ABSTRACT
The French armistices of June 1940 marked a fundamental parting of the ways between Britain and France. The British, government and people alike, fought on with intense determination, and looked across the Atlantic to the United States for immediate help and ultimate salvation. But the relationship between Britain and France involved more than politics or strategy, and the separation of 1940 was also psychological for some, it was like a cut in living tissue. R. B. McCallum, historian and political writer, sensed that 'In the hour of France's disaster all that she represented in European civilization stood out with a wonderful clarity. Denis Brogan, from the depth of his affection for France, wrote bitterly that Petain's government had decided 'to try the daring and despicable experiment of saving all but honour'. France and Britain had combined against Germany; but now the German victory of 1940 produced opposite responses from Britain and France.
