France's Downfall

The balance of power in Europe was completely torn apart when to everyone’s surprise France fell to the Third Reich in a matter of six short weeks. On June 22, 1940, the French government officially surrendered to the Third Reich when signing an armistice that ultimately divided France. This allowed Germany to occupy the North and West while installing a puppet government known as the Vichy to maintain order and control. How did France’s war effort collapse so quickly? There are many reasons for the sudden collapse ranging from preparing for another WWI caliber war, improper equipment use, lack of military enthusiasm, military training, terror attacks, and political turmoil.While these all contribute to the French war effort collapsing, it
While we could sit here and talk about how the French were planning to fight a WW1 styled war again, it can also be said that both the axis and allies knew to some degree that the war was going to be on a whole new level. Tanks and airplanes are what made that rightfully clear. That brings the aspect of military training into effect. The Germans can be rightfully attributed to being better accustomed to these new situations of war, because their military was trained under the emphasis of improvisation. As we saw in the Battle of France, the Germans were able to proceed much quicker than they should have in accordance with the old rules of the game. The French stuck to their belief that it wasn’t possible for any military force to be able to advance their movement on a large scale once a front was firmly positioned. That is why the French assumed that German forces would have to attack through the Northern plains of Belgium. Germany being able to not only improvise but also be initiative, sent their forces to the north as a decoy to fool the French in their movement through the South in the Ardennes forest. This was clear improvising as the original battle plans were captured off of a German officer that had their projected attack going through North Belgium. So when we look at the French on the other hand,
As previously mentioned the French leadership failed on multiple levels to establish an effective war effort through not having a real plan, no intent to offensively battle, improper use of equipment, and lack of motivation. For those reasons, there was an established defeatism that rang throughout the French military. The French had been stuck with the constant remembrance of almost completely being bled dry for everything they had in the first world war. This set the nation’s morale very low, and they were expecting failure no matter how they attacked the situation. To say the very least, they lost all will to defend their own nation. In comparison to WWI, the French will to fight for their nation in WWII was not even remotely close. Coupled with all the other factors mentioned, defeatism made all their expectations come true when the Germans pushed through the Ardennes