World War Two Country-French Republic

(Part two, I had to split it in half to get the 10k characters to work)

With the invasion of the USSR, Communist elements in France were further encouraged to fight against the Germans, and the US joining helped the UK and Free France quite a bit in Africa, who recently had stopped the Germans in Egypt, while also failing to get much of the Vichy colonies on their side. Through 1941-1942, The allies would push the Axis out of Africa, with many Vichy forces defecting to Free France.

It should also be mentioned that much of France’s manpower was African, with especially many Moroccan and Algerian forces in their army. These would prove crucial in various engagements. In France, Allied planes bombed German occupied France, hoping to weaken the German industry and resources gained there. The Reich heavily punished the resistance, executing anyone they could find, and massacring civilians for any Germans killed. They took many French prisoners of war, and as the war went on basically asked people to become indentured servants in German factories, with a 3-1 ratio of a soldier saved for that amount of people signing up. This was one of many ways Germany exploited France, with the help of Vichy collaborators. This collaboration went as far as a paramilitary force and pro-fascist propaganda. In 1942 though, the Germans decided, after the loss of Africa, to end Vichy France, occupying it with the help of Italy and bringing the collaboration government down for good.

In Italy, the Free French army spearheaded many offensives, and their forces were crucial in the final breakthrough during Monte Cassino. In France itself, things in 1943 were similar to 1942, but just a bit worse (with more bombings, German violence, starvation, etc.) but finally, normandy was launched. French resistance and Free French forces played an important part in the battle, helping damage the Germans from inside and out. Their army swelled in size, and the country was quickly liberated. Charles De Gaulle finally re-entered a liberated Paris, and the country was Free. France joined the allies in the final push against Germany, fighting in the Battle of Bulge and pushing with the other powers into western Germany. By May 9th, the war was over. There would be some debate whether France should be considered an occupied nation due to their collaboration, or a victorious ally. The second choice won out, as even thought the US somewhat favored the former, the UK wanted France to be the main defender of Western Europe, and convinced the US to agree. France would gain a permanent seat in the UN Security Council and an occupation zone in Germany, and with the help of the US marshal plan being to rebuild.

France after the war was damaged. The 4th republic would last for some time, but it was almost as politically unstable as the 3rd. After some chaos and nearly a coup due to issues such as colonialism and government weakness, De Gaulle would step in and help make the 5th republic, which would be far more stable than its predecessor. There was less revanchism, and France had less power to influence Germany this time anyway. West Germany was formed, and the European coal and steel community would eventually grow into the EU. France would become a nuclear power, major force in NATO, and remain a major power (though not super power, as they would learn in the Suez Crisis) in the future. The war still left a heavy impact, France was conquered and humiliated, and saw a sort of baptism by fire. It would have to tackle the questions of their collaboration, surrender, and political instability after the war, and the identity of the country was completely changed.

Either way, France was not a coward in the Second World War. They surrendered after their army was already mostly lost, still fought on and resisted after, and played a crucial part in the war. Make fun of them for other things-surrender does not work on the bodies of 200,000 soldiers and 300,000 civilians. Incompetent leadership messed the country up, but the people were rather brave.

Anyhow I’ll probably add more to this later on, and I would like my mistakes and important information I forgot to be corrected. Japan will probably be next!

FURTHER READING AND WATCHING (Typing France during WW2 into google or YouTube will find you plenty of good stuff

https://www.nationalww2museum.org/students-teachers/student-resources/research-starters/research-starters-worldwide-deaths-world-war

https://runway.airforce.gov.au/resources/link-article/why-did-french-air-force-fail-1940

https://tanks-encyclopedia.com/ww2/france/ww2_french_tanks.php

https://www.sparknotes.com/history/european/interwaryears/section8/

https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-France-World-War-II

https://www.cheminsdememoire.gouv.fr/en/rallying-empire-free-france

https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/article/free-france-resurgent-charles-de-gaulle-in-world-war-ii/

https://www.britannica.com/event/Vichy-France

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/vichy-government-france-world-war-ii-willingly-collaborated-nazis-180967160/

https://warwriters.com/why-france-lost-in-1940/#:~:text=The%20following%20analysis%20concludes%20that,inferiority%2C%20and%20poor%20strategic%20leadership.

https://www.historytoday.com/reviews/history-french-resistance

HON HON HON HON, HON HON HON HON!

You won't change my mind!

The Kaiser's forces were brave but they lost.

The Japs were suicidal, but they lost too!

TheZhukov wrote:

You won't change my mind!

The Kaiser's forces were brave but they lost.

The Japs were suicidal, but they lost too!

Stop insulting the glorious Monke, who at least has an impressive history of tenacity

No monkey is cowardly, except aa French one

Counter Point:North Africans were in the French army, therefore they are based.

COUNTERSTRIKE: Under promise of independence, which was BROKEN

They gained it in the end, so there is that…

AFTER WARS OF INDEPENDENCE

Either way, the French people are not at fault, their soldiers actually fought hard! Blame the government, that’s what communists do best anyway!

can you do Italy

random

cool

Rate moment of car saying Fr*nce

France.

Carking the 6th wrote:

Yup, I finally got the nerve. It’s time for Baguette land. Their early surrender may make them look useless, but they played a large role in the war…

France after WW1 was a strange state. Its industrial areas were heavily damaged and its male population mutilated. France was in shambles but they had won. After the war the roaring 20’s did hit France, and they did see a boom in areas such as culture and even economically. Paris was a center of music, art and theater at this time. Even if the country had mostly rebuilt pretty quickly, the economy was still not exactly perfect and the political scene was almost as hellish as modern France. The large Right and even larger left wing slugging it out. This caused many problems and a political deadlock. Politics shifted from left to right, and the government was still almost bankrupt after the war, needing to rely on loans to survive. France has a large colonial empire, which it attempted (and failed) to assimilate, all while exploiting it and using many of its colonies men in the French army. Germany was heavily punished by France, and many restrictions with war reparations were forced on their former adversary, causing discontent in Germany. Unlike many other countries women did not gain suffrage in this time, and France was still living off the glory of winning The Great War.

Eventually the Great Depression hit France, causing turmoil. The French economy which was already garbage went to complete shit, and chaos hit the nation. Political division and some violence took place, loans and reparations from Germany were taken, but it did not prevent France from falling further into chaos. Xenophobia prevented migrant workers like the flood of educated Jews fleeing Adolf Shitlers reign of terror, which would have helped the economy and gave support against population decline. While the Great Depression in France was not as insane as other countries, it still had its effect and did not help the country through the 30’s.

Then the Year 1936 came. All these internal issues basically remained, but France still had an extremely powerful and advanced army, along with the Maginot, built to force the Germans through Belgium, keeping fighting away from France and reducing manpower needed to defend the country. This would help levitate the German population advantage over France. But still, just like the UK, France did not want to repeat World War One. They joined in on appeasement, and if there was one thing the divided country could agree on, it was that war should be prevented. So they (mostly, there were some incidents but nothing major) didn’t bat an eye as Shitler stopped paying reparations, remilitarized the the Rhineland, and took Austria. They joined in the Munich conference, letting Germany gobble up the Sudetenland. This was seen as a great compromise for peace, and very popular. Germany took things a tad bit too far though, and eventually took the rest of Czechoslovakia as well. France and the UK, which had been re-aligning together as Germany got more aggressive, decided that enough was enough. They correctly guessed that Germany would invade Poland, and promised to declare war if they did. It happened.

I should mention the French military. Before the war it was considered among the greatest on Earth (far better than in HWW…) with a decent Air Force (although weaker than the RAF or Luftwaffe) pretty good navy, and strong army. Their tanks like the Char B and D’S, FT tanks, AMC’s, and more were top of the line. France was the second largest tank producer behind only the Union. Their army was mostly conscripts, often equipped with weak weaponry. Their fleet was strong, but it was not super important in the land war France was about to fight. The real issue was the way the army was lead and its doctrine. The French military was top down; you had to follow orders, and deferring from them was not acceptable. Radios were not used, information was often still transported by vehicles like motorcycles. The way the Air Force was structured was strange and made sorties less consistent. Kinda like if patrols in the game sometimes did less damage or didn’t even do anything. Thanks to the government being broke, military funding was lower at times, helping make the army less effective. The way the army was structured simply did not work well, and it’s leadership kinda sucked. It helps explain what is about to happen.

Although they had declared war, the allies didn’t really help Poland, a minor French offensive into Germany was launched but it was weak and quickly repelled. These months of 1939, known as phony war took place as Germany could not attack France, and France themselves were too scared to move in. Meanwhile the allies mostly let the USSR wreak havoc in Poland and Finland, as there was little they could do. The British blunder when defending Norway sort of strained relations, and the BEF numbered in the hundreds of thousands in comparison millions of French forces. Eventually the Germans attacked, through the Benelux, like last time… maybe allies tactics about a repeat of ww1 were right… but wait! France’s slow reaction time due to forces needing to wait for orders to be approved and having no radio, along with the ww1 inspired tactic of spreading your (especially armored) forces out led to a successful German attack through the seemingly impassible Ardennes forests. The Germans almost get themselves cut out though, and it gave enough time for the BEF (and some French forces as well) to heroically abandon France, while the French army covered their retreat. The best of the allied forces were lost though, and Germany would end up quickly sweeping though France, taking Paris. It all happened in just one summer month. There were some ideas to keep France in the fight, like a Franco-British Union, but they were in vain. France would have to surrender, as fighting to the bitter end was pointless and would probably lead to Germany wreaking the country.

A surrender was signed in the same place the Treaty of Versailles was signed the first time, and it was humiliating. Many restrictions once placed on Germany, like only a 100k man army and an occupation zone taking all of Northern France. A collaboration government lead by Philippe Pétain, a WW1 war hero was made in Vichy, known as the French State. They would help the Nazis in many of their war crimes, sending Jews over and spreading Nazi ideology. The British were not happy with the Vichy French, and Churchill decided to sink French ships to prevent the Germans from getting them.

This provoked the Vichy French to fight against the allied powers, and they launched raids against Gibraltar while collaborating more with their puppet master. Germany meanwhile did some funny things, like stealing French art, changing the exchange rate of the German and French currency to around 1-20, rounding up people they didn’t like, and other forms of humiliation and oppression. Still, much French resistance took place, with many different organizations resisting the Germans by staging Assassinations, launching Raids against German forces, and gaining intel for the allies. Outside of France, a French general named Charles de Gaulle railed some French forces to fight the Germans and Vichy, and the Free France (later named Fighting French in 1942) government fought in practical every major European front, Even a bit in the USSR.