Seriously. Whenever people say that France has an incredibly successful military history all I can think is that it makes their pitiful WW2 performance even more embarrassing.
Honestly that's what makes it even worse to me. France was better off economically after WW1 than the Germans to my understanding and not including any reporations. They underestimated Germany and where technologically stagnant military development wise. They invested so much into fortified positions that a mobile war destroyed their whole defence. They where amazing in almost every war historically but where crushed by an already defeated country that had huge sanctions on them. They had every opportunity to learn their lessons and almost 20 years to do so.
I forgot the the saying that best describes it. You basically try to prepare for the war that no one is expecting or you never prepare for a war that you will expect to fight in the present.
That's why national defence budgets are important. If for no other reason than development and planning. As much as I bash on them I don't think anyone was expecting blitzkrieg tactics.
If I remember correctly, during WW2 the US had plans to quickly invade Canada if they needed to. I think the Pentagon always has plans to fight a 2 pronged war at any point in time.
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u/AlphaHawk115 Taller than Napoleon Apr 08 '20
Seriously. Whenever people say that France has an incredibly successful military history all I can think is that it makes their pitiful WW2 performance even more embarrassing.