In the first weeks of the war . . . Britain had pitifully few troops to send to France. By October 11, three weeks after the fighting was over in Poland, it had four divisions – 158,000 men – in France. “A symbolic contribution,” Churchill called it, and . . . the first British casualty – a corporal shot dead on patrol – did not occur until
December 9.
William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
