On May 10, 1940, Germany brazenly launched a "blitzkrieg" offensive against France, a move that could not be understood by European countries at that time, because France at that time claimed to have the strongest army in Europe, and also built the Maginot Line against Germany, which was definitely not a soft persimmon for people to knead, and it was definitely not a wise choice to provoke such a big enemy.
But Germany did this, and what is even more shocking is that only 38 days after Germany launched the war, the German army attacked the city of Paris, the French government saw that the trend had gone, had to announce surrender, after which there was even a joke circulating in the world: "You can never occupy Paris before France declares its surrender." ”
This battle shattered France's self-confidence and was regarded by France as an eternal humiliation, and even now, the French have not let go of this war for a long time.
Arc de Triomphe in Paris
Now that more than 70 years have passed since World War II, has the military power of the two sides changed? If war breaks out again, how many days will France be able to hold off Germany with its current strength?
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="39" > before discussing this issue, let's review the situation in Germany before World War II. </h1>
Germany as a defeated country in the First World War, and the United Kingdom, France and other victorious countries signed a number of unequal treaties, of which the Treaty of Versailles stipulates that Germany must compensate 11.3 billion pounds of war losses, and all of Germany's overseas colonies need to be handed over to the victorious powers, such a measure can be described as a decline to the lowest point in modern times, in order to pay off the war reparations, Germany, which lost all its colonies, had to vigorously exploit the domestic people, but that was it. It was only enough to repay the interest owed to the huge amount of money, and Germany at that time could be said to be poor in people's livelihood and economic sluggish.
When Hitler was running for president, in order to win the support of the voters, he declared that within five years of his reign, he would have bread and milk on the table of all Germans, and hitler proved to be a talented madman, and he really did this, and after five years in power, Germany's GDP tripled, and even the unemployment rate hit a record low of 0.98%.
But the prosperity of the productive forces also brought a series of problems, such as the shortage of production resources, and Germany's minerals and other natural resources are not abundant, in order to deal with this problem, he opened up trade routes with the Soviet Union, and even signed a trade treaty with China thousands of miles away, but because China was in a period of turmoil at that time, and the Soviet Political System was different from european countries, these two trade lines could be broken at any time for various reasons.
German tanks
Hitler then set his sights on war, and because Hitler's political achievements in a short period of time were very prominent, the attitude of young people in the country towards Hitler was very fanatical, and in September 1939, Germany launched a war against Poland, and it took only 28 days for Poland to fall.
After the capture of Poland, Germany's shortcomings were made up, but at that time, Germany's strength was not enough to sweep through Europe, so it did not want to confront such an old power as Britain and France for the time being, so Hitler put forward peace proposals to Britain and France, hoping to get a period of development, but was rejected by Britain and France, so Hitler decided to use force to force Britain and France to seek peace.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="99" > France to take lightly</h1>
In the early morning of May 10, 1940, Germany launched a brazen attack on France, it was Sunday, and most of the Europeans were still sleeping under the covers, and the first to enter France was the Luftwaffe, which destroyed the French aircraft that was not defensive and still stuck on the airport, thus seizing air supremacy in one fell swoop.
Subsequently, Germany launched a blitzkrieg against France, German chariots bypassed the Maginot Line and invaded French territory, because Germany's advance speed is too fast, the speed of the French high-level mobilization of the army can not even keep up with the speed of the German army, only the Local Armed Forces in France do their best to block the German Army, but the local armed equipment is poor, the quality of the soldiers is also uneven, even if they have paid heavy casualties, it is still difficult to stop the Regular German troops, only 38 days by the German Army pushed to the city of Paris.
Under the Eiffel Tower
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="101" > domestic regime unrest</h1>
In fact, the strength of the French army at that time did not suffer much loss, and it was still possible to fight a war against Germany, but the French government chose to surrender in order to prevent the revolutionaries from taking advantage of the development of the situation during the war with Germany.
In summary, it can be concluded that in the early days of World War II, when France and Germany confronted each other, the gap in strength between the two sides was not very large, and the reason why France collapsed rapidly was because Germany took the lead and caught France by surprise, and second, because the Political Situation in France was not stable at that time, and the people in power chose to surrender in order to stabilize the regime.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="103" > post-war German landscape</h1>
After the end of the Second World War, Germany as a defeated country was once again severely punished, according to the Crimean Declaration and the Potsdam Agreement, the defeated Germany should become a united, independent, peace-loving and democratic country, before the emergence of such a state, Germany was temporarily occupied by the Soviet Union, the United States, Britain and France, and the capital Berlin was also controlled by the four divisions.
At that time, the United States and the Soviet Union, as the leaders of the two camps in the international community, due to ideological differences, divided Germany in two in Berlin and built the famous Berlin Wall, which lasted until the collapse of the Soviet Union, until the Berlin Wall was torn down in the 1990s, which greatly weakened the cohesion of Germany, and the historical problems left behind have not been completely solved until now.
Germany
Although the victorious powers in Europe learned the lessons of the First World War and did not dare to press too tightly on Germany, they were still very jealous of Germany's huge military potential, so in order to limit the development of German military power, the Potsdam Agreement in 1945 decided to de-militarize Germany. It abolished the German military industry and prohibited the production of weapons of war (ships, aircraft, tanks and related raw materials). It was only in 1951 that the production of small and medium-sized weapons began.
After World War II, Germany worked hard to develop the economy, completely lost the ambition to dominate the world, and now although the foundation of the military industry is no longer there, but with other aspects of technology, Germany is still one of the top economic powers in Europe, but the military aspect is very unsatisfactory.
As of 2017, the German navy, army, air force, the three armed forces combined to only more than 190,000 people, and the equipment is also very backward, the German Army is only equipped with more than 300 Leopard 2 series tanks and less than 1,000 armored vehicles, these equipment in the modern war may not be enough to protect themselves, let alone attack.
In terms of the air force, Germany is currently mainly in service with the Wind and Typhoon fighters, and these two fighters have been in service since the 80s of the last century, and on the level of science and technology, they have been a generation behind the big powers, and do not have the strength to confront the armies of the big powers.
In terms of the navy, Germany did not even have a large destroyer, only equipped with 3 F-124 "Saxony" class frigates, which is the absolute main force of the German Navy. The other 4 F-125 Württemberg-class frigates have a displacement of more than 7,000 tons, but only 2 are in service, which is a relatively good Warship for Germany.
German army during World War II
And now Germany is not only relatively backward in equipment, the cohesion of the army is also very poor, after Germany abolished compulsory military service in 2011, the source of soldiers in the German army has become a big problem, because of the bad reputation of the German army in World War II, most of the Young Germans do not regard serving in the army as an honor, in their view, the resume of the military will even affect them in the future to find a job, promotion and a series of other matters.
In order to make the army more attractive to young people, the German government has raised the salaries of soldiers and promulgated policies that seem inconceivable in other countries, such as the policy of requiring soldiers to work eight hours a day and have weekends off, all of which seem to be no different from the treatment of civil servants in our country.
After the promulgation of this policy, instead of enhancing the young people's yearning for the army, it made the military morale of the German army more scattered, because if the soldiers were participating in a certain training, once they exceeded the eight-hour working time, they would protest, or even strike, which made the German government very regret the original eight-hour work decree, but if it wanted to cancel this law, I am afraid that it would cause most soldiers to protest, and even a demonstration would break out, which made the German government very helpless.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="105" > post-war French landscape</h1>
In 1960, France tested an independently developed atomic bomb, becoming the fourth country in the world to possess nuclear weapons, second only to Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union, and in August 1968, the first hydrogen bomb was also successfully tested.
French army
The current French army, the army, navy and air force, totals about 400,000 and is well equipped. In the Army, France's main battle tanks are the AMX-30 tank and the Leclerc tank, which, according to incomplete statistics, exceed 1,000 tanks in the French Army. With more than 5,000 armored vehicles and no more than 200,000 French army in total, the French Army would have super mobility in the event of war.
The strength of the French Air Force can not be underestimated, the current service in the French Air Force is mainly the "Mirage", "Jaguar", and "Alpha Jet" fighters, the French Air Force has more than 1,000 fighters combined, can be described as a very powerful air force.
French Phantom
In terms of the navy, France has three operational clusters, including three aircraft carriers, as well as several guided-missile destroyers, frigates, patrol ships, minesweepers, etc. that form operational clusters, and France also has four nuclear submarines, all of which have the ability to launch strategic-class ballistic missiles.
With the blessing of this military strength, France is also a first-class military power even if it looks at the world, and Germany is now compared with it, which is obviously a big gap.
If the two armies fight again, not to mention nuclear weapons, France is much stronger than Germany in terms of army strength, weapons and equipment, and army cohesion, after all, the gap in equipment can be slowly made up, but if the military is scattered, and the soldiers lose their sense of belonging to the army, then this army will not be able to win the battle under any circumstances.
French submarines
But after the Second World War, the people of all countries in Europe realized the harm caused by the war to them, and all countries abandoned the prejudice brought about by historical factors and established the European Union, in this case, the weakening of Germany's military strength is not necessarily a bad thing, because France and Germany have long been resentful, the so-called mountain does not tolerate two tigers, if Germany's military strength is still as strong as in the past, there will be friction between the two countries, thus affecting regional stability.
Once a war is launched, whether it is successful or unsuccessful, it will be the people who will suffer, and it is hoped that the two countries can firmly remember the lessons brought by history, cherish peace, and jointly create a better world.