On Thu, 23 Oct 2003 17:13:18 GMT, "Jim McLaughlin"
wrote:

Seraphim" first wrote:


:I've always thought it had everything to do with it. World War I
basically
:destroyed the cream of a generation for France. After the horrors of the
:first war, it was decided that sending their men off to die in the
trenches
:was stupid, and that they were better off just making things so difficult
n the enemy that an attack would never come. Unfortunately for the
French,
:the attack did come, but not where they had prepared for it, and due to
:this France did not have the means avaible to respond properly.

France had the means to respond properly. They had more and better
armor than the Germans did.

: In short, the French army got their butt kicked in WWII because they
:were trying to avoild another WWI.

"Fred J. McCall" then wrote:

No, the French army got their butt kicked in WWII because their
generals were idiots and didn't use the forces they had properly.



Strikes me you are both saying the same thing. French were terrified of
losses on the scale of WW1, therefore set up their forces and fortifications
to prevent another "trench warfare" war.

Germans didn't "co-operate" in the sense that "blitzkrieg" as carried
out in June 1940 was not "trench warfare".

The pre WW II set ups of French static defenses and Army command were
not designed to counter the "blitzkrieg" as practiced by the invaders in WW
II, but might have been effective in parts of WW I. The French command and
the BEF were not able to fluidly change their preconceived tactics /
strategy to cope with a different tactic / strategy set by the invaders.

Sounds to me like the classic "fully prepared to fight the last war"
scenario, both with respect to pre WW II defenses and Army structure, and
with the rigidity of the French command determined to avoid WW I scale
manpower losses by refighting WW I from behind fixed defenses, as described
by Seraphim, magnified by inability of the French command to adapt to
changes in strategy / tactics.


They'd have gotten their butts kicked in the last war too, didn't
have reserves, didn't have telephones at HQ, unbelievable stuff.

Didn't help either that the Germans seem to have gotten hold of
the French/British troop dispositions. Security is also something
that had been heard of in WWI.

Peter Skelton