The German invasion of France continues to unfold according to plan. The French counteroffensive has failed. The arrival of the British Expeditionary Force changed nothing, and now the British are also in retreat. Paris itself is no longer secure, and the French government has left the capital.
Playlist:
Fanfare
Opening War Theme
“It’s a Long, Long Way to Tipperary”
Composed in 1912 by Jack Judge and Harry Williams. Public domain.
Public domain recording. In the alternative, it is asserted that the use of the recording here is fair use under copyright law. Source.
String Quartet in F Major
Composed in 1903 by Maurice Ravel. Public domain.
Performed by The Musicians from Marlboro and used pursuant to a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 license. Source.
Closing War Theme
Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2016, 2017 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.
Truly excellent podcast Mr Painter. I wish I could paste the same comment on iTunes but ITunes has seemingly taken a dislike to me. A question on this episode – do you think that Britain’s lack of a mobilisation plan was due to insouciance or to the fact that a majority of the cabinet were against intervention ?
Some of both, and also the fact that Britain did not have conscription, so a British mobilization plan would be different from a Continental one. It wouldn’t be about gathering together a large number of reservists, equipping them, and sending them to the front. The plan you’d want to see would be one for quickly and efficiently shipping the standing British Army to France and deploying it onto the front line in a position chosen to support the French Army’s own defenses. So, insouciance as you say, which perhaps stems from a reluctance to admit how committed Britain actually is to defending France, and also to admitting to the full Cabinet how committed Britain actually is, as you also say.