History Why France Had No Chance Against The Nazis

Andy_Phillips1999

For DISPLAY only.
The French plan in part hinged on the British holding the line in the north and the RAF assisting. The French knew full well they were going to face problems, WW1 was a demographic disaster for France, so they had a much smaller manpower pool than would be normal for a country of its size.

In WW1 the French had what they called the miracle of the Marne - basically France managed to mobilize soldiers to the front (at Marne) way faster than one would have normally expected, there was some presumption this sort of thing would happen in WW2. It did not.

While on paper the French and British should have been superior to the Germans, they frankly weren't. They had a huge collection of 'infantry tanks' which are heavy, but slow as molasses. Easy to get around. On paper they looked good, in practice they were an outdated concept.

A large portion of the French and British militaries were equipped with 20 year old equipment and 20 year old tactics to go with it. The Germans, having been forcibly demobilized where working with a large collection of equipment that was less than 3 years old. On one had, the difference between equipment used today and those used in say, the first gulf war aren't wildly different, in many cases they're variants of the same equipment. But even a small advantage adds up, like say, adding a radio to every tank. We'll get around to it eventually when it comes up in the upgrade cycle, oh sorry, budget cuts, maybe next year. The Germans were using everything brand new. It wasn't that the British and French didn't have some up to date hardware - they did, but a big portion of their armies were using old gear. Particularly in the air, the new German aircraft were way way way better than even 10 year old stuff the allies were using. That gave the Germans a big advantage.

The Germans were all in with their strategy, and France had to defend her Italian frontier as well - when the Italians joined the party France was boned.

In a sense the essence of war is indirection. Everyday try and convince the enemy that tomorrow is the day you're going to attack, after a couple of weeks he's going to be shocked on the day you actually do attack. Everyone expected they would need to fight in beligum if it came to it. The germans made a point of moving in much faster than the British, French and Belgians were prepared to react to. The british, fearing the complete loss of their army and airforce withdrew - which left france about 20-25% short on expected troop strength.

At that point, after what had happened to Poland, everyone expected France to lose. Self fulfilling prophecy to some degree, assume they are going to lose and don't commit resources to defending them, and they necessarily will lose.

In a nutshell, the French's defense plan hinged on the idea that the German attack wouldn't come in through Belgium, thinking that the Ardennes forest would be impenetrable and too risky. This ignored the fact that the Ardennes was how Germany invaded France during WWI...

So essentially the Germans broke through and were able to bypass the bulk of the French defensive line, which basically threw the entire French defense strategy out the window. There was a lot of panic that spread down the French lines, which caused even more disorder.

And of course, the French didn't want another war with Germany, since World War I had killed a 3rd of the population causing a third of French women going unmarried after WW1.
 
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Buba

A total creep
There are so many things wrong with this post that I can't be arsed to point them all out ...
 

ATP

Well-known member
What's wrong about it?
You forget elephant in the room - french do not wanted to fight.
I read memories of polish officer who fought in 10Armored Brigade/really only battalion/ - only they,senegal troops,muslim calvary and 2 normandy dyvisions actually fought.
When they come to coordinate with french 42 and 59 dyvisions/if i remember correctly/ commander of corp showed where are his units,but his officers told them that they all arleady fled.
 

Andy_Phillips1999

For DISPLAY only.
You forget elephant in the room - french do not wanted to fight.
I read memories of polish officer who fought in 10Armored Brigade/really only battalion/ - only they,senegal troops,muslim calvary and 2 normandy dyvisions actually fought.
When they come to coordinate with french 42 and 59 dyvisions/if i remember correctly/ commander of corp showed where are his units,but his officers told them that they all arleady fled.
Than I shall add it to the post.
 

Cherico

Well-known member
And in their efforts to avoid it, they got something worse. Not every country has the "honour" of bending over backwards for the Third Reich.

Cowardly frogs.

To be fair when the UK and France were divying up the spoils after the first world war the UK got the chads and the French got all of the cheese and wine.
 

ATP

Well-known member
And in their efforts to avoid it, they got something worse. Not every country has the "honour" of bending over backwards for the Third Reich.

Cowardly frogs.
Initially they tried to prevent it - but brits supported germans from 1919 till 1939.France do not supported Czech becouse of that.
Carroll Quigley described it in his book "The Anglo-american establishment:from Rhodes to Cliveden"
They basically wanted gave germans Austria,Czech and Poland,becouse they belived in future good germany which would stop soviets.

So,french was cowards - but i do not blame them,brits wanted germans stronger,so french made them stronger when they surrender.
 

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