Again, I can't say enough about Shirer’s book. Although Shirer was something of a “lefty” (he admired Blum’s socialist “Front Populaire” but hated the conservative Chautemps), he did a fine job illustrating the fatal weaknesses of the French 3rd Republic.
The real failure was not the troops themselves; I believe it is unfair to label them as "spineless cowards." France's fall was entirely a failure of leadership at virtually every level. At the national level, Daladier and Reynaud only halfheartedly pursued war with Germany. At the national military level, the French had an inept military bureaucrat in Gamelin. Everyone who has ever worked in a sizable organization has known a “Gamelin.” He's the smartest guy in the room who can't properly tie his own shoes, gets bogged down in “procedure” but can't get a job done. Villeume, the French head of the air forces refused to take aggressive action against the air assault against 55th Division. To call him incompetent would be a compliment; I I believe he repeatedly showed cowardice in the face of the enemy by not ordering his air force to engage the Germans. The French finished the Battle of France with more operational first-line fighters than when they started. Finally, it came down to a few regimental command officers who panicked and deserted their posts.
I do not blame the infantrymen of 55th Division at all for the rout at Sedan. Soldiers are never better than their leaders. For the better part of the day, they cowered in their holes under tremendous air assault. They had to wonder “where are our planes?” Even a token appearance by French fighters to contest the skies might have given them the heart to fight back. Instead, as Shirer points out, when their morale was ground down and their officers ran away, you just can't expect the men to stay and fight.
Sounds very good. I can’t imagine seeing those headlines everyday. It was such a huge war involving so many countries it makes our TV anchors standing in front of an Iraqi map look ridiculous.