Besides being a blow-by-blow operational analysis of the Netherlands' "Five Day War" in May of 1940, this work acts as a corrective to certain patriotic narratives of the post-war period. In particular, the authors take to task such notions that if the Netherlands had rearmed sooner, or if the Germans had stayed within the laws of war or if there had been a better alliance system the occupation would have been staved off. The hard lesson that the authors wish to impart is that sometimes there is no real solution to your strategic & operational quandaries as a nation, though one does come away with the sense that the particular weakness of the Dutch ground forces were a real lack of competence at the operational level of war for the regular officers and that much more tactical training would have been in order for the rank-and-file; the Dutch were not alone in these failings though. ( )

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