The Road to Oran: Anglo-French Naval Relations, September 1939-July 1940

In this monograph on the "victory...of perceived political necessity over military reality," the author traces the road to British assault on the French navy on an almost communique by communique basis, as political and naval partnership is braided together and then rapidly flies apart, leading to disaster. Brown is very hard on Churchill, and probably deservedly so, but one still has to admit that Winnie had more reason than most leaders to embrace the preemptive option under the circumstances in question.