Lecture: Blitzkrieg in the West: Manstein and the Fall of France, 1940

6:30pm drinks reception, 7:00pm lecture commences

£9 non-members | £7 Friends |Reservation Recommended
By Major General Mungo Melvin CB OBE

Mungo Melvin will present a fascinating account of General Erich von Manstein’s critical role in the German victory over France in May-June 1940.

Author of the famous ‘Sickle-Cut’ plan that cut the Allied armies in two during Case Yellow, which led to the evacuation of the BEF at Dunkirk, Manstein was relegated to a supporting role during this first phase of the German campaign in the West.

As an infantry corps commander, he led his men from the river Somme to the river Loire in the following phase (Case Red), which concluded with the French surrender.

The fighting at the Somme included the only occasion during the Second World War when Manstein faced elements of the British Army, including the 51st Highland Division and their fate at St Valery.  In 1949, Manstein was sentenced by a British military court martial for war crimes committed in the Soviet Union.