Why did the French capitulate in WW2?

Question

I read in a novel somewhere (was it Sartre?) that the French officer cadre abandoned their troops, some returning to Paris in taxis. Were these people aristocrats? Did some failure in the class structure leave the soldiers (workers) in the field while the bosses fled?

Answer 1

These are mainly some decent answers, but it should be remembered that France lost because of their highest levels of leadership, not through any problems with the soldiers and their direct officers in the field. Gamelin (I know that is a wrong spelling) refused to intervene in Germany in 1939 to save Poland because he hated Premier Daladier (a Socialist) and because he felt having Germany and Russia bordering each other would cause them to fight. When the Germans went through the Ardennes skirting the Maginot (as noted) and outflanked the Allied armies that marched into Belgium, the British army immediately fled to Dunkirk with the full intent of abandoning the French to their fate (the British were outmaneuvered, not outfought). When Gamelin began his counterattack to relieve Dunkirk, the British were not willing to attack in a coordinated move so it failed, and then Gamelin was fired without anyone to replace him. Marshall Weygand was recalled from Syria (!) which took five days to report for duty and then he spent another five days just observing - for the ten most important days of the campaign (the Germans had taken lots of territory with light mobile units but the heavy units had not yet arrived to consolidate and bring up supplies) the French army literally had no one in place to make any decisions, and the British had already left with no intention of coming back.

The French soldiers fought very bravely, but they were let down by the politicians at the top. Eventually, many of the soldiers realized there was no point in continuing to resist and then they began to surrender in droves.

Answer 2

The officers were not all aristocrats.
The French army was totally defeated.
They were somewhat demoralized even before the war began.
There were also some elements that were sympathetic to naziism. (not a majority, but it still didn't help put up a strong resistance).
The French were surprised by the speed and power of the Nazi forces. The British had time to learn from the mistakes of the French. So they would have no right to feel they are superior on that account! Remember the British also had to evacuate France.
Another element in the weakness of France at the time was the strong political divisions between the right and the left.
I believe there were rivalries in the military structure, and the chain of command might not have been clear enough.

Answer 3

It is an old joke that pokes fun at the French for "simply having laid down their arms." I'm quite sure the French don't find it funny.

After WWI, the French having received the brunt of the war, they determined to put their resources and faith into a complicated border defense known as the Maginot Line. The French were secure in the fact that this mass of concrete bunkers and fortifications would serve its intended purpose.

In short, the German Army swung north through Belgium and basically bypassed the stronger south eastern line defenses. They had been overrun due to the trust they held in their efforts to deter war at their borders.

That is not to say that they didn't fight. The French maintained a strong resistance by fighting the Germans inside France, after surrender. They sabotaged German efforts to maintain control in various ways (http://www.miquelon.org/gripes/104.html).

Remember, Blitzkrieg was not a tactic that worked on France alone. As far as the French retreat via taxi, I have not read of that. It sounds like more humor at the expense of the French. It is commonly know that troops were moved into service by public and private transport and basically any other method available. American soldiers were sent in converted cargo ships, fishing boats, etc.

Answer 4

They really had little choice the Germans skirted the Maginot Line causing the Expeditionary Force and the French to retreat. At the same time there several intense battles and but for bad luck the French lost otherwise WW II might never had happened. As to officers leaving their units it happened more in WW I but yes there were cases but nothing wide spread.

But Brendan, you do not know your a** from a hole in the ground.
If rudeness makes you better you Yankees and French have it tied up.

God Bless You and The Southern People.

Answer 5

After the breakthrough at Sedan, the defeatist elements in the high command and government were sent packing. The fallacy of the Maginot Line was France's security blanket, unfortunately it bypassed the Ardennes Forest. French military thinking was stuck in the static defence of 1917, rather than the mobile war of 1940. Perhaps the generation lost in the last Great War had something to do with the defeatist attitude...it certainly didn't help.

In terms of technology, the French tanks and artillery were equal to and superior to the Germans, but they only attacked in 'pennie packets' supporting infantry, rather than the massed armour of the german divisions....

Answer 6

The French just did not have the army that could go up against the German regime.. Also.. the French love their antiquities and the thought of haveing them destroyed was a bit too much also and I also would have hated to see the Louvre destroyed or the Eiffel tower, etc

Answer 7

They relied on the Maginot line to defend the country against Germany and when the germans by-passed this by attacking through Belgium and using their tank corp supported by dive bombers to advance very rapidly the French and British Armies had no answer to these tactics and were pushed back to the coast and overwhelmed.

Answer 8

They did not want to replay the first world war. They were pacfist in great majority

More seriously, the high commander Gamelin was psychologically
ill. He suffered from an uncured tertiary syphilis which was followed by madness.

However, it must be known that about 100 thousands of french soldiers were killed

Answer 9

earlier the Germans had a guess to take possession of the French fleet, the British went and sank maximum of it. in between the greater debatable acts of the conflict (for the British) they attacked the French fleet anchored in Mers-el-Kébir harbor in Algeria. fairly much one million,3 hundred French sailors have been killed. The French additionally sank a number of their very own fleet in Toulon earlier the Germans ought to take them.

Answer 10

The French army and magginot line were no match for the German army and it's "blitzkrieg" tactics.
I don't say this to bash France which I think is a wonderful country and people.....
it is just military history and fact.