It happens every May and June: I return in my mind to a place I know well and a past I never knew. Specifically, to France in the spring and summer of 1940, and (on June 6th) in the spring of 1944. Around this time 71 years ago the crucial mistakes had been made; the best divisions of the French Army under the able but ill-used Generals Huntizger and Georges were stuck in Belgium, and insufficient defenses manned the Ardennes gap through which von Rundstedt and Guderian would direct their Panzers. Case Red, as the Wehrmacht called it, was being implemented; only three weeks remained of French sovereignty. I'll be returning to that most dreadful and most heroic moment over the coming weeks.
