Memorial De La Bataille De France Volume 4

On 17th June 1940, the French army, having followed the order given by Weygrand on June 13th, was in full retreat towards the South West with the Germans in pursuit and under orders from Hitler’s directive of 14th June to destroy the French Army. The new head of government. Marshal Petain, announced over the radio the sad pronouncement that the fighting must stop. The Germans aimed to exploit this command to encourage French troupes to surrender themselves. Despite this, numbers of French soldiers, named by Roger Bruge ‘The Fighters of June 18th, courageously continued fighting along the Loire, along the canal of the Marne to the Rhine, and the Maginot Line. Fighting also continued along the Alps in an attempt to win back from the Italians the territories ceded as part of the Armistice. This book recreates these last tragic eight days of the campaign.