England's Last War Against France: Fighting Vichy 1940-1942 Book

Colin Smith's "England's Last War Against France" is almost a great book. It is a wide-ranging and stylishly written account of the conflict between Churchill's England and Vichy France after the Nazi victory of 1940. Smith is a good writer of prose who apparently spared little effort in fully exploiting British sources and those French accounts available in translation. Primary accounts by French participants, however, are noticeably absent from the bibliography. Smith does not succumb to the traps often experienced by writers of history. Academics often reduce events to narratives so dry and accounts so cautious as to be virtually unreadable by laymen. Journalists tend to concentrate on a "good story" to the detriment of balance or the requirements of history. Smith creates a balanced work that should have earned him a five-star rating

"England's Last War Against France" should be a great book. It is not. It suffers from a regrettable lack of attention to detail in writing and production. The volume is marred by a surprising number of misspellings, typographical errors, and just plain mistakes of fact. These include:
- The German pocket-battleship "Graf Spee" is referred to as "Gruff Spee" on page 98.
- Noted Australian soldier and diplomat, Roden Cutler, winner of the Victoria Cross in Syria, is referred to as Butler on page 234.
- British ship classes are not printed as titles, e.g., "the flower class corvette Jasmine" should read "the Flower-class corvette Jasmine (see page 326) and the "county class cruiser HMS Devonshire" should be "County-class cruiser HMS Devonshire" on page 313.
- The maps are riddled with misspellings. Major Keyes' positions on the map on page 190 are listed as the positions of Maj. Keys. The map on page 292 shows Ambararaia rather than Ambararata Bay, while references to Antsirane and Antisarane move back and forth in the text and maps. There are even more map errors than those just listed.
- The sentence regarding Sir Samuel Hoare on page 143 only makes sense if the word flattery is changed to flatterer. On page 253 the sentence on the French Dewoitine aircraft only makes sense if "squadrons" replaces "squadron."
-On page 311 Venezuela's Lake Maracaibo becomes "Lake Maricibo."
-Unfortunately for the memory of the esteemed soldier and adventurer Fitzroy MacLean, Compton Mackenzie is given credit on page 238 for MacLean's "Eastern Approaches." Mackenzie's book, correctly listed in the bibliography, is "Eastern Epic."
- Many tankers of World War II would have been surprised to find out the M4 Sherman was a heavy tank (page 413). The Sherman was a medium tank.
- The leader of the Russian Provisional Government was Alexander Kerensky, not Karensky, as on page 19. Kerensky is spelled correctly in the index.

These errors may seem minor, but they undermine the credibility of "England's Last War Against France." The book is just shoddy work. Serious effort in copy editing and proofreading would have contributed greatly to the production of a fine volume of history with pride of place on the small shelf devoted to Britain's heroic stand against Vichyite collaborationism.