Dunkirk: Fight To The Last Man

Here goes, my first (and very short) book review.

The Battle of France is suprisingly underepresented when one compares it to the likes of the Normandy campaign. Hugh Sebag-Montefiore's new book seeks to break this trend with his new and, for the most part, gripping account of the rearguard actions fought by British (and French) units to hold open the Dunkirk bridgehead. They suffered terrible casualties, but their efforts were not in vain, for 330,000 Allied troops escaped to safety by the time Dunkirk fell on June 4th.

Sebag-Montefiore is not a military historian, which has both its good and negative points. Coming as he does from journalism, the narrative of the book is exceedinly readable, chapters are the right length, and you are never too overwhelmed by data as so often happens in military accounts. The flipside of this is that some statements can seem somewhat condescending or downright strange to those of us who read military history on a regular basis, such as "The British Mark VI Light Tank - light referring to the thickness and weight of their armour rather than their colour"

Nonetheless, one cannot accuse the man of not doing his research. The book is packed with first-hand accounts, after-action reports and excellent maps, though in the case of the latter I would have preffered that they would put in sections rather than at the end of what is a very long book! Such sources bring the action alive, and Sebag-Montefiore is both respectful and damning in the right places.

While the book deals largely with the rearguard actions, it also covers the period leading up to the German invasion, as well as the invasion itself. It is a sickening portrayal of incompetence and disaster, of how opportunites were squandered by indolent generals and poor supply. The strories of the massacres at Wormhoudt and Vinkt are also covered in detail.

Overall Fight to the Last Man is a worthy addition to the literature of the Dunkirk era, both in the quality of its writing and research and in the fact that it covers a group of men and their battles that were largely forgotten about in the chaotic days of Summer, 1940.

-SC