While an interesting article by James Lewis, and one that I do not take any major exception to; I do grind my teeth whenever I see the French characterized as our Allies during WWII. The fact is, when given a choice before we made the beachhead in North Africa (btw, our first, sort of OJT so to speak for later events), some French units chose to fight along-side the Germans. It is also humorous and ironic that today, over sixty years after the war, virtually every French person’s grandpa was a Freedom Fighter. Now there is some revisionist history for you....
First, as you pointed out the French forces in North Africa were under the control of Vichy France, that was technically a neutral country, but Marshal Petan was subject to manipulation by the Germany.
Second, after Pearl Harbor, Germany declared war on the USA. FDR and Churchill agreed that UK-US forces would focus on defeating Germany first. The reason being that Germany dominated Europe and in 1941 had come very close to Moscow. Should the SU have lost European Russia, Germany could turn its attention back to Great Britain. Even though GB had survived Germany’s air attacks and won “The Battle of Britain,” Germany was a huge threat to GB with its U-Boats and another assault on GB. Should GB have fallen, the Allies would had a very hard time setting up the Western front.
Third, the North African campaign took some pressure off the Eastern front, as did the eventual Italian campaign, which put Italy out of the war.
...over sixty years after the war, virtually every French person’s grandpa was a Freedom Fighter.
Guess all the Frenchmen defending and causing 479+ dead and 720 wounded were all sterile and never had any children.
I Know, LVF and above all THE FRENCH SS LEGION CHARLEMAGNE....
RUSSKY found some of them even in BERLIN on March 1945....