Ten Minute History - World War 2: Free and Vichy France (Short Documentary)
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- Опубликовано: 20 июл 2024
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Recommended reading:
France: The Dark Years 1940-1944 by Julian Jackson. An absolutely phenomenal work which despite the name covers everything from the late 1920s to just after the war. Talks in depth about the political climate which weakened France and her response to Germany and the war. It's an academic text so not the most accessible, though.
To Hell and Back: Europe 1914-1949 by Ian Kershaw. A great and accessible book which gives an overview of Europe during the period. Be aware that it jumps about quite a bit so don't expect entire chapters devoted to one nation. Good breakdowns of the general events and gives some much needed context to France during the 1930s.
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"So de Gaulle would achieve his dream of liberating Paris on the 25th of August 1944"- incredible that he had the exact date in his dreams.
De Gaulle orchestrated the whole war from the start just to be able to do it.
Wait what?
mankytoes actually he didnt, he waited for 4 months to acomplish his dream
Must have learned that from Stalin. Without the enormous loss of life of course.
I love to see the french news reels of the libaration parades when the french soldiers come in, can you guess what evey vehicle is hmmmmmm???? Thats right allied vehicles with french markings.
1936. and you have just started your Hoi4 campaign.
Lol
I was asked by someone to make a mod which replaces the portraits in game with the drawings I use here.
@@HistoryMatters Do it!...Please?
@@HistoryMatters I know you say you can't draw, but you are now officially an artist.
@@Erik-ko6lh that literally goes for all events.
Taking kiev and you see stalin Holding a "you really suck at this" sign and a russian general holding a sign with "how about you stop killing your generals"
Or when nanjing is taken, a chinese soldier looking angrily holding a "wtf japan?" Sign while looking at the camera.
“The British retreated to Dunkirk where they then bravely ran away”
Don't worry, it is said that 80 years later they'll produce a film telling the opposite.
So brave of them 😂😂😂
If they didn't bravely run away the war would end.
@@bismarck6093 As if the UK was relevant in the early stages of the war... They were as unprepared as the french.
british bravery resumed
3:31 It's not running away, it's rapidly advancing in a different direction.
This is what I live for reading the comment section. Sounds very monty python ish.
😂😂😂😂
Tactical retreat*
They didn't lose, they merely failed to win!
"A bold retreat..."
7:02
-You're not in charge
-lol Polio
AstatPanSkoczyslaw top 10 anime battles
*Top 10 anime comebacks*
XD
The most innacurate thing is that roosevelt walked to that argument
30 years later
De guaulle: I’m leaving NATO and you will remove your troops from French soil
LBJ: and the ones buried in the western front too?
A bit of extra context; The Maginot Line (actually a deep defended zone covering France's main industrial area) was *supposed* to be continued along the Belgian frontier but Belgium backed out of the agreement after the French had started the line.
Secondly, the Dutch and Belgians stopped being neutral and begged the allies for help immediately after a serious amount of large grey vehicles bearing German number plates appeared at their border and the allies pushed up to link up with them, thinning their line and so they decided to thicken this line where good tank country was thus making the Ardennes not such a dumb oversight. It didn't help the Dutch retreating in the other direction while not actually informing the French who were still trying to link with them, making the French push diffused just where the Germans were concentrated. Thus they got hit in two weak areas at once, something that hadn't happened for the entire Great War.
Yep, the biggest mistake was made by Gamelin when he decided to send the excellent XVth Army of General Giraud to the Netherlands. In March 1940 the XVth army was located on the way that Guderian was going to take in May 1940.
@@phlm9038 Gamelin was an idiot.
I've heard that today's French cadets are warned to never be a "Gamelin", ie indecisive and out-of-touch.
More than a bit
0:03-0:10 literally choose any moment in French history and this is still a true statement.
Nice ignorance about french history.
Le Pangolin My comment is meant as more of a joke at france’s propensity towards big protests (e.g. burning tires on roads, pulling up parts of roads, driving farm animals through Paris, firemen setting themselves on fire and fighting police etc..) rather than as an attack on France. I know that France is of course generally a great nation to live haha 😁.
Not true. The Fifth French Republic (the current one) isn't as unstable as the previous two.
Red S. Victim read my above comment. It’s a joke mon ami 😁🥰
@@oorrossie Of course.
4:12
That is literally every French person’s worst nightmare
We will get you guys eventually.
@@pancakemacbuttery9142 Britain
@@pancakemacbuttery9142 what do you mean what
@@pancakemacbuttery9142 believe it or not there is more than one person living in britain
@@stevenbobleyshire2191 Lol Polio
Nice to see a surprisingly overlooked topic within the Second World War being covered by someone. The French theatre doesn’t get the attention it deserved just because France capitulated early.
Agreed. There's a reason for the French collapse in WW2, and the situation in France between WW1 and WW2 was the main reason for that. Additionally, France & Britain's behavior during early WW2 is borderline despicable (especially whats was effectively abandonment of the Czechs, Poles, and Finns).
deep down would attack Germany forts with so little free manpower
I am 100% they get the attention they deserve.
@@Some_Guy_In_Ohio Britain and France lost millions in WW1, the people running both nations remembered that all too well and didn't want a repeat of the same waste of life. Britain and France were just avoiding making the war real, in reality there's very little they could have done to help in Eastern Europe... Also have to remember with Poland the USSR invaded too so anything the British or French did would have been an act of war against the USSR, the USSR wasn't really a threat to either nation but if the Soviets did join the Germans in that event it would have been troublesome for the British fighting alone
@Einytkeksinynimee Yes but no one thought Germany would do what it did, even Germans didn't think they would do what they did. When you're being shat on from a great height humans will eventually just run out of things to lose, like Venezuela now
Interesting how France was a defeated power and the free French fought the Vichy French, a bit like a civil war
Always like that in my HOI4 campaign lol
It was a civil war.
Same goes for Italy
Michael Milburn who surrenders
Michael Milburn it actually was a civil war to some extent. There were various fightings between French in Africa. De gaulle’s forces would try to take control of colonies under petain’s control by invading them. Sometimes there would be résistances from Vichy.
When libération of France started. There was a massive movement of the population to execute in the street anyone who had collaborated with the Germans. You may find very disturbing footages of this on RUclips.
World War 2 often seemed like an amalgamation of Civil Wars. Italy's Civil War was much the same experience, but in reverse.
"where they bravely ran away"...
The dry humor,deadpan style delivery,and the accent makes your jokes just perfect.
Ok, but what did you learn ? In your mind, finally, what was the attitude of brit soldiers ? "ran away"... the joke is the irony on the word "bravely"... but your brain remember "ran away" as the historic statement.
Brits didn't "ran away", this joke create a fasle view of historic reality
General Leclerc: Name a tank after me
France: Names literally everything after him
And yet it wasn't even his real name ^^"
Especially a shop
@@HyperVegitoDBZ The shop is named Leclerc only because the founder's name was also Leclerc ^^
He was also incredibly incompetent at disguises...😜
They even named an F1 driver after him
Paris only burns on the weekend now days.
Voltaire of Paris yellow vest of course
Voltaire of Paris ah, bad timing to read this now
No it also burns on the weekdays
Ironically not even Hitler managed to burn Paris.
@@JonatasAdoM
What
Finally someone covered this topic. This has been shrugged off wait too often as simply "lol France capitulate" and that's it. Especially the Political instability in France before the war is incredibly unknown to many people. A great video.
That's about what I think too. Nothing was simplistic. Paris was a major domicile of culture even through WWI. Best concise explanations where you could stop and go deeper with a good reference point. The City of Light was left more or less untouched.
That's about what I think too. Nothing was simplistic. Paris was a major domicile of culture even through WWI. Best concise explanations where you could stop and go deeper with a good reference point. The City of Light was left more or less untouched.
To be fair, political instability seem to be the rule in our country. Ironically, it seems that the leaders the french likes the most are always the most authoritative ones (Louis XIV, Napoléon, De Gaulle).
@@alexandrebertrand1069 fair point. AFAIK the 5th Republic has more authority invested in a single person (the president) and it has been more stable than previous French republics.
@@alexandrebertrand1069 French didn't like Louis XIV back in the day, Napoleon is liked because he saved France, who was at the verge of collapsing. Charles de Gaulles wasn't authoritarian at all btw
Annexing the Sudetenland was a smart move.
Afterwards Hitler could claim "Look at that border gore! I'll clean that mess up" and he immediately had international support because nobody wanted to look at a European map anymore.
To be fair, the map of Europe right before WW2, with the exception of Poland having the Danzig corridor, actually looked pretty nice.
@@DrewPicklesTheDark Eh, Eastern Poland looked ugly and Albania should’ve been annexed into Yugoslavia
Another batch of maps made obsolete.
@@Turkce_OyunBig Cartography promotes Wars to require production of new maps 😉
3:39 Neville Chamberlain dying in the background.
ROFL
I didn’t catch that.
He died of cancer and even if he didn’t resign he would of died in office
Finally someone that talks about facts, society and politics and doesn't just shrink history to war and weaponry... good job!
France had crappy weaponry, so...
Except those things are frankly more important
While one can boil something stupid like “the French did not anticipate the Germans going through the (Ardennes)” which isn’t true either, it would be better to explain that these were the first tier German forces fighting reservist ‘fortress’ infantry who barely had training and had equipment older than some of their soldiers
The Maginot Line was actually compromised early on before the war but was pointed to by politicians as impenetrable. Germans went through lowlands again just like WWI.
@@robc4191 France had the best army in the world before the war… better tanks than Germany, good and modern ships and a decent aviation
It's sad that 'pacifist' movement worked to the advantage of most brutal militarized regime and in the end French army and resources actively helped Hitler's war effort against other nations. Thanks lefty pacifists!
And France didn't learn mich from their disgraceful WW2 history - pushing to appease another aggressive dictatorship (Russia) in the name of peace...
This channel is so under rated
uh wot why are you here then?
Galaxy Red to check out the channel duh
Galaxy Red do you even know what underrated means
Uh wait I have no memory of typing that lol. That probably wasn’t me either since I never say ‘wot’ in my texts, my best friend does. I obviously know what underrated means.
I process and retain things by thinking about them but he's so fast that I abandon things and the cycle goes on. ADD I guess is the nice way of saying it.
"The French covered their retreat with Brutal and Bloody Fighting"
Christopher Nolan: What is that???
Siege of Calais
Stupid question!
@Lightning Kaiser Lol the one in 1940.
Well the only soldiers you see fighting on the ground in the movie are the french
@@038alpha You see them like 30 seconds ? How noble of him to show the French fighting in a France battle in a French city. Christopher Nolan truly is an amazing lad. Nah seriously the movie is great...for a fantasy movie
Tbh, this is the most accurate representation of history I have ever seen. The facts, the diction, syntax, and word play is ridiculous, and the animation is tremendous. This not only brings the raw facts w/ relevant context, but poses the proper questions which do a public service by stimulating analytical, consequential, cognitive thinking
bravely ran away hehehe love it.
warspite1995 as opposed to bravely doing nothing.
@@flemhawker9134 "I'm sorry friend I can't hear you over the fact I am getting farther and farther away the more I run in the opposite direction!" - the French in the fall of France
Brave, brave, brave, brave Sir Robin! He bravely ran away away. Brave Sir Robin!
@@epsilonjay4123 Brave Brave Sir Britain, they bravely ran away.
@@robosoldier11 awwww anglos are mad
Just a correction: A German advance into the Ardennes was taken to account in the general plan and a couple war games. The French expected the Germans could get through the forest in a bout 60 hours (which they did IRL) but thought they would be able to spot said advance with aircraft and other means. Unfortunately they weren't able to spot the German advance until to late and the cream of the German army was facing poorly-equipped second-rate French troops.
@Nub93 The french did not ignored entirely the spot of german tank into the Ardennes. They just made the assumption that the force in the Ardennes were not the main force of the German Army (which it was). And there downfall was to concentrate their army in the north to try keep the netherlands army into the fight because they needed the low countries manpower. Bot side made a bet, the french loosed. They never expected the Netherlands would surrender that quickly neither that the german would have take such a risk of putting much of their mechanized force through the ardennes without much infantry support.
And the following counter-attack battle were huge miscommunication between english and french high-command where british officer did not want to commit everything to protect France and French morale was very low.
To show this communication problems between the 2 high-commands just look at the Battle of Arras. The English officers in charge of the offensive told the French Airforce to support the attack without providing informations about the attack-front, the target or the hour of the attacks. When they tried to contact the RAF Headquarter for information the base was out of service because the RAF were already retreating back into England. French reconnaissance aircraft were shoot down very easily after that. it just one example but the whole battle of France was just a huge failure in communications and cooperation between british and french high-command.
In the end, when the british decided to retreat back to England. France could not support a counter attack alone to force the german panzer corps to retreat and were force to help the british in their rush to Calais for retreating back.
It was widely believed by the French High Command that the Ardennes, which is primarily dense forest with some marches strewn about, could not be crossed by a sufficient force as to be a credible threat. If anything, only a small scouting force would be capable of crossing such harsh and rugged terrain... As history shows us though, they believed incorrectly.
James Tang wtf is this Info sounds like you got this from some shitty propaganda source
@@BajanEnglishman51 bruh what . It’s true . Are you a wehraboo or some shit ?
Bajan Roblox do you learn history from youtube comments or from serious teacher at the university ?
Fun fact: if you go to French town halls or government buildings, often there will be portraits of the various French leaders of the past. That is, until 1940, when there is big hole until 1945. As if these years did not exist
Thats not new
The Kingdom of France also wished the revolution never existed after 1815
I remember my grandpa telling me that when he found out France was being invaded, he cried and shat his pants. He was 1 year old.
Omg really?!?! Why do you think that was?
I'm pretty sure most of us were doing that at age 12 months, bro
@zimriel that is the point of the joke
this is gold lmao the reply section is low fuckin iq
Napoleon's portrait is replaced by De Gaulle's portrait at 7:56
Edit: 7:57 lol
I mean... fair enough; de Gaulle became the new symbol of the country, and a lot of Gaullist ideals are very close to Bonapartist ideals. I've even heard some say Gaullists are the successors of Bonapartists.
It makes sense. The guy was a massive megalomaniac.
Paul Bartel LOL
3:52 for reference
3:31 Bravely ran away xD
Brave Sir Robin ran away
kejserrige it’s wrong ngl
The Joestar secret technique
Didn't you mean " They ran away like little girls".
@@michaelschudlak1432 They ran away because if they didn't the war would of ended and germany would of won
Just to point out some important detail: Pétain was know as the hero of WW1, he was a great general back then. So when the French put him to rule, they hoped to see the dude who wanted to do a full military parade in Berlin after WW1 and not this shit.
"They also took the Netherlands because why not?"
ahhh... historical actions are now sounding funny but back then not so much
They never annexed the Netherlands or Belgium. Just occupation because of it's strategical importance against the British/French empire(which had declared war against Germany). Get a clue. Same goes for the maker(s) of this video.
@@user-nc3gu3wm4e You'll excuse us if indefinite occupation and annexation sound fairly similar. Also yeah Britain and France declared war on Germany but they did it defend Poland which Germany had just invaded so since they were joining as allies of the Polish (as they'd both guaranteed their independence) technically they were on the defending side. Also why did Germany need to occupy the Netherlands? The Netherlands were neutral and weren't even necessary to get to France the way Belgium and Luxembourg were.
@@user-nc3gu3wm4e lol what do we have here a nazi sympathizer.Very intresting,let me guess the holocaust also didnt happen.
If the allies wanted to defend Poland then they wouldn''t had traded it for Greece at the end of WW2 and would've kicked the Soviet's asses as we all fought so hard to.
Huh? I’m not sure what you mean. Anyways, Greece had a civil war between the government and communist rebels. The government was supported by the British and crushed the rebel forces
Brave Sir Robin ran away
Bravely ran away away
When danger reared its ugly head
He bravely turned his tail and fled
Yes, brave Sir Robin turned about
And gallantly he chickened out
I litterally just watched Monty Python and the Holy grail in its entirety yesterday. SUCH A GOOD MOVIE.
3:31 "The British retreated at Dunkirk, where they then bravely ran away."
I DID NOT!
BC Nation and they were forced to eat Sir Robin’s minstrels, and there was much rejoicing.
Bravely bold Sir Robin, rode north from Camelot
He was not afraid to die, oh brave Sir Robin!
He was not at all afraid to be killed in nasty ways, brave brave brave brave Sir Robin.
He was not in the least bit scared to be mashed into a pulp.
Or to have his eyes gouged out, and his elbows broken. To have his knee caps split and his body burned away and his limbs all hacked and mangled brave Sir Robin!
His head smashed in and his heart cut out and his liver removed and bowels unplugged and his nostrils raped and his bottom burnt off and his penis-
That’s enough music for now lads.
0:05 French politics can still be described as a dumpster fire. What’s your point?
I'm french and I totally agree x)
Nah. Compared to the 30s, French politics now is a walk in the park. There were actual assassination attempts then, horrendous antisemitism, and an attempt at a fascist coup in 1934 by far-right leagues. Conservatives love to complain about strikes, but back then they were a lot more intense.
Yeah they were a disaster! And Britain abandoned the French at Ww2
The flames were higher then.
@@samrevlej9331 Nowadays you have to come to America for attempted fascist coups
Damn imagine being a ww1 german general seeing an angry mustache man achieve what you're entire empire could not in 6 months
And he wasn’t even German. He was Austrian.
Those were two different France and also they didn’t have blitzkrieg
I mean germany took france 2 times in less than 70 years, the franco-prussian war and ww2 lol
@@kllyfify1489 And you could say that France jointly took Germany twice in about thirty years. Both World Wars.
@@strasbourgeois1 well yes but actually no, basically russia entered Berlin first so its not a total win for france
"At Dunkerque, The British bravely ran away!"Lol
"Dunkerque"
40, 000 Brits stayed behind. 123,00 of those evacuated at Dunkirk were French. Most of whom decided to go straight back to France and not fight.
@@andym9571 British Forces lost 68,000 men in Belgium, they bravely fought alongside the French, but at Dunkirk 16,000 French and 1,000 British died defending it.
British had priority to reembark, out of 338,000 men rescued, 215,000 British reembarked from 28th may to 1st of June (except 4,000 reembarking on 3rd of June), 123,000 French from 1st to 4th of June, including 50,000 on 2nd and 25, 000 on 3rd of June. Evacuation of the last two days, once all British were evacuated, was not planned by Royal Navy and was performed at Churchill's insistence. The 40,000 men captured at Dunkirk were almost all French.
So no disrespect for British who bravely fought at Dunkirk but it was mostly French battle and a British evacuation. Also half of the small ships who made the evacuation possible were French.
The French were repatriated to France to keep on fighting the Germans for 3 weeks, despite the loss of most of their tanks and artillery, and were captured after Petain surrendered the army.
9:10
I am pretty certain that Yugoslavia never joined the Warsaw Pact.
Ikr
I don't think the map is actually representing the two pacts but the general situation of the cold war
I think it's about capitalism/socialism, not specific alliances
They had an alliance with the Soviets but left it after an unsuccessful coup in Greece where the campaign got somehow heated between the Soviets and Yugoslavia although they were on the same side (I guess they couldn't agree on battle plans of a future for greece? Idk)
@@jakubpraznovsky8999 Yes,they were on the same side prior to 1948.
Historian argue over what the true reason of the split was ,though most agree that Tito didn't want to be Stalin's puppet.
Tito supported communists in Greece while Stalin objected due to agreement with the Allies.
To answer the questions at the end, it is pretty much agreed that nothing could be done more in 1940, the French were totally beaten and disorganized and had no chance against the highly modern and professional German Army, and resisting more would only have resulted in France being more devastated.
To answer the second, the myth of "La France Résistante" (basically all the French were Resistant at least in their heart, and you know, totally didn't sell out their neighbors and Jews to the Germans, and like you said, even joined the Germans) was De Gaulles compromise to avoid everybody killing each other after the Liberation. Nowadays it is pretty much a consensus that De Gaulle promoted the best story for a fresh start by dumping all the responsibility on Vichy government and Pétain. Basically a scapegoat. And looking back at the fuckfest that was the 4th Republic, one wonders how it would have been without it. Eighty years later, all academics agree that the Collaboration was really alive and well even in the population despite people thinking that antisemitism magically disappeared with the Dreyfus Affair, but also that really most of the French just did nothing but live their everyday lives the best they could.
The French army was more modernised than the german in 1940. But sur it was completely disorganised and left alone against the germans. France had half the population of Germany and for sure it could not have sustained a war against Germany alone.
And yes, "La France Résistante" was not as important as it was.
@@nizla7322 The French army was clearly NOT "more modernized".
Andrew Roberts, an English popular "historian," claims that more Frenchmen fought alongside the Germans than fought against them during WWII. This would include all the colonial forces which stayed with the Vichy regime.
More could have been said about the Vichy ideology: e.g. they abolished Liberty, Equality & Fraternity and promoted Family, Work and Nation instead. They still didn't let women vote.
@@faithlesshound5621 Your historian is an idiot. Vichy's armistice armed forces was 100 000 (and putting them in that bag is already a stretchl, the volunteers on the eastern front numbered around 7000 at the best period, meanwhile the free french forces that invaded Germany in 44-45 were over 1.5 millions, not even counting the various resistance cells for which accounting is iffy at best.
Nobody voted under Vichy, and not allowing women to vote pre-war was done by the French left which saw women as under the influence of the Church.
@@faithlesshound5621 thats funny, because while the French mobilized Millions, the Brittish initially only send a few hundred thousand to France as far as I know.
A couple years ago I met a man who was an engineering student in Paris during the occupation. He said the German administration was going to send him to work in a periscope factory but he got a doctor to say that he had serious intestinal problems and could not travel. The Germans sent him home to recover and he promptly fled.
Slight correction:
Pétain had actually been sentenced to death for collaborating with the Nazis,but De Gaulle would commute his sentence to life in prison on account of Pétain's age and past service to France, also Pétain was stripped of all his military titles/honors other than his title of Marshal Of France.
After his conviction,Pétain's health went downhill and his sentence was further commuted to confinement to hospital.
As De Gaulle said of Pétain after his death:
"His life was successively banal, then glorious, then deplorable, but never mediocre".
Lol bravely ran away.
Dunkirk ?
He forgot dunkirk xD
And btw in France we have an expression « filer a l’anglaise » wich means « run away lika an English »
druisteen Should we of let our Army get wiped out along with the French? All banter aside, it was necessary for Britain to have its Army. That same Army landed at Normandy four years later, and we also fought with and assisted resistance groups, and fought with Free French forces across the world. Sad state of affairs, but it all worked out in the end.
Dewoitine D.520 brits stayed behind and fought, and french troops escaped as well. The French were shit in the war the British army escaping allowed them to come back in June 44
Euan Miller Lol only 177 french soldiers landed on Beaches in June and you call that a save lmao
During Dunkirk French protected English soldiers who were escaping and only few French soldiers were saved from there, all the others were killed by germans
And btw during this battle French had 1 soldier for 10 germans ones :/
Sometimes truth is hard English army saved by those weak ass Baguette eater
Fun fact: Reynaud was one of the non-military combatants who fought in the Battle of Castle Itter in 1945 - the one battle where German and American US soldiers fought on the same side; the man who helped him out in the Castle becoming a defender was Major Josef Gangl, a disillusioned Wehrmacht officer who helped Austrian resistance - and Gangl died protecting Reynaud
I love how Switzerland is eating some popcorn while unbothered above the Alps.
France: WE DECLARE WAR!
Also France: Don't shoot though, or they'll attack us.
I remember an episode of the World At War where the French were watching some German soliders playing football. An English observer actually asked them why they weren't attacking the enemy, and the reply literally was "because they'll shoot back at us".
The team at History Matters has a true gift for turning out short funny nuggets of history. Love this channel!
A little nerd note: the cartoon weapons you see in this channel's videos are absolutely accurate
And the French soldiers include chaps from the colonies fighting for France. As a European of Lebanese and Persian grandparents I appreciate such details, no matter how blond my hair and blue my eyes.
Overall, this is a very good video, and thanks for taking the time to do all the research needed to bring a video of that quality. I would like to mention few things that seem to be wrong, overstated or forgotten:
1/ attack on Gibraltar was conducted by italians, not french.
2/ Maginot line was stopped at the Belgium border because Belgium asked for it, in order to protect its neutrality to Germany and France. That was a mistake, but not the intention for French to fight a battle in Belgium rather than Home !
3/ In Belgium and then in Dunkerk the British were not alone. In Dunkerk for example, the British accounted for half of the troops present. The rest were french, dutch and belgium. French troops fought really hard and managed few successes (battle of Hannut, battle of Flavion/Stonne, battle of Moncornet). Nevertheless France accounted for 60,000 soliders deaths and 123,000 injured in 6 weeks, while UK lost 3,500 soliders in combat.
4/ attack on Mers-El-Kébir in July 1940 was made by british on unarmed vessels. 1,207 sailors were killed by what was still at that time officially a friend ! In the entire WWII, the German troops never killed more than the number mentioned above. You can imagine this put a lot of scepticism when it came to find an agreement with the british later in the war !
5/ You're mentioning several times volunteers fighting for Nazi Germany as this was major point in France at that time. This started only in March 1943, since SS considered German blood too pure to give opportunities to other nations to fight with them, and after the fall of the Vichy Regime. 2,500 men joined. In Autumn 1944, out of desperation, the SS opened their rank to more frenchmen. In total, between 8,500 and 9,000 of them served under German command. The first engagement of these troops was in February 1945 when they lost 2,000 men. The french were also involved in the defence of Berlin, but overall this is really a minor aspect of the war.
6/ You're not mentioning FFL, which were the troops that served under General De Gaulle, as early as June 18th 1940. FFL reached a maximum of 53,000 on August 1st 1943 when they were incorporated in the regular army. They have been involved in El Alamein, in Syria and most important they stopped Romel in the desert at Bir Hakeim in May 1942. During 14 days, 3,723 frenchmen fought successfully against 37,000 German and Italians, killing, injuring or capturing 3,600 ennemies, destroying 51 tanks, 49 plans, and more than 100 vehicules. That's on the ground. On the sea, FNFL or Forces Naval Francaises Libres accounted for 12,500 sailors, 65 warships, 170 trading ships. These men were very active. For example, the corvet Aconit is the first boat in WWII that sunk 2 U Boat in the same day. At the end of the war, the largest vessel was the Richelieu, with nearly 1,500 men, served within the British Eastern Fleet against Japanese as the main vessel. The Richelieu participated to fights in Burma, Malaysia, and was in Singapore for the surrender of the Japanese garnison in Spetember 1945. In the air, 3,500 crewmen served under the RAF command, and thus provided 12 squadrons. From the occupied countries in Europe, only Poland contributed more squadrons. The Free French served not only in UK, but Africa, Middle East and most importantly in USSR. The Normandie-Niemen brigade, with 3 squadrons, supported USSR in the East Front as early as 1942 until the end of the war, involved in 5,240 flying missions, 869 figths, 273 certified victories plus 37 probable. FFL lost about 2,000 men.
7/ In August 1943, the FFL are incorporated in the regular french army present in North Africa forming the AFL (Armée Française de Liberation) and reached 1,3 million active soldiers in 1945, including 200,000 resistants that joined the regular army during the campaign in France. All of that happened way after the Vichy collapsed in November 1942. These soldiers were involved against German and Italians in Tunisia in 1942, in the liberation of Corsica in 1943, then the invasion of Italy. They've demonstrated how useful they could be in Monte Casino and reaching Rome at the same time as the US forces on June 4th 1944. In August 1944, they represented more than half of the troops landing in south of France, fought hardly on Germans in Toulon and Marseille, and driving up north, meeting with the 1st Tank division which entered and liberated Paris. Later they stood firmed during the attack of the SS on Strasbourg. They managed to get into Germany and smashed the German units in the black forest, occupied Stuggart, and then turned south to reach Austria and the Fuhrer Nest in Berchtesgaden. The losses of the AFL is estimated at 74,300 men. Resistance got around 34,000 fighters deported who died in camps out of 86,000 who suffered deportation, and about 19,000 were simply killed in France by Wehrmacht or died under torture by the Gestapo. In total France lost more than 275,000 men and women fighting. That has to be compared with the 384,000 soldiers UK lost, as well as 417,000 soliders lost by the US on all front.
As a conclusion, in 1945, Allied forces did not hesitate when it came to get the signature of the first German capitulation in France, in Reims, then getting J. De Lattre de Tassigny, to sign for France in BErlin the next day, then Philippe Leclerc de Hautecloque signing for France on the Missouri in Tokyo. In 1945 France got an occupation zone in Germany, in Austria and in Berlin. I'm sorry, but in France today, considering all these facts, no one can seriously say we have been hesitating side as a country, and the less than 2,000 frenchmen who died serving Nazi Germany cannot compare with more than 140 times that number who fought alongside allied powers.
Interesting details, thanks for sharing
*attack on Mers-El-Kébir in July 1940 was made by british on unarmed vessels. 1,207 sailors were killed by what was still at that time officially a friend ! In the entire WWII, the German troops never killed more than the number mentioned above. You can imagine this put a lot of scepticism when it came to find an agreement with the british later in the war*
See my longer comment elsewhere. France was given many alternatives, but refused them all, and ignored the opportunity to get its crews to safety. Also, it is the first time I have seen it claimed that the main French battle fleet was 'unarmed vessels'.
7:56 LMAO replaced Napoleon's painting with Charles painting
Some interesting factoids :
-Capital for the Free French renewed efforts was a black french guyanese, Felix Eboue, governor of French Equatorial Africa. He was the first high ranking official of the Empire to recognize De Gaulle, and he organized the regroupment of forces and fighting in the Desert War. He was buried in the Pantheon in 1949, the first black french to be.
-The battle of Bir-Hakeim was very important in making France looks like a legitimate power once more, as it was the first engagement to live up to the hype of French military reputation. It was also important in delaying Rommel during his march to El-Alamein.
-De Gaulle and Churchill actually had a friendship of sort, even if filled with political arguing and general bickering. De Gaulle respected Churchill for his experience and energy, and Churchill had kind of a mancrush on De Gaulle during the Fall of France, calling him "the Man of Destiny" due to his conviction that he would play a determinant role for France. This would be useful to maintain De Gaulle's rank among the Allies despite Roosevelt's animosity and Truman's disdain. He had a warm relationship with Eisenhower, however.
The Churchill - De Gaulle alliance is the embodiment of the French-English relationship : Mutual respect and rivalries ! For instance, Churchill was a perfect French speaker but refused to speak French to De Gaulle, on the contrary, even on his weak position De Gaulle refused to be treated as a second-hand ally. I love these two.
@mikechrishill You're sadly talking shit.
First thing : Yes most troops at the begining were colonial troops (for France except in artillery regiments) at the begining but they were replaced by FFI (Resistance of the interior) at the debarkment in Provence.
Resistance cells were absolutely not mostly foreigners, the first cells were French royalists and nationalists from two groups : La cagoule (nationalists) and Action Française (Royalits), then, Communists groups joined in after the operation Barbarossa. The Spanish that entered Paris were Republicans welcomed in southern France in the 30's after the Spanish civil war and were related with the French that fought in the Spanish civil war among the volunteers (for instance André Malraux that would become ministry of culture fought in Spain).
And no resistance was not a Myth, my Grand-father himself joined the resistance like many French, not by ideology but because the resistance provided food easily and because he was sentenced to death or deportation by the Germans.
@mikechrishill The Moroccans and Algerians in the Leclerc division only numbered about 3.600 out of 14.500. Leclerc used the Spaniards as a vanguard because they were the most experienced and battle-hardened men in the division, not because there was a shortage of white guys in his forces.
De Gaulle did not get along with LBJ. De gaulle to the Us to leave france in the 1960's LBJ spanked De Gaulle and said to him does that inculde the 40k dead US solders in france. it was said De Gaulle had nothing to say about that
@@dknowles60 The story is apocryphal. I mean, you really think world leaders have nothing else to do but to send each others one-liners ?
You explained quite well why a lot in France DO NOT like the movie Dunkerque.
I live there right now and can tell you, Britain’s backstabbing habits are quite despised.
Yea. The long and glorious tradition of Brexit...
Why were we supposed to do die for an land that could not be saved
It weren’t our job to sacrifice our lives for another country
@@nightowl3218 you can say the same thing about Poland or British troops in France in the first place in WW1 as well
You French had the so called "Greatest Army in the World" in 1940 as your generals called yourselves, you had millions of men in the army, you are always blaming everyone else but yourselves, it's your country, you save yourselves.
De Gaulle is seen as haughty and imperious by Americans for claiming a pride and prestige that his reality couldn't match. But you have to understand why he acted the way he did - America dealt him a very rough hand. Instead of bringing him into the fold and treating him as a firm ally, they considered Vichy a viable choice and looked for alternatives to De Gaulle as a leader. In the end De Gaulle won through based mainly on his dogged determination.
If you loved your country and had great pride in it but didn't have much power or influence and an ally you needed that was giving you the cold shoulder - how would you have acted?
De Gaulle is also one of the best leader, we in France ever had (easy top 3) !!
The bullet train ? The concord plane ? That's him. Turning a disastor of a war into a semi-success ? him. The seat at the security counsil ? him.
Endless nuclear energy ? Also him. Not to mention political independance, national fervor, biggest industrial growth, stability, ending colonial Algeria, a baby-boom of youth, great cinema...etc, etc
And to think that guy almost died as a young officer in WW1. France would be Bangladesh without him.
De Gaulle, although high profile (because of his books and his advocacy of tank warfare), was, at the dawn of WWII, also fairly low rank. He became a brigadier general in 1940, and he'd only recently been promoted to full colonel prior to that. So it's not crazy the Americans wondered if he was the right guy.
And in the end, the US and Britain pumped up France to a position that, absent the Soviet threat, it might never have resumed - the West desperately needed another pillar and it couldn't be Germany. Some of that had disastrous consequences - FDR didn't want France to resume post-WWII control of Indochina for instance, but Truman went along with it. The UK and the US basically agreed to treat France like a world power - kind of a "fake it until you make it" approach. De Gaulle was a huge beneficiary of that. There's no doubt he was an extraordinary person, but also (like most other great leaders, to be fair) extraordinarily lucky.
My "six degrees of separation" moment with De Gaulle: my mother had a friend who was deep into her old age. About 25-30 years ago, I visited my parents for the holidays and my mother asked me to accompany her to see this old lady. OK, tis the season, etc.
Wherein, somehow the following was discussed: this lady's father had been an American officer or govt functionary in that part of Germany occupied by the French after WWII. She, at the time, was a tall slim thing in early adulthood and therefore much in demand at the military balls.
Where she danced with one even taller French officer by the name of Charles De Gaulle. Record-scratch moment for me. Wait a minute - you danced with Charles De Gaulle?! Holy crap!
(This lady's husband had also been a group leader for the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos, so she'd lived quite the life - she'd known all the greats - Oppenheimer, etc).
Something important at 6:21 that most will gloss over. After the Molotov Ribbentrop pact Communist groups did not actively resist in Hitler until he invaded the USSR and papa Stalin gave the OK. In fact the main Communist parties in the UK, France, Canada, and the US all *opposed* involvement in WW2 right up until Barbarossa.
Never underestimate the power of one unemployed man's words
Well ..... I'm french and it's one of the most successful videos about this theme I ever watched ...... You did a great job in 10min. congratulations ...... +1 Sub. :-)
The liberation of France wasn’t really the end of the war for the french resistance. In order to prevent violence and potential civil war with competing bands of armed men roaming the countryside, the french resistance was incorporated in the french army. That permitted the french army to swell its ranks to 1.6 million men under arms under General de Lattre de Tassigny.
From what I have found, it was known that the Germans could go through the Ardennes but the Allies didn't react quick enough. Also the Germans were taking a massive risk going through the Ardennes due to the formation of a massive traffic jam which could have been used to the allied advantage by bombing the tanks from air
"France has always unfortunately been a great example of it can't get no worse and does. I say this as an Englishman with no Disrespect"- Max Hastings
Bahaha tell me which countries have won the most battles? France. Tell me today the country where the sun never sets? France(and not Rosbiffs).A day an english officer said: “You French people are fighting for money, while we english are fighting for honor!” the king of the corsairs would have replied: “That is correct, sir. Everyone is fighting for what they don't have. ”- Robert Surcouf
Max Hastings said that before or after Singapore ?
@@gengis737 lmaoooo
@@secretname4190 The UK?
@@jeywan_off The French won most battles only because you include the battles won by the Franks in the list. The Franks were Germanic and not French. The French can win a war only if they are led by a non French leader like Napoleon[ who was Italian] or have a lot of powerful allies on their side. If they don't have one of these two things they will definitely surrender.
My French 1 teacher showed this video during a project on the revolution and thus, got me addicted to this channel.
France: Builds nearly impenetrable fortifications that are highly advanced for the time and are guaranteed to inflict extreme casualties on anyone who attacks them.
Germany: Goes around them.
"Not again.. Obi Wan is going to kill me."
@@migkillerphantom yeah you said it, its a joke, so dont try to act like a super smart person
migkillerphantom lol idiot that’s why jokes exists
@@trollinape2697 the joke only works if you are an idiot who believes the premise.
Their mistake was relying upon Belgium for anything.
Thanks for this context. Pétain was a hero for WWI, but the villain for WWII. It's also fascinating to see how off kilter the whole world was in the 1930s, and that helps make the run up to WWII make more sense.
2:40 finally a big brain, I'm tired of the memes about the Maginot line
Then why didn’t they build the maginot line at the border with Belgium? Where it is way harder to defend in the plains then in the mountains
@@Andrei-eb2du the belgians had their own defense line, and the Dyle plan was to defend the Dyle line in Belgium and Netherlands, which was supposed to be fortified but wasn't in 1940. The real poker coup was the Ardennes
@@Andrei-eb2du because the Franco Belgian alliance was only ended by the Belgian monarch after the maginot line was finished, at the time to build it all the way to the coast would be to sell the Belgians out, and everyone saw the horrors brought to Belgium in the First World War
Besides the maginot line did cover the Ardennes, it’s another one of the many myths of the Second World War, it wasn’t as potent as the Franco German border because forests are better defensive terrain than flatland, but it was there, however being manned by second and third rate divisions of barely trained conscripts was tiddlywinks to the best of the German army with its elite mechanized/motorized formations and to an enemy who enjoyed significant air superiority
Error: Petain was sentenced to death, but De Gaulle changed it to life in prison
Too bad about Laval.
@@roberteaston6413 nah laval had it coming
@@Kamfrenchie After the British conquest of Canada in 1759 France lost her empire in North America. At the Treaty of Paris in 1763 France was allowed to keep two small islands in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence as whaling stations. These islands were Saint Pierre and Miquelon. They were near Newfoundland. On Christmas Day, 1941 Charles De Gualle had his tiny Free French navy invade these two islands and take it away from Vichy France. There was no evidence that these two islands were used as a sanctuary for German U-boats. Both the Canadian and British governments knew that the American government took the Monroe Doctrine seriously. They would never conduct a military operation in North America without talking to the Americans first. De Gualle did not care. He said that if the Americans came to these two islands he would tell his men to fire on them. President Franklin Roosevelt despised him for his arrogance. As far as De Gualle was concerned Britain was America's poodle and Canada was a make believe country. During WW2 most of the people in Quebec supported Vichy France.
@@roberteaston6413 and men in Quebec would not fight in the war, either.
@@user-zp7jp1vk2i There were some French Canadians such as Pierre Sevigny and Jacque Dextrae that served with distinction. Pierre Trudeau sat out the war. If you were to talk to a French Canadian or an Irish Canadian Catholic and ask him why he was an isolationist he would say that Mother England is playing you Tories for a sucker. In times of peace and prosperity England makes money out of sugar producing islands in the Caribbean, she makes money out of diamond mines in South Africa, and exploits the wealth of India. She ignores her dominions such as Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Yet when England goes to war she expects her dominions to contribute her finest men to fight England's wars. When the war is over England goes back to exploiting her Empire and ignoring her dominions. That argument was not valid when it came to defeating Nazi Germany. Nazi Germany was pure evil and a threat to Western civilisation. I would not give my life so England could keep Singapore as a naval base but I would give my life to prevent Nazi Germany from destroying the United Kingdom and Western civilisation.
Recently discovered this channel, it's quickly risen to being my favourite history channel. Keep up the good work.
I like how you referenced the fact that the Allies have forbidden Sengali Soldiers from helping anymore in the war.
Actually France invaded Germany in 1939 (Saargebiet) but refused to push further due to a lack of information: France assumed that Germany still had troops to counter - in fact nearly all troops were involved in Poland.
Maurice Gamelin ordered to retreat which led to the Phoney War.
This video lays out the context of the movie Casablanca. I remember being confused as a kid about France's loyalties.
Raise your hand if you learned all of this playing HOi4!
wait i dont have hands
Same :(
Get your Handipole!
Mhm
"The British bravely ran away."
I love this channel
Cry more about it.
It’s 1936 and French politics is a Dumpster fire. Best way to describe it
Thank you so much fore giving credit to France and not falling to the easy trap of the French surrender stereotype. Great video.
Jb Valentin half your country surrendered while the other half bent over and let itself become germanys bitch, he didnt give credit to france, the only reason ANY frenchmen fought on was because they essentially became british forces being sent on missions alongside us.
Jb Valentin salty
They knew that Versailles was a joke I think, the newly formed USSR was not recognized. Ho Chi Minh be damned.The world war was postponed for Spanish Flu, and rebuilding more armys and navys.
I love how he has put everything into perspective of one video so neatly..
This time "bravely ran away" is actually an accurate description.
seneca983 it’s not
@@Euan_Miller43: How come? Evacuating was the only sensible option at that point and not a decision born out of fear. I'm also not aware of any lack of bravery while holding out until the evacuation was complete.
seneca983 bravely ran away is a pisstake this video doesn’t do Dunkirk justice
@@Euan_Miller43: By "accurate" I meant that it was actually brave.
In the video it's obviously just a joke.
@@seneca983 compared to the the French soldiers who stayed fighting, it was not brave
Your 2 second description of Dunkirk had me in tears😂
*“Bravely Run Away”* with _Benny Hill_ theme !!!
4:57 look at beautiful rectangular ship
No it is a pier or a ship that flipped over
Bottoms of ships were red during that period of time. He just wanted an easy ship.
Sees a new ten min history vid. Clicks watches enjoys. :)
Meh
@@PercepiusProductions
👎 boo
Imperatoris Hominis meh
Sir Panda meh
Mysterious Meh
“The british bravely ran away” XD
Britain to other countries in peace: We will protect you from threats!
Britain when the country needs help: I never met this man in my life
*I mean, it's the reverse when you look at poland*
@@twoscarabsintheswarm9055 What do you mean?
@@SnowChickenFlake they didn't really care about Poland in peace but when it needed help they acknowledged its existance
@@twoscarabsintheswarm9055 and then.... ya know... set back watched...
@@cmdrgarbage1895 they didn't sit back and watch. They declared war.
Great video! I also noticed that your animation quality is getting better and better with every video :))
Surprised you never mentionned Jean Moulin and the FFL, but I guess a 10 minute format limits this in favor of more important things... Great job though!
I was wondering why he didn't cover the Syrian campaign. It diverted a lot of British and Australian troops away from North Africa to fight the French in the Levant rather than the Germans and Italians in Libya.
“The British retreated to Dunkirk where they then bravely ran away”
Basically, yeah
Great job, very thorough and complete for so short a video.
Excellent. Just excellent. Haven't seen yet any video of comparable length better than yours. Very enjoyable factual recollection, upon which one can build in-depth analyses (social, constitutional, economic, military, etc.). Bravo!
This. Was. Awesome. Thank you for making a video about such an interesting yet underreported topic.
Normie.
I just love how many simple solutions are applied to complex problems. Just heating up the dumpster fire.
"Bravely ran away"
I have to remember that and work that into something.
I demand my extra second of ten minute history
Extremely well written video that tackles pretty much every single major misconception people have about this subject. Well done!
Although it still missed some pretty important elements :
-"Allied" bombings of mainland France
-Power struggles amidst free france
-the CNR's programme (which led to most social reforms in the aftermath of ww2)
-the fact Vichy France was never formally at war with any of the Allies.
-the efforts by Vichy France, at least early on, to prepare their revenge on the Germans (stacking weapons in concealed hangars, developping new war material while making it look like nothing much was going on, etc.)
- the manpower situation for the Allies as a whole (not just the UK) leading to France getting an occupation zone and a UNSC seat.
-war in the overseas territories
@@MadManchou Well you can't say everything in ten minutes. I thought it was good at covering the major points and especially the myths that are prevalent in the anglosophere.
Obviously
@@MadManchou Vichy concealed army was the line of defense of collaborators after the war. It proved a false pretense when German invaded Southern France with limited force, no opposition was organized and the planes and ships were not even authorized to escape to North Africa.
The hard sarcasm just makes this stuff so damn fun to watch.
You left out the best part. Hitler was so obsessed with revenge he made them sign in the same train from ww1.
this channel is a gem
I love these character drawings!
Wow! Thank you. this is so informative and in depth!
Awesome presentation. Very balanced. Well done.
I know you had to condense a lot, but you should have mentioned how Brazzaville in the French Congo became the base of operations for the Free France from 1940 - 1942.
Thank you for remembering. Brazzaville was the capital of Free France, and later Algiers.
Everyone who has seen Casablanca knows that. But I wonder how effectively you could fight Hitler there.
There was also the matter of Madagascar.
3:31 Both The French and the British retreated from Dunkrik. And it wasnt just the French who fought to stop the german advance near Dunkirk
Great video! Disovered you at the weekend.
Definitely going to have your back on Patreon.
the cartoons and representation of historical moments are fun to watch. don't change their style.
Nice detail, making the bay in the netherlands bigger because at that time they did not have as much land that had been reclaimed!
That waz becoz of the Zoider, Zee.
You are great bro, interesting documentary that isn't stretched to 10 minute mark (9:59)
I wish i had found ur channel when i was in school, not only are the lessons much more interessting, it would also help me with presentations. Instead of the white background with some boring words on powerpoint i would use more like these pictures to present my subject.
9:11 Accidental French Flag.
Foreshadowing?
I just realised that Europe during cold war was a giant French flag. You just made my day.
“Bravely retreated.” -Ten Minute History, 2019
3:15 "they also took the Netherlands cause why not?" :'(
A small correction about Daladier, you point that he was very proud of the Munich Agreement in 1938, you are confused with Chamberlin maybe?
Both men were received by a crowd at their arrival at their respective airport, but Dadalier was visibly pessimistic and is cited to have said, watching the cheering crowd:
"Ah les cons! S'ils savaient..." ("Fools! If only they knewn...")
One of the biggest mistakes the allies made in World War 2 was to allow Germany to take Sudetenland. Had they just stood up and told Hitler to go to Hell World War 2 likely would have been avoided. The Czechs were prepared to give the Germans a fight they wouldn't soon forget. While there are great arguments to be had that show a German victory over Czechoslovakia it would have been so costly that it would have likely ended Nazi Germany's conquest. I also believe in this scenario an English/French joint operation would commence with the goal of destroying what was left of Adolf's Wehrmact after a conflict in Sudetenland. Win, lose, or draw the best victory Hitler could have hoped for was a pyrrhic one at best ending in a much quicker overall defeat.
Yes but counterpoint: WW1 was terrible :( we can't risk that happening again so lets not fight. (This lead to that happening again) (Oops.)