"We will stand defiant!" an AH France AAR
Excerpt from “Standing against the storm – France in World War 2”
After the end of World War One, then called “The Great War” France, albeit beeing part of the victorious Entente Alliance was in a bad way. Literally millions of young Frenchmen had died, and Marshal Petain, the hero of Verdun, predicted that the French Army would face s couple of ”hollow classes” with a shortfall in the annual conscription. Many also feared that the harsh peace treaty would infuraite the Germans, who were struggling to build a stable democracy and that the next war was just a matter of time, Military restrictions or not. The Treaty of Locarno, signed in 1924 eased some of the tensions. The two main signatories of the Treaty, the French Republic and Germany, promised not to attack each other ever again and to solve all troubles diplomatically. The agreement also called upon both signatories to de-mobilize even further, to have them reach a parity in numbers. This essentially meant that France would have to de-mobilize half of her standing Army, and had to rely even more onto the fortifications that were beginning to be errected along the Franco-German border. The French population greeted the treaty if not with enthusiasm then with indifference. The ordinary man ( or woman ) on the street was more concerned with the internal troubles France was facing at the time as the third Republic was riddeled with internal strife since the end of the War. The Military establishement however was not so indifferent towards this treaty. In the Spa-town of Vichy a group of Army officers met with the highest ranking ones beeing Marshal Petain and Generals Weygand and Gamelin.
They still refrained from open action, as they would be comitting high treason, but agreed to keep their options open in case things got worse. Things continued to skid around in French politics. Between 1924 and 1927 five Gouvernments came and went, but in 1927 the current Gouvernment did not fall over its internal rifts but rather an old-fashioned banking scandal. The elections held in May 1927 brought the Socialits under Len Blum into the Elyseé Palace. The new President of the Republic made his first broadcast to the nation three days later. He voved to abide to the terms of the Locarno treaty, and to start the construction of a Series of heavy fortifications on the German Border, to be named after the Civil Servant who had proposed them to his predecessor, Monsieur Maginot. This, along with the simple fact that he had open socialist tendencies, proved to be the final straw for Petains Junta, and on June 16th two Infantry Divisions, commanded by Weygand and Gamelin themselves.*
That very day Petain made a speech from Vichy:
Gamelin exploded. He immediately ordered his Division to attack, despite having left his artillery and most of his few AT weapons behind as to move faster. The 12.000 troops were not exactly enthousiastic about having to shoot at fellow Frenchmen, and many did not fight but rather go over to de Gaulles Forces. In the end few shots were exchanged, but by nightfall the standoff continued. Gamelin radioed Vichy, and Petain ordered Weygands Division to attack as well, and in the morning the real fighting began, with waves of Infantry aiming to just swanp the loyalist positions with sheer numbers. What Gamelin and Weygand did not know was that de Gaulles position was reinforces by loyalist units and Militias, and he managed to hold, helped by fanatical resistance,. low morale in Gamelins and Weygands troops and supporting attacks by the Armee de l’Air which had decleared itself for the Gouvernment. He managed to hold. When further units approached the coupists from the behind Gamelin and weygand realized that the game was up. They ordered their troops to surrender, what those gladly did, and then shot themselves to avoid the public humiliation of a Trial. In Vichy Petain tried to do the same, but was aprehended by the Gendarmerie who had taken its town back from the Military Police before he could commit suicide. He was flown to Paris, escorted by three AdA Interceptors. The June Coup was over, and the Republic was safe. Lebrun however knew that the third Republic needed to be reformed, as its constitution was a reciepe for disaster, and directed the Parliament to draft a new one. The new constitution was introduced and drafted in November 1927, only days before the process against Petain began. The third Republic was abolished and the fourth Republic took its place.
When the Process against Petain was started the former Marshal who had been stripped of his rank took up the opportunity to defend his views, denouncing the Gouvernment as “ a bunch of communist, anarchist rabble.”. That did not go down well with the young judge who had been specifically chosen for this trial and in the end Petain was sentenced to death.
Normally he would have been hanged, but in view of his past accomplishments he was shot by a firing squad from his old Regiment. When France was starting to recover from the turmoil of the coup and the new constitution things started to look up. Then in 1929 the New York Stock Exchange crashed. The following global economic depression hit France hard, leading to Lebrun beeing replaced by Paul Reynaud. Reynaud continued most of Lebruns policies, he even managed to coax scarce money out of the Finance Ministry for creating several additional Armoured Divisions. In 1935 new elections were held after Reynaud died in a plane crash.Lebrun was called out of retirement to run for the Socialist Party again, and won a decent majority in Gouvernment. He immediately reshuffeled the cabinet, amongst others promoting the rapidly advancing de Gaulle as Chief of Staff, beeing fond of the General and tasking him with “bringing the French Army into the 1930’s.” Lebrun was convinced that the next war was only a matter of time, with Hitler having taken power in Germany in 1933 and Italy invading ethopia. The facists were marching forward, yet at the same time the relations between the Entente Powers were worsening steadily, as the British were thinking that the French stance towards Germany and Italy was too aggressive and that either Hitler or Mussoline might try to find a way to use this as a Casus Belli, and London was not looking forward to beeing dragged into another war, that, for all they knew would be at least as bloody and horrible as the last one. So when 1936 rolled around France found itself in a difficult position, having to repair the economy, deal with allies that got less faithful everyday, and with a evergrowing Facist bloc. What would the future bring? Only time would tell.
* their incompetence in RL 1940 needs to be punished.
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I think you know the drill by now, but here it is again: HOI2 DDA 1.1, DAIM, SKIF, and of course the infamous personal modifications.
This is what remains of 7.5 pages, after I cut it to size. Soem of what I wrote in this one will go into the 1st chapter, upped sometime this weekend, now that I can see a light at the end of the tunnel of my school project.
Intro
Excerpt from “Standing against the storm – France in World War 2”
After the end of World War One, then called “The Great War” France, albeit beeing part of the victorious Entente Alliance was in a bad way. Literally millions of young Frenchmen had died, and Marshal Petain, the hero of Verdun, predicted that the French Army would face s couple of ”hollow classes” with a shortfall in the annual conscription. Many also feared that the harsh peace treaty would infuraite the Germans, who were struggling to build a stable democracy and that the next war was just a matter of time, Military restrictions or not. The Treaty of Locarno, signed in 1924 eased some of the tensions. The two main signatories of the Treaty, the French Republic and Germany, promised not to attack each other ever again and to solve all troubles diplomatically. The agreement also called upon both signatories to de-mobilize even further, to have them reach a parity in numbers. This essentially meant that France would have to de-mobilize half of her standing Army, and had to rely even more onto the fortifications that were beginning to be errected along the Franco-German border. The French population greeted the treaty if not with enthusiasm then with indifference. The ordinary man ( or woman ) on the street was more concerned with the internal troubles France was facing at the time as the third Republic was riddeled with internal strife since the end of the War. The Military establishement however was not so indifferent towards this treaty. In the Spa-town of Vichy a group of Army officers met with the highest ranking ones beeing Marshal Petain and Generals Weygand and Gamelin.
They still refrained from open action, as they would be comitting high treason, but agreed to keep their options open in case things got worse. Things continued to skid around in French politics. Between 1924 and 1927 five Gouvernments came and went, but in 1927 the current Gouvernment did not fall over its internal rifts but rather an old-fashioned banking scandal. The elections held in May 1927 brought the Socialits under Len Blum into the Elyseé Palace. The new President of the Republic made his first broadcast to the nation three days later. He voved to abide to the terms of the Locarno treaty, and to start the construction of a Series of heavy fortifications on the German Border, to be named after the Civil Servant who had proposed them to his predecessor, Monsieur Maginot. This, along with the simple fact that he had open socialist tendencies, proved to be the final straw for Petains Junta, and on June 16th two Infantry Divisions, commanded by Weygand and Gamelin themselves.*
That very day Petain made a speech from Vichy:
The Gouvernment, allthough backed by most of the Army and the other services, along with most of the population which was rallying behind their rightful leaders, had no forces in the area, as the two Divisions were approached from the west, across the Marne, incidentally taking just about the same routes the German troops had been taking in 1914 rather than from the south, the direction of Vichy, from where everyone was expecting this move. It seemed that the third republic was to die, when, on June 18th, what was later called “the 2nd mircale of the marne” occurred. A regiment of tanks, commanded by one Colonel de Gaulle, interposed themselves on the two Bridges Gamelins Division needed to take to get to Paris. Gamelin was fourious and ordered the Colonel to move his tanks away, but the Colonel refused.Petains Speech said:
Gamelin exploded. He immediately ordered his Division to attack, despite having left his artillery and most of his few AT weapons behind as to move faster. The 12.000 troops were not exactly enthousiastic about having to shoot at fellow Frenchmen, and many did not fight but rather go over to de Gaulles Forces. In the end few shots were exchanged, but by nightfall the standoff continued. Gamelin radioed Vichy, and Petain ordered Weygands Division to attack as well, and in the morning the real fighting began, with waves of Infantry aiming to just swanp the loyalist positions with sheer numbers. What Gamelin and Weygand did not know was that de Gaulles position was reinforces by loyalist units and Militias, and he managed to hold, helped by fanatical resistance,. low morale in Gamelins and Weygands troops and supporting attacks by the Armee de l’Air which had decleared itself for the Gouvernment. He managed to hold. When further units approached the coupists from the behind Gamelin and weygand realized that the game was up. They ordered their troops to surrender, what those gladly did, and then shot themselves to avoid the public humiliation of a Trial. In Vichy Petain tried to do the same, but was aprehended by the Gendarmerie who had taken its town back from the Military Police before he could commit suicide. He was flown to Paris, escorted by three AdA Interceptors. The June Coup was over, and the Republic was safe. Lebrun however knew that the third Republic needed to be reformed, as its constitution was a reciepe for disaster, and directed the Parliament to draft a new one. The new constitution was introduced and drafted in November 1927, only days before the process against Petain began. The third Republic was abolished and the fourth Republic took its place.
When the Process against Petain was started the former Marshal who had been stripped of his rank took up the opportunity to defend his views, denouncing the Gouvernment as “ a bunch of communist, anarchist rabble.”. That did not go down well with the young judge who had been specifically chosen for this trial and in the end Petain was sentenced to death.
Normally he would have been hanged, but in view of his past accomplishments he was shot by a firing squad from his old Regiment. When France was starting to recover from the turmoil of the coup and the new constitution things started to look up. Then in 1929 the New York Stock Exchange crashed. The following global economic depression hit France hard, leading to Lebrun beeing replaced by Paul Reynaud. Reynaud continued most of Lebruns policies, he even managed to coax scarce money out of the Finance Ministry for creating several additional Armoured Divisions. In 1935 new elections were held after Reynaud died in a plane crash.Lebrun was called out of retirement to run for the Socialist Party again, and won a decent majority in Gouvernment. He immediately reshuffeled the cabinet, amongst others promoting the rapidly advancing de Gaulle as Chief of Staff, beeing fond of the General and tasking him with “bringing the French Army into the 1930’s.” Lebrun was convinced that the next war was only a matter of time, with Hitler having taken power in Germany in 1933 and Italy invading ethopia. The facists were marching forward, yet at the same time the relations between the Entente Powers were worsening steadily, as the British were thinking that the French stance towards Germany and Italy was too aggressive and that either Hitler or Mussoline might try to find a way to use this as a Casus Belli, and London was not looking forward to beeing dragged into another war, that, for all they knew would be at least as bloody and horrible as the last one. So when 1936 rolled around France found itself in a difficult position, having to repair the economy, deal with allies that got less faithful everyday, and with a evergrowing Facist bloc. What would the future bring? Only time would tell.
* their incompetence in RL 1940 needs to be punished.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
I think you know the drill by now, but here it is again: HOI2 DDA 1.1, DAIM, SKIF, and of course the infamous personal modifications.
This is what remains of 7.5 pages, after I cut it to size. Soem of what I wrote in this one will go into the 1st chapter, upped sometime this weekend, now that I can see a light at the end of the tunnel of my school project.
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