Point of Failure
British Brigadiers in France and Norway 1940
Published on 2. January 2025
Book
Hardback
264 pages
978-1-80451-427-6 (ISBN)
Description
An examination of if British Army Brigadiers' survival and advancement post-1940 defeats were influenced by their pre-war backgrounds.
Point of Failure is an innovative study that examines whether or how a select group of British Army officers - Brigadiers - survived two immediate strategic defeats due to their pre-war social, professional and military backgrounds and continued to serve and advance - or not - thereafter.
By the early summer of 1940, the British Army had suffered two simultaneous strategic failures in Europe - in France & Belgium from May to June and in Norway from April to May. Point of Failure considers a specific set of British Army officers, Brigadiers, who served there. In 1940, while the rank of Brigadier existed, it was more a holding rank for an officer occupying a post temporarily to fulfil a role, after which he would either revert to Colonel or be advanced to Major General. Therefore, Brigadiers were, in a sense, the Army's 'middle management' - heading for the top or making no further progress. Point of Failure aims to examine this set of officers and to see whether their professional survival and/or advancement after 1940 was influenced by factors prevailing before it.
Factors which may have contributed to the advancement of officers, be they professional, social or operational before 1940, are addressed. Also considered are those presumed to do so, but which this book shows were either ineffectual or less influential than prior presumptions arising from the literature on the British Army in the Second World War, such as the influence of patronage by senior officers, most notably Bernard Montgomery and Alan Brooke.
By its nature, Point of Failure draws considerably on secondary sources, such as campaign narratives, biographies and biographical sources. Primary sources, such as war diaries, personal papers, and autobiographies, are used but are subject to limitations. The main primary source, which would be profoundly informative on a personal level, namely officers' annual confidential reports throughout their careers, remain closed and inaccessible to researchers.
To examine whether the factors discussed in this book prevailed or altered as a result of over three years of fighting, a later chapter compares those officers serving in fighting commands on D-Day and the initial stages of the Battle of Normandy in 1944 with their 1940 counterparts.
Point of Failure is an innovative study that examines whether or how a select group of British Army officers - Brigadiers - survived two immediate strategic defeats due to their pre-war social, professional and military backgrounds and continued to serve and advance - or not - thereafter.
By the early summer of 1940, the British Army had suffered two simultaneous strategic failures in Europe - in France & Belgium from May to June and in Norway from April to May. Point of Failure considers a specific set of British Army officers, Brigadiers, who served there. In 1940, while the rank of Brigadier existed, it was more a holding rank for an officer occupying a post temporarily to fulfil a role, after which he would either revert to Colonel or be advanced to Major General. Therefore, Brigadiers were, in a sense, the Army's 'middle management' - heading for the top or making no further progress. Point of Failure aims to examine this set of officers and to see whether their professional survival and/or advancement after 1940 was influenced by factors prevailing before it.
Factors which may have contributed to the advancement of officers, be they professional, social or operational before 1940, are addressed. Also considered are those presumed to do so, but which this book shows were either ineffectual or less influential than prior presumptions arising from the literature on the British Army in the Second World War, such as the influence of patronage by senior officers, most notably Bernard Montgomery and Alan Brooke.
By its nature, Point of Failure draws considerably on secondary sources, such as campaign narratives, biographies and biographical sources. Primary sources, such as war diaries, personal papers, and autobiographies, are used but are subject to limitations. The main primary source, which would be profoundly informative on a personal level, namely officers' annual confidential reports throughout their careers, remain closed and inaccessible to researchers.
To examine whether the factors discussed in this book prevailed or altered as a result of over three years of fighting, a later chapter compares those officers serving in fighting commands on D-Day and the initial stages of the Battle of Normandy in 1944 with their 1940 counterparts.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Solihull
United Kingdom
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
22 b/w photos, 3 b/w maps, 46 tables, 3 graphs
Dimensions
Height: 237 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
616 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-80451-427-6 (9781804514276)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Philip McCarty is a retired civil servant and academic. He worked in the Ministry of Defence and the then Foreign and Commonwealth Office for 26 years. He has a bachelor's degree from the University of Manchester, a master's degree from King's College London and a doctorate from the University of Wolverhampton. He served in the Territorial Army, sits on the Members' Advisory Group of the National Army Museum and has served similarly on other academic military history bodies. He is a Visiting Lecturer in Military History at the University of Wolverhampton.