France During World War II
By Napoleon
Prologue: World War I
France emerged from WWI
victorious, but exhausted. 1.3
million soldiers were killed, an
average of 890 per day for more
than four years. The dead left
behind 600,000 widows, 760,000
orphans, and 1.3 million grieving
parents.
•
French military deaths: 1,397,800
•
Military wounded: 4,266,000
•
Civilian deaths: 300,000
•
Deaths as % of population: 4.29%
The Fall of France: May 1940-June
1940
•
•
•
•
•
September 1, 1939, Nazis invaded Poland, beginning World War II in Europe: Britain and a
reluctant France declared war on Germany
France and Britain assisted the Polish military by doing absolutely nothing
After Poland’s fall, there was no major military activity for eight months except for a Nazi invasion
of Denmark and Norway. In May 1940 they steamrolled into the Low Countries (Belgium, Holland,
Luxembourg) and France, and crushed the Allied armies in a stunning six-week campaign. The
Germans achieved in 6 weeks what they couldn't do in 4 years in WWI
The French lost for many reasons, but cowardice was not one of them. Hitler threw the manpower
and industrial resources of over 80,000,000 Germans against 40,000,000 Frenchmen. The French
did not have, and could not have had, the military and industrial power to beat Germany.
France was beaten because Germany was enormously superior to France in manpower,
equipment, resources, armament, and strategy. Germany had the incalculable advantage of having
planned an offensive, Blitzkrieg war - while France devoted its energies and training entirely to
defensive measures.
Vichy France: Liberty, Equality,
Fraternity Work, Family, Fatherland
•
•
•
After being defeated, the French government signed an armistice with the
Germans. The north of France would be under German military control.
The south would be a “free zone” where there would be limited self-rule.
Vichy France, formally known as the “French State”, would rule in the
south (although technically it had jurisdiction in the occupied north). Most
of France’s overseas colonies remained loyal to Vichy.
The government was an authoritarian state, headed by Marshal Philippe
Petain, a much beloved war hero from WWI. Other (in)famous figures in
the government includes Pierre Laval, a very controversial figure who
signed orders to deport foreign Jews from France to the death camps
Collaboration





Headed by Petain, state collaboration at the highest levels was common, and was sometimes
done in shameful levels
An example of this is the Vel' d'Hiv Roundup. Under demand by the Nazis, French police initiated
a mass arrest and raid of 13,000 people in Paris and held them in the Winter Veldrome under
horrible conditions. The 13,000 people were sent to an internment camp at Drancy, then
shipped to Auschwitz. Only 400 returned after the war.
State collaboration came in many other forms: economic (requiring workers to serve in
Germany; quite a few of these workers would refuse and flee to join the Resistance), military
(French volunteers would fight on the Eastern Front against the Soviet Union), and socially (Vichy
aligned its racial policies similar to Nazi Germany's, and its participation in the Holocaust is well
known).
In 1942, the Germans occupied the Free Zone, ending any legitimacy the Vichy government had.
Even then it continued to function and stood by the Nazis to the bitter end, regardless of the
consequences.
Non-state collaboration was far more complex and varied from region and city. It ranged over
time as well.
Resistance: Myth, Reality




Resistance started as soon as the Occupation began, but the
Resistance would not be a unified movement until much later in
the war
People from all walks of life joined the Resistance: conservative
Roman Catholics, including priests; members of the Jewish
community; citizens from the ranks of liberals, anarchists, and
communists; anti-fascist Germans and Spaniards; the list goes on
The Resistance, far too often warped as a “heroic” or “romantic”
movement, was in fact plagued by many problems including
Nazi/Vichy sympathizers or spies. Life, in general, was often grim
and sometimes even bleak
The Germans destroyed 344 communities (62 completely) for
"crimes" not connected with military operations.
What did the Resistance contribute to
the war?




They sabotaged war production and
power plants
They organized armed groups which
harassed the German police, the Gestapo,
and the Vichy militia.
They acted as a great spy army for the
Allies in London. They transmitted as
many as 300 reports a day to the Allies
Hid, clothed, fed, and smuggled over
4000 American and British pilots out of
France. Every Allied airman rescued
meant half a dozen French lives were
risked.
The Free French Forces




Often confused with the Resistance, the Free French
was the military arm of Charles de Gaulle's “Free
France” government in exile. They were French
military forces who continued to fight with the
Allies.
In 1940, as German armies overran France, Charles
de Gaulle, a brigadier general in the army, fled the
country to Britain. There he called for all Frenchman
to continue fighting, and said in his famous radio
broadcast, “France has lost the battle, but not the
war!” De Gaulle was tried in absentia in Vichy France
and sentenced to death for treason
De Gaulle was one of the few French advocates for
mobile, offensive warfare, but his theories were
applied far too late. He actually won a few minor
victories during the fall of France, which was
significant in an ocean of French defeats
At first, de Gaulle's movement gained only a few
thousand soldiers, sailors and airmen. This would
change as the war progressed in favor of the Allies
The Free French contribution



Fought in Africa, in Sicily, liberated
Corsica, fought in Italy, took part in the
invasion of Europe and fought through
the battles of France and Germany -from Normandy to Munich.
The Free French Army was largely
made up of soldiers from France's
colonies. Algeria, Morocco, Senegal,
Chad, etc. Most of the Free French
Navy, Air Force and commando units
were from metropolitan France
Even after France was liberated,
colonial soldiers would make up a
good chunk of the French military
Liberation





June 6, 1944: the Allies invade Normandy. Free French
forces are among the soldiers that land and fight in
France
The Resistance helped the Allies greatly in France. They
blew up bridges and railways, cut power lines and
telephone lines, harassed the Germans with hit-andrun guerillas tactics, and were generally a thorn in the
side for the Germans, and a useful tool for the Allies
As the Allied armies blitzed through France, the
Resistance staged an uprising in Paris. 50,000 men and
women fought the German garrison in the capital
Initially Supreme Allied Commander Eisenhower didn't
want to attack Paris, as the cost to the city and its
people would be too great. De Gaulle insisted,
however, and in the last few days of the Paris uprising
Eisenhower sent the US 4th Infantry Divison and the 2nd
French Armored Division to help the uprising.
The German commander of the Paris garrison, General
von Choltitz, was repeatedly given orders by Hitler to
raze the city to the ground. In the end, Choltitz refused,
and the Germans surrendered to the French (irony
levels...rising!).