Date: July 4th, 2013 10:50 PM Author: Rusted field turdskin
also, the battle of france wasn't QUITE as one-sided as people seem to think. it took germany six weeks to win, and 160K of their men were taken out of action by death or serious injury. so it wasn't exactly a free ride into paris; they took a hit on the way there.
france's wartime performance was bad, but i'd put it ahead of italy for sure.
they rolled over on ww2 because they didnt want to die protecting their lifelong sworn enemy england from germany so they got blasted in pop culture over the past 80 years
Date: July 16th, 2026 4:07 AM Author: aromatic disturbing skinny woman sneaky criminal
they lost because of a lack of readiness
it was all entirely at the military level. Gamelin's rejection of the radio in favor of the courier, the overemphasis on the maginot line, the slow reaction to (tbf, the historically unprecedented) blitzkrieg through the benelux territories, etc
laval was a nazi sympathizer but the military was as independent as any of the great powers' militaries were during the period