 |
| Vichy France (Light Blue) |
The French had a bloodless military coup and surrendered in 1940. Once the French had surrendered the senior generals formed a government that was sanctioned by the National Assembly and seated at Vichy.
"The commander in chief of the French forces, Pétain, happily collaborated with the German occupation to a high degree. Vichy forces refused to surrender or save the fleet at Mers-el-Kebir for the Allies, put up a staunch resistance to British forces in Syria and Algerian landings, and out of a force of 48,000 men, only a few thousand decided to join Free French after the Lebanon campaign (the rest choosing German-occupied France as a destination). After the landing of the Allied forces in North Africa on 8 November 1942, Hitler ordered the occupation of France's free zone. The Vichy leaders collaborated as far as ordering the French police and the local milice (militiamen) to go on raids to capture Jews and other minorities considered "undesirables" by Germany." (See Wikipedia article on Vichy France.
However, it is not the French actions against the Allies in North Africa or even the pro-Japanese actions in Madagascar that are of great importance. It is the pro-Japanese stance of French Indo-China that was most disastrous. The Vichy French invited the Japanese into French Indo-China (modern day Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam),signing an accord with the Japanese on September 22nd 1940. The Japanese took excessive advantage of these accords and the Vichy forces came into conflict with the Japanese for a few days. On September 27th the Japanese entered into alliance with the Axis and were allowed full access to French Indochina. The French provisioned the Japanese forces and provided full access to ports and airfields in preparation for the Japanese attack on Singapore in 1942 and on British controlled territories. The French continued to administer Indo-China as an Axis power until 1945. It was this French alliance with the Japanese that led to the fall of Thailand, Malaya and Burma. The British forces were caught in an impossible situation and had to re-group in present day Bangladesh.
The Japanese stronghold in French Indo-China also allowed them to thrust towards Australia through the Solomon Islands and on to Papua New Guinea.
What makes me sick about this French treachery is that it is forgotten. Certainly the French needed to be humoured during the Cold War but now there is no excuse for forgetting. The effects of this treachery are still used to denigrate the British. The Malaysians joke that the British ran from the Japanese and the Americans treat the British stand in SE Asia as incompetent. The truth was that an ally switched sides and provisioned and aided a barbaric enemy at huge cost to the allied cause.
The British administration even advised the British in SE Asia to 'stay put' during the Japanese advance because the French had got on so well with them and they did not appear to be barbarians. Thousands of Allied men women and children died as a result.
Both the Malaysians and the Americans forget that when the tide of the SE Asian battle turned in 1944 the Anglo-Indian forces inflicted a series of devastating defeats on the Japanese who lost their entire SE Asian army. This military defeat was accomplished with relatively low allied losses and, apart from the atomic bombs at the end of the war, was the most decisive operation against the Japanese in the Second World War.
It is interesting that the two terrible defeats that almost lost the Second World War for the British were Dunkirk and Singapore and both of these defeats were heavily influenced by French treachery. It is only from history that we can learn how to cope with the future...
See:
Note 1: Dunkirk It is well known that Dunkirk was the result of the first stage in a soft coup by Nazi sympathisers in France. There was remarkable discord in the French forces prior to Dunkirk with 20 senior officers being dismissed by Gamelin, the French Supreme Commander in early 1940. In May 1940 Gamelin was replaced by Maxime Weygand as Supreme Commander of the French army. He was a Nazi sympathiser:
"Weygand arrived on 17 May and started by cancelling the flank counter-offensive ordered by Gamelin, to cut off the enemy armoured columns which had punched through the French front at the Ardennes" Wikipedia
He did this despite clear information from British Intelligence (and French Intelligence) that there was a huge German army about to push through the Ardennes and an ongoing invasion in that sector. Dunkirk (26th May- 4th June 1940) became inevitable within a week of the withdrawal. The French signed an armistice with Germany on 22nd June.
It might be argued that Weygand was "not really" a Nazi sympathiser but within months of being appointed Minister of Defence (16th June 1940) in what was to become the first Vichy government he set up concentration camps in North Africa for Jews, Freemasons, Gaullists and Communists.
Don't believe this? Try reading this US report about the French administration in 1940: The Ambassador in France ( Bullitt ) to the Secretary of State
Written 2/4/2011
Threats and friends of the English
Comments