User:KevinNinja/sandbox

Listed below is a plurality of sources supporting the notion that the BoF was a decisive victory for German forces. If we really need to cite this under "Decisive German Victory", then that's what we have to do. But, it would be foolish to suggest that the RS don't support BoF as a decisive victory. As Keith said, it's all about RS. So here they are... (I can list more if anyone wants)

1. "...what was left of France was reduced to a rump satellite state of the greater German Reich, and the victors and many neutrals expected Britain to sue for a humiliating peace. So unexpectedly decisive was the Allied defeat that many commentators blamed British and French defeatism - a consequence of memories of the slaughter of World War I, and in the case of France, interwar political turmoil."

2. "The fall of France - a shorthand for the political and military crisis for the Allies of May-June 1940 - was the first real upset of the Second World War...it sent the world reeling. Contemporaries struggled to conceive that the collapse was possible, even as it gathered pace around them. They were reluctant to believe the unbelievable, loath to mention the unmentionable - to utter the words' evacuation', 'defeat', 'armistice', 'surrender'."

3. "...Although the Battle of France had been decisively lost..."

4. "...one of the most decisive victories in military history. The shocking collapse of France captured the attention of most of the world's military leaders. That such a powerful nation could be so swiftly defeated seemed almost beyond comprehension, and a flurry of explanations soon generated a curtain of myths that obscured the reality of what had happened in May 1940."

5. "...[Britain] committed just enough ground forces to the continent to get the French to fight. Who could imagine a change in land warfare so decisive as to allow the conquest of France? Hence, in May 1940, Britain fought a land battle that her grand strategy had for years sought to avoid."

6. "...In the heavily forested and hilly Ardennes region of Luxembourg and eastern Belgium came a surprise thrust by German tanks in 1940 that decisively won the battle against France during World War II..."

7. "...The much vaunted French army had been destroyed in a campaign lasting barely six weeks. The British, who sent a token force..."

8. "The colossal and tragic defeat of 1940 cannot be explained by some generic concept of decadence, as many have argued..."

9. "(Referring to a picture) In the wake of the decisive victory, German non commissioned officers play "dress up" with captured French uniform items. Scenes such as these were relativity common early in the war for the German armed forces personnel, when victory seemed certain."

10. "The German art of war in 1940 sought a decisive battle of annihilation with an emphasis on shock and surprise and which intended a fast battle tempo as in Poland in 1939."

11. "...less than four years later Hitler's armies could march into France and defeat decisively a combined even larger French and British force."

12. "...Hit by an imaginary seven German divisions, four of them motorized plus two tank brigades, debouching from the Ardennes, the French 'defense' in these maneuvers was battered beyond possibility of re-establishing itself. The results were so decisive that at least one senior [English] commander begged that they never be published, lest they 'upset the troops'."

13. "...The shadows of resentment were being dispelled by the fierce glare of a conflict that promised to take its place as one of the decisive battles of history..."

14. "Many battles were decisive victories (Battle of France, 1940), while some had a "winner" only in name (Verdun, 1916)."

15. "The truly valuable lessons that Daughty draws from the Wehrmacht's decisive victory affirm the critical importance of surprise, deception and, above all else, small-unit preparation and tactical acumen."

16. "After World War I, the notion of executing decisive battles capable of ending a conflict was dismissed by many because the available ground forces were thought to be insufficient for such an ambitious role. The German invasion of France in 1940, [proved this notion wrong]..."

17. "A classic example of surprise [in warfare] is the Germans' penetration of the Ardennes in May 1940. The German plan in 1940 was to win a quick, decisive victory against the French and their Allies by achieving strategic surprise."

18. "Although the Battle of France had been decisively lost, there was one last action. Britain - with its Empire - now stood alone. Sea power was all important and the British government decided that it could not risk..."

19. "Chapter 10: The Second Battle of Sedan and the fall of France, 1940"