What Happened to French Soldiers During WW2? | Animated History
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Sources:
Deák, István. Europe on Trial : The Story of Collaboration, Resistance, and Retribution during World War II. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2015.
Goubert, Pierre. The Course of French History. 1st edition. Milton: Routledge, 1991.
King, Jonathan H. “Emmanuel d’Astier and the Nature of the French Resistance.” Journal of contemporary history 8, no. 4 (1973): 25-45.
Moore, Bob. Prisoners of War: Europe: 1939-1955. Oxford: Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 2022.
Popkin, Jeremy D. A History of Modern France. Fifth edition. United Kingdom: Routledge, 2020.
Porch, Douglas. Defeat and Division: France at War, 1939-1942. 1st ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022.
Stahel, David. Joining Hitler’s Crusade: European Nations and the Invasion of the Soviet Union, 1941. Cambridge University Press, 2017.
Weiss, Steve. Allies in Conflict: Anglo-American Strategic Negotiations, 1938-44. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 1996.
Wieviorka, Olivier and Jane Marie Todd. The French Resistance. Harvard University Press, 2016.
Williams, Maude. French Soldiers’ Morale in the Phoney War, 1939-1940. 1st ed. United Kingdom: Routledge, 2018.
Armchair Team Credits:
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IT would have been nice If you mentioned the Mass killing of black french soldiers by the Wehrmacht in 1940, good Video though
Tell me what is the soundtrack your using in this video?
Ad End Point is 4:11.
Small correction about Alsace-Lorraine ; while it is true that at least at the time most people in those regions could speak German fluently, they are not exactly german speaking ; after 1918 (when they became part of France again), people in those regions stopped speaking german as a primary language, in that role they either spoke french, or their own local "patois", their own local languages that are basically mixes of French, German and language of oïl (medieval latin dialect spoken in the northern half of France in the middle ages).
Nicely done video
De Gaulle sent several pilots to the soviets to create a squadron and fight in the soviet air force. They flew yak 9s and often had the colours of the French flag on the nose of their aircraft.
Normandie Nieman
@@nuttygeezer708 exactly
Nice to mention also that Jean Moulin, the man who united all the groups of the resistance, got brutally tortured by the SS Klaus Barbie until he eventually died from his wounds and exhaustion. Yet the man never talked... An unsung hero who deserves his own video.
my favorite barbie
He deserves more than an analytical KZhead video. Hollywood should make a movie about him.
@@theawesomeman9821 Agreed, but Hollywood making a movie about a frenchman who resisted during ww2, not attractive enough for the average american public. For most of them the french never won a war and has this "white flag" stereotype. So unfortunately this would likely not happen
@thatguynex😂us5935
Klaus Barbie got recruited by the CIA and helped hunt down Che Guevara too
I recommend the movie "The Cow and I" which is based on a real story of a French POW in Germany who travels back to France with a cow. Basically the trick was to tell the germans that his mission was to deliver the cow to the next farm so he would continue his way.
All fun and games until you bump into the same German soldier again
@@Ch33secakeGaminghey he’s still moving the cow, right? 😏
It is a comedy starring Fernandel. Nothing true about it.
Whoever directs the animation has the best creative mind for it, every scene feels perfect, has thought put into it and helps visualize a lot of aspects!
They've really stepped up in the past few years too. Incredible how far this channel has come.
i’m french and love that you tell the truth about the french military
Same, as a french, this feel so refreshing to see an american finally working on this subject with objectivity.
You guys should really stop surrendering
@@ThebettermartyrMate that happened once. We literally won the most battles in History.
Tell your nation "France" to get out of the continent so called Africa. The biblical promised land. Get out of our land. Get out of our continent. With all the poverty, oppression your nation brought upon my people in the continent of Africa. 🌍 You used my people to fight your white wars.
@@damienbaujean8581Tell your nation "France" to get out of the continent so called Africa. The biblical promised land. Get out of our land. Get out of our continent. With all the poverty, oppression your nation brought upon my people in the continent of Africa. 🌍 You used my people to fight your white wars.
my father's uncle at 13 was an ammo runner during the war for the resistance, he never even got to hold a rifle until the last years because weapons were so scarce. He thoroughly disliked the 'last hour resistants' people who joined the fight after the liberation of Toulouse.
Why Toulouse?
@@Kartavya64 nearest big city hed never been much further by then
Preach. The only ones to be heartily commended with their dedication, were the conscripted and POW soldiers of the Republic, the pre-D-day members of the Maquis as well as the ones who were able to volunteer and continue the fight as the Free French.
Heard about the last hour joiners from a documentary before. Did they actually go around shaving the heads of french women who had suspected relationships with german soldiers in an attempt to prove their 'loyalty to the resistance' like they actually contributed something to the fight?
@@johnacrts2171 a lot of heads were shorn a lot of heads got a superfluous cavity lots of unsanctioned justice took place between 1944-1945. You see a scene liek that in band of brothers but it's in the netherlands and never made clear whether the resistants were OG's ( for lack of a better term) or not Some of the last hour resistants to their credit joined the troops who fought along the Ruhr and Rhine and pushed into southern Germany so that France was the 4th biggest force on the western front by the war's end.
Jean Moulin was not executed, he died from his injuries while he was in a train to Germany and no one exactly knows how he got arrested, maybe a French man betrayed him or the Gestapo was clever enough to arrest him. Gestapo chief Klaus Barbie knew the answer but never disclosed it.
How ironic is it that the day I discover I’m related to De Gaule from finding his old letters in my grandmother’s basement is the day arm chair uploaded this, thank you for this
it's De Gaule
@@alexandre069 apologies
@@alexandre069 it's (Charles) De Gaulle two l's
No way just because this you have more credit to be in power in France than any corrupt politicians there
1:46 1:46 1:49
The Free French Memorial on Lyle Hill in Greenock, in western Scotland, in the shape of the Cross of Lorraine combined with an anchor was raised by subscription as a memorial to sailors on the Free French Naval Forces vessels that sailed from the Firth of Clyde to take part in the Battle of Atlantic. The memorial is also associated, locally, with the memory of the French destroyer Maille Breeze (1931) which sank at the Tall of the Bank. To this day, General de Gaulle's Appeal of 18 June 1940 remains one of the most famous speeches in French history.
My hometown was massacred by ss in 1944 after an attack by the résistance to the local garrison. The ss the next day took all the men and hang them on the balconies of the city. The worse part about this tragic event is that some of the ss were what we call "malgré nous" which is the term for the french from alsace that fought in the german army.
My grandfather, aged 18 in 1941, was faced with the choice of going to Germany or joining the African Army in Algiers. He took part in the Tunisian campaign, where he met the Free French. He then headed for Italy, where he took part in the Battle of Garigliano with the 1st DFL. He then participated in operation dragoon, liberating provence, the Rhône valley, Burgundy, Alsace and then Germany.
So he had to go to Germany anyways. False choices man...
@@gabrielmontenegro9476 Strangely enough, everything revolved around Germany at that time
"History is not written by the Victors it's written by those who write stuff down"-Max miller tasting history
It's crazy to think how WW2 was basically a civil war for the French between fascists and anti-fascists. Yet all the popular media ever talks about is how France surrendered and that was it for them
It's because American got pissed of we didn't follow their war crime in Irak
@@alexandre069oh yes the famous ww2 irak campaign 👍
@@d.olivergutierrez8690 no the 2003 one
@@alexandre069y’all are too busy with war crimes in Mali
Not between fascists and anti-fascists : between pro-Vichy and anti-Vichy. There is a huge nuance.
Anyone who ever talks down about the French in WWII I always argue about the rear guard at the Battle of Dunkirk. Thousands of French soldiers knowing they were going to die or be captured still defended the British withdrawal and fought valiantly. And the French Resistance never let the Germans rest until they were liberated.
And the french soldiers in the Lille pocket that fought untill their last cartridge and kept 7 german divisions away from Dunkerque for a week during the most crucial moments of the Dynamo operation.
I forgot who said this but in this case it was spot on when in the context to France during the start of ww2. "The battle/war is fought 10-20 before it actually happens" or something to this effect. I think it was from Margin of Victory: Five Battles that Changed the Face of Modern War from Douglas Macgregor but I might be wrong but still we find examples of this. France was planning to fight ww2 thinking one way but one thing or another whatever they thought wasn't the case and what they did do was under supported. The forces did the best they could with effectively leadership that depending on who you view or ask basically failed them and give up long before their men under their command.
I mean.....resistance in the west is vastly overexagerated these days. There was way more collaboration then there ever was resistance. So much so that some allied nations even wanted to treat France as a defeated nation instead of a liberated nation but was stopped by the British because they didn't want a repeat of punishing countries like after ww1. Resistance in my country only started shooting in like 1944 and in Belgium late 1943.
Agreed but there was also french getting on the boats and Brits fighting the rearguard and holding the perimeter but maybe through jingoism or pride that's something the odd french revisionist overlooks blaming there whole defeat on the British while forgetting the debacle started with there collapse at Sedan
@@AdanClark-zx7pw Many of the French lifted from Dunkerque's beaches opted for return to France, rather than join de Gaulle.
Smh France just shoulda just loaded a save game
They should've built lvl 5 forts and not guaranteed poland smh
Love this HOI4 reference 🤣🤣.
Unfortunately they were playing on iron man mode
For all of you history buffs and comics enthusiasts, famous french cartoonist Jacques Tardi made a 3 parts comic book about his father's experience as a tankist during the battle of France, and then his capture and imprisonment in a Stalag in Germany during the totality of the war, up until his liberation and the return to civil life as one of the "defeated ones". It's called "Moi René Tardi, prisonnier de guerre", and it kinda reminded me of "Maus" by Art Spiegelman in its way of mixing up History and the difficult communication between a father and his son
My great grandfather was a french soldier during ww2, after the defeat in 1940 the war basically beacame an escape simulator, he escaped german's prisons 5 times, went to see his wife 5 times and got send back to prison 5 times. I only know that one time he rode a cow wile escaping, hell yea.
As soon as the Allies landed in France, everyone was suddenly The Resistance.
It is because you don't understand the purpose of the resistance in France : they lived more or less underground while being prepared to help the Allies during the d-day landings. During the occupation their role was to spread anti Vichy and Nazi propaganda, transmit intel to the Allies, help escaped prisoners of war, Jews or Allied pilots to go or return to England. Also they had to be taught how to use a gun or how to sabotage infrastructures. The ones involved in armed resistance were mainly communists. When you say "as soon as the Allies landed in France, everyone was suddenly The Resistance", it sounds like French left-wing propaganda of the seventies.
Interesting, but not mentioned here, were the Vichy french soldiers in Syria who fought against the Free French during the latter's initial operations. Many (understandably), did not see De Gaulle as legitimate, who had a habit of overstating his ability to convince french soldiers to switch sides.
Charles de Gaulle had trouble trying to get French soldiers to fight for him because the British attack french battleships
The attack on Mers-el-Kébir would be a great topic for a video, theres a lot of controversy surrounding that event
So many of them fought for the Wehrmacht instead.
@@wtfroflffs yes, this could have been avoided if Britain didn't attack Mer els Kebir and trusted the French at their word that the fleet would be scuttled before it would be handed over to the germans as it was on the 27 November 1942 despite the british actions
@@Storiedfrog9 There's no controversy. There are plenty of videos discussing the issue at length. Best one is watch Drachinifel's analysis. He puts it plainly all the various options and how it could have easily been averted. Ultimately, the reason was that The french admiral in charge was a right incompetent treasonous bastard who betrayed not only his own men but the very principles of a commander duty to his men. And needlessly sacrificed his own men for his hubris. Although let's be clear about something....The British did not 'betray' the French in any way at all. The very idea that anyone could reasonably have that thought disgusts me to my core. It was France that betrayed the Allied cause. They could have chose to fight on, enact a fighting retreat to North Africa or Britain. Chose to stay true to their allies. But all that fought on was DeGaulle and a few thousand of his most loyal troops. But no, they let the very identity of their country die, and relegated themselves to the Nazi rule. Giving up all hope of returning to the homeland and restoring the liberty of their country. Instead they sold out, relegation themselves to having to be liberated by the allies 4 years later. Its commonly misrepresented, The free french were Fringe, a tiny number compared to what should have been. The reality was far more bleak and it seemed that most french had simply given up on the ideals of their own nation. It's an embarrassement that the UK and US wanted to liberate France more than the bloody French themselves. And they have the guts to call their old allies as 'Traitors'. Make no mistake. There was only one Traitor in the allied cause. And it was France.
@@livethefuture2492dude shut up. They lost the war and capitulated like a dozen empires before them. Like Greece>Rome, a dozen kingdoms>ottoman. The entirety of France wasn’t gonna get in a band wagon and go to africa. France at home still flew it’s colors and started to prosper. The nationalism the Germans sold them was more appealing then continuing with the Allies who sank their ships
Thanks for this one, my great grandfather was captured in 40 and since he died young he never told my grandpa what really happened to him
It's always a good day when the armchair historian uploads
Great video as always.
You know it’s a good day when armchair historian posts a new video
Great work! Can you guys do one about the Netherlands during ww2?
The occupation and dutch resistence + involvement is much underrated, would be a good video
@@yourhistorybase279 yes along with the fact they put another resistance up in Indonesia.
Hi tanks for still uploading videos on KZhead
There are two men that can be blamed for France's surrender that was quicker than the Siege of Pavlov's house, and these are Edouard Daladier and Maurice Gamelin. Daladier for leaving the Czechs at the mercy of the Nazis and Gamelin for his complete failure to invade Germany from the West, while the Germans were fighting in Poland.
I blame Huntziger directly for the collapse on the defense of the Ardennes. Although both Daladier and Gamelin were culpable in the events leading to the tragic Battle of France, Huntzinger actions were inexplicable on the days preceding and during the Battle of Sedan as the overall commander of the Ardennes sector. He ignored the pleas of his air scouts reporting the huge and long German column opposite the Ardennes. His ground commanders even asked permission to shell the bridges in the Ardennes but they were denied. Not surprising that when France fell, he was an ardent supporter of the Vichy regime.
you forget Chamberlain and the English politics of the moment......
@@jmb2140 But the main focus was France, since they had a direct border with Germany, they were an infinitely bigger threat to the Nazis than the UK ever was. Even if the UK dropped its guarantees, the French would've easily mowed down the Germans, let alone while they were banging their heads on the Sudeten Wall of fortifications.
The objectivity of this channel is as usual outstanding. Congratulations for the great work.
Might I recommend the cartoon the long long holiday? It was a French made animated series detailing some of what life us like for the occupied french. How accurate it is I'm unsure but it is definitely a cute little dramatic
Video idea: "Battle of Byalistok - Minsk, the most one sided battle of ww2"
German with 12,000 deaths and Soviets with 400,000 deaths under just 3 weeks is insane....
@wifi_soldier5076 yeah that's why it's worth a video made about it
@@wifi_soldier5076those are the casualties for both sides not just deaths. A large amount of the Soviet casualties were prisoners not deaths.
@@bigchickenstrip2509there is no difference between pow and death in statistics as you still lose men to the other side wounded are temporary tho
@@Williherold-jy6ws I agree with what your saying as both deaths and pows are listed as irrecoverable losses unlike wounded but I was correcting his statement that all 400,000 Soviet casualties were deaths
My great-great-grandfather served through all of WW1 in the French army and survived through WW2. I have never been able to figure out where he was in France or what he did during German occupation/Vichy France, but this video has helped me develop ideas of some possibilities.
Does it really matter, did you ever meet him?
@@dave8323 Why wouldn’t it matter? He’s an ancestor of mine who played a role in one of the most important events in human history. The more I can learn about what he might have gone through, the better.
Good luck, may your search be fruitful
@@jackthorton10 thank you
Another Great video!
Been waiting for a video like this!!!
Thank you for also mentionning the forced conscripts of Alsace-Lorraine. Today nicknamed "malgré nous" ("Despite us"), they were seen as traitors by both the french and the nazis. Sadly many of them were made prisonners by the soviets and ended up in the gulag of Tambov, were a vast amount of them did not survive
I love how you have the French national anthem In the background
I love videos like these because they are educating and fun
The sad thing is that a lot of French actually believed that it was truly the end for themselves when France signed the Armistice with Germany and gave up (this is the part the media clenches onto); yet there were so many French out there that did not want to take the NAZIs marching into their homeland laying down. My insignificant opinion: had France been better prepared and were to look forward from World War 1 tactics, they would have been a force to be reckoned a lot sooner. Hitler and his boys would have not been able to push as far as they did
These videos are very well-made! Love it
Love your channel
Amazing video
Thanks again for the great videos!!!!
My great Grandfather was in the British army and continued to fight in France after dunkirk. After he was captured he escaped with a French officer and made his way back to the UK, he stole an army jeep to see his son being born during the blitz in october 1940 and then was deployed to North Africa 2 weeks later. For the rest of the war he worked his way from North Africa to Italy. He had mixed opinions on the French, depending on who they were. He just couldn't understand why some didn't fight harder, why they gave up so easy in 1940 and he really hated them lmao, but at the same time he said he had no interest in fighting alongside anyone else aside from the Free French, they had lost everything and so were no longer afraid of death, they were superhuman. He died a few years ago now, tough bastard!
One of the reason for the surrender was that when half the country was being occupied and most of the army was not able to face the German it is a little bit understandable to surrend And also all the old guys didn't want a death count similar to WW1
What I don't understand is why people think the French "gave up so easy" ?? It is one of the most complete defeats of all time !! It is a shame the Prime Minister did not succeeded in imposing his views (he was like Churchill in favor of fighting on), but it is the "easy" that shocks me. Can you imagine : your best troops encircled and made prisoners, millions of Belgian and Northern French people on the roads, defensive line after defensive line breached by the Germans ; the British not intervening anymore (they were right, but for the sake of Britain, not of the French in 1940), etc. It was an apocalypse ! So, saying it was "easy"... In France we call it "la débâcle", which means total collapse ; it is not for nothing...
Ah another day another Armchair Historian upload thanks again🤌🏽🤌🏽
My great grandfather was captured in June 1940, with some comrades he escaped from the prisoners' column, but having no idea where they were and with the few remaining locals being hostile to them, they only saw one option: de-escape, they managed to reintegrate the column unnoticed.
New historical show has been made, quick! Watch it!!
Brillant video, very well describing the different fates of French soldiers. I particularly appreciated the concluding sentences: history is indeed a messy business. Thank you!
Video idea. Soviet invasion of Poland on September 17th 1939
The real shame is not the surrender giving the circonstances, its the collaboration that followed it
So true
Yeah.
I've seen a lot people say things like the British 'betrayed' the French at dunkirk by fleeing, or by attacking the base at Mers-el-Kebir, but let's be clear about something....The British did not 'betray' the French in any way at all. The very idea that anyone could reasonably have that thought disgusts me to my core. It was France that betrayed the Allied cause. They could have chose to fight on, enact a fighting retreat to North Africa or Britain. Chose to stay true to their allies. But all that fought on was DeGaulle and a few thousand of his most loyal troops. But no, they let the very identity of their country die, and relegated themselves to the Nazi rule. Giving up all hope of returning to the homeland and restoring the liberty of their country. Instead they sold out, relegation themselves to having to be liberated by the allies 4 years later. Its commonly misrepresented, The free french were Fringe, a tiny number compared to what should have been. The reality was far more bleak and it seemed that most french had simply given up on the ideals of their own nation. It's an embarrassement that the UK and US wanted to liberate France more than the bloody French themselves. And they have the guts to call their old allies as 'Traitors'. Make no mistake. There was only one Traitor in the allied cause. And it was France.
@@livethefuture2492 ok dude
@@livethefuture2492 Stop spamming
Make a video on Srilankan civil war please
Nice video!
Your so underrated, you need more veiwers
Great video!
Nice video
Great video
This might be a challenge as not a lot is covered about how the French Foreign Legion fought each other during WWII. The 13th DBLE with the Free French and the 6th with the Vichy French.
I like your content!
only 3,000 decided to carry on the fight, the rest floated back to france? wow
Things are not as easy as they seem. These people had families and lives. That would also meant fight for UK, when relations were bad Mers El Kebir, retreat without telling your allies, and 700 years of rivalry. Also a good part went to the "Free Zone" under Petain who was a national hero so they trusted him, maybe expected him to get a way to take back the rest of the country... And so on
Great video!! Vive la France!!! 🇫🇷
Tell your nation "France" to get out of the continent so called Africa. The biblical promised land. Get out of our land. Get out of our continent. With all the poverty, oppression your nation brought upon my people in the continent of Africa. 🌍 You used my people to fight your terrible wars.
Tell the nation "🇫🇷" to get out of the continent so called Africa. The biblical promised land. Get out of our land. Get out of our continent. With all the poverty, oppression your nation brought upon my people in the continent of Africa. 🌍
i whuld love to see a video on WW2 from danish perspective, becuse their situation is a really intresting one, and i think it culd make a good video
You forgot about the army in the North African colonies who was secretly maintained by Vichy under Weygand's command (in unoccupied colonies) and joined the Allies after Torch and the German invasion of south France. In 1943 Giraud took commands until De Gaulle took control of those around 200k soldiers (mostly from Algeria, Morroco and Tunisia) who fought in Italy (decisive action at Monte Cassino) and were the spearhead of the french Army of liberation after Operation Dragoon ! But as "indigenous" those soldiers were progressively dismissed and replaced by white french people for the final blow against Germany in 1945.
History judges you by your success or failure, That’s what counts. Nobody asks the victor whether he was in the right or wrong.
From a French citizen, thanks you. By the way, your illustration of Jean Moulin lacks a scarf. This is not a small detail. The man was a préfet (a district civil governor) during the invasion. The Germans arrived and raped some women in Moulin's jurisdiction. They asked Jean Moulin to pretend that Senegalese "tirailleurs" had committed those rapes. Moulin refused. The Germans put him in jail. Moulin did not want to concede, but may have been afraid of doing so, so he tried to cut his throat. That is why he allways wore a scarf, to hide his scar. From the two or three hundreds préfets who were at the top of the French administration, he was the only one to refuse the armistice. As a storyteller, you had to make choices. Many French pilots joined the RAF, the Free French played a decisive role in Italy, etc. But these are all details. What is not a detail is the fact that French Resistance was mainly an intelligence network which provided key informations about German deployments. We like to represent them with blazing guns. They were not fighters. They were intellectuels (Camus), poets (Char), workers, students, men and women who risked their lives by sheltering an ally pilot, by listening to the BBC, by expressing their contempt for the occupant. They also started to think about the future of the country, a better democracy, a society with solidarity. That is not a battle with guns, but that is a battle the Resistance won over the Germans, Vichy... and even de Gaulle.
Nice vid
As always, the @TheArmchairHistorian always makes good documentaries. Jumpscare at 0:50 though
The difference between the French and Polish militaries post occupation is so stark.
Thank you Armchair Historian for making this upload on the French. Seeing what they did during the the fall & recapture of France 🇫🇷 was worth it for the insight of constant inner battling.
I wonder what became of the fate of the collaborationist Vichy forces after the war? Like the ‘Milice’, who I heard were pretty nasty.
Pierre Laval, 2nd most powerful guy in Vichy France, became the chief of Police for postwar Paris. His WW2 politics bled into the postwar French police forces and hence gaining the infamous reputation of immediate and disproportional police brutality. American police officers are babies compared to the bloody carnage a French police officer can dish out...
@@theotherohlourdespadua1131 Laval was shot. Maurice Papon, a civil servant who deported Jews around Bordeaux, was the one who became a police chief.
Nothing, they remained in high positions and they worked with former free french to brutally crackdown in akgeria
The attack on Mers-el-Kébir also disgusted many French people from fighting alongside the British. And there is also the case of the scuttling of the Toulon fleet in 1942, in order to prevent the Germans from seizing it.
They also prevented the Allies / Free French from using it.
@@jameshudkins2210 Idk man, a few ships actually managed to escape to the allies, while most of the ships were just saborded, but it wasn't necesseraly to prevent allies from taking them, but because there was no other choice (the germans were driving fast towards Toulon to seize the ships, everything had to be done quickly, the allies were only to the other side of the sea, no time)
The Forgotten Soldier is a war memoir of a ‘volksdeutch’ kid from Alsace Lorraine who fought in a Panzergrenadier division, I’ve heard some rumors that it’s fake but it’s a pretty good story for anyone who wants to read about a ‘German’ infantrymen’s experience on the Eastern front
I don't know why, but your WWII videos are always my favorite.
Well done Armchair Historian, well done. I really loved this in-depth discussion of the French soldiers during World War 2, it was a breath of fresh air without all the bias that spoke ill of France and its military history.
It's amazing that you mentionned Bir Hakeim, the "malgré nous" , or Oradour sur Glanes... Great work ! France during WW2 usualy gets swept away in most English speaking Histories.
when the colonies care more about liberating your own country
More interesting for a future video is the Spanish participation in both sides during the war, having relevant moments such as the "Blue Division" in Leningrad against the Soviets and "The Nine" made up of Republican exiles who fought in the 9th Company of the Free French 2nd Armored Division, also known as the Leclerc Division. These soldiers were perhaps the most veterans who existed at the beginning of the Second World War, having been in combat since 1936 and they demonstrated it in the combats they had.
Around 120,000 colonial soldiers, many from sub-Saharan Africa, participated in the landing in Provence on August 16, 1944. African soldiers experienced discrimination during the war, which culminated in de Gaulle's decision to “whiten” the forces that marched into Paris in August 1944.
Liar! it was an american and british decision. American created the 2nd Armoured division on US racist conception of an army..and Leclerc african soldiers were sent in other units, in 1943, before the division was sent to England. British also didn't want to have french colonial troops on their lands.. In 1940, a black african officer could command white soldiers the french army ( read about the history of captain N'Tchorore) . What could do a black american in... 1944? 1965? 2020??? I can't breathe.
@@willnibor6075 French could just say no to Americans. But that takes guts....😂
shout out to the editors for the excellent music complementing the animations
I wonder. Of the French soldiers who had been captured during World War ii, were there any of them who had also been captured by the Germans in World War i? There had to have been at least a few. Imagine that, being captured twice by the same enemy in two different wars 😶.
Tell your nation "France" to get out of the continent so called Africa. The biblical promised land. Get out of our land. Get out of our continent. With all the poverty, oppression your nation brought upon my people in the continent of Africa. 🌍 You used my people to fight your terrible wars.
Well, there were probably Germans that had been captured twice by the French too !
I would like to add something, it would have been interesting to developp more on the colonies, the colonials provided to France some 250,000 men with another 190,000 French european settlers combined with the 50,000 Free French. The French army of Africa, numbering 400k men in 1943 fought in Italy, France did regain its millitary prestige in Italy and had more predtige from the Americans who allowed them to fight in the ETO The colonies is the reason why France was able to win the war
France did not win anything.
My great grandfather was one of the ones who was at Dunkirk and continued at Africa for Free France. I appreciate that you mentioned the real strength of our people.
There were also many thousands who collaborated, such as Vichy soldiers and the Milice.
Being part of the "army of the armistice" is hardly a case of collaboration, the soldiers were being reduced to a neutral faction with no particular relations with axis military and sometimes found themselves at the opposite end of a free french or british offensive while no declaration of war was ever issued. Most of the french troops who fought in Tunisia, Italy, France and Germany from 1942 to 45 were originally part of this force.
@@peletsoivre9110 not to mention that volunteers for the french army of armistice thought that they would be fighting the Germans
This was a great deep dive into what happened after the surrender of France. It’s something that doesn’t get discussed very often.
Because after they surrender ,France do not matter , this country has become just a fuel station for the german war machine
I dunno about anyone else but your WoWS Legends link isn't working for me, nothing loads.
And let's not forget the French Army of Africa, who became the basis for the French armies that operated successfully in Italy (Monte Cassino) and Southern France !
I love your videos! I wish someone would do Star Wars history videos (BBY-ABY) in your style
Hello Griffin. I was surprised at the omission of Vichy French soldiers fighting the British in Syria and Madagascar. Also no mention of what happened to French Indochina, handed by the Vichy French to Japan. My dad was the equivalent of a medic in the Royal Navy and was sent from Singapore to help pick up French Indochinese shortly after WW2.
(Excuse my bad english i am french) Your video is a great video, and a thank you for that, i just want to say a thing, you talk about french how serve in the german army by force, this story is true and not many People now about this in France we call them "malgré nous" thoses men how came from Alsace, Lorraine and Moselle ( french région on the german border) was force to fight in the eastern front, but after the war when you surrounder to the soviet or allies and go back to France you avec to make a choice : 15 years in the french military ( indochina, algeria war) or prison because for the goverment your are a traitor, a well now chacartere of a book name 317 section ( took place in the end of indochina war ) was what we call a "malgré nous". Many goes to the french forein legion where theire mate old germain and ss soldiers, but that is a another story. Thanks for you video.
all is good, since nut heads from around the world keep declaring that english must be The International language, then why not go along with their silly game. in the end an international language means that its every human's right to change it a little bit. no one is allowed to say your english is bad, just because you use non english phrases.
No worries, mon ami! I am American and I can tell you that a whole lot of people here have bad English. And cool story!
Regarding the Alsace - read the Guy Sajer’s Forgotten Soldier (his memoirs) written by a young volunteer from that region who jointed Wehrmacht and was sent on the eastern front.
Very cool video
Thank you for covering this topic. We never get to heard about the French forces during WW2.
My grandfather was in the belgian resistance. He officially joined the "maquis" in 1944, but the archives proved he started in 1941, when he helped a french escaping POW to go back to France. He later helped two russian escaping POWs, as there was a camp not too far, who later also joined a resistant group.
You all should make an RTS ww2 strategy game
Is that a real person giving the lecture? Looks suspiciously static to me.
Thank you from France for this fine video!!
well spoken last lines!! :D
I used to think they were a joke thanks to the way they were shown in TV shows and cartoons.. But I learned so much from watching these videos, they really helped me understand the French army, I also watched the De Gaulle movie.. I know that doesn't sound like much but I learned a little bit about that.. but I did learn from Sabaton about what was known as the Ghost Division and it was Irwin Rommel's corp who faced no resistance and they moved in ahead of the main German army but had a great surprise attack that left them holding their own.
Really interesting video, would love to see similar stuff for other occupied countries
I like the way he hasn’t romanticised the French resistance , it was clear vichy France had supported n enforced some of Germany’s policies a t that time , they were infact the greatest vassal for him in tje western front
extract from wikipedia: Although no precise estimates exist, the number of French soldiers captured by Nazi Germany during the Battle of France between May and June 1940 is generally recognised around 1.8 million, equivalent to around 10 percent of the total adult male population of France at the time. After a brief period of captivity in France, most of the prisoners were deported to Germany. In Germany, prisoners were incarcerated in Stalag or Oflag prison camps, according to rank, but the vast majority were soon transferred to work details (Kommandos) working in German agriculture or industry. Prisoners from the French colonial empire, however, remained in camps in France with poor living conditions as a result of Nazi racial ideologies. During negotiations for the Armistice of 22 June 1940, the Vichy French government adopted a policy of collaboration in hopes for German concessions allowing repatriation. The Germans nevertheless deferred the return of prisoners until the negotiation of a final peace treaty, which never occurred due to the United Kingdom's refusal to surrender and Germany's defeat in the Battle of Britain.[1] The absence of a large proportion of the male population of France also had important consequences on the position of women in occupied France and charity fundraising on behalf of the prisoners played an important role in French daily life until late in the occupation. Limited repatriation of certain classes of POWs did occur from 1940 and the government was keen to encourage the return of prisoners, even launching the unpopular relève system in order to exchange prisoners of war for French labourers going to work in Germany. Nevertheless, many prisoners remained in German captivity until the defeat of Germany in 1945. Prisoners who returned to France, either by repatriation or through escaping, generally found themselves stigmatised by the French civilian population and received little official recognition.
Glad to hear about the "Malgré-nous" from Alsace-Lorraine (a common misnomer as it was in fact Alsace and only Moselle) on one of my favorite history channels. If these men didnt accept the draft, escaped or deserted, their whole families were under the threat of getting executed to the last member. What was told in my family was that, from the town where I grew up, of all the men of age to get drafted, none of them came back from the eastern front but two, both were my great-uncles. According to the story told by my grand-mother when I was a child, one of the them was an electrician on a German warship in the Baltic sea, and was especially disobedient. So much so, that the kind captain of the warship let him escape instead of executing him, and he somehow made it back home. Edit: additional fact, Jean Moulin was tortured to death in a train car in the station of Metz, in Moselle, also near my hometown. There is a commemorative plate in the station reminding the passerby of this painful fact. There is also a difference there in WWII memorials, which, instead of being headlined with the usual "fallen for France" (Morts pour la France) it is usually headlined "to our fallen" (A nos morts) because of the "messy business" the "Malgré-nous" also were.