Sixty Days that Shook the West: The Fall of France: 1940

559 pp. "...the first definitive history of the fall of France in the late spring and early summer of 1940. Written with clarity, scope and a rigorous attention to detail by an experienced military historian, it ranks as the classic account of that devastating campaign: covering in detail all military and political developments of each of its sixty days, from May 9th, when German frontier military formations were ordered to stand by, through the capitulation of France and the establishment of the Vichy regime; casting new light on many key points of history, from the extent of the British contribution to the defense of France to the tragedy of the French fleet's destruction at Mers-el-Kebir; re-creating the great events and the great historical figures, from Petain, Rommel and Laval to the relatively obscure colonel whose unit accomplished the sole clear-cut French victory of the entire campaign, Charles de Gaulle."