Before the war began France was going through many changes, mostly political. Raymond Poincare was prime minister from 1922-1924. After his term, Bloc National was replaced by the Cartel des Gauches, a moderate socialist coalition. They failed miserably and so Poincare came back into power until 1929. France was then thrown into disarray for a few years. With no lead political party communism and fascist movements began across the country sparking riots and police confrontations. Then Leon Blum came to power. He was a Jew and was apart of the Popular Front (left wing). Blum failed at trying to repair the depreciating economy and left office before France declared war on Germany.
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Right wing government parties then began the process of trying to repair the economy, right into the war. As for military forces, France had a small force during interwar period but laws established in 1927-1928 forced the army to reduce from a combat force to a training establishment. As well as a small force they had tanks but were thought of as armoured infantry and didn’t receive the same ideology the Germans possessed for their tanks, causing them to be less effective in strategy. In 1939 there were approximately 41,700,000 residents, most were Christian and Catholic. Directly after WWI the workforce slowly declined. Steel production was cut in half and agriculture industry's fell into decline as well. Communism and fascism received a huge increase of public interest in the early 1930’s which lead to many divides in the political system as well as the general population. Overall France overcame many changes and was still adjusting its political systems when stepping into the Second World War.
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" Must hope disappear? Is defeat final? No! Believe me, I who am speaking to you with full knowledge of the facts, and who tell you that nothing is lost for France. The same means that overcame us can bring us victory one day."
-Charles de Gaulle
The Battle of France was one of the fastest battles in history, to conquer an entire country. The German Military forces began by invading the Netherlands and then moving on to Belgium. British forces had set up a defensive line past the Belgium border and the French and Belgium forces occupied the Maginot Line and filled the rest of the remaining gaps. The battle officially began on the 10 of May 1940, after the invasion of Poland. The German forces began by doing bombing raids throughout Belgium and Holland which was then followed by paratrooper jumps and ground force invasion.
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The Germans moved through the two northern countries. Then they moved to south of the British section of the line and used their tanks to quickly break through the weak pat in the line, by the Ardennes Forest. They quickly overran the Maginot Line, which sat on the border of Germany and France. The German Panzer tanks went ahead of the ground forces and moved swiftly across the northern part of France cutting off the British and French force’s supply lines. This forced a retreat for the Allies.
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British forces began the process of a fighting retreat which then brought them to the beaches of Dunkirk. Thanks to the quick thinking of Winston Churchill, then the new British prime minister, and the cover of the RAF, the British Expeditionary Force was able to successfully evacuate 338,000 soldiers to Britain. The success was due to the commandeering of the civilian vessels in British coastal towns and well has utilizing the Royal Navy. After the evacuation at Dunkirk the German forces finished conquering the remainder of France. The French government officially surrendered on June 22, 1940 which began the 4 year German occupation of France.
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