Reading these harrowing realtime accounts, I am no longer as disposed to laugh at the French as once I was.
Oh, I don’t know. I have some issues with them that we will see down the road here. Right now I can say that France truly was ready for war....if it was 1917. Their clinging to the old guard has cost them dearly and those critical mistakes very early on has made the situation untenable for them every step sense. At this point there are no correct decisions for them anymore.
In the First World War France lost 1.7 million killed, plus another 4 million military wounded.
The percentage of deaths to population, 4.3%, was higher in France than any other major power -- except possibly Turkey's 13.7% (numbers aren't clear here).
In 1939, the Turks decided they had nothing to gain from fighting a second World War, and so remained neutral.
Well, I've long suspected that, in effect, so did the French.
And their "surrender quickly" strategy reduced total deaths from the First World War's 4.3% to 1.4% in the Second World War -- a difference of over one million French men & women.
In that sense, France was a big winner.