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That's the Explorers Podcast. Hello, everyone and welcome to history of the Second World War,

Episode 177, The Fall of France, Playing the Long Game.

This week, a big thank you goes out to Peter, Jonas, and

John for choosing to support the podcast by becoming members. You can find out more over at

History of the Second World War.com. On May 25th, 1940, British Foreign Secretary

Lord Halifax would write, quote, the one firm rock on which everybody had been willing to build

for the last two years was the French army, and the Germans walked through it like they did

through the polls, end quote. I'm starting with that quote for what will be the longest series

of the podcast so far, because it touches on something that's very challenging

to remember when looking at the German invasion of France in 1940. Nobody expected what would

happen during the invasion. Everybody, including the Germans, considered the French army to be

more than up to the challenge of a German invasion, and that they

would eventually stop it, and that there would have to be a long series of attacks to achieve victory.

But it would prove to be the exact opposite. With the benefit of hindsight, we could spend

multiple episodes discussing the problems that were only made apparent as the

panzers raced across France. But that would be a disservice to the actions of those at the time

...