Nightmare of France. Why did the French surrender so easily to Hitler

147
Nightmare of France. Why did the French surrender so easily to Hitler

French prisoners of war

After Dunkirk, in fact, the Nazis did not have to fight: France was killed by fear. Horror swept the whole country. Instead of mobilizing and stiff resistance in the center of the country, fighting in the encirclement and big cities, while reserves are gathering in the south, the French chose to throw away the white flag and return to their old well-fed life.

Horror and panic


The fall of France happened almost the same as Belgium. The stunning defeat of the allies at the beginning of the campaign, the disaster of the best French divisions in Flanders. The shock and complete demoralization of French society and the army. If for the Belgians a stunning blow to consciousness was the fall of the “impregnable” fort Eben-Enamel and the defense line along the Albert Canal, then for France the Ardennes and Flanders became the same shock, the futility of the powerful and expensive Maginot line.



Before the start of the French campaign, the Germans conducted thorough reconnaissance and informational preparations. They studied French society, the state of the army, armored and artillery forces, defense systems and military industry. At the very beginning of the operation, German intelligence services hit the psychology of French society. On May 9-10, 1940, German agents staged a series of arson and sabotage. Weapon and explosives for saboteurs dropped airplanes of special Luftwaffe squadrons. The Germans, dressed in French uniforms, launched terrorist attacks in Abbeville, Reims, Dover and Paris. It is clear that they could not cause much damage. There were few saboteurs. However, the effect was powerful. The society began to panic, spy, searching for hidden agents and enemies. As previously in Holland and Belgium.

French society and the army came under information terror. Various scary rumors quickly spread throughout the country. Allegedly the ubiquitous "fifth column" operates throughout France. The troops are fired from houses, mysterious signals are transmitted. German paratroopers, who were practically not in France, land everywhere in the rear. Like, in the army they spread false orders. The officers who were to order the destruction of the bridges on Massa were killed by German saboteurs. In fact, the bridges blew up on time, the Nazis forced the river at hand.

As a result, masses of refugees swept the French army. Thousands of deserters joined them. Panic news hit the headquarters, rear and reserve units. German raids aviation exacerbated the chaos. Roads were clogged with crowds of people, abandoned weapons, equipment, wagons, military equipment.


German parade on the street of a French city


Abandoned french Tanks Hotchkiss H35 and Somua S35


German soldiers posing against the backdrop of the French giant tank Char 2C No. 99


The destroyed bridge in France

The collapse of the French army


On May 10, 1940, the German offensive in the West began. The allies at that moment had every opportunity to close the Ardennes. It was possible to allocate additional forces for the defense of this area, block, block the passages through the mountainous-wooded area. Throw additional aviation forces, bomb motorized columns of the enemy on narrow aisles and roads. As a result, the entire Hitler plan of the blitzkrieg was destroyed.

However, the Allies seemed to be blinded and unanimously fell into idiocy. On the eve of May 10, radio intelligence spotted the unusual activity of German stations in the Ardennes, where, as it seemed, there was a secondary section of the front. The Allies did not even conduct aerial reconnaissance of a dangerous direction. On the night of May 11, aerial reconnaissance discovered a motorized convoy in the Ardennes. The command considered this to be a "night illusion." The next day, aerial reconnaissance confirmed the data. Again, the command turned a blind eye to an obvious fact. Only on the 13th, having received a new series of aerial photographs, did the allies catch up and take up bombers in the air to bomb the enemy. But it was too late.

The boundary of the Meuse was to be held by the 9th French Army. The Germans appeared before her three days earlier than the French expected. It was a real shock to the French. In addition, they were already frightened by the stories of crowds of refugees and fleeing Belgian soldiers about the myriad hordes of German tanks. The French 9th Army consisted of minor divisions into which the reservists were called up (the best units were thrown to Belgium). The troops had few anti-tank weapons, and anti-aircraft cover was weak. The mechanized divisions of the French were in Belgium. And then the tanks and diving Yu-87 hit the French. Goering's pilots seized dominance in the air, mixed the French with the ground. Under their cover, tank divisions crossed the river. And there was nothing to meet them.

The hasty attempts of the French to put together a rear defensive line beyond the Meuse failed. Parts of the 2nd and 9th French armies were mixed, turned into crowds of refugees. The soldiers dropped their weapons and fled. Many demoralized groups were led by officers. The territory between Paris and the direction of the tank attack of the Germans drowned in chaos. Hundreds of thousands of refugees, soldiers from scattered, demoralized divisions rushed here. The panic actually destroyed two French armies. In Paris itself at that time they knew practically nothing about the situation on the northern sector of the front. Communication with the troops was lost. The command tried to find out the situation by ringing the postal and telegraph offices of those settlements where, according to proposals in the capital, the Nazis were moving. The news, often false, was late, and the French could not correctly respond to the threat.


Wehrmacht mobile command post. In the center of Heinz Guderian, at the bottom left is the Enigma encryption machine. The photo was taken on board the Sd.Kfz radio-controlled armored personnel carrier. 251/3


French guns captured by the Germans. In the foreground - 155/155 howitzers 13/XNUMX


Captured French Airfield

Thus, on May 15, the tanks of Kleist and Guderian broke through the defenses of the French. German mobile units took risks, did not wait for the infantry. The tanks rushed west, they raced along the highway, almost without resistance. After 5 km in 350 days, Guderian’s corps reached the English Channel on May 20. For the Allies, this was like a nightmare: the best French divisions and the expeditionary British army were cut off in Belgium and Flanders, deprived of communications. The Germans took a huge risk. If the Allies had competent command, initiative and brave commanders, prepared reserves in advance, then the breakthrough of the German tank divisions turned into a “cauldron" and a disaster for them, and Berlin had to put up urgently or surrender. However, the German commanders took a huge risk and won.

The French General Staff was paralyzed by the collapse of the entire outdated war strategy, the schemes of the times of the First World War, a mobile war not provided for in textbooks. France was not ready for the German blitzkrieg, the massive actions of the Panzervaffe and Luftwaffe. Although the French witnessed the Polish campaign and had an example of a mobile war. The French general underestimated the enemy. The French lived in the past, but got an adversary from the future.

The Germans were not afraid to concentrate tanks in attack groups. The Allies had more tanks than the Nazis, and the French tanks were better, more powerful. But the bulk of the French tanks was distributed between divisions, along the front. The mobile formations of the Germans acted swiftly, in isolation from the infantry. The slow adversary simply did not have time to react to a change in the operational situation. The flanks of the German armored divisions were open, but there was no one to strike at them. And when the Allies came to their senses somewhat, the Germans already managed to cover the flanks.

In addition, Goering aviation defended the flanks of tank divisions. The Luftwaffe was able to suppress the French Air Force with skillful attacks on airfields and a frantic intensity of sorties. German bombers attacked the railways, highways, and places of concentration of troops. With their blows they cleared the way for armored columns. On May 14, to prevent the enemy from crossing the Meuse, the Allies threw almost all air forces to the crossings. A fierce battle began to boil in the air. The Anglo-French were defeated. Air supremacy has become an important trump card for the Germans. Also, German aircraft became a real psi weapon. Howling dive-bombers became a nightmare for the French and British soldiers, for civilians who fled in droves inland into the country.

The millionth allied group was blocked by the sea. Weak counterattack attempts by the Germans fended off. The British decided that it was time to run overseas. The Belgian army surrendered. German tanks could crush stunned and demoralized enemies. However, Hitler stopped the moving parts, they were brought into the second line, they began to pull up artillery and tanks. They entrusted the rout of the Dunkirk group to Goering's hawks. As a result, most of the British escaped from the trap. The “Dunkirk Miracle” was caused by two main reasons. First, Hitler and his generals did not yet believe that the battle for France had already been won. It seemed that there was still a fierce battle for Central France. Tanks are needed to continue the campaign. Secondly, the Nazi elite did not want British blood. It was a kind of gesture of goodwill so that after the surrender of France, Germany and England could come to an agreement. And the extermination and capture of the British army in the Dunkirk region would harden the British elite and society. Therefore, the British nipped and allowed them to leave.

The catastrophe in the Ardennes and Flanders broke the French military-political leadership. Commander-in-Chief Weigan, with the support of the “Verdun Lion” Peten, was already thinking about surrender. The French elite (with rare exceptions) refused resistance and did not raise the people to battle to the last drop of blood, refused the possibility of evacuating the government, part of the army, reserves, reserves and fleet from the mother country to the colony to continue the struggle.


German tank Pz.Kpfw. IV during the crossing of the river Meuse in the area of ​​the French city of Sedan


Soldiers of the motorized division of the SS "Dead Head" at a halt in France


Captured French tankers pull their dead comrades out of the wrecked tanks (judging by the fact that the prisoners on their faces have handkerchiefs to protect them from the smell of decomposition). The Germans often used prisoners for such "dirty" work. Tanks in the picture - French medium tanks Char D2


German diving bombers "Junkers" U-87 from the Immelman squadron (StG2 "Immelmann") in the sky of France

Refugees paralyzed the country


After Dunkirk, in fact, the Nazis did not have to fight. France was killed by fear. Horror swept the whole country. The press, describing various nightmares, mostly invented, false, involuntarily worked for Hitler. First, the French were treated with a series of rumors from Holland and Belgium, then a wave of horror from France itself went. Dozens of paratrooper scouts have turned into hundreds and thousands. The French simply raved about with German paratroopers, who captured entire cities from them. Small groups of agents and spies, who carried out several sabotage, turned into the ubiquitous and multi-thousandth “fifth column”.

On the night of May 15-16, Paris learned about the defeat of the 9th Army. The road to the capital was open. Then they still did not know that German tanks would rush to the coast, and not to Paris. An animal panic began in the city. Masses rushed out of the city. Nobody thought about the defense of the capital of France. Taxis disappeared - people ran to them. The government made panicky statements, exacerbating the chaos. So, on May 21, Prime Minister Paul Reynaud announced that the bridges over the Meuse were not blown up due to inexplicable errors (in fact, they were destroyed). The head of government spoke of false news, of treason, sabotage and cowardice. General Korap called the commander of the 9th Army a traitor (later the general was acquitted).

This hysteria spurred general madness. Traitors and agents have been seen everywhere. Millions of people poured from north and east to northwest, west and south of France. We ran on trains, buses, taxis, carts and on foot. The panic took the form of "save, who can!" Normandy, Brittany and Southern France were crammed with people. Trying to cope with human waves, the French Civil Defense Corps, hastily created on May 17, began to block roads. They tried to check refugees, searched for agents and saboteurs. As a result, a new wave of fear and monstrous traffic jams on major roads.

In fact, France capitulated out of fear. Instead of mobilizing and stiff resistance in the center of the country, fighting in the encirclement and big cities, while reserves are gathering in the south, the French chose to throw away the white flag and return to their old well-fed life. In fact, the Reich could not fight for a long time at the same pace. Everything was built on the basis of lightning war. The German economy was not mobilized, military supplies and fuel were already running out. Germany could not continue the battle on the ruins of France.

However, the advancing German divisions almost did not meet strong and organized resistance. Although the large cities of France, if there were combat-ready units and decisive, tough commanders like de Gaulle, could have detained the enemy for a long time. Obviously, the Germans themselves did not expect such an effect from a combination of informational, psychological and military methods of war. Neither the massive bombing of cities, nor the demonstrative pogroms of individual cities in the spirit of Warsaw and Rotterdam, nor the psychic threatening flights of bombers, like over Copenhagen and Oslo, were needed. The French were paralyzed. Moreover, Hitler did not have modern tools to suppress and enslave people (such as the Internet network, CNN and BBC networks). The Germans managed with relatively simple means and won.

In France, as previously in Belgium, a mental catastrophe occurred. Any strange phenomenon was attributed to spies. Many foreigners were suspected of being “enemy agents” and suffered. Panic and fear gave rise to hallucinations and aggression. Many French were sure that they saw paratroopers (which were not). Civilians, and indeed soldiers, foiled their fear on the innocent, who fell under the hot hand, and who were mistaken for paratroopers and spies. In some cases, monks and priests were persecuted. The press wrote that in Holland and Belgium, paratroopers and enemy agents dressed in the clothes of the clergy. It happened that the peasants beat the French and British pilots who escaped from the downed planes.

Thousands of people in France were arrested, deported and imprisoned. They were mistaken for representatives of the “fifth column”. German citizens, Flemish and Breton nationalists, Alsatians, foreigners in general, Jews (including refugees from Germany), communists, anarchists and all the "suspicious" were in its ranks. Concentration camps were organized for them in France. In particular, such camps were created in the area of ​​the Pyrenees. When Italy entered the war on Hitler’s side on June 10, thousands of Italians were thrown into camps. Tens of thousands of people were arrested. Some were thrown into prisons and sent to concentration camps, others were sent to labor battalions and the Foreign Legion (large French penal battalion), and others to the mines of Morocco.

Thus, fear and panic broke France. They made the French elite capitulate. The huge military-economic potential of the country and the colonial empire were not used to fight not for life, but for death. Hitler defeated by relatively small forces and minimal losses. The former leading power of Western Europe has fallen. The Hitlerites got an entire country almost without loss, with cities and industry, ports and transport infrastructure, supplies and arsenals. This victory inspired the Nazis unprecedentedly. They felt like invincible warriors, before whom the whole world trembles, for which there are no more barriers. In Germany itself, Hitler was deified.

The Führer showed the Germans that a war might not be protracted, bloody and hungry, but swift and easy. Victory in the West was achieved with minimal losses, material costs, without mobilization tension. For most of Germany, nothing had changed at that time, a peaceful life continued. Hitler was at the pinnacle of fame, he was adored. Even the German generals, who were terribly afraid of the war with France and England and plotted against the Fuhrer, now forgot about their plans and celebrated the victory.


German soldiers with captured French reconnaissance bomber Amiot 143


Captured French soldiers, among them several blacks from the French colonial units


A column of captured French soldiers. Among them are many Africans from the French colonial units.


Wehrmacht soldiers "wash" the rewards received for the campaign in France
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  1. +25
    16 June 2020 06: 07
    Thanks to the author. Very interesting
    It is much more interesting that these same French from the French army immediately went to serve the Nazis and at once felt invincible. Somehow they suddenly became employees not of a broken army, but of a victorious army.
    And how did these French atrocities on the * eastern front *. As they began to boast of their belonging to * Aryans *.
    But after their owner was destroyed, all of these suddenly declared themselves * resistance *. Even those who committed atrocities by killing SOVIET citizens, even those who pacified slaves in the colonies. They all suddenly became * resistance *, and even began to hang orders and medals to each other.
    And how did the same French then destroy the Germans, on those lands that they grabbed. They destroyed the very Germans before whom they reverently and sincerely worshiped.
  2. +6
    16 June 2020 06: 07
    How much tougher we had.
    1. +2
      20 June 2020 13: 43
      It is clear to everyone why they gave up quickly. To spoil Hitler’s mood, that he would have nothing to boast about. Like, they rested, but we still put them cancer. And then fig with poppy. They came, and all the French are already cancer. So do not kiss them in cancer. The Germans spat and scattered around the pubs and cinemas. And the custodians began to give a plan and almost thwarted the economy of the Germans, they did not have enough stamps to pay for their products. And they began to pay them in storage.
      1. 0
        21 June 2020 14: 30
        Didn't you spend an hour writing the script for the "sparkling" "To Paris"?
  3. +20
    16 June 2020 06: 19
    All this is true, but this is not the main thing. All of Europe capitulated to Hitler primarily because he promised to go east. Everything that happened in France is nothing more than a punishment for the Versailles shame, and the provision of Germany's rear before the Eastern campaign. The French, like the rest of Europe, simply had no reason to fight Hitler in any serious way. They were not threatened with physical extermination and clearing of "living space". The whole war, which we know today under the name "World War II", was originally conceived and prepared specifically against Russia. And Europe before Hitler only broke a little, like a girl. For decency.
    1. 0
      16 June 2020 11: 45
      Quote: Pavel73
      All Europe capitulated to Hitler primarily because he promised to go east

      Let me remind you that in the spring of 40th, England and France are considering options for attacking the USSR. The USSR has a very peculiar neutrality.
      Quote: Pavel73
      there was simply no reason for any serious war against Hitler

      France and Germany are two of Europe’s most warring countries.
      1. +2
        16 June 2020 11: 57
        We'll have to repeat: this is just a squabble for power in Europe. About any conquest of the territory of France for "living space" and even more about the extermination of its population and there was no talk. Hitler has repeatedly stated that they, the Nazis, stop their movement to the west and south of Europe, and turn to the east, and specifically to Russia, which is "a colossus with feet of clay." As for France, she is an enemy that needs to be punished and secured. And nothing more. France and Germany are not war. This is bickering.
        1. -20
          16 June 2020 12: 28
          Quote: Pavel73
          more about the extermination of its population and speech was not. Hitler has repeatedly stated that they, the Nazis, stop their movement to the west and south of Europe, and turn to the east, and specifically to Russia, which is "a colossus with feet of clay."

          Wow, what nasty things Hitler said.

          And comrade Molotov, who came to Berlin in November 40 to share the world, did he hear everything?
          1. +14
            16 June 2020 16: 15
            And comrade. Molotov and Comrade Stalin, of course, heard it all. And seeing that the rest of the West had reached an agreement with Hitler long ago, they delayed the inevitable German attack on us as best they could. I managed to win for two years. During this time, the following were created: T-34, KV, Il-2, Yak-1, PPSh, BM-13, and much more that would later be called the weapon of Victory. And no one "divided" any world.
            1. -13
              17 June 2020 10: 05
              All pretentious rhetoric is expectedly reduced to mantras about the genius of Comrade Stalin, "under-rearmed" and other poster stamps. Do you ever crawl out of your mental tunnel? Have you tried looking a little wider?
              1. 0
                17 June 2020 10: 35
                What does Stalin's genius have to do with it? Stalin was just sane. That is why he did not expect a German attack on June 22, 1941. But Hitler was not sane. That is why he attacked us. A fool's actions are unpredictable. And it has nothing to do with "under-rearmament". The catastrophe of June 1941, just like December 1941 for the Americans, is due to the same reason: no one expected an attack either on that particular day or in the coming days.
                1. -6
                  17 June 2020 12: 44
                  Quote: Pavel73
                  Stalin was just sane. That is why he did not expect a German attack on June 22, 1941

                  Ingenious. Top of sanity
                  Quote: Pavel73
                  The crash of June 1941, just like December 1941 for the Americans, is caused by one and the same reason: no one expected the attack either on this particular day or in the coming days.

                  Enough of these rumors about 'treachery' already. For a country preparing to fight, all these excuses are nothing more than the pathetic babble of a loser.
                  And it is not correct, kmk, to compare the disaster of the Red Army of 1941 with the action of the imperial fleet in PX, neither in scale nor in hypothetical consequences.
                  1. +1
                    17 June 2020 13: 04
                    It is very correct, and the consequences are very similar: after that we could not cope with the Germans for 4 years, and the Americans for 4 years could not cope with the Japanese. And "treachery" has nothing to do with it either: we knew perfectly well that the Germans would attack. But it was on June 22, 1941 that no one expected this attack. Neither June 22, nor in the coming days. The argument is reinforced concrete: the Germans are fighting with the British, they have no time for us now. When they finish, then we can expect an attack at any moment. And it is possible that they will attack along with these same Englishmen, with whom they have just fought.
                    1. -5
                      17 June 2020 20: 08
                      Quote: Pavel73
                      Americans 4 years could not cope with the Japanese

                      Japanese and Germans.

                      But what does America have to do with it? Do you generally understand how little in common the USA and the USSR had for the 41st year?
                      1. +1
                        17 June 2020 20: 12
                        I am not talking about the similarity of the USSR and the USA for 41 years, but about the similarity of situations with the attack of enemies. Both we and the Americans were in absolute confidence that the enemy would not dare to attack. For which they paid.
                      2. 0
                        18 June 2020 00: 48
                        Quote: Pavel73
                        but about the similarity of situations with the attack of enemies

                        Ugums. The circumstances really surprisingly coincide, but it is much funnier than you would like.

                        What President Roosevelt just did not do to get into this war. In general, he did everything, except for two little things that he forgot about. America did not have an army or a fleet (yes, there was no fleet either, all of a sudden).

                        Quote: Pavel73
                        Both we and the Americans were in absolute confidence that the enemy would not dare to attack.

                        And you, I see, generally with no concept of circumstances, that June 22, that PX.
                      3. +1
                        18 June 2020 04: 51
                        I'm with a concept. But you, I see, no.
                      4. IC
                        +1
                        20 June 2020 00: 12
                        The general is only the complete distribution of political and military leadership. The difference is that the Americans did not notice the squadron in the ocean, the USSR more than a hundred divisions under their noses. And the result, the loss of part of the fleet’s ships, on the other hand, the defeat of the army, millions of prisoners and the enemy near Moscow
                      5. 0
                        20 June 2020 09: 03
                        Quote: IMS
                        General only complete distribution

                        I mean a wider context. Politicians of both countries cooked very steep porridge, completely failing the actual military aspect of the work. As for PX, this is a minor nuisance amid the fact that the Army did not know and did not want to know about the plans of the fleet, and vice versa.

                        The plans of the fleet did not imply any protection for the Philippines. Army plans did not involve evacuation from there.
                      6. +1
                        18 June 2020 22: 25
                        Is it the same valiant Yankees before the age of 44 they fought with the Germans?
                      7. -1
                        19 June 2020 00: 30
                        Quote: MORDVIN13rus
                        Is it the same valiant Yankees before the age of 44 they fought with the Germans?

                        Believe it or not, in March 41 Roosevelt's understanding of the word "neutrality" reached the level of supplying one of the warring parties with weapons at the expense of the US government. Somewhat earlier, they began to take part in the war. volunteers retaining the rank and position in the US Armed Forces. See miners, tractor drivers and their endless ammo.

                        By the way, what did the USSR do in March of the 41st?
                      8. 0
                        23 June 2020 22: 01
                        So all the same, the question can be answered, in what battles did the USA Supreme Army take part against the Wehrmacht, before 44 years old?
                      9. 0
                        24 June 2020 05: 56
                        You see, dear friend.

                        Until the 44th year, the Navy did not take part, but kicked one of the three Axis countries from the war. Yes, not only, to put it mildly, by military feats, they achieved this, but nevertheless provided the result.

                        As regards battles, a small contribution to the treasury of knowledge.

                        In the Battle of Stalingrad, the losses of the Wehrmacht amounted to about 350 thousand people (6A, 4TA, GA "Don") *.

                        In Tunisia (where is it? What is this?) Wehrmacht lost approx. 250 thousand in common.

                        Live now with this.

                        * If you have a desire to send me German losses to the ruvik - no need.
                      10. -2
                        24 June 2020 19: 58
                        You forgot how to read Russian, that you do not understand the meaning of the words, I can write you in German, French, well, or in my own language. I asked you a specific question, so why are you trying to answer? Or now this feature of all liberalists.
                      11. +1
                        24 June 2020 22: 07
                        Firstly, dear Mordvin13, it is customary to call strangers in Fido and Tyndere. So you went a little bit wrong.

                        Secondly, if you know nothing about the African and Italian campaigns of the Allies, you can find out for yourself. There is no need to copy wikis here.
                      12. -2
                        24 June 2020 22: 38
                        I know very well that only on a direct concrete question, there was no direct and concrete answer. It started:

                        Quote:
                        Believe it or not, in March 41 Roosevelt's understanding of the word "neutrality" reached the level of arms supplies to one of the warring parties at the expense of the US government. Somewhat earlier, volunteers began to take part in the war, retaining their rank and position in the US Armed Forces. See miners, tractor drivers and their endless cartridges.

                        By the way, what did the USSR do in March of the 41st?

                        You see, dear friend.

                        Until the 44th year, the Navy did not take part, but kicked one of the three Axis countries from the war. Yes, not only, to put it mildly, by military feats, they achieved this, but nevertheless provided the result.

                        As regards battles, a small contribution to the treasury of knowledge.

                        In the Battle of Stalingrad, the losses of the Wehrmacht amounted to about 350 thousand people (6A, 4TA, GA "Don") *.

                        In Tunisia (where is it? What is this?) Wehrmacht lost approx. 250 thousand in common.

                        Live now with this.

                        * If you have a desire to send me German losses to the ruvik - no need.
                    2. 0
                      18 September 2020 18: 09
                      They were waiting. On the night of June 17-18, 1941, a directive was sent to the border districts on bringing the troops to combat readiness and on the forthcoming, within the next five days, Germany's attack on the USSR.
                  2. 0
                    24 June 2020 05: 24
                    And here is one question. At least someone could normally resist at least someone in the event of an unexpected attack? Not even in World War II?
          2. 0
            2 August 2020 08: 57
            Quote: Pavel73
            more about the extermination of its population and speech was not. Hitler has repeatedly stated that they, the Nazis, stop their movement to the west and south of Europe, and turn to the east, and specifically to Russia, which is "a colossus with feet of clay."

            Wow, what nasty things Hitler said.

            And comrade Molotov, who came to Berlin in November 40 to share the world, did he hear everything?
            _______________________
            And he had a CHOICE, not to come?
            Even 1 day of NOT WAR for the USSR was worth the weight of diamonds, in the end it was necessary to fight for YOURSELF and the cowardly coves of Europe.
      2. +6
        16 June 2020 16: 21
        And "considering options" is liberal demagogy. They have intentions - that's what matters. They had no such intentions. But they did everything to get Hitler to attack us. And only Churchill understood that if the Nazis defeated us, then England would be the next victim after Russia.
      3. 0
        17 June 2020 17: 01
        Especially for Alsace and Lorraine. The first clashes over these territories began at the end of the XNUMXth and beginning of the XNUMXth centuries. It was no accident that Petain presented the course of world history as an eternal Franco-German confrontation.
      4. 0
        20 June 2020 13: 47
        Right! When the phrase-writers started a revolution in 1870, the bourgeoisie of the Storage called the Germans and they quickly killed everything. They shot a lot of custodians, but did not touch the bourgeois. Thus, the bourgeois received the Storage back, and the Germans received money for the work.
  4. +2
    16 June 2020 06: 20
    "The Germans took a huge risk" - they acted according to the Suvorov formula: eye, speed, onslaught.
  5. +15
    16 June 2020 06: 34
    Thousands of people in France were arrested, deported and imprisoned. They were mistaken for representatives of the “fifth column”. German citizens, Flemish and Breton nationalists, Alsatians, foreigners in general, Jews (including refugees from Germany), communists, anarchists and all the "suspicious" were in its ranks. Concentration camps were organized for them in France.[i] [/ i]


    And after all, no one in the "civilized" west moans about the terrible repression of the French government against its citizens.
    1. +2
      17 June 2020 04: 10
      But this is another matter, one must understand!
  6. -9
    16 June 2020 06: 38
    The last time the French fought was in 1812. Even commanded by the French, a short Corsican. Since then, they have had a fear of every army. They should drink some wine, and hold their aunts in Versailles. Not warriors. They have no historical code for the "army". And their vaunted foreign legion is only capable of fighting baboons. Germans are another matter .....
    1. +4
      16 June 2020 06: 40
      Quote: Andrey Nikolaevich
      The last time the French fought in 1812.


      Crimean war does not count?
      1. -5
        16 June 2020 06: 54
        Nope, not counting. There the British commanded, despite the fact that the French seemed to have a commander in chief (present).
        In general, that war was amazing. British-French-Italians fought in the North, the Baltic, the Far East and the Black Sea. Wash your blood everywhere. Including the Black Sea. But the king with his foreign minister, who was an Austrian subject, decided to surrender.
        And so the French participated in this war, did not suppress slaves in the colonies, but actually fought in 1945. When defended Berlin with Hitler.
        1. +8
          16 June 2020 08: 25
          Hmm, interesting t.z. I will not argue, perhaps I will remain with my opinion. You can of course recall the Franco-Prussian war, but there the French apparently also did not fight .... hi
          1. +3
            16 June 2020 14: 54
            I’ll continue your thought, you can add the first world war to all of the above (8 million fought, more than a million died in France, and even with the Germans). hi
        2. +2
          16 June 2020 12: 17
          In general, that war was amazing.

          Only your ideas about her are more surprising. Share evidence of how James Simpson commanded Pelisier’s actions? Well, you obviously know the orders of Lord Raglan to Marshal Saint Arno. Yes, it pulls on a doctor’s. Tarle, Zayonchkovsky and Bogdanovich bite their elbows.
          And so the French participated in this war, did not suppress slaves in the colonies, but actually fought in 1945. When defended Berlin with Hitler.

          Well, okay, it's the 19th century. Near Verdun in 1916 it was still "not real", the Germans were fake.
          1. +2
            16 June 2020 13: 49
            87
            About the war in the Crimea, there are many things that the British and French wrote. It is especially worth paying attention to the complaints of the French on HOW exactly the British USED the French. Instructive
            About Franco-Prussian, too, a lot of things can be found and all this does not paint the French. To defend their own homeland, they were NOT IN STATE, and then it was: both surrender and payment of indemnity.
            About how the French fought in the WWI, it also reminds one very much of an operetta, especially in the light of rowing from slave colonies under a gun, well, at the same time, they demanded from Nikolai No. 2 RUSSIAN troops, recalling debts.
            It is especially disgusting that RUSSIAN soldiers and officers were commanded as their own slaves recruited in the colonies.
            1. +1
              16 June 2020 14: 29
              50th
              About the war in the Crimea, there are many things that the British and French wrote. It is especially worth paying attention to the complaints of the French on HOW exactly the British USED the French. Instructive

              So I do not mind at all, share information. How exactly did the British carry out the leadership of the French troops during the Crimean campaign. Any field battle of your choice, assault, siege work. At the same time, it will not be difficult for you to illustrate the cowardice of the French, who "only know how to fight with blacks." You can even exclusively on Russian sources. And yes, the British also complained about the French. Both of them complained about the Turks. AND?
              Well, we will not take the war with the Austrians in 1859 either, "these are the Austrians."
              About Franco-Prussian, too, a lot of things can be found and all this does not paint the French.

              like any defeat does not color the losers. It depends on what to look for. The soldiers and junior officers fought excellently, which the Prussians themselves admitted. By the way, it was in 1870 that the French had a massive gathering of militias, a government of national defense, a long siege of the capital, and a war in the center of the country. This is what made it possible to conclude a world that was difficult but unconditional surrender cannot be called.
              about how the French fought in WWI, too, very much like an operetta

              Well, if you Marne, Somme, Verdun resemble an operetta, then you have some strange idea of ​​this genre.
              Well the rest is your emotions, sorry.
            2. 0
              17 June 2020 18: 00
              Quote: Vasily50
              About how the French fought in WWI, too, very much an operetta reminds


              one must be either a moron or a scoundrel to blurt out such a thing.
      2. +2
        16 June 2020 08: 32
        Quote: Alexey Alexandrovich
        Crimean war does not count?

        Why, everything counts, as well as the Franco-Prussian war of 1870, when the Prussians tore the French as a "hot water bottle". Perhaps this fear was passed on to the French during WWII.
      3. +2
        16 June 2020 17: 01
        Quote: Alexey Alexandrovich
        The last time the French fought in 1812.


        Crimean war does not count?

        And the first world?
    2. +21
      16 June 2020 07: 26
      Last time, the French fought in 1812

      World War I looks at you in bewilderment.
      1. -1
        16 June 2020 11: 58
        The Soviet people did not have the first world war.
        1. +1
          16 June 2020 11: 59
          Read carefully, the original post about the French.
          1. +3
            16 June 2020 12: 31
            I do not argue with you. It also amuses me when the Russians talk about the pacifists of the French.
        2. 0
          16 June 2020 23: 13
          "The Soviet people did not have the First World War."
          And the Russians? When did the "people get tired" and rushed to divide the landowners' lands?
    3. +11
      16 June 2020 08: 11
      Quote: Andrey Nikolaevich
      shorty corsican

      Napoleon's height is 169 cm. According to our times, the average (for acceleration), for those - a tall man. He looked "shorty" only against the background of his grenadiers, where exceptionally tall recruits were selected.
    4. +4
      16 June 2020 09: 03
      How cute PMV forgot ...
      1. +10
        16 June 2020 11: 10
        Quote: smaug78
        How cute PMV forgot ...

        This is a statistical error that should not shake the coherent theory of French cowardice. smile
        1. +2
          16 June 2020 11: 45
          And don’t say they’re like conspirators ...
    5. +3
      16 June 2020 12: 06
      Well, you are bent, but what about the First World War?
    6. -1
      17 June 2020 10: 07
      n ... c, historian from God.
    7. +1
      17 June 2020 12: 42
      Quote: Andrey Nikolaevich
      The last time the French fought in 1812.

      belay And what about the First World War?
      1. 0
        17 June 2020 13: 52
        And with Franco-Prussian?
        1. +1
          17 June 2020 14: 05
          Quote: Dr. Frankenshtuzer
          And with Franco-Prussian?

          And besides this, there are a lot of colonial raids, where the troops also waged war
  7. +3
    16 June 2020 07: 32
    It remains to find out from the author the defense of which cities delayed the advancing enemy, for how long (not to mention the required resources) does the author consider it possible to form and minimum combat training of new units / formations?
    1. +6
      16 June 2020 10: 15
      France began to fight Germany not in May 1940, but in September 1939. For eight months the so-called. "strange" war could strengthen the defense and the reserves to train and prepare. Everything could be done if desired.
      1. +4
        16 June 2020 11: 04
        France began to fight Germany not in May 1940, but in September 1939.

        Exactly! And not since September 1939, but with the remilitarization of the Rhine region, it was possible to prepare for a conflict with the Reich. In their situation, measures had to be taken before MAY 1940, then it was too late, the experience of the spacecraft in the summer and winter of 1941 was not suitable for the French. Order beats the class, ceteris paribus personal courage cannot defeat better organization.
        1. +3
          16 June 2020 12: 18
          Quote: strannik1985
          And not since September 1939, but with the remilitarization of the Rhine region, it was possible to prepare for a conflict with the Reich

          They were getting ready. Since September 39th, the government of Daladier was measured on Reynaud. Since March 36th, remilitarization, they have changed another 6 governments.

          You do not understand what mess is going on in the third republic. For WWI, they managed to change 7 governments, how they won with such pies in general - it is not clear.
          1. -1
            16 June 2020 12: 20
            They were getting ready.

            And all these governments treated Germany the same way - they allowed to occupy Austria, Czechoslovakia, surrendered Poland. Face preparation.
            1. +2
              16 June 2020 12: 39
              Most of these governments did not have time to remember where whose office. Daladier, whom Munich is fond of remembering, held his post for half a year at that time, and in two and a half years of premiership he changed 3 members of the government.
  8. +2
    16 June 2020 07: 37
    The German sergeant major defeated the French petty owner - the bourgeois. A European is personally brave only when he will not get anything for it. Will remain a whole bistro in Montmartre, or a house in "Skylarks, with a cow and a hog" - that's what the Frenchman was thinking. The Russian man is a destitute fatalist, and this makes it seem unrecognizable to any foreigner. And everything incomprehensible causes fear. There is in us an inexplicable thirst for destruction and fanatical stubbornness. I think the whole world shudders, looking at the destroyed Donbass, the airport, and at the same stubborn Ukrainians (after all, they are also Russians) in Debaltseve ...
    1. +2
      16 June 2020 07: 59
      A European personally brave only then

      And then adherents of such theories are cited as an example of the summer - autumn campaign of the Wehrmacht in 1941 and the srach begins. After all, in order to exchange territory for an enemy army, it took several "Frances" in area.
      1. +9
        16 June 2020 09: 39
        Quote: strannik1985
        and srach begins.

        General Gunter Blumentritt, chief of staff of the 4 Army: “The behavior of the Russians, even in the first battle, was strikingly different from the behavior of the Poles and allies who were defeated on the Western Front. Even being in the circle of encirclement, the Russians stubbornly defended themselves. ”
        The author of the book writes: “The experience of the Polish and Western campaigns suggested that the success of the blitzkrieg strategy was to gain advantages by more skillful maneuvering. Even if you leave the resources outside the brackets, morale and the will to resist the enemy will inevitably be broken under the pressure of enormous and meaningless losses. From here logically follows the mass surrender of those who were surrounded by demoralized soldiers. In Russia, these “elementary” truths were turned upside down by a desperate, sometimes reaching fanaticism, Russian resistance in seemingly hopeless situations. That is why half of the Germans' offensive potential did not go to advance towards the set goal, but to consolidate the existing successes. ”
        One of the soldiers of Army Group Center on August 20 lamented: "The losses are terrible, do not compare with those that were in France." Starting July 23, his company took part in the battles for “Tank Highway No. 1”. “Today our road, tomorrow the Russians take it, then again we, and so on. I have never seen anyone meaner than these Russians. Real chain dogs! You never know what to expect from them. And where do tanks and everything else come from? ”
        Major General Hoffmann von Waldau, chief of staff of the Luftwaffe command 9 days after the start of the war, wrote in his diary: "The quality level of Soviet pilots is much higher than expected ... Fierce resistance, its mass character does not correspond to our initial assumptions." This was confirmed by the first air rams. Kershaw quotes the words of one Luftwaffe colonel: “Soviet pilots are fatalists, they fight to the end without any hope of victory or even survival, driven either by their own fanaticism or by the fear of the commissars waiting for them on earth.”
        Tanker of the 12th Panzer Division Hans Becker: “On the Eastern Front, I met people who can be called a special race. Already the first attack turned into a battle not for life, but for death. ”
        The following episodes made a depressing impression on the advancing troops: after a successful breakthrough of the frontier defense, the 3rd battalion of the 18th infantry regiment of Army Group Center, numbering 800 people, was fired upon by a unit of 5 soldiers. “I did not expect anything like this,” Major Neuhof admitted to his battalion doctor, the battalion commander. “It is sheer suicide to attack the forces of the battalion with five fighters.”
        In mid-November 1941, one infantry officer of the 7th Panzer Division, when his unit burst into Russian-defended positions in a village near the Lama River, described the resistance of the Red Army. “You just won’t believe this until you see it with your own eyes. The soldiers of the Red Army, even burning alive, continued to shoot from the blazing houses. "
        1. +5
          16 June 2020 10: 00
          General Gunther Blumentritt

          These are emotional assessments. The numbers suggest otherwise. For example, the Germans launched Operation Gelb on May 10, defeated the allies in northern France by 31 and pushed them to the sea, Duisburg - Dunkirk ~ 340 km, June 22, 1941 begin Barbarossa by July 12, GA Sever Klaipeda - Pskov ~ 585 km , GA "Center" Brest - Smolensk ~ 627 km, GA "Yug" Rava-Russkaya - Zhitomir ~ 445 km.
          1. +3
            16 June 2020 10: 15
            Quote: strannik1985
            GA "Center" Brest - Smolensk ~ 627 km

            Another 300 km to Moscow, and the Germans ran out.

            The Germans thought in all seriousness in terms of European wars - they generously dealt with France, the Benelux and Poland, offered an honorable peace to England, and, leaning against Russia, seriously considered the possibility of "enforcing peace." Only the British fascists quickly realized that if they did not destroy the German fascists now (by the hands of the Russians), then they would no longer pull the third world war, and did not go to peace.
          2. -3
            16 June 2020 10: 27
            So this, the Germans often marched, in marching columns, so to speak, without encountering resistance, because there were no Soviet troops on their way. The Germans simply went around our fortified areas, taking them into the environment.
            So it is not necessary in this case to juggle kilometers. It is not right.
            1. +4
              16 June 2020 10: 57
              It is not right.

              How will be correct? Losses are also not in favor of KA request
              1. +3
                16 June 2020 11: 05
                Losses are clearly not in favor of the SC. But for the spacecraft, unlike the French and its allies, 22.06.41 was definitely a surprise. But what if by the indicated date the spacecraft was mobilized and deployed according to dispositions? I understand that what happened cannot be changed, but to suppose nothing prevents us. I think the Germans would hardly have reached Moscow.
                1. -2
                  16 June 2020 12: 04
                  But what if by the indicated date the spacecraft was mobilized and deployed according to dispositions?

                  Better, but nothing good. Blind defense, especially on the fronts scale, has no prospects, see the Battle of Kursk (despite the fact that a large offensive group was sitting on the defensive).
                  Ideally, for the spacecraft arr. 1941, it is necessary to launch an offensive before the Germans, then "Barbarossa" will be disrupted, there will be time for mobilization, perhaps they will not give up the MK.
                  1. +2
                    16 June 2020 12: 19
                    What does "blind" defense mean? Even in 41st, the Red Army tried to counterattack the Germans whenever possible. Often these unprepared counterattacks were worth heavy losses, but the Germans were knocked out of the rut.
                    And in the end, it was strong defense that allowed the spacecraft to accumulate reserves and ultimately go on the offensive. They were not always successful, but often they were satisfied. Moscow, Stalingrad, Kursk. Everywhere there was first defense.
                    I am sure that a spacecraft ready for war would fight at least as badly as taken by surprise by an army, which it was in the summer of 41.
                    1. 0
                      25 June 2020 11: 49
                      Just for your reference, so called. The "strong defense" near Kursk was attacked at its weakest point and ground to powder in the shortest possible time. Counterattacks saved the situation. In other places, there was simply no talk of defense densities comparable to those of Kursk.
                2. +4
                  16 June 2020 20: 00
                  By 22.06.1941/157/12, the Germans pulled 1940 divisions and XNUMX brigades to the Soviet-German border - didn't you notice? The attack was unexpected for the Supreme Headquarters - maybe they thought the Germans would first "push" and "ask for a smoke" - and they (the Germans) immediately "feather in the side" ... on the example of the war in Europe in XNUMX, it was necessary to draw a conclusion - the Wehrmacht would start a war without "swinging", but I will not argue about what the USSR leadership was thinking.
                  1. +5
                    16 June 2020 21: 48
                    ,,, yes there were plans, they did not have time to deploy.

                  2. 0
                    25 June 2020 11: 46
                    All noticed. Fur compounds appeared in June. About what, for example, there was a TASS message.
          3. +4
            16 June 2020 11: 00
            What about this number?
            The war of Germany by the allies was declared in early September, and real hostilities began only in May. In other words, the preparation was 9 months.
            1. +2
              16 June 2020 11: 07
              What about this figure?

              That's right, instead of territory and resources, the allies had their own advantages, which they, for various reasons, did not use. Reluctance to fight is just a convenient excuse for French politicians and generals, they also got the "wrong people" laughing
              1. 0
                16 June 2020 11: 13
                Quote: strannik1985
                instead of territory and resources from allies

                Actually with territory and resources in the British and French colonial empires, everything was very good. According to these criteria, any of them was quite comparable with the USSR, and only together ...
                1. 0
                  16 June 2020 11: 20
                  According to these criteria, any of them was quite comparable with the USSR

                  Moreover, what is the question? laughing Was Free / Fighting France? It was. So the French did not give up request
                  1. +2
                    16 June 2020 11: 38
                    Quote: strannik1985
                    Was Free / Fighting France?

                    Yeah. three cripples in six lines.
          4. +9
            16 June 2020 11: 49
            Do not replicate liberal agitation.

            The Germans launched an offensive operation against France after the last 10 months was at war, mobilized, received military assistance from Britain, etc. etc.

            The Germans attacked the USSR without declaring war, being completely mobilized in conditions of incomplete Soviet mobilization. At the same time, the multiple rear depth of the USSR in comparison with France was completely compensated by the multiple length of the Eastern Front, which allowed the Germans to tear it almost anywhere.

            And yes: the highest operational and average daily rates of an offensive in WWII were not demonstrated by the Wehrmacht (suddenly), but by the Red Army in the Vistula-Oder and Berlin operations - in the conditions of a short front and fierce resistance of the enemy in their territory prepared for defense.
          5. +4
            16 June 2020 12: 17
            Do you know how the war in France differs from the USSR? First, in France there was a not very long front, which allowed the French to block dangerous sections, while the forces of France and the USSR at the beginning of the operations were approximately equal, and the front was different at times. Our entourage fought for weeks, months, drawing together the strength of the Germans. Is it worth talking about the surprise attack on the USSR? In the USSR, tanks broke from vast distances and marches, this was not the case in France, planes were assembled at several airfields, without fuel and ammunition, this was not the same in France.
            The Germans and the Pearls because there were no troops to block all directions, if the front were ten times smaller, the Germans would be bogged down immediately.
  9. -2
    16 June 2020 07: 48
    After Dunkirk, in fact, the Nazis did not have to fight: France was killed by fear. Horror swept the whole country.
    It turns out the caronavirus came to us from France in the 40s, and not from China.
  10. +2
    16 June 2020 08: 15
    m. Why did the French surrender so easily to Hitler

    because scary.
    1. +4
      16 June 2020 09: 22
      Because the French, for the most part, were not opposed to the idea of ​​the Hitlerite European Union.
  11. +12
    16 June 2020 08: 43
    As one clever man said: "A French soldier is a citizen in disguise, and a German citizen is a soldier in disguise."
    I apologize if I slightly changed the quote, I write from memory
  12. +6
    16 June 2020 08: 44
    Although the large cities of France, if there were combat-ready units and decisive, tough commanders like de Gaulle, could have detained the enemy for a long time.
    In any case, the defense of Liège gave reason to think so ... and even the defense of Lille showed that indeed
    it could happen, show perseverance
    Acceptance of the surrender of the French troops in Lille, after exhausting the possibilities of May 31, 1940 ...

  13. +6
    16 June 2020 09: 32
    = France’s nightmare. Why did the French surrender so easily to Hitler. =

    = However, the allies seemed to be blinded and unanimously fell into idiocy. On the eve of May 10, radio intelligence spotted the unusual activity of German stations in the Ardennes, where, as it seemed, there was a secondary section of the front. The Allies did not even conduct aerial reconnaissance of a dangerous direction. On the night of May 11, aerial reconnaissance discovered a motorized convoy in the Ardennes. The command considered this to be a "night illusion." The next day, aerial reconnaissance confirmed the data. Again, the command turned a blind eye to an obvious fact. Only on the 13th, having received a new series of aerial photographs, did the allies catch up and take off bombers to bomb the enemy. But it was too late. =
    I did not read the article further. I haven’t been reading fiction for about 20 years.
    Literature has already gotten out, besides a low cut, on the pages of VO.
    I would love to read this study of the social and military-political reasons for the defeat of France. Without unnecessary literature here - "The Allies did not even conduct aerial reconnaissance" - and then - "At night (!!!) aerial reconnaissance discovered a motorized column" - oh yes, the author!
    But in general, the masterpiece - "Again the command closed their eyes to the obvious fact" - sheer literary stuff! "The command considered it = night vision illusion =" !!!!!!!
    In Soviet times, articles of higher quality were published in the magazine "Yunost", I'm not talking about "Young Technician" and "Technique of Youth"
  14. 0
    16 June 2020 09: 58
    What kind of sensitive and vulnerable frogmen - it turns out, it is enough to spread in their midst only rumors about the enemy and they immediately raise their paws bully

    Everything was much simpler: most of the French were simply eager to join the Third Reich - a complete analogue of the Frankish Empire of the 9th century, led by Charlemagne, whose monument was erected near Notre Dame Cathedral. After that, the "Franks" could take part in the plunder of the occupied Soviet Union - the historical heir of the Russian Empire, which defeated the French Empire in 1812-1814 and reduced its foreign policy role to a second-rate power.

    This is confirmed by the creation of the pro-German Vichy regime, the almost complete absence of national resistance in France after surrender (the main opponents of the Germans were French saboteurs - British intelligence officers and Soviet prisoners of war who fled the camps) and the active military operations of the French against the forces of the anti-Hitler coalition in the overseas territories of France.
    1. +1
      16 June 2020 16: 37
      Obviously, France SHOULD replenish and strengthen the Euro-Reich, according to the original plan of the forces that put on Hitler and the false pseudo-Aryan doctrine. "Privileged" Britain, as one of the 2 main "financial cities" of the Nazi project, had to join Hitler as soon as it became clear that the Soviet Union was finally defeated. December 1941 changed the geopolitical processes, forcing the "Anglo-Saxon" (in obligatory quotation marks) elite to take the "let's see" position, allowing the most arrogant part (the British have their own pride!) To engage in a more or less real war, since the Reich's military machine "left" to Russia.
    2. -1
      16 June 2020 22: 23
      Quote: Operator

      Everything was much simpler: most Frenchmen were simply eager to join the Third Reich - a complete analogue of the 9th century Frankish Empire led by

      Andrei, well, this is too much. Can you imagine an ordinary French soldier who would "dream of joining ..."? Yesterday I fought a little more, but today I decided - let me join. No. Everything is much more prosaic. The operational skill of the Germans, their military training of both officers and privates turned out to be better than the French. Let's not forget about motivation. Revenge of the Germans, which was fostered by German agitprop, for Versailles. Let's not forget the French government, which proved unable to organize resistance. Well, and "the icing on the cake" - they did not have their own 37 years. Therefore, Vichy appeared. In short, something like this. Of course, this is not all. But I'm not writing an article on the topic.
      1. 0
        16 June 2020 23: 31
        It was most of the frogmen who morally overstrained after the massive losses in WWI, and then their blood brothers (German Franks) made an offer that cannot be refused - to join the reincarnation of the Frankish Empire (aka Reich # 3), and even become its rear .

        Only the French WaffenSS volunteers will go to the Eastern Front, and not the French Wehrmacht draftees - the Lyapot from the point of view of the frogmen.
        1. -1
          17 June 2020 08: 23
          Quote: Operator
          and then their blood brothers (German francs) made an offer that cannot be refused - to join the reincarnation of the Frankish Empire (aka Reich # 3),

          Where and in what documents is this proposal recorded? tongue
          1. 0
            17 June 2020 12: 01
            Do you really think that the French elite just refused the German reparations, countermeasures against the militarization of the Rhine region, did not prevent the seizure of Austria and the Czech Republic before the start of WWII?

            Or, didn’t the essence of Germany’s proposal to fraternize with German francs and join the unified Frankish empire with serial number 3 clear to all the other Frenchmen after the start of WWII in clear text in propaganda broadcasts of German radio and leaflets at the front?
            1. 0
              17 June 2020 13: 06
              Quote: Operator

              Do you really think that the French elite just refused the German reparations, countermeasures against the militarization of the Rhine region, did not prevent the seizure of Austria and the Czech Republic before the start of WWII?

              Of course not. In your opinion, in order to -
              Quote: Operator
              join the reincarnation of the Frankish Empire (aka Reich # 3)

              And in my opinion the Anglo-Franks nurtured the Germans to fight the USSR
              Quote: Operator
              the text in the propaganda broadcasts of German radio and leaflets at the front did not explain the essence of the proposal

              You trust these flyers and radio programs so much that I began to worry about your health.
              Read German leaflets addressed to our fighters. Do you believe them too?
              Well, as for the Frankish Empire, why did France, in your opinion, not wanting to agree to direct negotiations with Hitler for the purpose of "reincarnation"?
              And put thousands of its citizens resisting "reincarnation"?
              I got lost in the labyrinths of your logic.
              1. 0
                17 June 2020 13: 12
                It doesn’t matter if the Red Army believed in German agitation and propaganda in 1941, it is important whether the military personnel of the French army believed in it in 1940.

                Thousands of dead Frenchmen in WWII is a distraction, nothing more.

                So, therefore, the Anglo-Saxons and French Franks encouraged their blood brothers German Franks to attack the USSR, because they expected to heat the heat with the wrong hands, after which they themselves would lead the new Holy Roman Empire of the German nation.
                1. -1
                  17 June 2020 13: 56
                  Quote: Operator
                  propaganda in 1941, it is important whether the soldiers of the French army believed in it in 1940.

                  In your opinion - they believed, and therefore massively and joyfully surrendering to the Germans hugged with them. Something I do not observe in photos of joy on French faces.
                  Quote: Operator
                  Thousands of dead Frenchmen in WWII is a distraction, nothing more.

                  Whose maneuver? France or Germany? Or both? Sounds like an alternative story.
                  Quote: Operator

                  So, therefore, the Anglo-Saxons and French Franks stimulated their blood brothers German Franks to attack the USSR, because

                  Here I am in agreement with you.
        2. -2
          17 June 2020 17: 52
          You apparently do not understand that gluing offensive nicknames to an entire nation is at least indecent. By the way, the Nazis called the French exactly that. Are you nazi
          1. +1
            17 June 2020 17: 56
            À la guerre comme à la guerre (C) - what is Macron's sodomy bay about Russia?
  15. +2
    16 June 2020 10: 20
    Why did the French surrender so easily to Hitler
    Let's try to be a little more objective, fear, desertion, collaboration, refugees, commanders, backward equipment, tactics, information war, etc ... were everywhere, including on the eastern front, but the war in France was not a war of extermination secondly, France did not possess such resources for resistance as the USSR.
  16. +2
    16 June 2020 10: 45
    A couple of words in defense of the amber.
    1. It is now known that the Ardennes for armored divisions are passable. And in the spring of 1940 no one knew about it. So the French mistake is understandable and excusable. Plus there was a section of the Maginot line, so the French generals had reason for optimism. Well, who knew that the Germans worked out the technology for breaking the fortified lines to automaticity.
    2. The experience of Poland? And how much time did the French have for its comprehension and implementation? In addition, the Polish campaign led to certain changes both in the structure of German armored forces and in changes in tactics.
    3. Panic, paratroopers and saboteurs - this is the general picture of 1939-42. Not only the French were noted here.
    4. Could the Franks really defend Central and Southern France? The answer is negative. France is not the USSR and exchanging time for a distance there is unrealistic. The formation of new divisions takes time and weapons. Do you have this weapon and time? You can’t equip recruits with sticks and the next day you won’t throw them into battle, you need to train them. A normal army at this time perishes in Flanders.
    It is easy to give advice, knowing exactly how much fuel and shells the Germans have left, knowing exactly where the di erste is to the column of marshirt, and then to the column of marshirt. But really fighting is hard. The fellow traveler will not come and tell where and where the Germans will go.
    1. +5
      16 June 2020 12: 14
      Similarly, you can stand up and defend the Red Army in 1941. The leadership of the USSR did not draw useful conclusions from the military companies of the Germans in Poland and France, these were stereotyped actions. Plan "Barbarossa" comrade. Stalin was then known. As the Author can be argued, if there were decisive and talented commanders in the Red Army, then in 1941, on June 22nd, the troops would have occupied defensive lines, preparing an echeloned defense. Without waiting for air attacks, they would have raised spacecraft aviation into battle. instead of recklessly waiting, removing weapons from combat aircraft, deploying tank troops in battle formation. They would bring enough fuel for tanks, a full ammunition tank. The Red Army tanks were better than the German ones, there were more of them than the Germans, the training of the spacecraft troops was at the same level and such a disaster "41st" would not have happened. Like the French, the Soviet military leaders did not believe their eyes when they received intelligence data on the combat concentration of German troops on the border.
      1. +2
        16 June 2020 14: 10
        Perhaps you are right, somewhere between 50-60%, but: "if there were decisive and talented commanders in the Red Army, then in 1941 on June 22 the troops occupied defensive lines, preparing an echeloned defense." Here begins: "if only grandmother and grandfather's bolt", but in reality, for example, a strong-willed commander occupies a defensive line .. This contradicts the order: "Do not succumb to provocations." + Failure to comply with Voroshilov's orders
        1. 0
          25 June 2020 11: 34
          "Echeloned defense" presupposes the availability of a huge amount of resources to build these very echelons.
      2. 0
        16 June 2020 17: 33
        A decisive commander, of course, could occupy all that. The problem is that the decisive commander has an incomplete division and the length of the front sector is twice that of the Charter. The commander’s determination does not compensate for several thousand soldiers in the ranks.
      3. +2
        16 June 2020 21: 33
        Quote: Aitvaras
        , if in the Red Army decisive and talented commanders, then in 1941, on June 22, troops would occupy defensive lines, preparing a layered defense.
        It will not help: they are circumvented or, having accumulated multiple superiority in a small area, break through, the defenders are surrounded, without rear, a maximum of a week later, all supplies run out. All.
        Quote: Aitvaras
        .Without waiting for attacks from the air, they would raise spacecraft into battle rather than waiting lightly, having removed their weapons from combat aircraft.
        It will not help: Soviet aviation was not so much bombed at airfields as it burned a resource of fighters, trying to cover troops on the ground due to the lack of a normal aviation control system.
        Quote: Aitvaras
        We deployed tank troops in order of battle. We would have delivered enough fuel for the tanks, a full BC. The Red Army tanks were better than the German ones, there were more of them than the Germans, the training of the spacecraft troops was at the same level and there would not have been such a catastrophe of the "41st".
        So it was. It didn’t help: when the mechanized corps hit (tank pogrom near Brody), more than 70% of the tanks simply didn’t reach the battlefield, broke down (to the question of which tanks are better), and those who arrived were destroyed by the classic anti-tank defense, for which we could only get even the battles for Balaton (where our anti-tank forces already crushed the last Hitler tank fist).
        Only the concept of mobile defense could help the USSR, but even if it were known, Army 41 would not be able to implement it. Until the end of World War II, no one was able to stop the blitzkrieg (and neither did the Germans: 10 Stalinist strikes were a typical blitzkrieg). The Germans had problems when they tried to take something (for example, Moscow, Stalingrad). At Kursk, they could not "start" a blitzkrieg: no matter how much they broke through the defense lines, behind them were already ready new lines, they fizzled out earlier than ours.
        1. +1
          17 June 2020 12: 22
          Uv. 0010, so what I'm talking about, I mean all the commanders of the Red Army, from the commander to the comrade. Stalin. There were KSHU before the beginning of the Second World War and gene. Zhukov then showed how it will all be and was right. The leadership of the USSR was mistaken in incorrectly assessing the real plans and the possibility of Germany at that time. The generals were mistaken in the specific direction of the main attack, etc. e.g. in the battle of Kursk, they were able to keep the Nazis, it is unlikely to arrange the Kursk for the Germans in 1941, but the attempts, with the correct assessment of the enemy, could have been, as stipulated in the Military Oath, the regulations of the Red Army and other poh. documents. Talleyrand said that "this is not a crime, this is worse, this is a mistake."
      4. 0
        25 June 2020 11: 35
        What world has won that criticize the Soviet leadership?

        Lord, 75 years have passed, and such nonsense from the perestroika "Ogonyok" is still being written ...
      5. 0
        14 August 2020 07: 04
        Don't bother. All the work has already been done by A.V. Isaev. In short, in order for everything to go as it should, it was necessary to launch full combat, general mobilization and advance to the border at least at the end of May. And for this it was necessary to know for sure that the war would begin at the end of June. And for sure to drop all illusions and head for war. General mobilization is a war without options. Unfortunately, for some reason the people who came to Stalin did not come, and the Nostradamus did not appear. And intelligence did NOT report exactly.
    2. +2
      16 June 2020 20: 29
      In theory, France could "scrape the bottom of the barrel" in Africa and Indochina - the Foreign Legion and the rest of the "native units". When? - from September 1939 For 10 months, they could transport and place the required amount, and they were - several units of the Foreign Legion and "native units" were brought to France, but apparently the French General Staff seriously believed that the war would be "protracted", or maybe the Germans would change their minds to fight with France and England ... At first, Hitler did not want to fight with Yugoslavia - he "pushed" the government of Yugoslavia into an agreement on the annexation of Yugoslavia to the Triple Pact of the Axis countries on March 25, 1940. Following the example of Bulgaria.
  17. +4
    16 June 2020 11: 16
    However, the Allies seemed to be blinded and unanimously fell into idiocy. On the eve of May 10, radio intelligence spotted the unusual activity of German stations in the Ardennes, where, as it seemed, there was a secondary section of the front. The Allies did not even conduct aerial reconnaissance of a dangerous direction. On the night of May 11, aerial reconnaissance discovered a motorized convoy in the Ardennes. The command considered this to be a "night illusion." The next day, aerial reconnaissance confirmed the data. Again, the command turned a blind eye to an obvious fact. Only on the 13th, having received a new series of aerial photographs, did the allies catch up and take up bombers in the air to bomb the enemy. But it was too late.

    A little over a year will pass - and everything will repeat as old.
    Intelligence loses enemy connections or sees them where they are not. German armored divisions appear as if from nowhere. The command builds a defense - and receives the main blow in the considered minor direction. The defending personnel units fall into the boilers - and you have to hurriedly build at least some front out of what is at hand.
  18. -5
    16 June 2020 12: 19
    Why did the French practically not resist? Well, they are all "Europeans", does it really matter who rules? They have no homeland, no homeland, they have borders and a well-fed life for themselves, why die then? That is why the current EU was formed.
  19. +2
    16 June 2020 13: 01
    "Communication with the troops was lost" given that the French command was already inclined to surrender, this is enough for the collapse of the army.
    If we recall our story: June-July 1941 are also the most mythical paratroopers.
    I. Stadnyuk described the situation very well in his story: "A man does not give up." The author himself was a political instructor in 1941 and remembered his experiences well.
    So by and large they acted according to the pattern
  20. +1
    16 June 2020 13: 04

    German soldiers with captured French reconnaissance bomber Amiot 143
    Almost all of the pre-war French multi-motor could be characterized in one phrase, mockery of aerodynamics. laughing

    MV-210 this one has true retractable chassis laughing
  21. BAI
    +2
    16 June 2020 17: 04
    Yes, it seems that the French were just on the drum, under whose control to live.
  22. 0
    17 June 2020 14: 20
    Quote: Krasnoyarsk
    Whose maneuver? France or Germany?

    Both of them.
  23. 0
    17 June 2020 14: 27
    Quote: bk0010
    It will not help: they are circumvented or, having accumulated multiple superiority in a small area, they break through, the defenders are surrounded, without rear, after a maximum of a week all supplies run out.

    The super-long front line, the scanty density of the covering army, its deployment (including rear services) in the zone of enemy artillery fire from adjacent territory, the incomplete mobilization, deployment and combat coordination of the RKKA Red Army on the main line of defense of the Western Dvina-Dnepr.

    Against the background of these strategic punctures, the low resource of Soviet military equipment, the small number of its new models in the troops, the lack of high-quality armor-piercing shells of the most massive calibers, the critically small number of radio stations and reconnaissance equipment are just seeds.
    1. 5-9
      0
      17 June 2020 15: 33
      And even in the USSR there were as many trucks as the Wehrmacht shook from France .... naked tanks, without artels and infantry on trucks, even if they were T-44 and IS-3 in 1941, they won’t get much ... and the Germans just go round the defense
      1. 0
        17 June 2020 15: 40
        Again, these are technical details, despite the fact that the main thing in the 1941 military company is the strategic miscalculations of the USSR leadership.

        The Finns won the Red Army for almost the entire Winter War as they fought with ancient equipment like shit of a mammoth and only at the end got hold of the Soviet trophy.
        1. 5-9
          0
          17 June 2020 15: 51
          And how will you fight, if your enemy can go around your defense stupidly, and he loves and knows how to do it? And the numerical superiority in the infantry is 1,5 times? And the average German soldier und ahfitser is much more educated than yours and the average tanker steers better, the pilot flies, and the artilleryman is firing from the howitzer? But the mechanics can repair it all and they have spare parts, and your equipment turns into firewood? And the superiority in quantity of both tanks and planes is half yours on paper?
          In what year were you going to correct all this ... in 1905 or 1930? Or in 1861? Well, so that by 1941?

          Therefore, strategically, the leadership came up with an evacuation ... Any movement of parts on the map could only slightly improve the situation of the Red Army ... well, like they would have reached Smolensk and Kharkov, but they didn’t take Crimea, etc.

          PS: the Finns were grinded into bloody mess (after such losses as they officially suffered - they do not ask for mercy, in real life they have exhausted their mobresource) on TVD, where equipment does not play a special role. Well, in fact, this war showed PPR what are the Krasnoye military commissars and domestic equipment ...
          1. 0
            17 June 2020 16: 10
            Well, I’m talking about this - it was necessary to take into account all the strengths of the enemy, for example, using the following rational decisions:

            - withdraw troops of the covering army from the state border not less than the range of large-caliber artillery shots, and the rear supply bases on the combat radius of enemy diving bombers;
            - to fully staff the covering army and bring it to field positions in early spring (so as not to guess on the coffee grounds when the enemy "suddenly" attacks);
            - to equip the covering army with anti-tank 37 mm cannons and 82 mm horse-drawn mortars without hatred, to give it maneuverability;
            - build a focal defense of the covering army (since its strength does not reach the solid front by several times) in the form of field strongholds (dug up by the fighters themselves) with reserve military units equipped with ammunition and food supplies in advance;
            - deploy all troops without exception RGK RKKA no further than the planned line Western Dvina - Dnieper, incl. all mechanized corps and field airfields of military aircraft.

            Already this minimal set of measures would allow to gain time for pulling the RGC troops from the internal districts already during the war, determine the directions of the enemy’s main attacks not according to intelligence, but in fact, would ensure the cover army’s ammunition in the conditions of domination of enemy aircraft and covering strikes from a sudden blow all the mechanized corps and aircraft, etc. etc.
            1. 5-9
              +1
              17 June 2020 16: 13
              Yes, it’s clear that there were a lot of mistakes ... and from the point of afterlife, it’s all so ... but the general (socio-economic) level of development of the country was low, no organizational actions that could save from the defeat of the Red Army in the 41st could have been invented in the 41st ...
              1. 0
                17 June 2020 16: 18
                This is not an afterthought, but the most rational decisions based on information about the Wehrmacht and the Red Army within the data available at the beginning of 1941 at the disposal of the General Staff of the USSR Armed Forces.

                However, the opinion of Stalin on the need to defeat the Wehrmacht in the border battle won, for this they pulled all units, even not equipped, to the border and placed army depots and hospitals directly on the border - as, for example, in Brest.
                1. -1
                  25 June 2020 11: 14
                  And come on, you won’t write nonsense. Troops are always pulled to where they will fight. It does not follow from this that the Red Army seriously hoped to win the border battle. And Brest was simply framed by Pavlov, but from this disgrace they make a feat and pull it to the entire border, although nowhere else than Pavlovsk possessions did soldiers jump up from their beds under bombs, and important objects were at least out of reach of artillery. And no one took off machine guns from a whole aviation regiment at once either.
            2. -1
              25 June 2020 11: 30
              A large-caliber shot is 30 kilometers. Nothing was placed at such a range. But the dive radius can be hundreds of kilometers. To carry so many shells - this is not enough transport.

              Full staffing implies, count, mobilization. However, units near the border are already in much higher readiness than internal units.

              37 mm anti-tank guns and 82 mm horse-drawn mortars to give it maneuverability


              There were 45 mm guns. As for 82 mm mortars, then against 150 mm howitzers this is not even funny. The most incorrigible thing is that the level of training of the Red Army was not high enough to correctly use such tactical weapons, as a result, the infantry was extremely dependent on artillery, and the matyugs in this regard were even from the commanders in the era of the Battle of Stalingrad.

              to build a focal defense of the covering army (since its strength does not reach the solid front by several times) in the form of field strongholds (dug up by the fighters themselves) with reserve operational units equipped with ammunition and food supplies in advance;


              Yes, sit in a trench and shoot Germans running at you. The typical position of someone who is not trained to fight, but is afraid to run into the attack. The Germans have nothing more to do, they will simply bypass these points, and after 2-3 weeks the fighters from them will go to hunger themselves to surrender, which actually happened in Brest, where more than half of the military personnel was captured. The Germans themselves in the winter of 41-42 used the tactics of strong points, but they built them in the cities, and the city is also a communication center, just getting around it is more difficult, often impossible, and you can sit there for a long time. However, it seems to me that if the level of the Red Army was at least the same as it would be in a year, the result would be the same as it would be in a year.
  24. 5-9
    0
    17 June 2020 15: 26
    This should be given to be re-read to those who are "surprised" at our defeat in the Battle of the Border in 41 and suspect all kinds of rezunism.
    But I didn’t know that there were concentration camps in the Solar Storage too ...

    PS: The difference between a democratic good concentration camp and the evil terrible Mordor Gulag is that they drove everyone to a concentration camp for some reason (for example, Italian in France, Japanese in the USA) without any guilt ... and sent to the evil GULAG only by court order, or a judicial authority aka troika for a specific crime (whether it is real or not is another matter).
  25. 0
    17 June 2020 16: 33
    The French relaxed after the WWII. The Germans, on the contrary, carefully analyzed the cause of their defeat in WWII and made much fewer mistakes at the beginning of WWII than their opponents. Therefore, at first, the Germans were doing very well.
    1. 0
      25 June 2020 11: 07
      They didn’t relax, they were very demoralized, so the sons of WWI veterans were not ready after their father’s stories, again in the trenches for a long time.
  26. 0
    17 June 2020 19: 44
    Because!

    And why not more.
  27. IC
    0
    20 June 2020 00: 14
    Explanatory article. Only the roots of this rout, in the decomposition of political and military leadership in the 30s. But this is a separate big topic.
  28. 0
    21 June 2020 16: 12
    Thank you, very informative!
  29. 0
    23 June 2020 10: 18
    Did the French use Cyrillic?

  30. Ham
    0
    24 June 2020 07: 49
    In fact, France capitulated out of fear

    Yes, the Bosches on Frenchies caught up with fear for two previous wars (1870 and WWII) ... if it were not for the British and Russians in WWII, the Germans dealt with France as planned - "before the first leaf fall"
  31. 0
    25 June 2020 10: 34
    You are lying! Everyone knows that only the ghoul Stalin could have allowed the disaster of the 41st year.
  32. 0
    2 July 2020 11: 17
    Oh my gentlemen! That is what the absence of the King on the Throne means! In the First War, in the same France, Napoleon, of course, was not found, but there were Two Civilians - Poincare with the Poganyal War, and Clemenceau - the Tiger! Though the Shtatskys - they pulled 1/2 Stalin! Here France has won! And with Us, on the contrary, We didn’t have Stalin in the First War, but IV Stalin was with us in the Second! And then the Germans would Us - ON SOAP, sir!
  33. 0
    2 July 2020 12: 01
    And Second, My Lord! The French in 1939-40- Terribly did not want to fight! We Sinners are the same, both in 1917 and in 1991!
  34. 0
    5 July 2020 18: 38
    The French were ordered to lose the shadow government from the Deep State, they knew very well that to defeat the USSR, all the resources of Europe were needed. All European governments played giveaways.
  35. 0
    5 August 2020 22: 12
    Interesting ... But in my opinion ... the whole point of why the French surrendered so quickly, there is a photo (any search engine - pictures) - the French police show the road to the Wehrmacht officer on the map ...
  36. 0
    15 August 2020 09: 26
    Regarding the actions of the French aviation. The article contains propaganda nonsense. In 40 days of fighting, fighter pilots of the French Air Force and the British Expeditionary Force shot down 1200 Luftwaffe aircraft, killing 2000 flight personnel. By the time of the Soviet attack, the Luftwaffe never recovered to its strength in April 1940. The Red Army Air Force, having 10 fighters, reached such numbers only in late autumn.
  37. 0
    19 September 2020 11: 56
    Napoleon must have been spinning in his coffin. Yet such an attack of weakness and panic among a whole nation is inexplicable even by the reasons given in the article.
  38. 0
    13 October 2021 11: 21
    Quote: Dr. Frankenstucker
    All pretentious rhetoric is expectedly reduced to mantras about the genius of Comrade Stalin, "under-rearmed" and other poster stamps. Do you ever crawl out of your mental tunnel? Have you tried looking a little wider?

    another frenkenshtutser climbed out of the hole

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