Chapter 128
< World War II - The Battle of London (3) >
August 24, 1940
Southern Britain, Gloucestershire
“General de Gaulle is the new Napoleon! With him, we will be victorious!”
“Advance! Long live France!”
The French Army, having perfectly defended against the British offensive, was greatly inspired by the major victory, and De Gaulle launched an immediate offensive without even waiting for orders from his home country.
The sacrifice of 80,000 out of 400,000 British troops was a more serious loss than the numbers suggested.
The British Army, whose standing army was greatly reduced by disarmament, had few proper soldiers who could stand at the vanguard of an offensive, and most of those 80,000 were from that very standing army.
The majority of the surviving British forces were now Home Guards mobilized after the war started, and though their morale was high, armed with anger towards France and patriotism, they could not hold on without skilled soldiers to anchor them.