re: Is the Fall of France the greatest military achievement in history?

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The United states fought a two front war literally on opposite sides of the world while single handedly keeping its allies economies and industry afloat for like 5 years. Unquestionably the greatest single achievement in human history

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This is a great achievement but the USA had help with the fighting plus we were able to keep the allies industry afloat partially because our cities/factories weren't being carpet bombed by the Axis

The 100 Octane gasoline that the USA sent to the RAF helped against the Bf-109 fighters for sure. That superior octane fuel helped a lot.

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Domt most people think of the wars as political failure

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What’s the thread title?

Operation Overlord required, probably 15x the effort. An amphibious invasion against such a well-prepared and experienced opponent? The largest such operation launched in almost 1000 years (since 1066)?

With what would be the largest airborne assault until Market-Garden a few months later?

Yeah, I’d heard about that from a lecturer at Sandhurst.

The way he put it was that logistics kept a large number of horses around for the gratification of the German officers.

He’d also talked about being on maneuvers in Kosovo in the 2000s with NATO and having the German representative show up, say “Gentlemen, is SO good to be back in ze Balkans”, and whip out some bombing charts used on Sarajevo back in the 40s to great effect.

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That’s similar to what I fashion it was in the Germans taking France so quickly, albeit a little worse. Still, the point being that France was depending upon the Marginot line in a static warfare, and Germany had moved light years past that mindset with the Blitz. They were light years superior to France in every way, both mechanized, logistics, communications, and in philosophy. France was not nearly as horrible as Poland meeting tanks with horses, but France had an anemic mechanized defense, had no communications within their tanks, and instead placed all their money and trust in a defensive line that didnt event protect itself around the entire country. It was quite foolish, and if there is something to learn from it, it is to always have a well trained, well equipped, and up to date military, not because you want to be a war hawk, but because you never know when you’re going to have to protect yourself from another war hawk.

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And all of that is France’s own fault. France, hell the whole world knew, that Germany was ramping up for war by the mid 1930’s. To know that, and still sit around and revel in your opulence, and bullshite military power, and then to watch as other countries fell to the Germans, is a fricking crime of their leadership. Then to get on their knees to Hitler, so their beautiful Paris is preserved. It’s a fricking outrage. We should have let the Germans keep the fricking place.

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The largest such operation launched in almost 1000 years (since 1066)?

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Not quite. I think Operations Torch and Husky may have been just a tad bigger than William's cross-Channel move.

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In pretty much every war there are allies. France certainly helped end it sooner, but their involvement may not have been the deciding factor.

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You should read more about the Revolutionary War then bc we were in all likelihood quite boned before the French showed up, our victory list of any significance was basically limited to Saratoga before their arrival

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Ah, French surrender monkeys and Russian winter, the 2 main crutches for history newbs.

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Yep.

Anyone who knows anything about history knows that France was a shell of itself militarily after WWI given the toll it took on them, in terms of lives, treasure and general exhaustion. They lost a far greater percentage of their population than Germany did, and practically the entirety of the western front was primarily fought on French soil from the Frontiers in 1914 through the Hundred Days Offensive in 1918.

They not only excited that war as a broken power, but they were stuck in the past in terms of tactics and technology in the interwar years. The Germans leaned into technical developments and unconventional tank and light infantry tactics and adapted their plans, whereas the French were essentially planning to re-fight WWI.

Lot of surrender monkey blood in this thread.

Reminds me of the old joke.

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He is going through his bag for his passport. The man on passport control asks him 'Have you visited France before?'

'Yes' replied the old man.

Sarcastically he responds 'Well surely you should know to have your passport ready...' to which he answers 'I didn't have to show it last time'

'Impossible!!' he bellowed.

The old man looks him straight in the eye and says 'Last time, when I landed on D Day in 1944, I couldn't find a fricking Frenchman to give it to'

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