JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post
Panic (publish in London in 1941) was a slim pamphlet containing the experiences of two British ambulance drivers working in France during the invasion by the Nazis in 1940. They reported on their experiences there, which were grim. The major lesson that C. Denis Freeman and Douglas Cooper published was in the one-word title of their work--panic. They found that the French population in general reacted very badly--in a panic--in their response to the invasion. They found "the awful truths" that the population crowded roadways and made it difficult for the French army to maneuver, and also confounded efforts at organized resistance.
The lessons were learned in 1940, and I am sure that in the process of writing and publication through the end of 1940 and beginning 1941 that the general fear in the U.K. of a possible invasion by Germany had dissipated. But the lessons were there to be learned, and Harold Nicholson (the the Minister for Information) declared that the lessons of France could be applied to the U.K.--namely that in the event of invasion that people should "STAY PUT' and not block the roads. Simple stuff, really, but mostly "simple" post facto.
[My copy was received by the Library of Congress on 8 August 1941, just a little beyond when the pamphlet could have done some better good...]
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