Why France Lost a War It Should Have Won — The Other Side of 1940

Comments · 322

• ED

  @edwardgray4693 · 2 months ago

  France forgot Napoleon&apos;s own words when they built the Maginot line :<br>&quot;The side which remains behind its fortified line is already defeated.&quot;

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• DO

  @donaldgrant9067 · 2 months ago

  One thing that keeps showing up is the lack of aircover for the French.

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• PA

  @paulrasmussen8953 · 2 months ago

  I never blame the french troops.only their generals

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• EV

  @Evil_Clippy · 2 months ago (edited)

  French High Command didn&apos;t trust radios or telephones. All messages were sent by messengers. It&apos;s the difference between email and the post office.

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• MA

  @mannywilliams6409 · 2 months ago

  It&apos;s a good example of where having more of something than your enemy is of no advantage when it is not properly deployed.

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• SL

  @Sloppyjoe-q8n · 2 months ago

  And my last piece of the puzzle is…..the radio.Guderian made sure every panzer had a radio.Every panzer could communicate in seconds with each other.The French tanks for example had to use flag signals.And the big surprise at Arras which would destroy so many allied tanks throughout the war,the dreaded 88mm!!!!

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• SU

  @Superluckyhappytime · 2 months ago

  Ferdinand Foch stated at the end off WW I, “This is not peace, it’s a twenty year armistice!”. He was off by two years. The French government and military officials doomed their own people and soldiers by refusing to accept the known changes in armored warfare. Heinz Guderian devised and implemented armored tactics and strategy that would still be recognized in modern warfare today. People forget how French military power was so deadly for so long. Rudyard Kipling said, ”Their business is war, and they do their business “. He was 100% correct.

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• HO

  @howardamey7228 · 2 months ago

  One main aspect too, is French military leadership was completely unprepared. They fought like it was 1914.

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• CU

  @cutcut1980 · 2 months ago

  It wasn’t armor and aircraft. It was the radios in the armor, aircraft, artillery and infantry.

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• MR

  @MrDirigible · 2 months ago (edited)

  The comparison of French tanks to German tanks is almost always French tanks better due to better armor, guns, and decent speed. &nbsp;This ignores soft factors that made German tanks superior to any of the allied tanks - crew layout and battlefield communication. &nbsp;The German tanks might have had less armor or firepower but they were still decent to lethal. The true strength was that German tanks all were trained and communicated with radios (as mentioned) but also the turret layout was better with a three person layout compared to 1-2 person turrets on French tanks. &nbsp;This lead to overworking the tank commander in the French turret as tank commander, gunner, and loader when on German tanks all three positions were held by different men (excluding pz I and pz IIs which were only armed with mgs and auto cannons). &nbsp;<br><br>Next was how tanks were refueled - the French used vulnerable fuel trucks to refill their tanks where as the Germans used specially designed gas cans (“Jerry” cans) that allowed to refuel in the field and each tank to do so by their own crew rather than waiting on a tanker truck. <br><br>Last but not least while French medium and heavy tanks were hard to penetrate from the front by German 37mm tank and antitank guns, the side and rear armor was still easy to penetrate particularly with Char B1 heavy tanks being knocked out by 20mm and 37mm fire hitting the giant radiator grills on the sides of the Char heavy tanks.

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• LE

  @lesliehardin651 · 1 month ago

  Well done!

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• MA

  @marianocuevillas8601 · 2 months ago

  A Bad operational plan and an ever worst command and control sistem

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