Why did Hitler turn against France in the spring of 1940 and not before? And why were his poor judgement and inadequate intelligence about the Allies nonetheless correct? Why didn’t France take the offensive earlier, when it might have led to victory? What explains the French failure to detect and respond to Germany’s attack plan? Strange Victory is a riveting book about France and Germany in the years leading up to World War II, offering a dramatic new interpretation of the German lightning attack that swept the Wehrmacht to Paris in the spring of 1940. Skilfully weaving together decisions of the high commands with the confused responses from exhausted and ill-informed, or ill-advised, officers in the field, the distinguished diplomatic historian Ernest R. May offers many new insights into the tragic paradoxes of the battle for France. Strange Victory is a book of lasting importance to our understanding of WorldWar II, and its effect on both the German and the Allied sides.