The balance of power in Europe was completely torn apart when to everyone’s surprise France fell to the Third Reich in a matter of six short weeks. On June 22, 1940, the French government officially surrendered to the Third Reich when signing an armistice that ultimately divided France. This allowed Germany to occupy the North and West while installing a puppet government known as the Vichy to maintain order and control. How did France’s war effort collapse so quickly?
There are many reasons for the sudden collapse ranging from preparing for another WWI caliber war, improper equipment use, lack of military enthusiasm, military training, terror attacks, and political turmoil. While these all contribute to the French war effort collapsing, it was undeniably France’s faulty leadership of the high command and absolute feeling of defeatism that put the nail in their coffin so soon. Following the French collapse historians such as Marc Bloch took to saying, “We have just suffered such a defeat as no one would have believed possible.
On whom or on what should the blame be laid? ” Many wanted to know what went wrong, and were also completely infuriated in the effort of the high command of France. It was the high command of France that allowed these factors to develop that would eventually stage a French collapse. Just as many other nations, the high command of France though they would see a caliber of warfare that was relatable to the first world war. With that said, the French high command devised their military strategy solely around trench-like warfare and defensive tactics.
This is where the Maginot line was crafted, and thought to be the ultimate trench. However, it wasn’t done correctly. The French stopped its design at the German- Belgian line, but they stopped mainly because they were broke and thought here would be good enough where they can pocket some cash. Due to not building it any further, the French did not block off the Ardennes forest where they ultimately end up getting obliterated from. While the Maginot line was effective in all its glory, it anticipated to be defeated by the Germans.
As part of military doctrine, it is assumed that the defense will eventually be broken at one or more points. This is because the attackers can choose where to concentrate their offensive. That then leaves it as the duty of the defense to stretch its entirety over the whole line at broken and unbroken points, which it clearly did not in the south through the Ardennes. At this instance alone. the French high command’s tactics and military strategy has already failed their nation greatly.
Clearly the German high command had better strategized its military tactics through what is known as blitzkrieg. Blitzkrieg was originally pioneered by the British through military analyst Sir Basil Henry Liddell Hart, where it was planned for mechanized armies to infiltrate deep into the enemy’s territory with non-stop movement forward that would astonishingly wreck defenses. While blitzkrieg doesn’t automatically win the war, it does restore offensive capacity. Offense was something that the French did not have or even attempt to engage in.
The French had superiority in number of tanks, and good enough equipment to stage attack on German forces. Unfortunately, the French high command did not use those two things properly, included the French air force. If we look at it from an on foot perspective, almost every opportunity that the French had to inflict damage they would elect to pass in hesitation. The French were not organized or prepared, it was clear as day that the military leadership was not fit to lead in any way possible.
In comparison to the Germans, they were not only unmotivated but they also showed that truly they had no real plan. The improper use of military equipment by the French high command in combination with a lack of military enthusiasm wasn’t the only thing dragging them six feet under. While we could sit here and talk about how the French were planning to fight a WW1 styled war again, it can also be said that both the axis and allies knew to some degree that the war was going to be on a whole new level. Tanks and airplanes are what made that rightfully clear.
That brings the aspect of military training into effect. The Germans can be rightfully attributed to being better accustomed to these new situations of war, because their military was trained under the emphasis of improvisation. As we saw in the Battle of France, the Germans were able to proceed much quicker than they should have in accordance with the old rules of the game. The French stuck to their belief that it wasn’t possible for any military force to be able to advance their movement on a large scale once a front was firmly positioned.
That is why the French assumed that German forces would have to attack through the Northern plains of Belgium. Germany being able to not only improvise but also be initiative, sent their forces to the north as a decoy to fool the French in their movement through the South in the Ardennes forest. This was clear improvising as the original battle plans were captured off of a German officer that had their projected attack going through North Belgium. So when we look at the French on the other hand, their military training strictly emphasized following orders.
The French had the awe-inspiring plan of halting the Germans in northern Belgium, but as we all witnessed that plan failed miserably. Emphasizing following orders only ultimately rendered the French insensible. Many people may overlook this, but Germany’s terror attacks actually played a pivotal role in the development of the collapse of French military war effort. These terror strikes conducted by the German air force, the Luftwaffe, made it even more complicated for the French to regroup their soldiers during times of invasion.
The Luftwaffe were able to achieve a clearly complete control of the air within France’s borders since the beginning weeks of World War II. Conducting terror attacks upon civilian populations within France had caused many of the streets to clog up and impossible to move effectively from objective to objective. This also brings back in that aspect of improper use of equipment, in which France could have done a better job with their air force in trying to shoot down the Luftwaffe or at least drive them out of their borders. It also brings in the geographical aspect.
Attacks being fought upon French soil this time around include mechanized armies and France is not big enough to take in these accelerated advances at all. France is not like Russia and could withstand fighting on its own soil due to its arduous size. Due to having to deal with these attacks on their own soil, they were always forced to forfeit up strategic time and positioning. Mix the terror attacks into a country that already emptied its entire treasury into building a fortified defense that ended up failing and you are guaranteed to be in a world of trouble.
France, before Germany even progressed its mighty force upon the country, was in absolute political turmoil. The country was scattered with a heavy amount of extremists that consisted of Nazi sympathizers and also communists. Within the country, one can get the feeling that France would rather wage war against itself instead of go head to head with Germany. A few years before France’s surrender in WW2, the country generally slanted towards the right.
The socialist populist front would be elected into the French government which had much support outside of the government from the communists. Filled with many radicals, the socialist populist front made many decisions that would upset the left leaving a country anxious for change with an internal struggle that could not be beaten. Under this government, many economic policies were placed that could have greatly helped the nation but the left would never agree to carry them out.
The left within France held a high stake of the legislation, constantly setting back any attempts at change due to their belief that any type of state involvement within a capitalist economy would only prove to be catastrophic. Getting anything done for the nation through the government proved to be virtually impossible and the effects of this lingered into how the war effort would be mobilized. Although there were many underlying factors in the development in the collapse of the French war effort, it was precisely a general defeatism in combination with faulty leadership that failed the troops.
As previously mentioned the French leadership failed on multiple levels to establish an effective war effort through not having a real plan, no intent to offensively battle, improper use of equipment, and lack of motivation. For those reasons, there was an established defeatism that rang throughout the French military. The French had been stuck with the constant remembrance of almost completely being bled dry for everything they had in the first world war. This set the nation’s morale very low, and they were expecting failure no matter how they attacked the situation.
To say the very least, they lost all will to defend their own nation. In comparison to WWI, the French will to fight for their nation in WWII was not even remotely close. Coupled with all the other factors mentioned, defeatism made all their expectations come true when the Germans pushed through the Ardennes forest. While many can speculate the true factors in France’s swift defeat, the bottom of the line is they weren’t prepared. France was a nation with all the tools to put up a fight against Nazi Germany, except their own leadership had let the country down.
Although France’s manpower was weakened still from WWI and Germany has twice their population they still had a chance to put up a fight. Ineffective military strategy, improper use of equipment, and lingering feeling of defeatism made any chance France had completely ineffective anyway. We may never know if the French could have held Germany back in the battle of France if they approached things differently, but with the evidence given it was clear as day that they stood no chance.
