"A Short History Lesson-France in World War II" (Post #66)

MAY 10, 1940 GERMANY WILL BEGIN 

THE BATTLE OF FRANCE.

     With France seemingly secure along its famed Maginot Line, the German Army traversed the so-described 'impassable' Ardennes Forest - taking its enemies by surprise. General Rommel led Germany to victory over France.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

     France especially Paris had been preparing for months for the expected invasion from Germany. Removing windows from cathedrals, art works from museums, sand bagging areas, digging ditches in Paris. Some thought they could beat the Krauts, but others had their doubts. Germany will invade where least expected. France was not prepared mentally or militarily for the invasion.

     In 1940, the French army built barricades of sandbags on some Paris streets, but they were never used (Frank Capra's film Divide and Conquer, U.S. War Department)

INVASION

Adolf Hitler on the terrace of the Palais de Chaillot on June 23, 1940. 

To his left is the sculptor Arno Breker, to his right, Albert Speer, his architect (Bundesarchiv)

German Battle Flag

     France became a divided country but in truth Germany had full control even though Vichy France was “considered” a free state. 

Adolph Hitler Shakes Hands With Philippe Petain

     President Albert Lebrun appointed Philippe Petain as the new premier. He started negotiations with Adolf Hitler and by June 22nd they had signed the armistice. France was divided into occupied and unoccupied zones, Germany would have direct control of 3/5ths of France including the Atlantic coast and Western France. The remainder of the country would be governed by the French government at Vichy with Henri-Philippe Petain as its head.

http://pages.uoregon.edu/mapplace/EU/EU20_France/France-Modern.html 

       This picture depicts the area the Vichy-French occupied during 1942. During WWII,  the Free French did manage to take colonies away from the Vichy, which in the end resulted in the Free French rising to power in France. 

     From 1940 to 1942, the Vichy regime so called as it relocated to Vichy and it became the ''de facto'' capital of the French State. It was was supposedly a free "French State” headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain, while German militarily occupied northern France with Paris the ''de jure'' capital of northern France.

     When the Allied troops landed in French North Africa in November 1942, Vichy France comes under German occupation . The harsh Germans stripped France of millions of workers (as prisoners of war and "voluntary" workers), and stripped much of the food supply, while demanding heavy cash payments.  It was a period of severe economic hardship.

     Petain's regime still remained in Vichy though one that clearly operated as a ''de facto'' client state of Nazi Germany from November 1942 onward. It never "officially" joined the Axis powers and was able to keep the French Navy and colonial power under “French control.” One must remember Petain was a dictator and had agreed to an armistice with Hitler. The Vichy government remained in existence on paper until the end of the war. It lost its all remaining ''de facto'' authority in late 1944 when the Allies of World War II liberated the whole of France.

The Nazis showed no mercy to the French people. Complete villages evacuated going into hiding in the forest as their homes, livestock and fields of food were destroyed by the Nazis or by sheer neglect. As my uncle said in his letters, "War destroys everything in its path."

Germany held over 2 million French POWs in force labor camps. They were used as hostages to ensure Vichy would decrease their military force, give Germany gold, food and other supplies. French police would round up Jews and other “undesirables” for extermination. Many French went along with the  German’s demands thinking it would keep some form of French autonomy, but they learned that was not Hitler's plans. 

Allied soldiers including our American soldiers, such as, my uncle saw and smelled the rotting, bloated carcasses of cows, pigs, chickens and other livestock as they marched through towns liberating them from German occupation. They would hear church bells ringing as the people of France came out of the nearby forests. This liberation did not come easy and many Americans and other Allies gave their all.

CHARLES DE GAULLE AND GOVERNMENT-IN-EXILE

* Led by General Charles de Gaulle, London was the seat of the French government-in-exile from 1940–1942, then it was based in Algiers in French Algeria from 1942–1944, then as a part of metropolitan France, from 1942 until the liberation of France in 1944. It briefly moved back to London for a few weeks from the start of the Normandy and Provence landings before ending the exile by Liberation of Paris. Also during all these years, there was a major group of the French Resistance risking their lives by remaining in France and doing any form of sabotage to frustrate the German army.

Liberation of Paris on 25 August 1944.

                                                         Girls kissing their liberators

Liberation ushered in the Provisional Government of the French Republic. On September 9,1944, Charles de Gaulle and his shadow government returned from Algiers to Paris. There he headed two successive provisional governments, but on January 20, 1946, he abruptly resigned and the French Fourth Republic was established ending the series of interim regimes. On December 21, 1958, Charles de Gaulle will return to public office when he was elected president of the republic and will remain president until April 28, 1969.

Charles de Gaulle

The last of the French state exiles were captured by de Gaulle's French 1st Armoured Division in April 1945. Pétain, voluntarily made his way back to France and put on trial for treason by the new Provisional government receiving a death sentence, but commuted to life imprisonment by de Gaulle. Only four senior Vichy officials were tried for crimes against humanity, although many more had participated in the deportation of Jews for extermination in Nazi concentration camps, abuses of prisoners, and severe acts against members of the Resistance.

**(This was written as Post 66 since the Paris Liberation occurred before Charles Knight writes his next letter.)