(4/6)Tanks! Fall of France

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Videos Running Time 00:54:00 in 6 Parts


This episode of TANKS! examines the tanks of the World War II 1940 French Campaign.

A common misconception of the 1940 French Campaign; is that German tanks outclassed French and British tanks, to such an extent, that the Allies lost France in 1940.

A great majority of German tanks, most notably the Panzer I and II were nothing better than reconnaissance vehicles. The Panzer IV was an excellent infantry support vehicle, but again, not a real main battle tank. The Germans processed in the Panzer III, an excellent tank to tank fighting machine. However, the 37mm main armament was deficit. Where the Germans shinned was tactics, generalship, and communications that were ahead of their time

The great problem with the British/French armies lay with 20 year old tactics.
The French Char B1, and excellent S-35 Somua, could easily hold their own against ANY German tank. The British Matilda, sporting a ridiculous 80mm of frontal amour, was impervious to any German tanks anti-tank fire However, these slow but excellent tanks were dispersed among infantry units as support vehicles. An incredible mutual support system of tank, anti-tank and air support units easily dealt with the French/British counterattacks

With incredible and revolutionary tactics, the Germans completely out-generalled the French/British high and lower commands. The French and British forces were systematically destroyed in detail.

Enjoy this excellent episode of Tanks! The Fall of France.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Tanks
• French
• France
• German
• Panzer
• British
• Allies
• World
• War
• II
• Anti-tank
• fire
• air
• support
• Char
• B1
• S-35
• Somua

[TedShatner10]

French tanks were slightly better armed and armoured than anything the Germans had at the time, but they were built around infantry support rather than fighting other tanks. The lower quality of the recruits and few radios didn't help either.

[2bn442RCT]

Yes. The Germans were far ahead of the French with radio communication

[AlexDeLarge90]

they were actually better than the german ones in 1940

what won the war for the germans were their superior tactics

[Hippophilee]

@proulxmontpellier It's funny, yet this is just a humourist's phrase. In fact many French officers considered Gamelin was a clever bureaucrat, but not a leader for action (see De Gaulle's Memoirs, for instance). The real culprits were the politicians, who had chosen Gamelin because he was "politically reliable", instead of favouring efficiency. Weygand was a much better commander in chief, but he arrived too late.

[Hippophilee]

@road6849 French tank guns were initially short-barrels, like in 1918, in line with infantry support missions. From 1938 the French were creating autonomous armoured divisions, designed to "ram" deep into enemy lines (just what De Gaulle did with his division in May'40). Thus they were replacing short guns with longer ones, mainly to shoot at German tanks. B1bis tanks' guns were designed to pierce all German tank armours (which they did). They were just helpless against Stukas…

[road6849]

The seem to me that the french guns were smaller?Speed was another difference?

[mirkojorgovic]

Char-B1bis+Matilda2+S35+Char-d­2 in use with Soviet deep-operation theory may blocked Germans break-attacks; general Gamelin and lord Gorth both was simple out of modern-time theory , created by marshall Tukhachewskyi and general Guderian; general de Gaule knew of this, but he was not chief of generlstaff

[ThePooppantsman]

The S 35 was very well built. I like it. looks dumb but good for its time.

[proulxmontpellier]

@TedShatner10

As said a French humourist: : "In 1939, everybody already knew that General Gamelin was an ass, except the military. That's what one calls a military secret."

[Erikges]

The French Tank were clearly the best armored vehicle in the early 1940. They have design the spirit of the other modern tank for decades... unfortunately their number was only an half of the German capacities... And if Guderian have read and use the technicals described by general Degaulle in 1930, Only the Germans have use the tank as a offensive weapon, and in special division...

[PitbullNL]

@TedShatner10 well, they had radios mounted in their tanks, but they only could receive signals and not send themselves