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Politics : DON'T START THE WAR -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: AK2004 who wrote (23466)	3/20/2003 5:04:53 PM
From: thames_sider	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 25898

albert, if you know nothing, best not pontificate about it. french just surrendered what-if-you.com ... many of the French divisions were made up of poorly trained, ill-disciplined and unwilling conscripts. Thus the balance of power was not as the figures suggest. France had, at that time, mobilised one man in eight ... General Weygand, Allied C-in-C, had 66 divisions available to him - 65 French and one British - and found them facing a reinforced German army of 120 divisions in the line with a further 23 in reserve. ... On June 5th, the Battle for France began, and the Germans found that, despite their numerical superiority, they made little progress and suffered considerable losses. ... On June 9th, Field-Marshal von Rundstedt's Army Group A had entered the campaign, against the French 4th Army and units of the French VII Corps. Seven French divisions fought gallantly against twice their numbers of fresh troops, inflicting heavy losses, and maintained high morale despite mounting odds. Their demeanour, skill and appetite for the fight could not have been more different from that of the earlier battles on the Somme. Throughout June 9th and 10th, the Germans made little progress, and were admiring of the quality of the French soldiers in their diaries and despatches. By this time Weygand had only 27 divisions left in the field ... . Premier Paul Reynaud made a desperate appeal to President Roosevelt to declare war on Germany and come to the rescue of France, but this plea fell on ears that, one suspects, would have liked to have heard but could not. In his reply on June 15th, President Roosevelt promised every aid short of military intervention. ... The next day, June 17th, Petain asked the Germans and Italians (Mussolini having declared war on Britain and France on June 10th) for terms for an armistice. ... The Battle of France had cost between 82,000 and 94,000 French lives and about a quarter of a million wounded. That's 8,000 dead, every day. 20,000 wounded, every day. Looks like they fought despite been outnumbered, under-trained and woefully equipped. Oh, and then ~4 years under the Nazis. Maybe they suffered? BTW, that's a US-based history site. You may even recognise the little flag at the top.