Analysis of Heavy Infantry Combat in the Greek World, 750–100 BCE by Paul M. Bardunias. Reasonably interesting as an academic work, but certainly not a page turner.

Currently reading Arnhem by Anthony Beevor. I'm only a few chapters in but I think it's going to b very critical of Monty and various other leaders.

This month was rather less of a forced march than last month but I did knock off Spain and the American Civil War and General Maxime Weygand. The first is a little broader than it sounds in that you get an overview of the state of Spain as that country enjoyed a real renaissance after the traumas of the first half of the 19th century, though not enough to really engage in an independent foreign policy. As for the bio of Weygand the author has the goal of debunking the image of the man as a darkly defeatist influence in June of 1940 who derailed French efforts to keep fighting on, but, in reality, did as much as anyone to make sure significant assets did get to North Africa so that there could be a French army of liberation when the time came.

>3 Shrike58: A couple of years ago, I think, I read The Ides of May: The Defeat of France, May-June 1940 by John Williams. As I recall that book, the portrait of Weygand was not particularly complimentary. De Gaulle was the one portrayed as the pre-war Cassandra calling for an increase in the French tank contingent as the only way to stave off what he saw coming. Anyway, I have no idea which book has it right, of course.

The Weygand depicted in Clayton's book is ruthlessly practical even in defeat as for all the arguments about continuing the fight from North Africa no arrangements were in place to allow for that, particularly the logistics to move a significant force to Africa, so the question then became what could be done to save any army. Clayton also notes that the political crowd around Reynard didn't respond will to Churchill's offer of a "sacred union," arguably a prerequisite for making the concept of fighting on from the colonies work.