An Uncertain Hour: The French, the Germans, the Jews, the Klaus Barbie Trial, and the City of Lyon, 1940-1945

Plot

Firstly , and sorry that it should be so irritating, the book has been poorly served by it's proof-reader. Typos and misspellings abound - hardly shows the greatest enthusiasm from the publisher.

Secondly you will search in vain for much , if anything, on the trial of Klaus Barbie; where the defence famously twisted the trial and put the whole of war-time France in the dock. But there are plenty of other sources for this.

So why does the book get four and five stars from all it's reviewers? The answer is that Mr Morgan gives us a thrilling and detailed account of France immediately before and through the second world war; a country defeated for the second time in 80 years and invaded for the third time. And without the English channel which gave vital protection to the much derided British.So much is revealed about the 1940 French government which we know as Vichy but which in reality shuttled between capitals (Petain wanted somewhere pleasantly semi-rural without industrial workers) and continued to do much business in occupied Paris where it dealt with the Germans.Petain is charactarised as the man of the hour who just happened to be too old for the role. Petain was 60 at....Verdun! 78 when he became a government minister in...1934! So he came to power at the age of 84 when he was very proud that he "Still pisses like a fountain". Laval comes across as the brains of the outfit, though kept out of power by Petain who disliked him, when Petain still had some vestiges of power.