why did the french surrender after only 6 weeks in world war 2?

Question

the french were considured to have the mightiest army in the world then

i happen to think it was because the french are a bunch of ******* and the french surrendered 6 weeks after the germans in vaded france

Answer 1

The French tactics were outdated. Their generals were fighting the sedentary trench warfare of the previous war. Their equal and superior tanks fought in penny packets supporting infantry rather than the massed formations of the Panzers at the point of attack. The BEF betrayed them and skulked off to Dunkirk rather than strike south as ordered to help defend Paris.

Answer 2

The French were considered to have the mightiest army in the world? Considered by who? The Soviets had by FAR the largest army, and the Germans had by far the best equipped army. Germany certainly had the best army in Europe - they walked into most countries because the local armies would have just been wiped out. If the French had such a mighty army then why did the Germans beat them? Are you implying that the French LET the Germans invade their country, destroy democracy and impose a fascist dictatorship on them?

It's pretty hard to continue fighting officially when the foreign army surrounds you on all sides, you have no source of ammunition or supplies and your country is filled with a force far more powerful than yours ever was. Which is why the French did the sensible thing and fought a guerilla war with the resistance.

Sorry - resistance is a dirty word nowadays, I of course mean insurgency.

Collaborators were widely hated in France, and were pretty severely punished after the Germans left.

Answer 3

They were overwhelmed by the German Blitzkrieg which was a new form of warfare.
They were never considered to have the mightiest army in the world.
The Blitzkrieg tactics were also successful against Poland, Britain, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Norway, Greece, Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union.
It was only the English Channel that saved Britain and the size of Russia that saved the Soviet Union.
America as usual did not enter the war until two years later than everybody else.

Answer 4

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_history_of_France_during_World_War_II

That should pretty well outline the events that led up to the surrender of France. As for having the 'mightiest army in the world', I have certainly never heard of such a claim. I would be interested to know where you get that information.

As a sidenote, France was technically at war for much more than 6 weeks. They declared war on Sept. 3 , 1939 and surrendered in July of 1940. Perhaps you read a slightly biased article....?

Answer 5

the Battle of the Atlantic was the closest Britain ever came to surrendering but it is doubtful that they were very close to surrender even here. In 1941, Britain was at its closes to surrendering, with Winston Churchill later stating "the only thing that ever really scared me was the U-Boat peril". Britain was at serious risk of being starved. However, the will of the British people to resist was immesly strong and it is unlikely they would ever have surrendered unless Germany was physically occupying a majority of the British Isles. They may have resisted even then, as Churchill said in 1940 'We shall never surrender. And even if...this island..was subjugated and starving, our colonies across the seas would carry on the struggle'. overrall, it is unlikely the Germans could have ever forced the British to surrender without physically occupying both Britain and all of its colonies.

Answer 6

The French haven't been a military force to be reconed with since the days of Napoleon (when they still lost). They had relied upon the Magino Line (misspelled I know) to defend themselves from the Germans. The Germans however used the Belgium highway to invade and the poor French got confused, recognised that they would lose more troops for the same outcome and surrendered.

Answer 7

Because the French knew that if they fought for any longer there beautiful cities like Poland’s would have burned to the ground under the German blitzkrieg better to submit and still have you economy and homes than resist and have no homes or working economy.
p.s at that time there was no way French could of defeated Germany

Answer 8

The city of Paris would have destroyed. The surrender was signed in the very same trolley car that the Germans surrendered in WWI. The French found out that all the Germans wanted was the wine and women-- surrender was easy..

Answer 9

There are a lot of reasons. I could sit here and trash talk the french.

The bottom line is that the German Army was just that good at the time.

Answer 10

Apparently you know as little about warfare as you do about Politics. The French had been outflanked. They and the English had been drawn into Belguim then Von Kliest and Rommel came out of the Ardennes and were behind them.
The British had England to retreat to. The French had nowhere to go. The Germans were in Paris.

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