![]() The French had more combat aircraft than Germany, but only a fourth were operational on the Western Front. On June 22, the French signed a humiliating armistice that marked the end of their independence as a nation.Ī German light bomber drops bombs over France in June 1940. The Germans invaded western Europe May 10, 1940, and with a success that surprised even themselves, completely routed the French and their allies in less than six weeks. What followed ranks as one of the most stunning upsets in the history of warfare. Maurice Gustave Gamelin, 68, the current army chief and commander of the armed forces, said in February 1940 that he would be happy to make the Germans a gift of one billion francs if they would do him the favor of taking the initiative in an attack. ![]() On the Western Front, 151 Allied divisions faced 135 German divisions in the spring of 1940.įrench confidence gave way to cockiness. The French did not redeploy their forces based in North Africa and other colonial territories, but the numbers added by the Belgians and Dutch-previously declared neutral-and the British Expeditionary Force, ensured a favorable ratio. 1, 1939, and two days later, Britain and France declared war. The lowest priority for defense were the approaches from the Ardennes Forest-regarded as “impenetrable”-between the Maginot Line and Belgium. With reduced requirement for mobile forces on that front, the French could allocate more of their manpower to the Belgian border on the north, where a German attack, if there was one, was expected to come. The entire French-German border, from Basel in Switzerland to the Longwy on the Luxembourg frontier, was protected by the Maginot Line, a continuous string of linked concrete fortifications, mine fields, barriers, ditches, and prepared fields of fire. They had more tanks, more artillery, more men under arms, and about the same number of combat airplanes. The French were ahead of the Germans, or nearly so, in almost every category of military power. “The French army has long been called by experts the ‘best in the world,’ and its finest divisions undoubtedly are unmatched,” he said. The military editor of The New York Times, Hanson W. Nobody wants war but if we are forced to win a new victory then we will win it.” “Its equipment is the best, its fortifications are first rate, its morale is excellent, and it has an outstanding high command. Maxime Weygand, the retired chief of staff. “The French Army is stronger than ever before in its history,” declared Gen. Photo: Imperial War MuseumĪs war clouds gathered over Europe in the summer of 1939, the French were boldly confident of their capability to defend themselves should Germany be rash enough to attack. British soldiers wade from the beaches at Dunkirk to a waiting destroyer during a massive evacuation effort just before the fall of France. ![]()
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