So French tanks were basically sith lords of their time? "Always two there are, a driver and a gunner." "But which one was destroyed? The driver or the gunner?" *Shell flies past their heads* "The driver, definitely."
The French: ok so we're going to have tanks with as few men as possible so as to save manpower, but we're aslo not going to use radios so we'll have guys who will run around to relay information
France never fully recover his male population after WW1. It can explain some weird choices made. It was also a country mainly focused on growing food. Those wars just wasted generations of good people on both sides.
@@Koozomec Yes they lost 1.5 millions men and another 4 to 5 millions casualties on a population of 39 millions at the time, add to that the more or less 400000 death from the spanish flu and the low birthrate. By 1939 France population was 40 millions. They could no longuer mobilize to the same extend they did during WWI.
In the french combat doctrine, tanks were suposed to support infantery and not moving in tank divisions as the Germans did. That partly explains why radios were less used in french tanks compared to their german counterpart
@@lostalone9320 And as he was talking about in the video, there are a million different theses on why France fell, and I bet that's a part of it. Because by surrendering they wouldn't have more of their cities bombed to pieces.
@@lostalone9320 Considering the highest French losses were not the big battles of Verdun, the Nivelle-Offensive or the Kaiserschlacht, but the opening days of the war, when the highly motivated french troops used outdated tactics and equipment to go on the offensive and got slaughtered by mashine guns, the idea of taking a careful, defensive approach and not investing in radical new theories makes sense.
@@lostalone9320 They actually prepare for german invasion from Belgium and have a good strategy to hold from there. However what they do got wrong with focus on objective. They tried to defend a long wide front while the german focus on one objective to march from impassible terrain and make a bluff from others. Well, the result. You got surrounded.
Actually the Germans tapped Russian comms in ww1 and used this to devastating effect perhaps the french heard of this through their ally and that's why they did not use radios?
@@peterni2234 oop just noticed wrong place but I'm too lazy to look for the comment it was meant for still maybe they heard about that from Tsar Nic during ww1 and that's why they did that monumentally retarded blunder
Jacque Clouseau: Who are you? Gunner: I am the gunner. Clouseau: And, what do you do? Gunner: I gun. Clouseau: Make a note of zat, he is the gunner who guns.
Yes, finally. I was dying to see this. Edit: It's incredible how I learned tons of stuff by listening to someone talk about my own country's tanks. It makes me happy to see non-french people talk about french stuff so accurately, and interestingly!
Uhhhh You do know that France won wars against the British right? Like, in Bulgaria we say "even if God fought the Brits even he would lose!" Like France is a cultural and political powerhouse!
@@dotnask0001 I am well aware of that, I am talking about the tanks however. I do know the overall mentality when it came to producing a certain tank (the B1 for exemple) but I didn't know about the whole french tank meme.
Chieftain also has a really in-depth video about French Armoured Doctrine which is really interesting. Wether it's French, Japanese, English, American or Russian tanks, context is extremely important in explaining the designs, and for France that also includes politics at the time. If it wasn't for the leftist government being afraid of the army, we could have had professional Armoured Divisions based on German Panzer Divisions.
Well. He said the sherman...and like the panzer. There's more than one model. So...*he might be showing one model, but it's down to both sides of retarded fandoms*
When you have a paper armored medium with a popgun (Sherman) that's as big as a heavily armed and armored heavy (Tiger 2) no matter how you want to slice it it IS a bad tank. Hell the heavy version of the Sherman (T14) had a lower profile and better armor angles.
I don’t think it matters which side had the “better” tanks. The simple fact is that Germany knew how to use them better in that specific moment in time. If France were of the same mind they’d have massed all their Char B1s into a division or two and drove them straight to Berlin in September of 1939 and ended the war just that quickly. But they didn’t, and they lost.
Yeah the French high command was not very good. The allies had a lot going for it at the start of the war but inaction and the inability to grasp the fact this was going to be a total war led to a very quick defeat for the French and damning the British to their island. I don't think it would've been that simple for them to be in berlin but they could've held out against the Germans or at least done it for much longer.
@@kaiservonpanzer213 I mean if the allies did make a hard push and France was in the same state of mind as Germany they could have pushed deep toward Berlin since the Wehrmacht was occupied in Poland and the seigfried line was hardly ready yet
@@jasongrayson2101 just imagine all the tanks and modern equipement the french wouldve had if the maginot line was not built in favor of modern military , or if the french decided not to let very fast tank with the B1 and char 2C and instead put those two behemoths together, or if the french actually had a numerous decent airforce instead of having half their plane not capable of flying for x reason, or if the french high command wasnt so old minded, or if the french noticed that having 3k tank in their arsenal even if 70% were outdated and another 5% outdated yet to tough for anything but flak and air support was enough to make the wehrmacht sweat real hard, or that attacking the ruhr while germany was distracted to at least screw with their industry and ressources far earlier in the war than with strategic bombing, or if they actually had remembered that if the french light tank were tiny enough to go trough the ardenne then the german could too... in other word french potential in ww2 was enormous and completely waaaasted
@@Freedmoon44 In other words; if a completely different country with the same geographical location replaced France. It's like those "could Germany have won WW2" debates, it could only happen if the country was completely different.
@@Freedmoon44 or just if they actually used the money dedicated for the maginot line to finish it, which they didnt. in any way, they should have ended with either a good defense line or a good attack force, and with how it turned out they ended with none because the maginot line (though extremely effective in its actually finished parts) wasnt totally built.
The French fought ferociously, I think especially during the British evacuation of Dunkirk. They held the Germans back, just barely in time for their allies to escape. Even after France fell, many troops continued to fight long afterwards in resistance movement.
De Gaulle and Reneau were the only ones with balls left as Reneau refused to surrender to the Germans and resigned, and obviously De Gaulle later with Leclerc and a few others tried to fight any way they could
It's probably more accurate than what Paradox actually did though. France was all about the exact kinds of artillery-heavy forces, mostly moving at leg-infantry speeds, that the doctrine tree is about, and that just tossing them in the grand battleplan pile is arguably bad history based on the exact kinds of stereotypes videos like this one discuss and point out are unfair.
Most members of the French government you showed at 10:00 are the ones who refused the armistice and wanted to continue the war: Charles De Gaulle, Georges Mandel, and to some extent Paul Reynaud...
50 IQ: The Germans had better tanks 100 IQ: The French had better tanks 150 IQ: The Germans had better tanks EDIT: Wow thanks for the epic wholesome 100 chungus RUclips likes, kind strangers!
The Somua and the Char B1 were the two best French designs in World War 2, he other 2-man French tanks are of significantly poorer quality than the Germand
Meme tanks *clap clap* Also, I can't recommend highly enough the Chieftan's series on interwar tank and tank doctrine development. His one on French tanks in particular is great for shining a light on how France entered WW2 with what were essentially 1920s designs. Also, the French government saw the professional French military as a bigger threat than the Germans.
@Bryce Bowen its an anti austrichian song from back in the old napoleonian campaign, it wasn't used at all (almost)during ww2 tho,but fucking anime n' all
Addison Welsh Without France your USA would still be drinking tea and wouldn’t be enjoying ungodly amounts of hamburgers. Also France had more military victories over the USA.
3:57 Another reason that sort of prevented the French from pursuing larger, heavier, and more capable tanks was due to political reasons. Apparently, during the inter-war period there were some arms treaties to limit the tonnage of tanks, and their armaments (typically hovered around 15 tons......which was way surpassed by the Char B1 series of heavy tanks).
there were talks about them treaties around the time of the creation of the B1, which was the reason for the design of the D2 medium tank as a lighter alternative (and also why it wasn't built in great numbers), but in the end those treaties were never realised so the impact was in effect nul
Well yeah. That's kind of exactly what was being said when they say that "France had more tanks and better ones but still lost." They lost because of concentration of force on the side of the Germans. It's a tactics and stategy advantage, instead of a straight material, or on paper one. On paper, on equal footing, a French tank would win over a German one in that period at that exact time. It just didn't matter because German strategy ensured that would never, or at least rarely happen. Radio and communications equipment just helped the Germans pull off their tactics better and quicker, as well as making them more responsive to changes. Napoleon, in fact, pulled something similar to this off, with concentration of force and defeat in detail, before in his early battles, with obviously different troops and equipment.
"More and better ones" the argument is fallacious since half of the Arsenal or a bit over 3k tanks in total for the whole arsenal was FT-17 which were outdated as hell, and pretty much 4/5th of the entire Arsenal was outdated by around a decade if not more, even S-35 were outdated and the new generations of tanks didnt get the chance to shine as much when one of the only more modern versions for example lost all of its tanks in a single encounter etc... The thing is, French tanks like the B1, S-35 and a few others were just better at a fight, they werent USED better, since well Radio and all just made communication useless and logistics was the worst rly, those tanks were a serious threat, especially the heavy tanks thzt the Germans HAD to outmanoeuvre since no matter how many Panzer IV they would throw at it, unless they get lucky piercing the french heavy fortress was just a lost cause since it required getting close to it
When the allies did concentrate their armour though, the results could be quite devastating. Take the Arras counterattack: A makeshift attack of Soumas and Matildas with barely any planning completely shattered the SS Totenkopf division, who were horrified that the heavy armour of the Matildas and Suomas were impervious to their At weapons, and was only stopped by an ad-hoc battery of 88mm guns and artillery.
Mate, love your ability to bend the space time continuum at 8:24. Being reprimanded by your partner, and still be able to warp behind her at the back of frame to get a snack from the kitchen is one powerful skill :P
Vietnam: we just want to salute one flag. France: NO! You must salute the French flag Reeeeeeeeeeee!!!! *Vietcong has joined the chat* *France left the chat*
Not so much. While impressive on paper, they were unreliable, slow, expensive and with a terrible crew layout. The S35 was probably way better, it's the true monster. Unfortunately, neither of these were used properly.
My favorite phrase from this vid is: "Just because there's logic, doesn't mean it's great logic". Find myself quoting it from time to time. Really like your approach to analyzing and conclusion making.
Chinese using a mixture of british, russian and especially early panzer along with 2 German trained divisions embarassed the Japanese in Shanghai. Whom proclaimed theyd take the city in a few days and instead took them months, used all the reserves allocated, and had forced them to launch a 2nd landing to outflank the defenders. Turns out the Yamato spirit makes no difference to machine gun fire in urban combat.
@@zeitgeistx5239 To add to that though, it also consumed the best forces and equipment of the KMT (Chinese) Central Army, and left the KMT's army rather derpy for the rest of the war in terms of both tactics and equipment.
If something was impeccable, it is definitely our guns. That’s. The whole point of carrying no armor, because guns and ammo are so good you re just slowing yourself down.
So, the Germans embraced new tech that the French were more cautious with, and this influenced their crushing victory. That explains the Wunderwaffen programs...
In a way yes, the Germans certainly had a belief that superior tech would bring victory, and thus the popular misconception that Germany was hi-tech and had better weapons was born But there's a difference between Germany's "superior tech" in 1939-41 vs 1942-1945, the tech of the early years, while new, it had been experimented with, practiced, tested, and able to be rolled out in reasonably large numbers, a benefit of most of it being developed in the pre-war years, But those wunderwaffens we all know are a different case, a lot of them were better than what the allies had, and were made and put into combat well before the allies did, but the difference here was the wunderwaffens were experimental, much of their combat service was the test, compared to the Allies who preferred to rely on technology that was already proven and could be implemented on a large scale
German team on radio: Hans you go A, Ulrich is rushing B with me and Erwin, while Hermann is taking overwatch in the middle. French team (without radio): Sacré bleu, we face cheaters again!
No But Wargamings patented "Pay to win" and scripts spouting bullshit that i honestly can barely believe anyone can get out without bursting into laughter
I've got a good French surrender joke: Why did the Vichy government immediately adopt harsh autocratic and anti-Semitic measures without the Germans even asking them? Wait I think I forgot how the joke goes.
5 лет назад+20
There is a saying that if you told people in the 1910s that a country will have an extreme anti-semitic policy in the 1940s with destruction goals, they would probably think of France, because of the Dreyfus affair
3:07 Typically most French light tanks had low velocity 37mm guns, because of their small turret rings. But, you would be pretty surprised what sort of guns you were able to fit inside those tiny turrets (and with relatively little modifications, and without turning them into turretless, casemate tank destroyers). I think the Romanians were able to fit in a Russian 45mm gun (that was rather long-barreled) into an R35 tank. Also, there was at least one example of the Yugos putting in a 6 pounder HV gun into the SOMUA S35. And, it's even more surprising when you consider that in both examples, they don't use muzzle brakes. Also, just as a side note. Under German occupation, for some reason, French manufacturers decided to secretly developed their existing tanks with larger turret rings (2 man turrets). So as to mount larger guns, typically 75mm in caliber (other improvements included better engines, armour, and whatever). Which sort of explains the appearance of a few French "paper tanks" in WOT's tier IV-VI tech tree
I have to dissagree: The biggest tank battle until then (what some consider to be the first real tank battle) was a French Victory, the battle of Hannut. I believe that what caused German tank superiority was the use of the dive bombers. I stil think French tanks were superior (this was also proved in the battle of Gambloux, Stonne, and of Saumure).
The dive bombers had actually little effect on the tanks, most of the "tank kills" Claimed for the air forces of all nations were fake, the bombers were better at discouraging enemy troops and making psychological warfare.
Lucas 31 ... And help in the planning of key battles in the rest of the war as well as organizing french resistance, and leading the free french forces in Africa, amongst other things.
WWI early years French field commander: Sir, the germans are using machineguns. French High command: Napoleonian tactics it is. WWII early years French field commander: Sir, the germans are using combined arms tactics and overall radio comunications. Franch High command: Great War tactics it is.
Alright let me look up somethin' "France surrender"》"white flag"》"french flag white" AH i foud it! "The french flag is whiter than imperialism" Not actually quoting someone dont know why i put that in the joke but ok
I love the way you touched on the economic and political reasons (As well as a lack of Man power!) for the WW2 French tanks. It explains a lot. Thank You for a unique point of view! Now if only those Germans were dumb enough to charge the Maginot Line! Damn those German Generals!
I wait eagerly for your uploads, they are both informative and hilarious, keep it up man! Maybe a video on common wealth nations? And their contributions? And yes their tank battles ofcourse! Again Keep up the good work man!
The means of radio communication are also something to note here. The accepted standard at the time is wireless telegraphy, using Morse code to send out messages. However, German radios like the FuG 2 had amplitude modulation (AM), resulting in actual voice communication being possible. This wasn't even reserved to command tanks like what the French would usually do, as the technology was on every single Pz II, Pz III, Pz IV, StuG III, Pz I, Pz 35(t), etc. The French probably had to rely on signal flags for tactical coordination instead of their radios for the most part, but it requires being able to see flags in a dirty and dangerous area, let alone having some madlad willing to pop out of the turret and signal properly, while the Germans could simply scream into the radio what's going on and other German tanks would know what's happening on the spot. At this point it's pretty much the equivalent of playing Arma with chat that takes maybe a second or so per letter vs a team that has voice chat. Hell I'm pretty sure AM is kind of a low key requirement for combined arms. Also I'm aware the Germans have wireless telegraphy, but it's mostly to communicate at ranges where AM wouldn't really allow one to send a clear message, hence why wireless telegraphy range is always superior to AM range.
I dunno how you come up with your ideas, but I know you are pretty invested in tanks, however I would like to see some naval memes ( carriers, subs, battleships, etc.)
The bit about not using radios because they worried they could be compromised by the enemy reminds me of similar French worries about training with the Mitrailleuse prior to the Franco-Prussian War. In that they didn’t want any, because they feared that it would expose its potential. In reality it just meant that during wartime the French were less capable than they could’ve been. The weapon could and did mow down infantry ONCE it was understood. Similarly using radios could’ve at least evened the playing field with the Germans a bit, but their fears made them operate inefficiently. (Also I want to say the Prussians knew about the Mitrailleuse anyways, so the French were only keeping its capability and development of a doctrine for it secret from themselves)
Anyone remember who fought off the Germans as the evacuation at Dunkirk? No? *The french* They didn't stop fighting untill everyone was off the beach sooo yeah
Uhm no... It was British and french soldiers, and they only fought because Churchill ordered there to be an equal number of french and Brits who were saved by the ships
The main issue is tricky, the french armor was better if we compare one tank to one tank of similar task in a vacuum. But if we add the crew in, eg.: training end such, it was equal or german advantage already. If we add doctrinal benefit, than the one german armor never find one french as a task, if it would be one vs one, they fall back and requested help, and with local superiority they wiped the floor with the french armor, even if they where better as hardware in a simplified situation. And than we add the radios and communication into the mix, and the lone char b find itself against half dozen german armor that just request a cas from a nearby divebomber and the char b never even seen the german armors.
Alternative title name: The Fault in our Chars
LMAO
Dammit, take your thumbs up and get the hell out of here...
Dank
Made my day
Matthew Lee good job sir you got me to deeply exhale
"Gunnerying... gunnery...ing... shooting"
Did you mean: *gunning*
Hannah M can’t say that cuz RUclips cracked down on certain words you can’t say like bomb
..and that is not the US prison meaning of gunning either....
Hannah M Or gunnering?
or gunnery
EXACTLY
"International conspiracy of historians" is this why the History Channel went the ancient aliens fascination?
And pawn shops. And Alaskan crap
OP nazis are aliens so chill
Ah and the American innocent people kills
Wolffenstein
no literal racist ideoligy
So French tanks were basically sith lords of their time?
"Always two there are, a driver and a gunner."
"But which one was destroyed? The driver or the gunner?"
*Shell flies past their heads*
"The driver, definitely."
*B1 appears*
"This is getting out of hand, now there are three of them !"
Obviously french tanks are made of baguette armor.
@@haomaruinuki8935 really old and overcooked baguettes.
Freshly baked baguettes.
@@haomaruinuki8935 nah. Freshly baked ones are really soft (and also the incarnation of Jesus' flesh)
i'd like to see potential history design a tank.
It would be great, but he could never improve on the bob semple.
That would be so cool!
@Marionette Loves Gaming What about both ?!?
@@cenouraroxa9184 A killing Meme
this is my tank dont click it if you dont want to :/
ruclips.net/video/Tt7bzxurJ1I/видео.html
The French: ok so we're going to have tanks with as few men as possible so as to save manpower, but we're aslo not going to use radios so we'll have guys who will run around to relay information
Run around to relay information? Ah!! You forgot we have flags my friend!
(Sees a German Panzer division on the horizon)
*Frenetical Flags movements*
SS Ruben MF what color of flag?
France never fully recover his male population after WW1. It can explain some weird choices made. It was also a country mainly focused on growing food.
Those wars just wasted generations of good people on both sides.
@@Koozomec Yes they lost 1.5 millions men and another 4 to 5 millions casualties on a population of 39 millions at the time, add to that the more or less 400000 death from the spanish flu and the low birthrate. By 1939 France population was 40 millions. They could no longuer mobilize to the same extend they did during WWI.
In the french combat doctrine, tanks were suposed to support infantery and not moving in tank divisions as the Germans did. That partly explains why radios were less used in french tanks compared to their german counterpart
"In the Panzer 38(t)s The Germans did an excellent-"
*Angry Czech Noises*
*screams nothing but consonants*
I laughed way too hard at this.
They still sound funny to anyone who speak any Slavic tongue.
It was Czechoslovakia you uncultured swine (I'm from there and I'm offended)
Potential History forgot to Czech PZ 38t origin
"the risk i took was calculated, but man am i bad at math." French strategists
@@lostalone9320 And as he was talking about in the video, there are a million different theses on why France fell, and I bet that's a part of it. Because by surrendering they wouldn't have more of their cities bombed to pieces.
@@lostalone9320 Considering the highest French losses were not the big battles of Verdun, the Nivelle-Offensive or the Kaiserschlacht, but the opening days of the war, when the highly motivated french troops used outdated tactics and equipment to go on the offensive and got slaughtered by mashine guns, the idea of taking a careful, defensive approach and not investing in radical new theories makes sense.
@@lostalone9320 They actually prepare for german invasion from Belgium and have a good strategy to hold from there.
However what they do got wrong with focus on objective. They tried to defend a long wide front while the german focus on one objective to march from impassible terrain and make a bluff from others.
Well, the result. You got surrounded.
Tom and Kathy Cook France had screwed up politics leading into the war.
WW2 France in a nutshell
You weren't supposed to mention the conspiracy in public. I'm afraid i must revoke your membership
Wait, you just mentioned it in public. Looks like you're out too.
Actually the Germans tapped Russian comms in ww1 and used this to devastating effect perhaps the french heard of this through their ally and that's why they did not use radios?
30 Cal are you in the right place?
@@peterni2234 oop just noticed wrong place but I'm too lazy to look for the comment it was meant for still maybe they heard about that from Tsar Nic during ww1 and that's why they did that monumentally retarded blunder
it really annoys me how many irgnorant people conflate the worst elements of the SS with the honourable and noble wehrmacht!
Hungarian Tank Meme:
Hungary: German give us Panther
Germany: Nein
Hungary: Fine, I'll build it myself
Also Hungary: Gets bombed into the ground by the US.
*Hungary still waiting for nine Panthers to arrive*
@@scockery they fed up and bought some leopard 2
@@matefabian9439 Yep we had enough
@@scockery they arrived... In operation panzerfaust
"All of the tanks are true to life models with realistic upgrades..."
*shows Panther F mounted with 10.5 cm howitzer*
I sneak in dumb shit when I can
Lmao didn't actually noticed that it was this canon
@@PotentialHistory Dumb shit that is then exploited by Almightysalmon to make you look stupid.
@@RandomboiSam only for it to backfire later
... and non realistic too.
French: *"Bonjour Histoire Potentielle. C'est un plaisir de vous revoir."*
English: *"Hello Potential History. It's so nice to see you again."*
Mdr
Exactement
Yes I understood that learning French is going well.
Vengineer why would u want to learn french.
Yannick 73 I’m Scottish mate, but who the fuck would want to learn french xd
French tank meme while your favorite band is "Normundy".
Nice.
Also thanks for introducing me to that band, they're awesome!
French tanks
We had everything
Except the radio
Et merde.
tro drol
You 12 years old ????
over 7 mins before the W.T. reason/stupidity comes to the fore, then following on French Leaders (mind nothing about Sabotage)
@@johnpotter4750 It's hard to understood , but the technology of the time evolved quickly .-WW2 broke out only 20 years after WW1
Radio mein radio
Jacque Clouseau: Who are you?
Gunner: I am the gunner.
Clouseau: And, what do you do?
Gunner: I gun.
Clouseau: Make a note of zat, he is the gunner who guns.
It's a british actor & comedian who portrayed inspector Jacque Clouseau
druisteen: And a brilliant job he did too, unlike those films-which-shall-be-mentioned.
I feel you should do a little lightning round episode where you cover the finnish and the Polish and whatever other small countries had domestic tanks
Bet
Nice username
Finland bought or stole all of our tanks. Of course there wore refits but I wouldn't count them as domestic desings
Czechoslovakia tanks, oh wait...
@@someoneprobably1802 Czechoslovakia has some pretty interesting designs. I actually used one of them for my own creations from my setting
Yes, finally. I was dying to see this.
Edit: It's incredible how I learned tons of stuff by listening to someone talk about my own country's tanks. It makes me happy to see non-french people talk about french stuff so accurately, and interestingly!
Uhhhh
You do know that France won wars against the British right?
Like, in Bulgaria we say "even if God fought the Brits even he would lose!" Like France is a cultural and political powerhouse!
@@dotnask0001 I am well aware of that, I am talking about the tanks however.
I do know the overall mentality when it came to producing a certain tank (the B1 for exemple) but I didn't know about the whole french tank meme.
the char 2c is a sexy thicc boi.
Chieftain also has a really in-depth video about French Armoured Doctrine which is really interesting. Wether it's French, Japanese, English, American or Russian tanks, context is extremely important in explaining the designs, and for France that also includes politics at the time. If it wasn't for the leftist government being afraid of the army, we could have had professional Armoured Divisions based on German Panzer Divisions.
What a long way to say you surrender
"Some of the wars greatest hits, like the sherman"
*Furious wehraboo typing*
Todd Howard fix 76 and give us a new vegas remaster
@@Dabadi4834 whats that? you want another Skyrim port?
Well. He said the sherman...and like the panzer. There's more than one model. So...*he might be showing one model, but it's down to both sides of retarded fandoms*
* *Laughs in Freedom* *
When you have a paper armored medium with a popgun (Sherman) that's as big as a heavily armed and armored heavy (Tiger 2) no matter how you want to slice it it IS a bad tank.
Hell the heavy version of the Sherman (T14) had a lower profile and better armor angles.
I don’t think it matters which side had the “better” tanks. The simple fact is that Germany knew how to use them better in that specific moment in time. If France were of the same mind they’d have massed all their Char B1s into a division or two and drove them straight to Berlin in September of 1939 and ended the war just that quickly.
But they didn’t, and they lost.
Yeah the French high command was not very good. The allies had a lot going for it at the start of the war but inaction and the inability to grasp the fact this was going to be a total war led to a very quick defeat for the French and damning the British to their island. I don't think it would've been that simple for them to be in berlin but they could've held out against the Germans or at least done it for much longer.
@@kaiservonpanzer213 I mean if the allies did make a hard push and France was in the same state of mind as Germany they could have pushed deep toward Berlin since the Wehrmacht was occupied in Poland and the seigfried line was hardly ready yet
@@jasongrayson2101 just imagine all the tanks and modern equipement the french wouldve had if the maginot line was not built in favor of modern military , or if the french decided not to let very fast tank with the B1 and char 2C and instead put those two behemoths together, or if the french actually had a numerous decent airforce instead of having half their plane not capable of flying for x reason, or if the french high command wasnt so old minded, or if the french noticed that having 3k tank in their arsenal even if 70% were outdated and another 5% outdated yet to tough for anything but flak and air support was enough to make the wehrmacht sweat real hard, or that attacking the ruhr while germany was distracted to at least screw with their industry and ressources far earlier in the war than with strategic bombing, or if they actually had remembered that if the french light tank were tiny enough to go trough the ardenne then the german could too... in other word french potential in ww2 was enormous and completely waaaasted
@@Freedmoon44 In other words; if a completely different country with the same geographical location replaced France. It's like those "could Germany have won WW2" debates, it could only happen if the country was completely different.
@@Freedmoon44 or just if they actually used the money dedicated for the maginot line to finish it, which they didnt.
in any way, they should have ended with either a good defense line or a good attack force, and with how it turned out they ended with none because the maginot line (though extremely effective in its actually finished parts) wasnt totally built.
The French fought ferociously, I think especially during the British evacuation of Dunkirk. They held the Germans back, just barely in time for their allies to escape. Even after France fell, many troops continued to fight long afterwards in resistance movement.
F too the Belgian boys also helping the French.
And then those soldiers in rival resistance movements proceeded to kill each other over politics.
@@TheSeanoops What's your point? Didn't this happened everywhere?
Hey llok we have the same picture
De Gaulle and Reneau were the only ones with balls left as Reneau refused to surrender to the Germans and resigned, and obviously De Gaulle later with Leclerc and a few others tried to fight any way they could
7:55 Did i just saw a 10 tonnes of steel being launched 5 meters in the air?
Those guys where caponed
RIP to any poor sods who manned that tank.
At least they went out with a bang, high up in the air.
pretty sure that was a test of some kind
It really looks like testing, I mean why would there be footage of that
JU87 had a 1000kg bomb, and yeah those babys could flip a tank.
The best review of a car I've ever heard was
"it's built like a French tank, a tank, but French"
HuxTheSergal ...I don’t get it :|
@@nathanjora7627 it's a french tank because it's built by the French
@@nathanjora7627 its a french tank what do you not get?
"the doctrine of basically superior firepower"
well, he definitely knows his audience
edit: 4:57
They picked Superior fire but play like they had Mass mobilization
@@lot2973 they changed it to 10% I think
Well SF is kinda bad now so
Me with 10x on 300% More soft ATTACK
Cursed but I prefer Grand battleplan and mobile warfare
The UK and the Axis in WW2 : "French soldiers are ferocious"
The world today about France in WW2 : "French are coward"
France : visible confusion.
SOLDIERS are ferocious..........
commanders and leaders... *NOT SO MUCH*
LOL , internet troll are frustrated to be still virgin
@@krispybacon9285
WW1 casualty was terrible for french morale
@@druisteen YAY you made a comment! in what way does it relate to mine?
@@krispybacon9285 yes
are you a troll ; don' think so
1:39 there’s a T- Posing French tank driver like just B R U H
dena buxton imagine calling a panzer III French
That's....oh my lord. That's the hatch of a panzer 3. Thier hatches split down the middle. And that's the commander.
@@deadmanwalkin_0422 2*
Its not even close to funny
The French: the tank crews are fine
Also the French: tank has two man crews
that's a mistake, the S35 and AMC were also 3 crew
@@Xfiles781 But fighted at two mans crew
Hey, the Renault was cool in its own way. That said it was made of tissue.
Potential History: "Frances army doctrine of Surperior Firepower"
HOI4 Players: Wait that's illegal
It's probably more accurate than what Paradox actually did though. France was all about the exact kinds of artillery-heavy forces, mostly moving at leg-infantry speeds, that the doctrine tree is about, and that just tossing them in the grand battleplan pile is arguably bad history based on the exact kinds of stereotypes videos like this one discuss and point out are unfair.
PH: The whole France surrendering meme needs to die
Comments: hAhA fuNny FraNce SurreNder
Calm down frogger
The meme might have died if they didn't also surrender to a bunch of Vietnamese rice farmers like wtf France how do you still have colonies!?
And the Americans didn’t get there ass kicked by rice farmers?
@@MK_ULTRA420 you mean the Same rice Farmers that wiped the floor with America?
@@matthiasbindl7085 You mean the rice farmers that got lucky America pulled out because people were protesting their involvement
Most members of the French government you showed at 10:00 are the ones who refused the armistice and wanted to continue the war: Charles De Gaulle, Georges Mandel, and to some extent Paul Reynaud...
Wait what armistice
@@raptordoniv6779 at the end of the battle of France, y'know, that Pétain signed
@@sirsmiles1915 No, I don’t really know apologies, but I assume the Germans were surrending?
@@raptordoniv6779 no, in 1940, Pétain
@@raptordoniv6779 signed an armistice to stop the invasion of France (aka, he surrendered)
50 IQ: The Germans had better tanks
100 IQ: The French had better tanks
150 IQ: The Germans had better tanks
EDIT: Wow thanks for the epic wholesome 100 chungus RUclips likes, kind strangers!
200IQ french had the better tank in battle of France but Germans had better tanks after this battle
tru
1000 IQ: the soviets had better tanks.
10,000 IQ: The Kiwis has better tanks
AddisonBe they did have the Bob Semple.
Never clicked something so fast in my life tbh
Summarizing this video: "Right tanks for the wrong war"
“True to life models” Hon hon hon, *HON* HON HON HON *snort*
*[muiltiple snort]*
The Somua and the Char B1 were the two best French designs in World War 2, he other 2-man French tanks are of significantly poorer quality than the Germand
Robert Eckert there are many versions of the B1 and the Somua (S35 I believe you are talking about(
“World of Tanks, where all of the tanks are true to life models” *Looks at T28 Prototype*
**cough** E-25 **cough**
*cough* Jpg e100 *dies*
Meme tanks *clap clap*
Also, I can't recommend highly enough the Chieftan's series on interwar tank and tank doctrine development. His one on French tanks in particular is great for shining a light on how France entered WW2 with what were essentially 1920s designs.
Also, the French government saw the professional French military as a bigger threat than the Germans.
*Another fine edition to the collection*
J'aime l'oignon frit à l'huile,
J'aime l'oignon car il est bon.
J'aime l'oignon frit à l'huile,
J'aime l'oignon, j'aime l'oignon.
@Bryce Bowen its an anti austrichian song from back in the old napoleonian campaign, it wasn't used at all (almost)during ww2 tho,but fucking anime n' all
Dear France,
If you want us to stop making fun of you, then don't march into battle singing about freaking fried onions.
Sincerely,
America
@@addisonwelsh Yes singing about oil is way better
You: I like fried onion in oil,
I like onion because it is good.
I like fried onion in oil,
I like onion, I like onion.
Me: Bullshit.
Addison Welsh
Without France your USA would still be drinking tea and wouldn’t be enjoying ungodly amounts of hamburgers. Also France had more military victories over the USA.
3:57 Another reason that sort of prevented the French from pursuing larger, heavier, and more capable tanks was due to political reasons. Apparently, during the inter-war period there were some arms treaties to limit the tonnage of tanks, and their armaments (typically hovered around 15 tons......which was way surpassed by the Char B1 series of heavy tanks).
there were talks about them treaties around the time of the creation of the B1, which was the reason for the design of the D2 medium tank as a lighter alternative (and also why it wasn't built in great numbers), but in the end those treaties were never realised so the impact was in effect nul
A french politicans from the 30’s would probably get a heart attack if he ever so much as heard of a Tiger.
Well yeah. That's kind of exactly what was being said when they say that "France had more tanks and better ones but still lost." They lost because of concentration of force on the side of the Germans. It's a tactics and stategy advantage, instead of a straight material, or on paper one. On paper, on equal footing, a French tank would win over a German one in that period at that exact time. It just didn't matter because German strategy ensured that would never, or at least rarely happen. Radio and communications equipment just helped the Germans pull off their tactics better and quicker, as well as making them more responsive to changes.
Napoleon, in fact, pulled something similar to this off, with concentration of force and defeat in detail, before in his early battles, with obviously different troops and equipment.
"More and better ones" the argument is fallacious since half of the Arsenal or a bit over 3k tanks in total for the whole arsenal was FT-17 which were outdated as hell, and pretty much 4/5th of the entire Arsenal was outdated by around a decade if not more, even S-35 were outdated and the new generations of tanks didnt get the chance to shine as much when one of the only more modern versions for example lost all of its tanks in a single encounter etc...
The thing is, French tanks like the B1, S-35 and a few others were just better at a fight, they werent USED better, since well Radio and all just made communication useless and logistics was the worst rly, those tanks were a serious threat, especially the heavy tanks thzt the Germans HAD to outmanoeuvre since no matter how many Panzer IV they would throw at it, unless they get lucky piercing the french heavy fortress was just a lost cause since it required getting close to it
Pink panther refrence! I love it!
Also panther? As in panther tank? No? Ok I'll leave...
Now I want a pink Panther tank in either War Thunder or World of Tanks. Damnit
@@AllMightyKingBowser lol
Just an FYI, but the Panthers used in North Africa were pink; it blended in better with the sand.
When the allies did concentrate their armour though, the results could be quite devastating. Take the Arras counterattack: A makeshift attack of Soumas and Matildas with barely any planning completely shattered the SS Totenkopf division, who were horrified that the heavy armour of the Matildas and Suomas were impervious to their At weapons, and was only stopped by an ad-hoc battery of 88mm guns and artillery.
8:23 (between your Gf/wife/sister and the Tuxedo kitty)
Someone was about to walk into your filming.
Also, KITTEHS.
That may or may not have been my left arm and I may or may not have left it in to see if people would notice. Also, it was the best take.
In last video :
"World of tanks stupid premium tanks"
This video :
"Thanks to wargaming for sponsoring this video" :D
Mate, love your ability to bend the space time continuum at 8:24. Being reprimanded by your partner, and still be able to warp behind her at the back of frame to get a snack from the kitchen is one powerful skill :P
French: does good during warfare
Memers: unfortunately for you memes will not see it that way
Also France: Surrenders after 2 weeks
@@autismisuncontrollable4925 Also Denmark: Surrenders after a few hours
Also Denmark: doesn't have an army literally twice the size of German force
@@kagakai7729 also Denmark: doesn't have a strong communist party that is anti war and taking orders from moscow
Vietnam: we just want to salute one flag.
France: NO! You must salute the French flag Reeeeeeeeeeee!!!!
*Vietcong has joined the chat*
*France left the chat*
Johnny you cant say anything good about the Germans!
Johnny: ah okay
Johnny: *procceeds to shit on the French*
Saw this video uploaded. Got a serious baguette in the trousers right now.
Alright, but lets be honest, the B1 Ter and Bis were absolute monsters.
Not so much. While impressive on paper, they were unreliable, slow, expensive and with a terrible crew layout. The S35 was probably way better, it's the true monster. Unfortunately, neither of these were used properly.
Theres a situation where 1 B1 destroy a colume of german panzer with east
They have greater gun greater armor
When used it porperly they are monster
My favorite phrase from this vid is: "Just because there's logic, doesn't mean it's great logic". Find myself quoting it from time to time. Really like your approach to analyzing and conclusion making.
9:06 One time in China? Do tell. I'd love to hear more about that.
He talks about it in the Japanese tank video.
@@TheMasterDeus Thank you :)
Chinese using a mixture of british, russian and especially early panzer along with 2 German trained divisions embarassed the Japanese in Shanghai. Whom proclaimed theyd take the city in a few days and instead took them months, used all the reserves allocated, and had forced them to launch a 2nd landing to outflank the defenders. Turns out the Yamato spirit makes no difference to machine gun fire in urban combat.
@@zeitgeistx5239 To add to that though, it also consumed the best forces and equipment of the KMT (Chinese) Central Army, and left the KMT's army rather derpy for the rest of the war in terms of both tactics and equipment.
Zeitgeist X That last sentence is too good to be in a RUclips comment section.
When you say "superior firepower" I hear "MORE DAKKA'
Idiots: French tanks
Intellectuals: baguette cannon carriers
Oh god you killed you brain !
Wait, who told you about the Baugettewerfer!
eccentricthinker142 that is a oberkommado secret
If something was impeccable, it is definitely our guns. That’s. The whole point of carrying no armor, because guns and ammo are so good you re just slowing yourself down.
Me(French people): applaud
Damn the pink panther intro was a ride back into the memory lane.
The best historical channel,0 bias great job
Fcm 36 shall always remain in my heart as the best tank of WW2
Parrot Bird
The Char B1 Is my favorite tank honestly, that howitzer in the hull was genius :D
@@leonardogomez8812 not really
A big Ass Wave
D:
NO😑😑
So, the Germans embraced new tech that the French were more cautious with, and this influenced their crushing victory. That explains the Wunderwaffen programs...
In a way yes, the Germans certainly had a belief that superior tech would bring victory, and thus the popular misconception that Germany was hi-tech and had better weapons was born
But there's a difference between Germany's "superior tech" in 1939-41 vs 1942-1945, the tech of the early years, while new, it had been experimented with, practiced, tested, and able to be rolled out in reasonably large numbers, a benefit of most of it being developed in the pre-war years,
But those wunderwaffens we all know are a different case, a lot of them were better than what the allies had, and were made and put into combat well before the allies did, but the difference here was the wunderwaffens were experimental, much of their combat service was the test, compared to the Allies who preferred to rely on technology that was already proven and could be implemented on a large scale
@@weik-2936
alors oui mais non un B1 bis ou un somua s35 à la bataille de France écrasait n'importe quel char d’assaut Allemand
@@weik-2936 and during the war even some weapons are superior they still dont have resourse or factory to build it enough or fix fhe problem
8:24 Oh hey! I didn't realize you had a girlfriend!
Maybe there is hope for history nerds!
Plot twist, he now owes his sister 2 bottles of cherry vodka for her sorority party with the football team.
@@Fishmanglitz Small price to pay for salvation.
Inb4 that's his sister.
@@combativeThinker It's his sister. Look at their noses, very, very similar. Coloration, face shape also similar.
When documentaries talk about the french tanks being better, they mean "one-on-one the french would win"
German team on radio: Hans you go A, Ulrich is rushing B with me and Erwin, while Hermann is taking overwatch in the middle.
French team (without radio): Sacré bleu, we face cheaters again!
*Potential history uploads *
....
*Happy subscriber noises *
French: germany will never pass the Ardens (French later) Why did I hear Ghost Division
THEY ARE THE PANZERELITE
@@lussk3446 Meth was too OP for them
@@lussk3446 BORN TO COMPETE
@@LyricalStarr GHOST DIVISION
Rommel: "Okay let's do this ERWWWIIIIINNNN ROOOMMMEEELLLLL"
Warthunder: *Am I a joke to you?*
No
But Wargamings patented "Pay to win" and scripts spouting bullshit that i honestly can barely believe anyone can get out without bursting into laughter
"No more war thunder sponsorships until I get my meme tanks. Still waiting, Gaijin." - PH, maybe.
Klobi for President maus removal boycott
Its the better game now if they would give us the dumb tanks back.
I've got a good French surrender joke: Why did the Vichy government immediately adopt harsh autocratic and anti-Semitic measures without the Germans even asking them?
Wait I think I forgot how the joke goes.
There is a saying that if you told people in the 1910s that a country will have an extreme anti-semitic policy in the 1940s with destruction goals, they would probably think of France, because of the Dreyfus affair
*MEGA OOF*
yeah, france before the defeat was a political mess, with fascist- conservator, and communist group in open rebellion against republican government
Thanks for saying all those things man, I am very happy that someone which isn't French say those things. Thanks for searching all those things
It’s filthy tank, mother.....
Welcome back you were missed.
3:07 Typically most French light tanks had low velocity 37mm guns, because of their small turret rings. But, you would be pretty surprised what sort of guns you were able to fit inside those tiny turrets (and with relatively little modifications, and without turning them into turretless, casemate tank destroyers). I think the Romanians were able to fit in a Russian 45mm gun (that was rather long-barreled) into an R35 tank. Also, there was at least one example of the Yugos putting in a 6 pounder HV gun into the SOMUA S35. And, it's even more surprising when you consider that in both examples, they don't use muzzle brakes.
Also, just as a side note. Under German occupation, for some reason, French manufacturers decided to secretly developed their existing tanks with larger turret rings (2 man turrets). So as to mount larger guns, typically 75mm in caliber (other improvements included better engines, armour, and whatever). Which sort of explains the appearance of a few French "paper tanks" in WOT's tier IV-VI tech tree
The TACAMS was a casemate design if thats what you mean.
Last time I was this early europe wasnt called germany
I have to dissagree: The biggest tank battle until then (what some consider to be the first real tank battle) was a French Victory, the battle of Hannut. I believe that what caused German tank superiority was the use of the dive bombers. I stil think French tanks were superior (this was also proved in the battle of Gambloux, Stonne, and of Saumure).
The dive bombers had actually little effect on the tanks, most of the "tank kills" Claimed for the air forces of all nations were fake, the bombers were better at discouraging enemy troops and making psychological warfare.
0:10 there actually is a épisode of the pink panter that Begin with a tank
He wasn’t praising the Germans, he was just explaining why the Germans defeated the French. It’s called talking about actual history.
Which is why _you_ don't get the conspiracy checques.
Haha, twitter go brrrrr
"No, I'm not defending German technical superiority, I'm stating the fucking obvious."
It's like saying that iPhones didn't changed at all
Which is fucking true on some point
Finally, something not about me or my brothers
A joke to allies and shermans, me
Wanna hear a joke?
Sensible production cost
I got another joke, your reliability in the field.
Got another one. Your lifespan
Got another one. The outcome of the war
How about another joke, fuel supply's.
9:10 This is Charle de Gaulle ( the one in uniform), during the battle of France he was abble with his division to make surrender some german soldier.
Lucas 31 ... And help in the planning of key battles in the rest of the war as well as organizing french resistance, and leading the free french forces in Africa, amongst other things.
@@nathanjora7627 that something that a lot of people know but french soldier that capture german soldier in 1940 it's a nope . :)
The FT-17 was first used in combat on May 31st 1917.
My birthday is on May 31st and I love tanks...
*Life-questioning intensifies*
WWI early years
French field commander: Sir, the germans are using machineguns.
French High command: Napoleonian tactics it is.
WWII early years
French field commander: Sir, the germans are using combined arms tactics and overall radio comunications.
Franch High command: Great War tactics it is.
*Insert unfunny and overused joke about French surrender or retreat*
Alright let me look up somethin'
"France surrender"》"white flag"》"french flag white"
AH i foud it!
"The french flag is whiter than imperialism"
Not actually quoting someone dont know why i put that in the joke but ok
Officially dead meme
If you surround a French retreating, and they retreat again, will they go forward? Like charging into the enemy?
We are the French Elites born to retreat never compete Baguette Division
Hello, A-40. Any new flights?
Any country: * uses cannons *
America: *MACHINEGUNS WOOHOO*
I love the way you touched on the economic and political reasons (As well as a lack of Man power!) for the WW2 French tanks. It explains a lot. Thank You for a unique point of view! Now if only those Germans were dumb enough to charge the Maginot Line! Damn those German Generals!
I wait eagerly for your uploads, they are both informative and hilarious, keep it up man! Maybe a video on common wealth nations? And their contributions? And yes their tank battles ofcourse! Again Keep up the good work man!
The means of radio communication are also something to note here. The accepted standard at the time is wireless telegraphy, using Morse code to send out messages. However, German radios like the FuG 2 had amplitude modulation (AM), resulting in actual voice communication being possible. This wasn't even reserved to command tanks like what the French would usually do, as the technology was on every single Pz II, Pz III, Pz IV, StuG III, Pz I, Pz 35(t), etc. The French probably had to rely on signal flags for tactical coordination instead of their radios for the most part, but it requires being able to see flags in a dirty and dangerous area, let alone having some madlad willing to pop out of the turret and signal properly, while the Germans could simply scream into the radio what's going on and other German tanks would know what's happening on the spot. At this point it's pretty much the equivalent of playing Arma with chat that takes maybe a second or so per letter vs a team that has voice chat. Hell I'm pretty sure AM is kind of a low key requirement for combined arms.
Also I'm aware the Germans have wireless telegraphy, but it's mostly to communicate at ranges where AM wouldn't really allow one to send a clear message, hence why wireless telegraphy range is always superior to AM range.
6:05 my favorite part. I giggled so hard after that!
I love how these videos are sponsored my World of Tanks. It's very
_on brand_
Romania! Hungary! *SWEDISH TANK MEME!* Looking forward to it!
I love how in 2 mins of video you gave a real and better explenation of why french lost war then most of the video about it
7:56 Nobody talks about that flying boi
I dunno how you come up with your ideas, but I know you are pretty invested in tanks, however I would like to see some naval memes ( carriers, subs, battleships, etc.)
As a Frenchman....this is 100%% accurate...great job
Oh dont mind me, I'm just sipping my French tears as I watch this educational video.
@TheSatanicTicTac perhaps. But we'll win round 4.
*sips*
The bit about not using radios because they worried they could be compromised by the enemy reminds me of similar French worries about training with the Mitrailleuse prior to the Franco-Prussian War. In that they didn’t want any, because they feared that it would expose its potential. In reality it just meant that during wartime the French were less capable than they could’ve been. The weapon could and did mow down infantry ONCE it was understood. Similarly using radios could’ve at least evened the playing field with the Germans a bit, but their fears made them operate inefficiently.
(Also I want to say the Prussians knew about the Mitrailleuse anyways, so the French were only keeping its capability and development of a doctrine for it secret from themselves)
Thanks for the video dude !
Out did yourself in that intro
Anyone remember who fought off the Germans as the evacuation at Dunkirk? No?
*The french*
They didn't stop fighting untill everyone was off the beach sooo yeah
Nah....it was all Tom Hardy in his Spitfire. I saw the movie. The bloody Frogs nearly killed that Brit at the beginning.
@@scockery I can't even tell if this is a joke or if people really believe this
Uhm no... It was British and french soldiers, and they only fought because Churchill ordered there to be an equal number of french and Brits who were saved by the ships
@@DreadfulMeep The amount of Propaganda in your comment makes me want to kill myself.
F too some poor Belgians that delayed the Germans
7:53 after you put all of these together
Me: You get a stuka!
i love the fucking pink panther references so much
Essentially, France suffered from “Fight the last war syndrome”, tbh.
The lack of radios was absolutely devastating
The real French tank meme is me not even knowing any memes or info about their tanks
10:05 end a meme? Buddy, on this train, there is no end.
My God that intro
Gives me flashbacks
The main issue is tricky, the french armor was better if we compare one tank to one tank of similar task in a vacuum. But if we add the crew in, eg.: training end such, it was equal or german advantage already. If we add doctrinal benefit, than the one german armor never find one french as a task, if it would be one vs one, they fall back and requested help, and with local superiority they wiped the floor with the french armor, even if they where better as hardware in a simplified situation. And than we add the radios and communication into the mix, and the lone char b find itself against half dozen german armor that just request a cas from a nearby divebomber and the char b never even seen the german armors.
French Tanks changed alot,changing their philosophy from "they see me rollin'," to "hit harder and keep hitting!"