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Review: The Battle of Britain: Five Months That Changed History; May-October 1940 Kindle Edition, by James Holland

  Mr. Holland’s book covers the crucial period between Hitler’s attack on France, Holland, and Belgium and the defeat of his attempt to destroy the British Fighter Command.   The attack on France was an immense success, mostly due to the incompetence of French planning, leadership, and communications.   France had spent much of its military budget on the fortifications of the Maginot Line and had anticipated the German push through the low countries, but utterly failed to appreciate the main thrust through the Ardennes.   Even when this was reported, the high command refused to believe it, and thanks in part to poor communications, failed utterly to respond aggressively. The tragedy was that France had plenty of tanks, soldiers and aircraft to respond but poor leadership, communications, and morale meant that they could not respond effectively to Guderian’s panzer thrust to the coast.   As a consequence, much of the French Army, and the British Expeditionary Force was cutoff and trap