FRENCH account on Battle of France?

[GuerraCivil]

When reading about the Battle of France in 1940 the most important account should be the French one - after all, the Battle of France affected most seriously the French and it was a battle fought largely in their country.

However, the literature in English seems to concentrate almost completely on Luftwaffe´s success and on the efforts of RAF units in France. Thus we tend to look the whole Battle of France through German or British eye glasses. Where are the books which focus on the events of spring/summer 1940 from the FRENCH point of view and cover well the history of FRENCH air units of that time in English?

The French bombing of Berlin on 7/8.6. of 1940 is a rarity detail to known for few (French bombed also other targets in Germany in 1940). I used to believe that RAF and only RAF made air raids against Germany on 1940 but this was not true. RAF units get in most books about 85 - 90 % of the attention of Allied air units when it comes to Battle of France.

Time to have a new perspective on the Battle of France - the French one. I´m sure that it exists in French literature, but as I do not understand much of French, I need a good account in English.

[Graham Boak]

There certainly do exist such accounts in French: there has been a long running dispute/discussion over the claims made by the French Air Force at the time (over 1000 destroyed). Not least about the effect of this on the following Battle of Britain.

I was lucky enough to learn French at school, and can recommend reading these works in the original. After using it not at all after a low pass at O level (thanks to talking about St Exupery in the oral, I feel), I started using it because of the magazine Air Fan, which stood out in quality above the majority of the UK magazines at the time. What I discovered is that the technical language/jargon of military aviation is readily translatable, and after some initial slowness I discovered that I could cope quite easily. I'm sure that I missed - and still do miss - the more subtle points of grammar and meaning, but it isn't that hard to get by. This is not "literature", after all. You are not translating Proust or Voltaire.

If you have any French at all, then pick up a few of the more interesting magazines and give it a go. Keep a dictionary to hand at first, but after a few months you'll find it easier than you fear.

PS I can add that I have coped similarly, if less easily, with Italian and Spanish works despite no training at all in those languages (Ok, some limited Latin) because the common Romance languages have much in common. Any knowledge of one will help with the others.