Finally, France finds someone it refuses to surrender to: Lance Armstrong

That whole Maginot idea didn't work out too well, either, IIRC.

And NM Matt, you could at least make the argument, would have to look at the numbers to make sure it's true, but those 40-50 year olds who were dead would have had kids who would have helped boost the ranks if they lived.

 

If anyone could find an older-than-1990 population pyramid for France, that might be interesting to look at. I'm hoping for something 1970s or 1960s-ish, something that might have both WWI and WWII generations conceivably in it. I'll keep looking, too... but thought it would be interesting to see.

 

My wife's great Aunt played a huge part in starting the Resistance....this her what Wikipedia says about her:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yvonne_Oddon

 

Actually, yes. Those capable soldiers, the ones who actually had some guts and military savvy, would have been the colonels and the generals, the senators and the upper level government officials in 1940. But they were gone and the ones who were left were the supply clerks and low-level bureaucrats who managed to avoid combat in WWI and didn't have a clue in 1940.

 

I'd like to point out that the British, who lost almost as many men in the First World War as did the French, had plenty of competent leadership in 1940-41 when they alone were fending off the Axis.

But I'll also admit that things could have turned out very differently had the Germans taken advantage of their chance to wipe out the retreating Brits at Dunkirk, and had the Luftwaffe been allowed to properly fight the Battle of Britain.

As it is, I'm happy things turned out the way they did.

And, oh yeah - fuck the French.

 

The lists I've found weren't broken down by demographics, but France's population in 1921 was 2.5 million less than in 1911. It had gotten back up to pre-war levels by the mid-1930s, but no doubt you're right, a generation of what would have been political and military leaders was wiped out.

 

Not to mention that the United States might not have ever existed without the French lending their Navy, plus money, weapons and ammunition during the Revolutionary War.

Mind you, I have little (if any) love for the French. Just sayin'.

 

This, ad infinitum. The US doesn't exist without France's hatred of England.

 

Actually, to be more specific, the biggest problem is that the French learned the wrong lesson from WWI. It taught them the importance of defensive fortifications and digging in -- that's why they spent so much constructing the Maginot Line. That's an understandable lesson to draw from WWI, where tens of thousands of men just to move 50 yards forward. Technology at that time favored defense.

What the French (and almost everyone else at the time) did not realize is that the technology of warfare had radically changed by the time WWII came around. The rise of the tank and mobile infantry gave a great advantage to the attacker and rendered static fortifications (like the Maginot Line) far less useful. The Germans just went around the Line.

I do agree with your take on the French overall, though. For most of the last 500-600 years, France was the most powerful state in Europe. They were usually the big state beating up on everyone else. Just 100 years or so before WWI, Napoleon nearly conquered all of Europe. A little before that, France's navy and money helped us gain independence.

 

Also, the Germans did something no one thought they could do, and that's invade France through the Ardennes. The French thought the forest was a natural defense system and didn't bother to extend the Line that far

 

Which is a classic example of planning for a war you've already fought.

 

Can anyone do a reasonable job explaining Vichy France?

I've never understood what control Germany had over it. I know the Allies on several occasions flat out fought French forces in WW2 and I've never really understood the reasoning there, either.