Table of Contents
Prologue: "The Past Is a Foreign Country" xiii
Part 1 The Second Great War
1 To the Brink 3
2 The Failure of Diplomacy 27
5 "Speak for England!" 46
4 The Phoney War 55
5 Operation Pied Piper 75
6 Case Yellow 83
7 "Gad, Gentlemen, Here's to Our Greatest Victory of the War" 103
8 Hitler "Missed the Bus" 116
9 "In the Name of God, Go" 124
Part 2 The Battle of France
10 "The Top of the Greasy Pole" 149
11 Rommel Crosses the Meuse 164
12 "We Are Beaten; We Have Lost the Battle" 175
13 "The Mortal Gravity of the Hour" 187
14 May 20, 1940: "A Pretty Fair Pig of a Day" 197
15 "The Fatal Slope" 209
16 "Hard and Heavy Tidings" 218
17 The Sharp End of the Stick 228
18 The Battle of Arras: "We May Be foutu" 245
19 "Their Zest and Delight in Shooting Germans Was Most Entertaining" 259
Part 3 Dunkirk
20 The Burghers of Calais 277
21 "Fight It Out to the Bitter End" 290
22 Flag Officer, Dover 301
25 The Home Front 307
24 "Presume Troops Know They Are Cutting Their Way Home to Blighty" 322
25 Dynamo 338
26 "Fight It Out, Here or Elsewhere" 351
27 Holding the Line 368
28 "The Little Ships" 379
29 "The Best Mug of Tea I Have Ever Had in My Life" 397
30 "Arm in Arm" 412
31 "We Are Going to Beat Them" 425
32 The Dunkirk Spirit 439
33 At Sea 453
Acknowledgments 463
Notes 465
Bibliography 483
List of Illustrations 491
Index 499