"To Lose A Battle: France 1940" Meticulous but an excellent read

[Nolefan34]

Thanks NJGoat. I was unaware of how small the British army was. Now it makes sense. I was thinking they had a 2 million man army, but only sent a small contingent of troops to the continent to aid the French, and would add more troops as necessary, but stopped adding troops when the situation became hopeless. I did not know that the entire BEF was only 300,000 or so troops.

Can you give me a count of the numbers of troops for each country? How many troops did the French field? The Germans? Belgians? I understand that the Allies outnumbered the Germans at the outbreak of the battle, but did the French troops outnumber the Germans? Or is that the entire Allied troop count?

[Escort Rider]

Originally Posted by Nolefan34

Thanks NJGoat. I was unaware of how small the British army was. Now it makes sense. I was thinking they had a 2 million man army, but only sent a small contingent of troops to the continent to aid the French, and would add more troops as necessary, but stopped adding troops when the situation became hopeless. I did not know that the entire BEF was only 300,000 or so troops.

Can you give me a count of the numbers of troops for each country? How many troops did the French field? The Germans? Belgians? I understand that the Allies outnumbered the Germans at the outbreak of the battle, but did the French troops outnumber the Germans? Or is that the entire Allied troop count?

I have already returned the book which was the subject of this thread to the library, so I cannot look up numbers, but I do remember clearly that on paper, the French and German forces were approximately equal. That was taking into account not only the numbers of men in the armed forces, but also the numbers of tanks, aircraft, artillery pieces, etc. Of course what was not equal was their state of training and leadership and morale. In these three areas, the French, in general, were decificient, although they had some good divisions along with some very mediocre ones. Some French units fought well, but unfortunately many did not. Some French troops who fled in panic could not be stopped and just kept fleeing, right through advancing French units.

As for Belgium, their armed forces were not sharing information with the French until it was basically too late. It was not at all a seamless, coordinated effort that we can compare to a modern NATO, for example, with its compatible radio frequencies and that sort of thing. Instead, there was an atmosphere of mutual mistrust and recrimination between France and Belgium.

[TonyT]

Originally Posted by Nolefan34

Tony T-

Why did the French fail to attack the exposed Southern flank of Army Group A? What were the French Army doing at the time these events transpired. It seems that Army Group A just advanced with little or no resistance from the Ardennes straight to the English Channel. It seems that sizable French forces remained deeper into France and along the Maginot Line.

My apologies for not answering sooner. I think both EscortRider and NJGOAT have covered the question nicely and correctly so I have nothing further to add at this point.

Originally Posted by EscortRider

As for Belgium, their armed forces were not sharing information with the French until it was basically too late. It was not at all a seamless, coordinated effort that we can compare to a modern NATO, for example, with its compatible radio frequencies and that sort of thing. Instead, there was an atmosphere of mutual mistrust and recrimination between France and Belgium.

After World War I, Belgium, which had been ravaged by the German invasion and occupation, wanted to ensure that such a thing could never happen again. So with that in mind, they began negotiations with France to enter into a defensive military alliance. These talks proceeded slowly because the Belgians did not wish to enter into any agreement that would subordinate them to the French or commit them to going to war against Germany unless for national security reasons. The French were seeking military assistance for the occupation of the Rhineland. By April 1920, the treaty began to take shape. The French and Belgians each agreed to provide troops for the current occupation of the Rhineland and reinforcements to the area should the Germans threaten aggression. Additionally, should Germany re-arm, both countries would immediately mobilize their armed forces. Further, the treaty called for the set up of an integrated system of defense for the French, Belgian, and Luxembourg frontiers that would become effective once the occupation of the Rhineland ended in fifteen years time. Lastly, the general staffs of the French and Belgian armed forces would meet and discuss strategy and update their respective defense plans on a yearly basis. The Belgians attempted to include the British in the treaty but efforts to do so were unsuccessful, so the treaty was formalized and signed on September 7, 1920.

In 1925, the Treaty of Locarno came into being. Locarno, which was essentially a collective security treaty, required the major European powers (France, Great Britain, Germany, and Italy) to agree to maintain peace in Europe. Other small nations were invited to sign on as well, and Belgium was one country that chose to do so. After consultations, France and Belgium decided that the Treaty of Locarno superseded the 1920 treaty and co-operation between the two countries would continue on the basis of Locarno. However, the original 1920 treaty had no provisions for its expiration or termination so it was technically still binding despite the existence and understanding of the Treaty of Locarno. And this is how things stayed until 1936 when the Germans re-militarized the Rhineland on March 7th. The lack of response from the French government raised serious concerns in Belgium about whether France could be relied on to actually come to Belgium's aid should she be attacked by Germany. Starting on March 19th, three-way discussions began in London between the general staffs of France, Britain, and Belgium in hopes of reaching some kind of formalized defense treaty between the countries. Additional meetings took place in April and ended with the realization that Britain was not willing offer any significant military assistance to Belgium in case of a German invasion of that country. The French and Belgians continued to talk, but the influence of neutralists in the Belgian parliament and the suspicion that France was simply trying to shift the war (should it happen) onto Belgian soil created an atmosphere of distrust that could not be overcome. Finally, on October 14, 1936, Belgium announced a policy of strict neutrality in any future European war and formally nullified the 1920 defense treaty with France. With respect to Belgium's obligations as a signatory of the Treaty of Locarno, Britain and France voided those on April 24, 1937.

Attempts were made to resurrect an alliance between the two countries on and off from 1936 to 1938. But even though no formal agreement was ever reached, the fact that the general staffs of both France and Belgium were still talking made the French believe that Belgium would "come around" when war broke out. When Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939 and France and Britain declared war on Germany, instead of joining in as anticipated, Belgium reaffirmed its neutrality. This caused considerable anger in both the French and British governments because it severely complicated their ability to mount a successful defense of northern France. Rather than be able to take up strong defensive positions in Belgium in anticipation of a likely German invasion, the French would now have to wait until the Belgians asked for help, which would likely be too late. Additionally, the French convinced themselves that the talks with Belgian military officials during the 1936-38 period were going somewhere even though they weren't. As a consequence the French had taken no measures to extend fixed defenses along the French/Belgian frontier because doing so would impede the ability of French forces to advance quickly into Belgium. With the Belgians firmly committed to neutrality, there was simply no time or money to rectify this situation. In the end, all of these things combined created a fatal weakness in French defense plans; a weakness that the Germans easily and successfully exploited.