Vichy - part two

[Kraxis]

Actually, as a result of the Battle of the Frontiers (August 1914) French casualties in the first month of active combat in WW1 were between 300,000 killed, wounded, and captured.

If you add wounded and captured to the French 1940 losses, then you will see that the 1914 losses pales. France suffered more than 1 million losses to combat, killed, wounded and captured. That is hefty.

Of course it is hard to know exactly when and where all that happened.
But I will tell you this. The French defense after Dunkirk was spirited and strong, but very very much doomed. Why?
Not so much because they didn't have the means to fight, or the men for that matter. Sure the French were now outnumbered, but we have seen worse.

No it was because the defense was centered around fighting the Blitzkrieg in pockets. Hitler insisted on similar 'hedgehog' positions late in the war.
Those positions could fight, and would be avoided by the German armour, seeking to get into the rear. But there was no rear, or at least that was the idea. In reality the 'hedgehog' positions only served to ensure the dismemberment of the army. No chance of victory when your army is being taken apart piece by piece.
And since these positions were generally centered around towns, you would ensure that the civilians would suffer in an unneeded fashion. For what reason? To save your honour?

As to Germany not being able to mount a major offensive for a year... She had taken a year to mount a major offensive after Poland too... Hardly because she wasn't able to. In July 41 Germany lost more troops killed than she had in France. The same again in August, September saw equal losses to France ect ect. It was costly... Yes, but not the extent that Germany needed a breather.
She even disbanded some units.

[Brenus]

“You do seem to do your civil wars with "style." We've only had the one, and it was ghastly, and we have fortunately never revisited the genre.” Yeah, we’ve got a lot of experience: Armagnac vs Bourguignon (100 Years War), War of Religions, La Fronde, the Revolution, la Commune de Paris, etc. And most of the times, we were busying to fight against external enemies as well. But not so much style than a hard labour to smash and slaughter each other family who believe that the egg was before the hen, when OBVIOUSLY, the hen was before the egg. How the egg could have to done, if not? BE CAREFUL about your answer….

[Seamus Fermanagh]

If you add wounded and captured to the French 1940 losses, then you will see that the 1914 losses pales. France suffered more than 1 million losses to combat, killed, wounded and captured. That is hefty.

Indeed, its been a while since I read the numbers on France '40, and most of my sources address the killed/wounded rather than the trifecta total. Do the "captured" figures include those captured as a result of the armistice or just those kessellen swept up before the finish?

[Kraxis]

Well... I don't really know. But I know that almost a million and half Frenchmen went into captivity. And they included the armistice captives.