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Text: Ye Weihua
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introduction
If there is any joke that can be funnier than a Soviet joke, it must be a joke of insulting France.
There is only one reason why there are so many insulting jokes, and that is France's crotch-pulling performance during World War II. As a European power at the time, France's performance was not at all worthy of its international status, and Germany took over all of France with little difficulty. So is this really the case? Why was France, a powerful country, so completely defeated in World War II?
(The French flag has only one color)
1. Is the weakness of the French army a lie of the Vichy government?
On May 10, 1940, Adolf Hitler ordered the invasion of France. By June 22, the French government had surrendered and signed an armistice with Mustache. Later, Germany supported the Vichy government and let the Vichy government run France as a puppet. France also officially pursued a policy of cooperation with Nazi Germany, and to this day, the French surrender is regarded by themselves as a disgrace to the French nation.
Many French would accuse the army of being ill-prepared, and in the face of a lightning offensive by the Germans, the army completely misjudged the situation. And the courage of the ordinary citizens from the top leaders to the streets of Paris is missing.
(Hitler)
But are these accusations against the French army fair? Were these claims really not made up by the leaders of the failed Vichy government out of political intrigues? Or is there real evidence?
A casual search on the Internet reveals a number of questions that mock France's performance in World War II, including:
"Why did France surrender so quickly, while the USSR held out for years?
France contributed very little to winning World War II, so why did France still have a permanent seat on the UN Security Council after the war?
Why was Charles de Gaulle the only man left in France in World War II? ”
(World War II French Army)
These questions generally expressed the common view that the French surrender had happened too quickly. Was it really because the army was unprepared that it surrendered so quickly?
2. Why did France lose to Germany?
Many people have expressed contempt for France's surrender at the speed of light, even the French themselves feel the same. For example, the French journalist Stephanie Trullard once said: "The speed with which France collapsed and surrendered in the face of the German invasion in May 1940 was staggering, and this shock will not subside after more than 80 years." ”
(French surrender)
In fact, there is nothing to shock about the surrender of France, because the French army was actually fully prepared to deal with the German invasion, and the reason why it surrendered so quickly and lost so completely was purely because of the vegetables. It's not that I'm slandering the French, it's the French themselves.
Michael Bright, a professor of history at the École des Militaires Militaire in Saint-Cyr, France, who has systematically studied this history, believes that there is no evidence that the French army was militarily ill-prepared in the face of a German invasion. He said:
(French surrender)
"The idea that the army was ill-prepared, unmotivated and inadequately equipped to confront the German army was a lie constructed by Pétain's Vichy regime. Unfortunately, this argument is still used today, because it's a good excuse: if you say your army is too weak to face a strong enemy, it's much easier to admit defeat. ”
原话是"The idea that the army was badly prepared, poorly motivated and ill-equipped against the invincible Wehrmacht is a myth constructed by Pétain's Vichy regime. Unfortunately, it's still used today, because it makes a good excuse: it's so much easier to admit defeat if you say you had a weak army facing a much stronger one."
So was the French army as weak as the Vichy government said at the beginning of World War II, and was Marshal Petain throwing the blame for his defeat?
3. The size of the French army in World War II
At the beginning of World War II, France had a regular army of 900,000 men, but could have 4.5 million reservists and could mobilize more than 5 million people to fight at most.
(World War II French Army)
At the outbreak of the war, French troops were deployed mainly on the border from Luxembourg to Switzerland facing Germany. This border was known as the Maginot Line, on which the French deployed 100 divisions of soldiers. In the process of strengthening the defense and increasing the number of troops, the French high command must not be accused of inaction before the war.
The military hierarchy did have strategic objectives, fronts, and specific courses of action, but that still did not prevent the Maginot Line from standing in the French joke, because it was one of the stupidest fortifications in the history of human warfare.
(Maginot Line Map)
4. Why did the Maginot Line fail?
The construction of the Maginot Line by France lasted ten years, during which a lot of manpower and material resources were invested. The actions of the French in repairing the Maginot Line were actually because of the shadow of the First World War.
Compared with World War II, the French army in World War I was too strong, and France paid a terrible price to win World War I, almost a whole generation, but the benefits of winning the war were not more than those of its allies. This may also be one of the reasons why France surrendered at the speed of light later, and the First World War really gave the French a PTSD.
In conclusion, France considered the Maginot Line to be impregnable. In some ways it is true, it is almost impossible to penetrate from the front.
(Maginot Line)
When Germany decided to invade France in May 1940, it chose to bypass the Maginot Line, which was easily breached......
Hitler's army chose to bypass the Maginot Line through the Belgian Ardennes Forest, and the French naively left the border with Belgium undefended, believing that the German armoured area would not attack from the Ardennes Forest.
(The Germans bypass the defensive line)
Basically, for most of the pre-World War II period, France wasted time and energy building a line of defense that was simply useless. In other words, they put all their eggs in the same basket and ended up being served by the Germans.
5. Did France lack courage in World War II?
France, as a nation, endured much ridicule for its surrender to Germany. However, France was not without resistance, and between May and June 1940, about 60,000 French soldiers were killed. The Germans lost 48,000 casualties, and also lost 30% of their tanks and aircraft.
(Nazi France team building)
The reasons for the defeat were more determined by the thinking of the French high-brass, and it should be said that Petain had not yet recovered from the PTSD of the First World War. Obviously, the French army at that time still had a large number of soldiers and advanced weapons and equipment, but the French government almost did not hesitate to pack them all and send them to Hitler.
The Germans, on the other hand, were in a state of disarmament after the defeat in World War I, with troops disarmed, land ceded, large war reparations paid, and a domestic economy in shambles. The difference between the consciousness and the will to fight of the two armies is not a little bit, and it is strange that France does not lose.
Resources:
Don't ask Google, ask us: why do the French always surrender?.Local in France, 2021-12-29
LI Lianbo. On the reasons for France's surrender during World War II[J].Party History Bocai (Theory),2017,(10):37-