[HANG THE EXPENSE]

Politics of course. By the time france understood that it was woefully short of aircraft(They started buying aircraft from Curtiss beginning in 39(IIRC)it was too late. There were shipments of aircraft headed to france when the surrender was signed with these aircraft set off on the island of Martinique and the order for 200 tomahawk p-40s was taken over by the british. Too little too late.

[alfa6]

Thanks and a Bump for later

Regards

alfa6 ;>}

[Cronos]

The french leadership was traumatised by WWI when there were vast battles on French/Belgian soil

[tanuki]

Wow! A fascinating and informative read. Truly, the collapse of the French military is one of the great, obvious mysteries of the ‘best-researched’ war in history.

[Pontiac]

Interesting read

Thanks

[Pontiac]

The Link doesn’t work.

[Sherman Logan]

The French aviation industry (with modest assistance--about 15 percent-from American and Dutch producers) had produced enough modern combat aircraft (4360) by May 1940 to defeat the Luftwaffe, which fielded a force of 3270.2. The French planes were comparable in combat capability and performance to the German aircraft.

Same is true of armor. The Germans had about 2400 tanks on the Western Front, the French alone had 3200. The other Allies had few tanks. The French tanks were on average better than the German tanks.

Also for men. The Germans had about 3M for the invasion, the Allies a total of at least 4M, depending on how you count them.

The Allies had about 2x the artillery.

There has been an almost universally held belief for 70 years that the Allies were tremendously outnumbered and outgunned in the BoF, which explains their defeat completely. The truth is that they were at minimum competitive in numbers in all categories, and had a significant advantage in most. The reason for defeat must be sought elsewhere.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_France#Strength

[Mr Radical]

Curtiss Hawk 75A-1 – a truly unique fighter | Shortfinals's Blog

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Nice article, but the link doesn’t work for me. Can it be saved?

The motto of the French Armed Forces: “Sauve Qui Peut”

[wally_bert]

Very interesting reading. Thank you.

[2001convSVT]

Great article, I hope that we can learn not to make the same mistakes.

[yawningotter]

How many of those squadrons were waiting for an attack on the Maginot Line?

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

The technology, strategy and tactics of warfare took a quantum leap - starting in 1917 with the introduction of the tank and continuing on with advances made in aircraft, communications, and the understanding of how the battlefield was no longer confined to a specific geographical area. The same way that warfare changed dramatically between Waterloo and the American Civil War.

Germany embraced this change and prepared for it. The other countries didn’t. The collapse of France was, from this perspective, inevitable. France’s political instability, combined with the war weariness of the population at large were additional factors.

I’ve always thought that after Europe was bled white in WWI, nobody could contemplate suffering again on such a massive scale. With the exception of Hitler, who not only could contemplate it, he could actively welcome it.