London gives in :: Mmegi Online

We last left off with the observation that, at the time of outbreak of the Second World War, the bitter experiences endured by veterans who had served during the First World War in the “South African Native Labour Contingent” had contributed to a firm consensus that any Batswana participation in another armed conflict against Germany had to be different.

As it was, initially the British did not see the need for any local troops. Notwithstanding the rapid fall of Poland to the Germans in the first month of the war, the British and French forces were, prior to May 1940, lulled into a false sense of security behind the massive defences of the Maginot Line in France.

The German’s lightening advance through France in May-June 1940 thus came as a severe shock. On the 22nd of June 1940 the French capitulated, by which time the British army had been evacuated home in complete defeat.

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