On May 10, 1940, Germany launched a major offensive against France on the Western Front, kicking off the Battle of France. But what no one expected was that France, known as "Europe's first army power", resisted for only 43 days before surrendering to Nazi Germany.
War
The French army had 94 divisions, the British Expeditionary Force had 9 divisions in France, and the Dutch Belgian 32 divisions, adding up to 135 divisions. There are more than 3,000 tanks and more than 16,300 aircraft. The Germans had only 93 divisions on the front line, organized into 3 army groups, and 39 divisions as reserves. The Germans had 2,700 tanks and self-propelled guns, and 5,000 combat aircraft.
Due to the recent militarization, only 79 German divisions completed their training. Compared with the two, the strength of the French army on paper does not dare to say that it is far superior to the German army, but at least it is slightly superior.
So why did the French army lose so much in just 40 days that it finally surrendered?
01 Direct causes: backward military thinking and insufficient combat readiness
War is largely a showdown between military ideas and military ideas, and if one side's military philosophy has surpassed the other's, then it will be formed
Dimensionality reduction strikes
。
In the French battlefield in 1940, the Germans' military philosophy was undoubtedly much higher than that of the French army. At that time, the French army still believed that the war would be like the First World War.
Break through the fortified fortress through infantry groups and advance gradually.
And the Germans had already put the blitzkriegs into practice in Poland, they
Greater emphasis was placed on the impact of tank clusters and mechanized troops.
Guided by outdated military doctrines, the French army's readiness for war was no different from that of World War I. They assigned the elite of the French army to the Maginot Line,
There were as many as 500,000 French troops on the Maginot Line, while the reserve had only 9 divisions.
Although the French had more tanks than the Germans, they always ignored the role of tanks.
Tanks were considered to be just a weapon to support infantry.
The French army, with such an old and backward concept, carried out passive defenses, and the German action in Poland had reminded the French, but the arrogant French turned a blind eye to it. Continuing to fantasize about a war like the First World War, naturally collapsed quickly in the face of the German Blitzkrieg attack.
In addition to the backwardness of military ideas, the French government was also seriously inadequate in ideology and preparation. Politically, they pursued a "policy of appeasement" with the British, thinking that they could sit back and relax with the so-called indestructible Maginot Line. The French government was not prepared for war at the governmental level.
At that time, the French high-ranking officers led by Camerin had no idea of taking the initiative to attack. Camerin's idea was to defend the integrity of the territory at the least cost. Under the influence of this idea, there is also a "strange thing" in the history of world war: sit-in war.
For 8 months, the French did not fire a single shot, and only made a tentative attack.
The French soldiers even hid in the Maginot Line and basked in the sun.
02
The direction of the main German assault was misjudged
After talking about military philosophy and preparation, let's look at the specific battlefield strategy of the French army after the war has become inevitable.
When analyzing the possible direction of german attack, the French top brass believed that the terrain of the Ardennes area was not conducive to the breakthrough of German tanks, and the most likely direction of German attack should be in central Belgium.
The original German plan was indeed
He wanted to put the main German army on the right flank and attack France through Belgium.
But the chief of staff of the German Army Group A, Erich von Manstein, proposed the Germans
The main force should be on the left flank, with a strong armored group through the steep terrain of the Ardennes, unexpectedly bypassing the heavily defended "Maginot Line", so as to appear unexpectedly in the weak area of the Allied defense, and also to divide and encircle the Allied forces.
Hitler eventually adopted his plan.
The Germans also feinted before the offensive began. Parts of the German Army Group "B" attacked Belgium. This move made the French think that they were correct in their judgment, so they sent 3 additional army groups and 9 British divisions to the direction of Belgium. After seeing that the French were deceived, the German "A" Army Group unexpectedly launched a surprise attack on the Ardenne area as planned, and broke through the weak French defenses in one fell swoop. The Germans then made a rapid advance towards the Calais Strait, catching the British and French allies off guard, and the French defeat was already decided.
If the backwardness of military philosophy has been lost before the battle, then the French high command has also made serious mistakes in the specific strategic deployment. Ignoring the defense of the Ardennes, it is assumed that if the French army had been more tightly defended in the Ardennes, the German armored groups would not have won so easily.
Of course, history has no ifs.
03 Root causes: economic collapse, political chaos
The military reasons are mentioned above, but the fundamental reason for war, especially a large war like World War I and World War II, is the fundamental reason that really determines the victory or defeat of war
The comprehensive strength of the country.
After World War I, the French economy had virtually collapsed before World War II. Let's first look at how the First World War affected France:
France lost a tenth of its population, with a total of 1.3 million young soldiers killed or missing.
This figure is second only to Russia in the Entente. furthermore
Another 3 million people are disabled, 30 percent of whom are completely wasted.
Of the 38,000 towns in France, only one died in the war;
A quarter of France's industry has been wreaked havoc, and production has been cut in half.
In 1935, French steel production decreased by 50%, iron production by 66.7%, and cotton yarn and automobile production by 35%.
After World War I,
France owes $3.991 billion to the United States and $3.03 billion to Britain
。 The collapse of Tsarist Russia, the original debt of hundreds of billions of francs owed by Tsarist Russia to France has become a bubble, and the former Soviet Union certainly does not recognize this account, which is undoubtedly a further blow to the French economy. In 1918, France's fiscal deficit was high
18 billion francs.
If we were to put it a little simpler, it would be
France's economy declined before World War II, and industrial production declined. What are the consequences of this situation?
The economic downturn has led to a large number of young French people postponing or abandoning childbearing, and France has fallen into a long-term demographic crisis. Due to the demographic crisis and economic recession, France was virtually incapable of raising a large standing army on the German-French border, and the reserve army was extremely ineffective. This also caused the phenomenon that after the defeat of the standing army, the additional reserve troops were about to collapse.
The economic recession and the demographic crisis are only one aspect, and the French political arena is equally unstable. From November 1929 to November 1933, France had 12 governments led by eight prime ministers. None of these governments could cope with the French recession, which caused a split in French society, and the left and right factions began to fight each other. There were even right-wing extremist organizations that openly imitated the Nazi Party in Germany, and they also wanted to establish fascist organizations similar to those in Germany and Italy in France, and some even proposed it
“
I'd rather have Adolf Hitler than Leon Blum
”。
(Leon Bloom is a leftist leader.)
The effects of economic and political recession and instability were concentrated at the outbreak of war. In the recession, France had to reduce its military expenditure year after year, in order to save,
Obsolete weapons and other equipment, which are already obsolete, are still in use
。 Soldiers' salaries have always been low, and it has become difficult for the French to recruit. political chaos,
As a result, capitulationism began to spread in France, plunging the country into chaos and panic.
On May 10, 1940, the German offensive began, and on June 22, the French government signed a surrender agreement, and the Rapid Collapse of the European Power in just 43 days, all three of which ultimately led to France's defeat in World War II.
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