Congratulations to Mr. Prewitt. It should be noted, however, that France’s highest order of merit is called the Legion of Honour (Légion d’honneur), not the Legion of Armour, and also that France doesn’t actually have knighthoods in the same sense as Britain does. “Chevalier” (knight) is indeed one of the Legion of Honour’s five levels, and the name is a holdover from the days when France still had an aristocracy, but the French nobility system went out the window with the French Revolution. I once saw a series of amusing cartoons depicting what life in France would be like today if the Bourbon monarchy hadn’t fallen, and one of them showed an irate air traveler standing at the ticket counter of “Royal Air France” and telling the ticket agent “But I’m a baron and I have a confirmed reservation!” The agent replies, “I’m sorry, sir, but the Duke of So-and-so has precedence over you, so we gave him your seat.” In fairness, the same sort of thing actually happens in real-life republican France. A few years ago, there was scandal involving one of the major D-Day anniversaries (I think it was the 50th one), when the French government contacted various hotels in Normany and appropriated some of their existing reservations so that various French officials could have rooms for the event. Some of those rooms, however, had been reserved by foreign veterans of the D-Day invasion. When the story broke on the front page of French newspapers (under such headlines as “Our Liberators Insulted!”), public opinion was outraged and the French government beat a hasty retreat. The prevailing editorial opinion over this affair was: Do this to our own citizens if you want, but don’t do this to the heroes who ended the occupation of France.
French divisions mobilized in 1939
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There’s a little “dilemma” that I’ve had for a while:
In the book If the Allies Had Fallen: Sixty Alternate Scenarios of World War 2, in chapter 2 scenario C (scenario was “What if the French launched an all-out attack to help the Poles?”), written by John K Munholland (who died 4 years ago), it is stated that on September 10 the French mobilized 110 divisions of all types. Because it was talking about an offensive against Germany in 1939 and noted some divisions would be required to garrison Africa and the border with Italy, it is safe to assume that it includes forces in these areas. 85 divisions were said to be on the German border, or capable of moving there.
Now here’s the thing. Wikipedia has a list of French divisions in World War 2, listing the mobilization dates of each unit. By counting, I turned up only 70-80 divisions. I bought George F Nafziger’s book French Army Order of Battle 1939-1945 to try to clarify, and I turned up a similar number (71 by September 5, and probably only 5-10 more over the next 5 days).
A 30-40 division gap is definitely odd and quite huge, and I haven’t found a solution in the 1-2 years since I first discovered this.
Do you know anyone or any sources that would help clarify this confusion? Thank you!New developments:
- I found testimony from Alfred Jodl mentioning “110 British and French divisions” facing the Germans. They were talking about the same time period. It’s exactly the same, but it’s something to consider.
- I found a citation for the book “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich”, mentioning a higher number, but I couldn’t find the number in the book (I’m sure it’s the same one).
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@SuperbattleshipYamato I really doubt that the Frencj could field 100 Divisions in 1939.
I would accept the lower figure of 71 as correct.
That said , they really should have pushed into Western Germany, whilst the majority of Germany’s forces were in the East.
Counting and researching Divisions: Great way to spend your free time! -
Thank you so much! I appreciate your input.
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