Why was France defeated so quick in the first world war?

UK Action Man

They've got the Surrender Gene.

They share it with the Italians.

PC PLOD

i think u mean second world war

conranger1

France was not defeated in WW1, along with the British she held out till the war was won!!

22/08/1914 27,000 French soldiers are killed on this single day in an offensive thrust to the east of Paris, towards the German borders,

Yes Twenty-Seven thousand French men killed in one day's fighting!!!

French casualties in W. W. I.

World War I cost France 1,357,800 military dead,
4,266,000 military wounded (of whom 1.5 million were permanently maimed),

and 537,000 made military prisoner or missing -- exactly 73% of the 8,410,000 men mobilized, according to William Shirer in "The Collapse of the Third Republic."

Some context: France had 40 million citizens at the start of the war; six in ten men between the ages of eighteen and twenty-eight died or were permanently maimed.

10% of the active population and 3,5% of the total population died on the battlefields.

(As a comparison, if this were to happen now in the United States, the number of casualties would reach 10 million.
There would also be 680,000 widows and 760,000 orphans.)

Between 1914 and 1918, the drops in births in France is estimated at 1 million.

kisser

The same reason the BEF were beaten, the Germans quickly overwhelmed them with thier revolutionary "blitz-krieg" tactics.
The British and French army chiefs imagined that the 2nd world war would be fought from trenches and defensive positions as was the 1st war in 1914-18 and were completely unprepared for the tactics the Wehrmacht used, fast-moving armour and ground troops with a powerful airforce in support.

bert

They lost their greatness on the field at Waterloo, they have never ammounted to much since !

woznotwoz

Considering you asked about the First world war there's an incredible amount of answers for the second!
They did not surrender at all in the First world war but were very hard pressed as any country would and that includes Britain.
Read up on the Battle of Verdun and the 'Sacred way' and then you'll see what the French did in WW1.

okrife

France was defeated in terms of battles in WWI, but they did not surrender. They were on the winning side after all the begging they and the Brits did by crawling on their collective bellies to the US to save their BUTTS. It is true they were both bankrupt and on the verge of defeat especially with the Germans bringing large forces back from the Eastern Front where the now communist govt signed a peace treaty giving Germany the Ukraine and numerous other territories. But they managed to stay on the winning side.

bugaboo

German forces overcame them..

nosdda

France built what they thought was an impregnable line of defence against Germany. It was known as the "Maginot Line". However the crafty German generals went around the maginot line by coming through belgium and the low countries and surprised the French by coming in at the back door.

Guessses, A.R.T.

A long and noble tradition of "Surrender"??? LOL

mowhokman

they were still folowing old tactics like the maginot line. they did not embrace the technological advances that britain and germany did. for example they did not think the germens would not vome through the ardens as it was a forrest and as such built the maginot line (fortresses); they though the germans would follow the static tactics of previous wars; however the germans with there new tanks just pushed through the forest and routed them.

there are various other reasons this is just an exaple

twackman4life

Because they are French.

STrAIghT TaLK ExPrEsS

They invested in fixed defenses and adapted a static mentality, when much of the military philosophers at the time were advocation mobile warfare.

Terry T

They used Blitzkrieg (fast like a flash).

They had been preparing for war for years. They were the first nation to properly use air support to bombard the opposition before the ground forces arrived.

The British & Fench were preparing for Trench warfare again and had failed to capitalise on technological advancements.

The main reason though is because they came through the Ardennes Forrest (North), which was lightly defended for obvious reasons, this allowed them to break through.

They also broke through in the south mainly because of the clever use of air support. once through they encirceld the French main defence (maginot Line) cutting them off from being re-supplied leading to their demise.

frankturk50

I seems there are a lot of people here who cant read!.In WWI France was not defeated I believe you mean WWII..
Is this a trick question?

Andy

FOR SALE

French Army Rifles, Very good condition, Never fired and only dropped once. $20 or nearest offer.

kenny b

and the second cause they cant and wont fight

hoopking

They underestimated Germany.

Dio della Guerra

They didn't defeat so quickly as you think.....
...they dug trenches as the german soldiers.. obviously the germand advanced in their territory, but they have been stooped only few hundreds of kilometrs after the ancient border line Prussia - France. The war-front was in France, but France didn't surrender against the enemy.

______________________________________...

In the 2nd world war? Simple, they dug trenches while the german were advancing by thanks like Tiger III Panzer or under the cover of a massive cannons' shoots. And trenches were useless in that situations.... France didn't have planes and tanks: this is the reason why they lost so quickly.

roger.williams20@btinternet.com

Over confidence and inadequate preparation.

desertviking_00

The German were able to breach the Maginot Line by going via the Belgian town of Sedan, on to France, and enveloping the French forces from the rear. The secret of how to breach or bypass that defensive obstacle was given to them in a book published in 1936. The author was a French Lieutenant Colonel by the name of Charles De Gaulle. Instead of being tried for treason by the post-war French government he was elected President of France under the Fifth Republic.

Snowy

Because they had lost an entire generation (millions) of young men in World War One in a horric war which took place on French soil for 4 years.

When World War Two came and the Germans attached with such skill and force the French Army whilst not totally defeated was in retreat and the politicians and Generals decised that the nation of France could not again suffer the loss of a generation and four years of war on its soil.

Wrong decision, but I guess you can understand why.

MICHAEL A

The army was probably on strike over pay or import taxes lol

scabibi

Waterloo theory is ,plus probably didn't see it coming.Plus that is second right?

podge

In the 2nd World War?

Because the Maginot line did not extend the full length of their borders.

Darkwolf

In the second world war, they ignored history and left the Rhineland unprotected.

Germany went around the Maginot Line and spanked France faster than they could say "We Surrender"

Shan

At that point in time, they tended to look at the world thru 'rose coloured glasses' (oh, they won't do that) and when that failed them, they took the ostrich approach of sticking their heads in the sand, the 'ignore it and it will go away' technique. From there they finally realized that they underestimated Germany and they were severely under trained and un-prepared for such an occurrence. Not that it did them any good, look what happened to them in WWII. It is much easier to sit around and complain about what someone has done for you than it is to get up and do it for yourself.

Robert S

France wasn't prepared to face the blitzkrieg tactics of the Germans due to their over-reliance on the (financially cheaper) static defenses of the Maginot Line. The Germans bypassed the line and managed to encircle the best French divisions in the northeast of the country, where they had been concentrated. There were no reserves available.

The French also suffered from an overwhelming wave of defeatism. This may have been the result of so many government changes in the interwar period (upwards of twenty?).

All in all, they weren't ready to fight to begin with and then they seriously underestimated the speed of the Germans.

Korky

For every hero France produces there were 50 cowards, that were lead by incompetent generals, and as with the second world war, the British had along with some allied help to pull France out of the mire, today they pay us back like they always have by stabbing us in the back and giving backhanders to our trustworthy politicians to sign us up to the EU WHICH WILL DO MORE HARM AND PROPERLY FINISH OF THE BRITAIN WE KNOW.

shevek_v

They were fighting with the techniques of WW1 - based on static defences. The German Blitzkrieg merely went round the Maginot Line.

The only French commander who seemed to understand modern tank warfare was De Gaule who didn't get a chance to put into practise what he preached.

In addition the German Wehrmacht were superbly trained and equipped. The French Army, which consisted mainly of poorly trained conscripts, never stood a chance.

The Saint

It wasn't totally, only the northeastern side.Came to a bit of a stalemate with our/Commonwealth troops deployed along the Western front from roughly Ypres down to the Somme river.
For Second, they'd built what they thought was an impregnable fortress line between Belgium and Switzrland along French/German border country. However, unexpected to the French, Germany deployed Blitzkrieg ( 'lightning war') by rapidly by-passing through a militarily weak Belgium.And also caught us out at Dunquerque.

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