The problem with invading France through Switzerland is the fact that the Swiss are blood-spitting madmen when defending their homeland. The proto-Swiss tribes saw off Hannibal and made him choose a much more arduous path through the Alps. In 1914 the Kaiser reportedly asked a Swiss diplomatic delegation what their small 250,000 man militia army would do if he invaded with a half million Germans, the Swiss replied "shoot twice and go home."
I took the suggestion of invading through Switzerland as more of a joke; that the suggestion is actually a trap in disguise. Everybody knows that you don't mess with the Swiss; the whole bloody country is a damn fortress, has huge personnel reserves, and is armed out the whazoo. While I don't play, I heard there's a joke in the Fallout lore that, while the rest of the world has been thrashed in thermonuclear war, Switzerland remains pristine and untouched, minding its own business.
Im German and I suggest next time we go through Austria and Italy and enter France through Nice. Cons: trusting in Italian ... anything Pros: Nobody sees it coming The weather is fantastic. Of course this is totally not a plan designed so that I desert along the way and get my ass towards Piemont to marinade myself in wine.
5:44 Correction the German empire of 1871 was considered the second Empire after the holy roman empire under german rule. Leading the Nazis to call themselves the third.
It is open to debate the Nazi's changed who they considered the previous reichs it depending on their mood and exactly who was doing the talking. At various times they included the Western Roman Empire, the Carolingian Empire, the HRE, the German Empire, the Weimar Republic and a mythical unnamed Aryan empire, as the previous reichs.
@@wurzel9671 I always thought so too, but I probably misunderstood the Holy Roman Empire when I first looked up what the 1st, 2nd and 3d Reich were. It's often described as a continuation of or heir to Rome but that requires a lot of poetic license. Hitler would certainly not have seen Germany from 1871 to 1945 as a single empire. The German empire of 1871 to 1918 was based on the Prussian royal line. It was officially dissolved with Wilhelm II's abdication in 1918. Hitler blamed Wilhelm II for the defeat and held him in contempt, calling him an idiot. It was very much to Hitler's political advantage to make a clear distinction between the failed 1871 2nd reich and the Nazi 3d reich.
@@wurzel9671 Nein, the Romans did not speak German. The first German 'Reich' (as opposed to 'Imperium') was the 'Holy Roman Empire' founded by the Franks, then the German Empire under the first Kaiser Wilhelm, then the- you know the rest.
@@HardThrasher any sort of invasion attempt of switzerland would go spectacularly badly.. you'd be going up against a very angry little country of very well trained soldiers with excellent natural terrain defenses, a metric fuckton of explosives already set in inconvenient locations, prettty much every bloke of fighting age having a rifle and the knowledge to use it with the thick end of a billion rounds of ammunition and said rifles squirrelled away in innumerable caves, wine cellars and henhouses..
@@tech4pros1Not so. Terrain is far less important in an era of mechanization and air power, and no matter how many riflemen-partisans you have hidden through the country, it will always be less combat power than a single division of infantry. Pacifying Switzerland might be time-consuming or costly, perhaps even both. But any of the large continental powers could have done so with little real effort.
Reading Shirer's 'Collapse of the Third Republic.' I learned that the French army had NO contingency planning in place when the Germans marched into the Rhineland in '36. And, for an example in 1940; when a fortification was under dive-bombing attack, having managed to reach the airforce (by telephone) to request aid...they were told a patrol might be sent the next day.
The Swiss own the high ground. Literally, the really, really high ground. Tough to fight uphill, both ways, and in the snow. Their long-standing position of neutrality is the manifestation of “don’t start no trouble, won’t be no trouble!”
The reason for the Belgian border not having "real" fortifications (at least the reason I was taught in school) was that Belgium was originally our ally. So the strategy was to use the Maginot line to force Germany into Belgium where the best units of French army would be waiting for them. Defenses along Belgian border would not only be useless but an insult to our Belgian allies. Belgium then declared itself neutral.
I love Belgium, but it is flat, makes excellent beer and choclate, and is basically indefensible. Maginot really should've known this is the way the Germans will come. Again.
@@HardThrasher you're going to have a busy morning if you try to reply to all of lazerpig subs' pedantry. But yeah, he did expect the Germans to come through Belgium. There was already a defense line along some river I don't remember and, again, the best French units. When Belgium declared itself neutral, not only did all French troops had to leave Belgium, but even the Belgian army had to put half of its army along the French border even though there was no threat, just to give the illusion of true neutrality.
@@HardThrasher There was a world class fortified line between on the border to Germany in Belgium... centered around the strongest fortification in the world at that time - Fort Eben Emael. The Germans took care of that in the first 24h of the offensive by landing paratroopers on top, compromising the whole defense line. They even build a full scale replica of the fort in southern Germany to train for that assault.
@@HardThrasher After Germany was allowed to take both Austria and Czeckoslovakia without issue, Belgium lost confidence in Britain's and France's ability to protect it, so it instead decided to declare neutrality upon the begining of the war. The entire reason for building the Maginot Line wasn't to defend France, it was to force Germany to invade Belgium so they could force their enemy to fight in the trenches a second time, since the last time it worked, while also keeping the fighting out of France proper, and the plan nearly worked. But due to Belgian going back on the alliance, the taking of Fort Eban-Emael, and the German speed allowed them to bypass the first defensive line, but, a second defensive line would be created that could've easily held off the Germans. But the invasion of the Netherlands lead the French to send their reserves that were located in the Belgian Ardenes to fight to protect the Dutch, who would be defeated before the French forces arrived, which undermined the second defensive line, where they then retreated to the third line, which also could've been defended easily. Then the French thought that the German assault through the Ardenes was to attack South towards France to circumvent the heavily fortified and forested French portion of the Ardenes, sending their forces to the south, when instead Germany moved forward to the West, to outflank the forces in Belgium, which allowed the Germans to move through the Ardenes without a fight. But still, the French were able to still blunt the assault, and due to logistics they thought that the German armoured divisions would be ordered to stop and wait for infantry and fuel, and they also didn't know if the Germans were going to fight them in Belgium or going for Paris, so they decided to defend at the most forward position, the Oise river. They were right, the German high command ordered their tank commanders to halt, the tank commanders simply refused, and so drove forward and defeated the French infrantry and tanks while they were still spread out and assembling. Creating a hole, and with the the destruction of the tanks it would mean that they weren't able to encircle the German tanks while they cut off from their infantry and forced to stop due to lack of fuel, essentially sitting ducks, which meant the Germans were able to consolidate, and drive to the coast due to the hole in the line between the third defensive line in Belgium and the French forces on the French side of the Ardenes. The German attack through the Ardenes was so ingenius not because the Germans used it to attack France, which was heavily fortified and expecting it, but to attack the French forces in Belgium, cutting them off, and then driving along the coast to encircle the rest of the French forces. The French were so close to forcing the Germans to fight a years long slog through Belgium, but due to a combination of factors, being Belgium and French mistakes, German early war genius, and pure luck, the Germans used the French plan to defeat their army in detail through maneuvre.
I personally find the French army to be a victim of tragic overlearning. In 1871 they were cautious and that didn't work out, so in 1914 they were all hands on the offensive (this is little known, because it failed miserably, but two French armies did try to smash the German center in the Ardennes at the opening of WW1). They even developed a way of thinking called elan vital, which said: if we believe hard enough that we can just sprint faster than Germans get their machine guns ready, we will sprint faster than the Germans get their machine guns ready. Then they were all slaughtered. And so in 1940 french want to attack the Germans, but they just remember what happened the last time and how their untimed offensive almost cost them Paris and how they could not advance through Ardennes and thought: well, maybe Ardennes truly is impossible to cross and maybe we are truly better off defending while trying to muster enough strength to sweep the germans like during a great Foch offensive of 1918.
The French suffer from the unique predicament of getting all the right lessons from the last war, and then applying logic. Sadly, those things seldom matter in war. But if you look at their thought process, it all makes sense. Too much sense to ever work, sadly.
@@MaticTheProto to keep a long reply short, I'm just gonna be really superficial. Napoleonic wars, Italian wars, and Crimean war, the spirit of elan and all out attack brings the French glorious victories. Then they look at this gun thingy they've been carrying around and think "hmm, maybe I can use this as something other than a really loud spear". Cue the chassepot rifle and the position magnifique. Franco Prussian war and we loose Paris. Well THAT didn't work. You know what worked? Loud spears. Back to the get em plan. Cue WW1. Loose almost a million men in a month and almost loose Paris AGAIN. Nope nope definitely not working. Bank to the position magnifique (this time trenches) okay that kinda worked, let's keep doing that wait what the hell are these panzers doing behind me... Merde...
re: Maginot from the Belgian perspective. The French wanted to do a rerun of World War One with Belgium playing the role of no-man's-land and the entire Belgian population acting as the world's squishiest barbed wire. It was a stupid plan and a very bad deal for Europe's least defensible country.
The bits that often missed with the Maginot line is the big political falling out between Belgium and France after it was built. The whole point was to funnel Germany through Belgium where combined French and Belgian forces would meet them. The massive political falling out meant that part of the plan never materialised after Franco-Belgian relations broke down in the mid 1930's, and at some point french high command just convinced itself that Germany wouldn't be mad enough to go through the Ardennes anyway (to the point where commanders on the ground ignored reports that Germany was doing exactly that when the first Panzer divisions were rolling through the Forrest and could have blunted the entire German offensive with about 4 artillery pieces)
Sedans was defended and fortified, the initial German assault over river was mostly destroyed - it just turned out that after a heavy air raid the defenders fled from German tanks in the night. There were no tanks yet lol, it was probably their own artillery tractors moving around. So two French divisions that had effectively defeated the German attack just fucking ran away and the enemy crossed unopposed. The powerful French armoured reserves were not only hampered by the many thousands of cowards clogging the roads, but also just decided not to counterattack. Because? It'd be uncharitable to suggest many French officers were fucking fascists and traitors who kinda dug Hitler's whole vibe, and that many rank and file French soldiers were Stalinist bootlickers who blamed liberals for the war, but it wouldn't be wrong...
It is worth noting that in the 1870s and 1880s, gasoline engines were not as powerful as electric motors, and many very early cars used batteries. This changed as gasoline and lubricating oil became more readily available, and motors more powerful.
Just remember, the principal design specification for the Citroen 2CV was that it should be able to carry a basket of eggs over a ploughed field without breaking any. Such is the brilliance of its design! I wonder if the successful French occupation of the Isle of Wight is the reason why the UK is now a net exporter of garlic to...... Ooh La La!
Service may be intermittent depending on workload and my magpie-like approach to history e.g. I am currently trying to research something on strategic bombing, which is epic, and keep getting my head turned by navy stuff from the 1700s :)
This is the first time I have ever borne witness to a channel's subscriber count go high and higher in real time.... Here's to hoping it gets much higher, you deserve it mate 🥂🥂🥂
If you were being really uncharitable you could also mention how one of the most effective and respected parts of the French military had by law no Frenchmen in it. Despite at various times there being a suspiciously large number of “Belgians” and “Andorrans” in the foreign legion.
The Germans and the French used the same invasion plan in 4 wars. Neither of the parties ever figured out why it didn't work. That's ok; Clausewitz is still my hero. "Never attack a fortified position uphill."
You missed King Louis and his Admiral Eustace the Monk who had most of England in 1216, until Bad King John died and his 9 year old son Henry III rapidly defeated the French and Louis wound up signing a piece of paper saying he'd never really been king of England.
@@HardThrasher I think I was taught about John signing Magna Carta when I was a kid. I can understand the school skipping the rapey bits as age inappropriate, but it was his losing the crown jewels in the Wash that brought my adult attention back. Hope you find him interesting, I'd definitely watch an episode of yours on the real reason why John was a bad king.
@@HardThrasher it was the way a 9 year old surpassed him that I found interesting. Though in truth if I'd been one of the Barons offered a place on the regency council in return for switching sides I could see the temptation.
Charles Louis Napoleon Bonaparte is known in France as Napoleon the Third (Napoleon "would have been the Second" having reigned for a single day after his father's first abdication in 1814. He was 3 years old at the time).
They also made the Citroën DS. in 1955, when we were still tooling about in the Austin Cambridge, (not dissing the Aus Camb, but the DS was Thunderbirds by comparison)
I know it's a humorous rant, but in 1914 nobodies' infantry had helmets. All the pickelhaube did was allow leather to enter your headwound along with the shrapnel(although the spike did make it possible to start digging a hole).
Ah yes, the 2CV. What the beetle would have been had it been designed by someone with a brain and some flair. Yes I know, that is a compliment to French engineering from a Brit, they're smart lads. Last time we worked together we got Concorde, and that was awesome.
@@rat_king- I mean, it beats drowning in shit, which your government seems determined to inflict on the UK. Come to think of it, maybe you should use your Chunnel trick on yourselves, flush the toilet as it were...
I think i have spotted an error. Britain did not have help from Denmark-Norway. The English actually attacked Denmark, stole half their fleet, and burned the other half. So Denmark sided with Napoleon. So when Sweden helped defeat Napoleon, Norway went to Sweden. Did you perhaps mean Sweden instead of Denmark?
Other way round, we burnt their fleet and bombarded their capital because they were going to join Napoleon's COntinental system. They, weirdly, saw things our way once we had kicked the shit out of them and joined whichever coalition it was that finally booted Boney out. Of course pretty much everyone, except Britain, changed sides at least once during the whole shit-show, so there were absolutley periods when Denmark was against the UK. Sweden had beef with Russia which I think kept them at least neutral most of the time, except at the very end
@@HardThrasher makes sense that it was more complicated. Seems that once Napoleon got his ass kicked in Russia, the danish king suddenly wanted to switch side. Strange that. Anyway the Swedish king (former general in Napoleon's army) was already promised Norway, so Denmark had to give it up to be allowed to join the winning side. For some reason he did not see give away Norway to join in victory, as a great victory. Strange that... So Denmark continued on Napoleon's side and still had to give away Norway. Almost feel bad for Denmark (dont tell other Norwegians). Before all this France/Napoleon and Russia bulied Denmark into declaring war on sweden. Napoleon apperantly did threaten at ocations to take his army and attack denmark a few times, to keep Denmark an ally. Probably a real threat since he ended up invading russia, his old buddy. And then one of his other buddies became king if sweden and kicked him when he was down retreating back from russia. All in all, except from the starvation, loss of trade with our greatest shopping friend Britain, and eating bread with bark for a while, it sort of ended pretty well for us in Norway. ...TLDR; the world is too complicated and ironic for me to be 100% right about you making a mistake, so i guess you win this time! (But i still think sweden would be more correct in the list)
@@HardThrasher a funny piece of trivia: just a few years ago, the Danish Ministry of Defence got a call from a forestry department. Their trees were now ready for delivery, you see. The oak trees that were planted to rebuild the fleet we'd lost... It was all a bit of a joke, of course, but it did make national news. Anyway, since Brexit and you guys deciding that you apparently don't like us anymore, I did wonder when it might be appropriate to take one of the historical reconstruction Viking ships we've got laying around, load it up with explosives, sail it up the Thames and do to Parliament what Guy Fawkes failed to do - you know, just for old times' sake 😘
About the car thing... I think Richard Trevithick might have something to say about that considering the he managed a Steam powered car in 1801... as in before he invented the steam engine, he did car. Mind you it did get left in a ditch like it was driven there by a spotty teenager in a stolen Nova and it promptly exploded when left to boil dry because the team manning the thing buggered off to the pub... but still....
@@HardThrasher i mean in fairness no one else was mad enough to attempt the feat again for nearly 80 years so it was obviously a stunning success from a pioneer that next to no one has heard of (save for weirdos who watched Discovery motors when it was actually good... *whistles tunelessly whilst staring at feet*)
Before that Cugnot made a three-wheeled steam-powered car that he immediately crashed against a wall, so the first car (and the first car crash) remain an originally French invention. The boiler and the engine were over the front wheel. The turning was made using the front wheel. It had no brakes. You can see how it ended the way it did.
Somewhat to my horror, it has been pointed out that whilst there have been 17 Louis, there have also been at least 10 Charles on the French throne so actually it didn't help much. We should've called him Bob
OP this is an excellent explanation of European politics pre WW1 and speaks volumes about why the Germans thought the way they did during two world wars later. Germany is surrounded by enemies on all sides and always has been: from the French and British to the west, to the Russians and Poles to the east, and even to the Balkans in the south, every single neighboring country has been an aggressor at least once during the last 300 years. Not even the Russians have it as bad as Germany in this respect, at least they have millions of square km to retreat into if necessary. The Germans have nothing but the army to rely on.
wasn't the whole point of the maginot line to force the germans into belgium where you can fight the germans away from your industry, pick up allies. It would have worked if the belgians had continued to allow french troops to remain in belgium after 1936. The dyle plan was a thing idk why everyone forgets that...
@@HardThrasher i get my idea from this video wikipedia article en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_war_planning_1920%E2%80%931940 as wel as this video czcams.com/video/-XVHYg6gvWU/video.html. You could be right but is just seems to insane for me that the french would be as ignorant as many seem to imply. There is also this talk witch helps explain why the french did not think the germans would come trough the Ardennes czcams.com/video/yWwLcykedcs/video.html
No, the original intent of the maginot line was to slow the Germans so France could get ready. Then after they spent so much money on it the politicians decided they had to say it was impregnable or risk another revolution.
@@PeanutPotSauceyes, and at the time, they were allied with Belgium so they could fight the Germans together outside France, but then when Belgium saw everyone appease Austria and Czechia away to Hitler, Belgium declared neutrality meaning the French army had to wait outside Belgium until Germany crossed the border.
@@HardThrasher The Swiss have become so rich due to the European wars, that nobody arrives in France, since everyone bought and France have to pay for decades. ;-)
I know it's traditional to take the piss out of France for always bravely running away, but we should never forget the absolutely insane amount of bravery shown by her soldiers in 1914. Obeying orders and foot-charging into a level of machine gun and heavy artillery fire the world had never seen, while being about as well camouflaged as a peacock during a mating dance. Didn't even get combat helmets until the middle of 1915. "Off you go lads, just run over there and poke a few of le boche with your bayonets, but do watch out for the angry bees". Incroyable.
Using the suction effect behind a speeding coach, in a 2CV, I was, for about 20mls, dragged up the A1, as this was a left hand drive machine and it was in the days before coaches and trucks had limiters, doing 70 under a cars length, behind the arse of a coach, with no forward view was a bit stupid. The fun stopped when a refuel of the 4 gallon tank came up. If we had the garage to keep it in, Boss, she would sanction the purchase of a restored 2CV.
France actually had the better infantry rifle in the Franco-Prussian war. Prussia's better tactics and logistics largely allowed them to outmaneuver the French and negate the advantage the better rifles provided.
Joke time. Why do the French have so many roads lined with trees? So that invading Germans will have some shade. When is the best time to invade? At midday as the army won't be back from lunch for a good two hours. Disclaimer: I lived in France for 15 years and love the French. But not as much as I like a good joke.
A bit of conflation between "Britain" and "England" there in discussion of pre-Napoleonic conflicts between England and France Scotland was allied with France against England from 1295 and never formally revoked Ireland often was also more on France's side
Ishhh - from 1640 odd Sctolamnd was majority Protestant, and of course prior to that James VI of Sctoland was James I of England - which confuses things no end as subsequent Scottish uprisings were almost all in his name. Of course you can make the argument that Althestan held England & Scotland after he defeated Malcom so it's....fucking messy and that's before we bring Ireland into things....
@@HardThrasher @HardThrasher if we look post Norman Conquest, William the Lion bought all obligation to England off by the simple expedient of giving Richard Coeur de Lion money So the "1000 years of British war with France" gets a sniff from this side of the border Otherwise, excellent, informative and entertaining video I am glad you are taking the time and making the effort in creating them
18:38 : Well actually they did, which makes it much worse. During the night of 11th May a Potez 637 of the II/33 squadron of the French Airforce spotted a huge convoy of tanks an trucks going through the Ardennes towards Sedan. They were just driving with their headlights on...The general staff declared it impossible and a SECOND reconnaissance mission was sent in the morning of 12th May for confirmation. That one clearly spotted at least one panzer division thundering through the Ardennes towards Sedan and Givet. Lieutenant Chéry commanding the mission declared on his word of honour what he had seen; the reply of the general staff: you've probably seen a few scouts on motorcycles...
The original intent of the maginot line was as a delaying obstacle to give France the time to fully mobilize. BUT after spending millions on it the politicians decided the had to say it was impenetrable or be voted out....... or face another revolution. And everyone believed them. It was in fact peircer in 2 places After dunkurk.
All I can add is a distant relative of mine a Colonel Fitzmaurice-Kelly of the Indian army was killed when General French deployed units of the Indian army in late 1914.
ex-bally-cuse me Sir!!! As an born and inbred Isle of Wighter I object strenuosly!! Those damn Frogs didnt take the Island, we saw them oueff with thier fromage between there legs. otherwise jolly good video sir, keep it up
Re the last point about invading thru Schwitzerland, there is video on Yt about Swiss history ending with their efforts to stay neutral in WW 2. It wasn't just a paper statement. They worked on all fronts to keep the warring parties out, defending against both the Luftwaffe as well as Allied aircraft.
@@HardThrasher Specifically I refer to The Armchair Historian's 'WW 2 form the Swiss perspective'. A lot of information that I knew nothing about, and I thought I'm well-versed in history. Just goes to show.
Had to watch this again . Was chatting to an ol mate who was ex royal engineers, and they did an exercise with a French army unit. And concluded that with the French tri colour flag the blue and the red was on Velcro so they could peel those bits off when wanting to surrender they then just had to wave the white bit ..
If folks haven't already, it's worth having a read of "The Blitzkrieg Legend" by Frieser. The book is about 1940, but includes a pithy critique of 1914: the Germans chased a massive strategic victory by wheeling through Belgium - which resulted in the political failure of drawing Britain into the war and the military failure at the Marne. INSTEAD they should have focused on an "operational" opportunity to destroy 2 or 3 French armies desperate to attack along the Ardennes/Alsace/Lorraine fronts. As it was, the Germans almost succeeded in this latter sector by accident: The Battles of the Frontiers were a disaster for the French. The Germans COULD have played on the French need to recapture Alsace-Lorraine, lure a couple of armies into the provinces by fake retreats and destroy them with strong flank attacks. Destroying 2 of 5 French armies would open a gaping hole in the French line and may be a major step in eliminating France from the war. Meanwhile, Britain would have to agonise over whether to get involved when Belgian neutrality wasn't violated.
It....it was an experience. If you hit the indicator too hard it fell off, if you went round the corner you had to lean like a side car and if the hill was too steep you had to kick the passengers out to climb it. It was a soft top. So it was like being in a leaky tent too
29 horsepower? The motorcycle I learned how to ride on, a 1993 Honda XR250L street legal dual-sport, had a 249cc air cooled single cylinder engine that made 30 horsepower.
I didn't catch the adjective, probably German that sounds like "sparkling" in Hardthrasher's interesting summation at 13:10: "Blitzkrieg is just a fancy name for [sparkling??] Schwerpunkt". Can anyone enlighten me what the word is? Also, though it is honorable to acknowledge Clausewitz's crucial insights, are we to understand he emphasized the multiplicative effect of combined arms? This component of Blitzkrieg is separate from the concepts of concentrated forces and center of gravity.
Sparkling is right - it's a reference to Sparkling White Wine isn't Champagne unless it's from the Champagne region of France. Clausterwitz and any other General would've used tanks and aircraft had they had them, the principle is exactly the same
@@HardThrasher Thank you the response and the interesting videos. I am perfectly happy to watch dry scholarly youtubes, but the character voice you use especially in the battle of Britain videos no doubt brings such historical information to a much broader audience. Bravo for your efforts and skill in this regard.
The problem with the Schlieffen Plan was that Field Marshal Alfred von Schlieffen assumed that the infantry could march the same distance every day and took no account of exhaustion suffer by men or horses. So whereas his timetable had laid out how far they would travel each day and how long it would take to march around Paris the reality was that before they got to Paris they were in no fit state to carry out the rest of the plan. The Battle of the Bulge, also known as the Ardennes Offensive, was almost a carbon copy of the German Spring Offensive of 1918, even down to using troops from the Eastern Front. In both cases the Germans who had fought in Russia were used to fighting in the open plains which was totally different to the landscape of the west, So where they expected sweeping attach through open country they had to fight through the hills and valleys of France.
i was a passenger in a 2CV once, and Only Once. The Specification was apparently to be able to drive accross a ploughed field, containing 4 Farmers who carried trays of eggs, without break
Actually, germans were supposed to march through the lowland belgium upper north, not the ardennes. That's where the french armored cores were waiting. But a german officer crashed in belgium with maps of the invasion so they had to change the plans in a hurry, so that's where Guderian with his crazy plan came in, the rest is history
you forgot frances most important neighbor, the brave and mighty mountain folk of Andorra, oft forgotten by all including france when it isn't their turn to rule the country
Correct me if I’m wrong but … I always thought the FIRST Reich was the Holy Roman Empire (which almost always had a German as titular head). Bismarck’s creation was the 2nd Reich, and our mustache wearing friend built the THIRD.
Many years ago my sister had a 2CV and we jokes that people shouldn't get in one if they were prone to getting seasick, hit the brakes too hard and the whole body rocked.
Friend of mine had one. At one point we were driving on the Autobahn (zut allors!) on the way back from a concert (Dire Straits). I still have no idea how fast we were going, since the needle of the horizontal odometer had gone so far towards the right that it had disappeared.
And then in 1944 the Germans went through the Ardennes again. They failed, but not for a lack of surprise. It's like the German version of General Melchet "We will catch the watchfull frogs totally off guard. Doing precisely what did 18 times before is the last thing they'll expect us to do this time."
FYI, France actually intended the Maginot Line to extend to cover the Belgian frontier... ...but since at the time of beginning construction, Belgium was France's ally...Belgium demanded that France actually defend Belgium, and building a defense line that essentially gave up Belgium as lost was unacceptable to Belgium. France, for the sake of that alliance, didn't extend the defenses. Belgium then declared strict neutrality when Germany militarized the Rhineland...and then begged for help when Germany invaded in 1940.
Look we can discuss how to invade France but we all know the Germans perfected it quite well. France isnt hard to invade, but they are rather recalcitrant in staying down. They are the French after all. They are an enigma....
You left out the infamous "Emser Dispatch", a messge fro the Kaiser to Nappy III which Bismarck tweaked to make it unacceptable to France, thus prompting the declaration of war which Bismarck had sought.
I keep rewinding and listening to this sentence but, I can't make out what is being said, 14:12 British and the French were having 14:13 adults sit there a thing so was the... Is it just a blip in the editing of the audio? It seems like this happens often during Hardthrasher's videos. Or am I just missing a joke somehow?
The problem with invading France through Switzerland is the fact that the Swiss are blood-spitting madmen when defending their homeland. The proto-Swiss tribes saw off Hannibal and made him choose a much more arduous path through the Alps. In 1914 the Kaiser reportedly asked a Swiss diplomatic delegation what their small 250,000 man militia army would do if he invaded with a half million Germans, the Swiss replied "shoot twice and go home."
And armed to the teeth
I'd be too mesmerized by their beautiful valleys and delicious cheeses to fight.
I took the suggestion of invading through Switzerland as more of a joke; that the suggestion is actually a trap in disguise.
Everybody knows that you don't mess with the Swiss; the whole bloody country is a damn fortress, has huge personnel reserves, and is armed out the whazoo.
While I don't play, I heard there's a joke in the Fallout lore that, while the rest of the world has been thrashed in thermonuclear war, Switzerland remains pristine and untouched, minding its own business.
Don't forget the logistic nightmare it'd be
The cows are deadly when on fhe defense.
Im German and I suggest next time we go through Austria and Italy and enter France through Nice.
Cons: trusting in Italian ... anything
Pros: Nobody sees it coming
The weather is fantastic.
Of course this is totally not a plan designed so that I desert along the way and get my ass towards Piemont to marinade myself in wine.
Oooh fruity - they'll never see that coming. Plus good skiing round Grenoble too
Never underestimate a German's ability to go the long and unnecessarily complicated way around things ;)
@@mnxs if it works it works
If you do this in June/July you can hide it as the usual holiday traffic...
Actually, that's very Napoleonic/Hannibal. Not a bad idea. Write up an Opplan and present it to the next militant German leader.
5:44 Correction the German empire of 1871 was considered the second Empire after the holy roman empire under german rule. Leading the Nazis to call themselves the third.
You're quite right, my bad
iirc, it went more like
Rome: First Reich
HRE: Second Reich
Germany from 1871 to 1945: Third Reich
It is open to debate the Nazi's changed who they considered the previous reichs it depending on their mood and exactly who was doing the talking. At various times they included the Western Roman Empire, the Carolingian Empire, the HRE, the German Empire, the Weimar Republic and a mythical unnamed Aryan empire, as the previous reichs.
@@wurzel9671 I always thought so too, but I probably misunderstood the Holy Roman Empire when I first looked up what the 1st, 2nd and 3d Reich were. It's often described as a continuation of or heir to Rome but that requires a lot of poetic license.
Hitler would certainly not have seen Germany from 1871 to 1945 as a single empire. The German empire of 1871 to 1918 was based on the Prussian royal line. It was officially dissolved with Wilhelm II's abdication in 1918. Hitler blamed Wilhelm II for the defeat and held him in contempt, calling him an idiot.
It was very much to Hitler's political advantage to make a clear distinction between the failed 1871 2nd reich and the Nazi 3d reich.
@@wurzel9671 Nein, the Romans did not speak German. The first German 'Reich' (as opposed to 'Imperium') was the 'Holy Roman Empire' founded by the Franks, then the German Empire under the first Kaiser Wilhelm, then the- you know the rest.
the french might not see it coming but the swiss have been concreting that passage for the last 150 years.
My Swiss freinds assure me they have everything mined and can seal the country off in minutes :)
@@HardThrasher any sort of invasion attempt of switzerland would go spectacularly badly.. you'd be going up against a very angry little country of very well trained soldiers with excellent natural terrain defenses, a metric fuckton of explosives already set in inconvenient locations, prettty much every bloke of fighting age having a rifle and the knowledge to use it with the thick end of a billion rounds of ammunition and said rifles squirrelled away in innumerable caves, wine cellars and henhouses..
the Swiss allow only money to pass,didn`tmatter where it is from !
@@tech4pros1Not so. Terrain is far less important in an era of mechanization and air power, and no matter how many riflemen-partisans you have hidden through the country, it will always be less combat power than a single division of infantry.
Pacifying Switzerland might be time-consuming or costly, perhaps even both. But any of the large continental powers could have done so with little real effort.
@@tech4pros1 Also the Air Force are literally based inside Mountains.
In the late 1970's, I owned a duex cheveau ....for almost 20 minutes before the engine blew up.
The heater worked then?
So you didn't need wellingtons.
Reading Shirer's 'Collapse of the Third Republic.' I learned that the French army had NO contingency planning in place when the Germans marched into the Rhineland in '36. And, for an example in 1940; when a fortification was under dive-bombing attack, having managed to reach the airforce (by telephone) to request aid...they were told a patrol might be sent the next day.
The Swiss own the high ground. Literally, the really, really high ground. Tough to fight uphill, both ways, and in the snow. Their long-standing position of neutrality is the manifestation of “don’t start no trouble, won’t be no trouble!”
In fairness that's relatively recent, before they were mad mofos always scrapping. Fortunately no one has upset them since the mid 1850s
The reason for the Belgian border not having "real" fortifications (at least the reason I was taught in school) was that Belgium was originally our ally. So the strategy was to use the Maginot line to force Germany into Belgium where the best units of French army would be waiting for them. Defenses along Belgian border would not only be useless but an insult to our Belgian allies.
Belgium then declared itself neutral.
I love Belgium, but it is flat, makes excellent beer and choclate, and is basically indefensible. Maginot really should've known this is the way the Germans will come. Again.
@@HardThrasher you're going to have a busy morning if you try to reply to all of lazerpig subs' pedantry.
But yeah, he did expect the Germans to come through Belgium. There was already a defense line along some river I don't remember and, again, the best French units.
When Belgium declared itself neutral, not only did all French troops had to leave Belgium, but even the Belgian army had to put half of its army along the French border even though there was no threat, just to give the illusion of true neutrality.
@@HardThrasher There was a world class fortified line between on the border to Germany in Belgium... centered around the strongest fortification in the world at that time - Fort Eben Emael. The Germans took care of that in the first 24h of the offensive by landing paratroopers on top, compromising the whole defense line. They even build a full scale replica of the fort in southern Germany to train for that assault.
@@HardThrasher After Germany was allowed to take both Austria and Czeckoslovakia without issue, Belgium lost confidence in Britain's and France's ability to protect it, so it instead decided to declare neutrality upon the begining of the war. The entire reason for building the Maginot Line wasn't to defend France, it was to force Germany to invade Belgium so they could force their enemy to fight in the trenches a second time, since the last time it worked, while also keeping the fighting out of France proper, and the plan nearly worked. But due to Belgian going back on the alliance, the taking of Fort Eban-Emael, and the German speed allowed them to bypass the first defensive line, but, a second defensive line would be created that could've easily held off the Germans. But the invasion of the Netherlands lead the French to send their reserves that were located in the Belgian Ardenes to fight to protect the Dutch, who would be defeated before the French forces arrived, which undermined the second defensive line, where they then retreated to the third line, which also could've been defended easily. Then the French thought that the German assault through the Ardenes was to attack South towards France to circumvent the heavily fortified and forested French portion of the Ardenes, sending their forces to the south, when instead Germany moved forward to the West, to outflank the forces in Belgium, which allowed the Germans to move through the Ardenes without a fight. But still, the French were able to still blunt the assault, and due to logistics they thought that the German armoured divisions would be ordered to stop and wait for infantry and fuel, and they also didn't know if the Germans were going to fight them in Belgium or going for Paris, so they decided to defend at the most forward position, the Oise river. They were right, the German high command ordered their tank commanders to halt, the tank commanders simply refused, and so drove forward and defeated the French infrantry and tanks while they were still spread out and assembling. Creating a hole, and with the the destruction of the tanks it would mean that they weren't able to encircle the German tanks while they cut off from their infantry and forced to stop due to lack of fuel, essentially sitting ducks, which meant the Germans were able to consolidate, and drive to the coast due to the hole in the line between the third defensive line in Belgium and the French forces on the French side of the Ardenes. The German attack through the Ardenes was so ingenius not because the Germans used it to attack France, which was heavily fortified and expecting it, but to attack the French forces in Belgium, cutting them off, and then driving along the coast to encircle the rest of the French forces. The French were so close to forcing the Germans to fight a years long slog through Belgium, but due to a combination of factors, being Belgium and French mistakes, German early war genius, and pure luck, the Germans used the French plan to defeat their army in detail through maneuvre.
here is such a thing as real .People need to stop putting it in scare quotes aready.
I personally find the French army to be a victim of tragic overlearning. In 1871 they were cautious and that didn't work out, so in 1914 they were all hands on the offensive (this is little known, because it failed miserably, but two French armies did try to smash the German center in the Ardennes at the opening of WW1). They even developed a way of thinking called elan vital, which said: if we believe hard enough that we can just sprint faster than Germans get their machine guns ready, we will sprint faster than the Germans get their machine guns ready. Then they were all slaughtered. And so in 1940 french want to attack the Germans, but they just remember what happened the last time and how their untimed offensive almost cost them Paris and how they could not advance through Ardennes and thought: well, maybe Ardennes truly is impossible to cross and maybe we are truly better off defending while trying to muster enough strength to sweep the germans like during a great Foch offensive of 1918.
The French suffer from the unique predicament of getting all the right lessons from the last war, and then applying logic. Sadly, those things seldom matter in war. But if you look at their thought process, it all makes sense. Too much sense to ever work, sadly.
@@joedirt861 they learned from the war but not from the developments during and after it
Please stop taking those colorful pills!
@@MaticTheProto to keep a long reply short, I'm just gonna be really superficial. Napoleonic wars, Italian wars, and Crimean war, the spirit of elan and all out attack brings the French glorious victories. Then they look at this gun thingy they've been carrying around and think "hmm, maybe I can use this as something other than a really loud spear". Cue the chassepot rifle and the position magnifique. Franco Prussian war and we loose Paris. Well THAT didn't work. You know what worked? Loud spears. Back to the get em plan. Cue WW1. Loose almost a million men in a month and almost loose Paris AGAIN. Nope nope definitely not working. Bank to the position magnifique (this time trenches) okay that kinda worked, let's keep doing that wait what the hell are these panzers doing behind me... Merde...
French military prestige seems to have died with Napoleon
re: Maginot from the Belgian perspective. The French wanted to do a rerun of World War One with Belgium playing the role of no-man's-land and the entire Belgian population acting as the world's squishiest barbed wire. It was a stupid plan and a very bad deal for Europe's least defensible country.
Belgium wouldn't let them complete the Maginot line along their border because they were so called neutral
The bits that often missed with the Maginot line is the big political falling out between Belgium and France after it was built. The whole point was to funnel Germany through Belgium where combined French and Belgian forces would meet them. The massive political falling out meant that part of the plan never materialised after Franco-Belgian relations broke down in the mid 1930's, and at some point french high command just convinced itself that Germany wouldn't be mad enough to go through the Ardennes anyway (to the point where commanders on the ground ignored reports that Germany was doing exactly that when the first Panzer divisions were rolling through the Forrest and could have blunted the entire German offensive with about 4 artillery pieces)
Sedans was defended and fortified, the initial German assault over river was mostly destroyed - it just turned out that after a heavy air raid the defenders fled from German tanks in the night. There were no tanks yet lol, it was probably their own artillery tractors moving around. So two French divisions that had effectively defeated the German attack just fucking ran away and the enemy crossed unopposed. The powerful French armoured reserves were not only hampered by the many thousands of cowards clogging the roads, but also just decided not to counterattack. Because?
It'd be uncharitable to suggest many French officers were fucking fascists and traitors who kinda dug Hitler's whole vibe, and that many rank and file French soldiers were Stalinist bootlickers who blamed liberals for the war, but it wouldn't be wrong...
found you from lazerpigs video, very glad i came here :)
It is worth noting that in the 1870s and 1880s, gasoline engines were not as powerful as electric motors, and many very early cars used batteries. This changed as gasoline and lubricating oil became more readily available, and motors more powerful.
Been looking for a guide like this, thanks!
Beside the bit between 17:37 & 19:04
where I thought my monitor had gone t*ts up - Excellent ! 🙂
I loved that you used HMBIA Battle fo the Nations footage of the English and French teams
Just remember, the principal design specification for the Citroen 2CV was that it should be able to carry a basket of eggs over a ploughed field without breaking any. Such is the brilliance of its design!
I wonder if the successful French occupation of the Isle of Wight is the reason why the UK is now a net exporter of garlic to......
Ooh La La!
Whilst the farmer/occupant was able to wear a Top Hat, if I remember correctly.
Eggsellent design requirements.
Yes, I heard that speciation too.
Very good and entertaining! Looking forward to the next one!
Service may be intermittent depending on workload and my magpie-like approach to history e.g. I am currently trying to research something on strategic bombing, which is epic, and keep getting my head turned by navy stuff from the 1700s :)
@@HardThrasher that’s fine! There’s a few videos to watch!
This is the first time I have ever borne witness to a channel's subscriber count go high and higher in real time....
Here's to hoping it gets much higher, you deserve it mate
🥂🥂🥂
Thanks man, really appreciate that
Trouble is finding new channels this one is definitely worth it.
If you were being really uncharitable you could also mention how one of the most effective and respected parts of the French military had by law no Frenchmen in it. Despite at various times there being a suspiciously large number of “Belgians” and “Andorrans” in the foreign legion.
The Strangers.
Sounds better spoken in French.
The Germans and the French used the same invasion plan in 4 wars. Neither of the parties ever figured out why it didn't work. That's ok; Clausewitz is still my hero. "Never attack a fortified position uphill."
Remind me: did La Carl ever explain how this squares with uphill being synonymous with key terrain?
You missed King Louis and his Admiral Eustace the Monk who had most of England in 1216, until Bad King John died and his 9 year old son Henry III rapidly defeated the French and Louis wound up signing a piece of paper saying he'd never really been king of England.
Ok, so that's not something I really know about, having marked King John's regin as 'here be dragons' since I was a kid. I will go and have a look
@@HardThrasher I think I was taught about John signing Magna Carta when I was a kid. I can understand the school skipping the rapey bits as age inappropriate, but it was his losing the crown jewels in the Wash that brought my adult attention back. Hope you find him interesting, I'd definitely watch an episode of yours on the real reason why John was a bad king.
It'd be quite short - "He lost Calais" - murder and rape in English Kings is same-same, but losing to the French is unforgivable
@@HardThrasher it was the way a 9 year old surpassed him that I found interesting. Though in truth if I'd been one of the Barons offered a place on the regency council in return for switching sides I could see the temptation.
Charles Louis Napoleon Bonaparte is known in France as Napoleon the Third (Napoleon "would have been the Second" having reigned for a single day after his father's first abdication in 1814. He was 3 years old at the time).
Yeah, I know, but that would've made identification even more complex for non European listeners....
Napoleon's son was supposed to be the Second.
They also made the Citroën DS. in 1955, when we were still tooling about in the Austin Cambridge, (not dissing the Aus Camb, but the DS was Thunderbirds by comparison)
The DS was astounding
I love this channel!
I know it's a humorous rant, but in 1914 nobodies' infantry had helmets. All the pickelhaube did was allow leather to enter your headwound along with the shrapnel(although the spike did make it possible to start digging a hole).
Fun fact: the spike was actually a ventilator to allow circulation of air because leather helmets were so uncomfortably hot.
Thanks, this helped so much!
Happy to be of assistance
Oh I wish they still made 2CVs - so much fun!
Ah yes, the 2CV. What the beetle would have been had it been designed by someone with a brain and some flair. Yes I know, that is a compliment to French engineering from a Brit, they're smart lads. Last time we worked together we got Concorde, and that was awesome.
And the channel tunnel which is an astounding bit of engineering
@@HardThrasher true, the tunnel is quite the achievement too.
Minus points for every time someone has unironically shortened it to "the Chunnel" though.
@@rat_king- I mean, it beats drowning in shit, which your government seems determined to inflict on the UK. Come to think of it, maybe you should use your Chunnel trick on yourselves, flush the toilet as it were...
The beetle is the better 2cv in every way
I think i have spotted an error. Britain did not have help from Denmark-Norway. The English actually attacked Denmark, stole half their fleet, and burned the other half. So Denmark sided with Napoleon. So when Sweden helped defeat Napoleon, Norway went to Sweden.
Did you perhaps mean Sweden instead of Denmark?
Other way round, we burnt their fleet and bombarded their capital because they were going to join Napoleon's COntinental system. They, weirdly, saw things our way once we had kicked the shit out of them and joined whichever coalition it was that finally booted Boney out. Of course pretty much everyone, except Britain, changed sides at least once during the whole shit-show, so there were absolutley periods when Denmark was against the UK. Sweden had beef with Russia which I think kept them at least neutral most of the time, except at the very end
@@HardThrasher makes sense that it was more complicated. Seems that once Napoleon got his ass kicked in Russia, the danish king suddenly wanted to switch side. Strange that.
Anyway the Swedish king (former general in Napoleon's army) was already promised Norway, so Denmark had to give it up to be allowed to join the winning side. For some reason he did not see give away Norway to join in victory, as a great victory. Strange that...
So Denmark continued on Napoleon's side and still had to give away Norway. Almost feel bad for Denmark (dont tell other Norwegians).
Before all this France/Napoleon and Russia bulied Denmark into declaring war on sweden. Napoleon apperantly did threaten at ocations to take his army and attack denmark a few times, to keep Denmark an ally. Probably a real threat since he ended up invading russia, his old buddy. And then one of his other buddies became king if sweden and kicked him when he was down retreating back from russia.
All in all, except from the starvation, loss of trade with our greatest shopping friend Britain, and eating bread with bark for a while, it sort of ended pretty well for us in Norway.
...TLDR; the world is too complicated and ironic for me to be 100% right about you making a mistake, so i guess you win this time! (But i still think sweden would be more correct in the list)
@@HardThrasher damn, i got tricked into reading up on history again.
@@HardThrasher Who should still be familiar with that, as often as the Europeans have fought each other. ;-)
@@HardThrasher a funny piece of trivia: just a few years ago, the Danish Ministry of Defence got a call from a forestry department. Their trees were now ready for delivery, you see. The oak trees that were planted to rebuild the fleet we'd lost...
It was all a bit of a joke, of course, but it did make national news.
Anyway, since Brexit and you guys deciding that you apparently don't like us anymore, I did wonder when it might be appropriate to take one of the historical reconstruction Viking ships we've got laying around, load it up with explosives, sail it up the Thames and do to Parliament what Guy Fawkes failed to do - you know, just for old times' sake 😘
About the car thing... I think Richard Trevithick might have something to say about that considering the he managed a Steam powered car in 1801... as in before he invented the steam engine, he did car. Mind you it did get left in a ditch like it was driven there by a spotty teenager in a stolen Nova and it promptly exploded when left to boil dry because the team manning the thing buggered off to the pub... but still....
Let us allow our French cousins their moment of glory. I don't know enough about Trevithick to comment
@@HardThrasher i mean in fairness no one else was mad enough to attempt the feat again for nearly 80 years so it was obviously a stunning success from a pioneer that next to no one has heard of (save for weirdos who watched Discovery motors when it was actually good... *whistles tunelessly whilst staring at feet*)
Before that Cugnot made a three-wheeled steam-powered car that he immediately crashed against a wall, so the first car (and the first car crash) remain an originally French invention.
The boiler and the engine were over the front wheel. The turning was made using the front wheel. It had no brakes. You can see how it ended the way it did.
I demand more Videos now...this sooo Entertaining and interessting at the time
Good to hear you mentioned England and Wales rather than just England! Really interesting and fun video, thanks
Did Wales as an independent entity make war on the French ?
Fascinating stories, brilliant narration. Lovely video.
THE DEFENSE EXPERTS ARE COMING.
DEFENCE*
They're cumming?
@@LD-wm7jm
DEFENSE DE FUMEUR
I've always wondered why Germans are forbidden to smoke on trains and the French are defended if they do it.
Early one morning I saw a 2CV mounted on two floats and fitted with a mast and sail, quietly leaving Aberystwyth harbour.
Well I suppose they were of little use on land, perhaps they're better at sea :)
They'll never see that coming. Really enjoying your videos.
Dear Lord Hardthrasher, you are my favourite form of consuming history - bar none. keep up the superb work my lord.
Ah jess, of courße! Ve schall go sru Schweiz next time!
Ju mäi sänk se Schwein för sänding me hier!
I love your style man, that whole now I'll call him Charles bit was gold
Somewhat to my horror, it has been pointed out that whilst there have been 17 Louis, there have also been at least 10 Charles on the French throne so actually it didn't help much. We should've called him Bob
gosh i love the intro -- it's like the stuff i like about old top gear
OP this is an excellent explanation of European politics pre WW1 and speaks volumes about why the Germans thought the way they did during two world wars later. Germany is surrounded by enemies on all sides and always has been: from the French and British to the west, to the Russians and Poles to the east, and even to the Balkans in the south, every single neighboring country has been an aggressor at least once during the last 300 years. Not even the Russians have it as bad as Germany in this respect, at least they have millions of square km to retreat into if necessary. The Germans have nothing but the army to rely on.
wasn't the whole point of the maginot line to force the germans into belgium where you can fight the germans away from your industry, pick up allies. It would have worked if the belgians had continued to allow french troops to remain in belgium after 1936. The dyle plan was a thing idk why everyone forgets that...
I am, as with all things, prepared to be proved wrong - however I *think* that argument was made post-war, not by Magiont. I think.
@@HardThrasher i get my idea from this video wikipedia article en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_war_planning_1920%E2%80%931940 as wel as this video czcams.com/video/-XVHYg6gvWU/video.html. You could be right but is just seems to insane for me that the french would be as ignorant as many seem to imply. There is also this talk witch helps explain why the french did not think the germans would come trough the Ardennes czcams.com/video/yWwLcykedcs/video.html
No, the original intent of the maginot line was to slow the Germans so France could get ready. Then after they spent so much money on it the politicians decided they had to say it was impregnable or risk another revolution.
@@DarthKyrmit so the french just forgot the whole invading through Belgium thing? French plans clearly had fighting in Belgium in mind.
@@PeanutPotSauceyes, and at the time, they were allied with Belgium so they could fight the Germans together outside France, but then when Belgium saw everyone appease Austria and Czechia away to Hitler, Belgium declared neutrality meaning the French army had to wait outside Belgium until Germany crossed the border.
Well I am German so, thank you.
Like obviously don't actually try to go through Switzerland, they're lunatics.
@@HardThrasher we'll just go via Italy and Spain, that's where roughly 79 million of us are anyway during the summer.
@@HardThrasher The Swiss have become so rich due to the European wars, that nobody arrives in France, since everyone bought and France have to pay for decades. ;-)
@@HardThrasher You don't want to upset the people who have stashed all your gold and other treasures (without asking any annoying questions).
Recommended reading on Germany Germania by Simon Winder, really excellent and very enjoyable to read.
The French are just built different. Thank you for this video.
I think you're being a bit too harsh on the French here, it's not their fault that they can't seem to do anything right
I know it's traditional to take the piss out of France for always bravely running away, but we should never forget the absolutely insane amount of bravery shown by her soldiers in 1914. Obeying orders and foot-charging into a level of machine gun and heavy artillery fire the world had never seen, while being about as well camouflaged as a peacock during a mating dance. Didn't even get combat helmets until the middle of 1915. "Off you go lads, just run over there and poke a few of le boche with your bayonets, but do watch out for the angry bees". Incroyable.
Live and learn I guess, unless you don't learn history? Wonderful presentation thx. ✌️
Actually if you rapid back hop in Lichtenstein you can no clip your whole army into Paris and invade that way, saves a ton of time.
Using the suction effect behind a speeding coach, in a 2CV, I was, for about 20mls, dragged up the A1, as this was a left hand drive machine and it was in the days before coaches and trucks had limiters, doing 70 under a cars length, behind the arse of a coach, with no forward view was a bit stupid.
The fun stopped when a refuel of the 4 gallon tank came up.
If we had the garage to keep it in, Boss, she would sanction the purchase of a restored 2CV.
Brilliant commentary.
France actually had the better infantry rifle in the Franco-Prussian war. Prussia's better tactics and logistics largely allowed them to outmaneuver the French and negate the advantage the better rifles provided.
Joke time. Why do the French have so many roads lined with trees? So that invading Germans will have some shade.
When is the best time to invade? At midday as the army won't be back from lunch for a good two hours.
Disclaimer: I lived in France for 15 years and love the French. But not as much as I like a good joke.
Roads
So that you get vértigo if you drive at the wrong speed at that time of day.
A bit of conflation between "Britain" and "England" there in discussion of pre-Napoleonic conflicts between England and France
Scotland was allied with France against England from 1295 and never formally revoked
Ireland often was also more on France's side
Ishhh - from 1640 odd Sctolamnd was majority Protestant, and of course prior to that James VI of Sctoland was James I of England - which confuses things no end as subsequent Scottish uprisings were almost all in his name. Of course you can make the argument that Althestan held England & Scotland after he defeated Malcom so it's....fucking messy and that's before we bring Ireland into things....
@@HardThrasher @HardThrasher if we look post Norman Conquest, William the Lion bought all obligation to England off by the simple expedient of giving Richard Coeur de Lion money
So the "1000 years of British war with France" gets a sniff from this side of the border
Otherwise, excellent, informative and entertaining video
I am glad you are taking the time and making the effort in creating them
18:38 : Well actually they did, which makes it much worse. During the night of 11th May a Potez 637 of the II/33 squadron of the French Airforce spotted a huge convoy of tanks an trucks going through the Ardennes towards Sedan. They were just driving with their headlights on...The general staff declared it impossible and a SECOND reconnaissance mission was sent in the morning of 12th May for confirmation. That one clearly spotted at least one panzer division thundering through the Ardennes towards Sedan and Givet. Lieutenant Chéry commanding the mission declared on his word of honour what he had seen; the reply of the general staff: you've probably seen a few scouts on motorcycles...
This I did not know, thank you
The original intent of the maginot line was as a delaying obstacle to give France the time to fully mobilize. BUT after spending millions on it the politicians decided the had to say it was impenetrable or be voted out....... or face another revolution. And everyone believed them. It was in fact peircer in 2 places After dunkurk.
All I can add is a distant relative of mine a Colonel Fitzmaurice-Kelly of the Indian army was killed when General French deployed units of the Indian army in late 1914.
Germany was that friend who wanted to be in on the 'joke' but took it too far.
ex-bally-cuse me Sir!!! As an born and inbred Isle of Wighter I object strenuosly!! Those damn Frogs didnt take the Island, we saw them oueff with thier fromage between there legs. otherwise jolly good video sir, keep it up
Look, be happy you're not on one of the channel islands; we gave those to the Germans for a while
You only have to go back a few generations to find that Napoleon Bonaparte (the famous Corsican) is of Scottish heritage. Didn't surprise me, either.
Oh god, well that explains a lot of things!
Re the last point about invading thru Schwitzerland, there is video on Yt about Swiss history ending with their efforts to stay neutral in WW 2. It wasn't just a paper statement. They worked on all fronts to keep the warring parties out, defending against both the Luftwaffe as well as Allied aircraft.
I think they shot down a flight of Me110s at one point that over flew the border too...unfortunately they handed back a lot of PoWs and Jews too
@@HardThrasher Specifically I refer to The Armchair Historian's 'WW 2 form the Swiss perspective'.
A lot of information that I knew nothing about, and I thought I'm well-versed in history. Just goes to show.
@@HardThrasher yeah they cooperated with the Nazis as much as possible
How to invade France ...Turn up into Europe in a little boat.
Had to watch this again .
Was chatting to an ol mate who was ex royal engineers, and they did an exercise with a French army unit.
And concluded that with the French tri colour flag the blue and the red was on Velcro so they could peel those bits off when wanting to surrender they then just had to wave the white bit ..
Lazerpig was right. Subscribed.
01:31: Ahhhh, that gem the Citroen Escargot ...
Throw stinky cheese, watch the French chase after it.
The Belgium’s didn’t allow France to build fortifications because they though it was a threat against their neutrality
Thank you I needed this video, and laugh
If folks haven't already, it's worth having a read of "The Blitzkrieg Legend" by Frieser. The book is about 1940, but includes a pithy critique of 1914: the Germans chased a massive strategic victory by wheeling through Belgium - which resulted in the political failure of drawing Britain into the war and the military failure at the Marne. INSTEAD they should have focused on an "operational" opportunity to destroy 2 or 3 French armies desperate to attack along the Ardennes/Alsace/Lorraine fronts. As it was, the Germans almost succeeded in this latter sector by accident: The Battles of the Frontiers were a disaster for the French.
The Germans COULD have played on the French need to recapture Alsace-Lorraine, lure a couple of armies into the provinces by fake retreats and destroy them with strong flank attacks. Destroying 2 of 5 French armies would open a gaping hole in the French line and may be a major step in eliminating France from the war. Meanwhile, Britain would have to agonise over whether to get involved when Belgian neutrality wasn't violated.
Yeah but the problem was that German high command was totally fixated on 'doing a Cannae'
That photo of Corporal Adolf looks remarkably like Alec Guinness in The Bridge Over the River Kwai.
Your mom's 2CV sounds exactly like my kind of car.
It....it was an experience. If you hit the indicator too hard it fell off, if you went round the corner you had to lean like a side car and if the hill was too steep you had to kick the passengers out to climb it. It was a soft top. So it was like being in a leaky tent too
29 horsepower? The motorcycle I learned how to ride on, a 1993 Honda XR250L street legal dual-sport, had a 249cc air cooled single cylinder engine that made 30 horsepower.
Oui, c'est manifique
Otto von Bismark. The inventor of the pro gamer move.
I didn't catch the adjective, probably German that sounds like "sparkling" in Hardthrasher's interesting summation at 13:10: "Blitzkrieg is just a fancy name for [sparkling??] Schwerpunkt". Can anyone enlighten me what the word is? Also, though it is honorable to acknowledge Clausewitz's crucial insights, are we to understand he emphasized the multiplicative effect of combined arms? This component of Blitzkrieg is separate from the concepts of concentrated forces and center of gravity.
Sparkling is right - it's a reference to Sparkling White Wine isn't Champagne unless it's from the Champagne region of France.
Clausterwitz and any other General would've used tanks and aircraft had they had them, the principle is exactly the same
@@HardThrasher Thank you the response and the interesting videos. I am perfectly happy to watch dry scholarly youtubes, but the character voice you use especially in the battle of Britain videos no doubt brings such historical information to a much broader audience. Bravo for your efforts and skill in this regard.
The problem with the Schlieffen Plan was that Field Marshal Alfred von Schlieffen assumed that the infantry could march the same distance every day and took no account of exhaustion suffer by men or horses. So whereas his timetable had laid out how far they would travel each day and how long it would take to march around Paris the reality was that before they got to Paris they were in no fit state to carry out the rest of the plan.
The Battle of the Bulge, also known as the Ardennes Offensive, was almost a carbon copy of the German Spring Offensive of 1918, even down to using troops from the Eastern Front. In both cases the Germans who had fought in Russia were used to fighting in the open plains which was totally different to the landscape of the west, So where they expected sweeping attach through open country they had to fight through the hills and valleys of France.
Thanks I’m going to try this.
Thank you.
i was a passenger in a 2CV once, and Only Once. The Specification was apparently to be able to drive accross a ploughed field, containing 4 Farmers who carried trays of eggs, without break
Without breaking.
Not without puking...
Whatever the theories and strategies, there have always been two outcomes: 1) they fail 2) it will be different next time
1914 - I'm pleased you said "bright blue coats" and not "bright red trousers." Allons-y
Hi. Nice video, but someone turned out the lights @17:50 . Thanks!
Actually, germans were supposed to march through the lowland belgium upper north, not the ardennes. That's where the french armored cores were waiting. But a german officer crashed in belgium with maps of the invasion so they had to change the plans in a hurry, so that's where Guderian with his crazy plan came in, the rest is history
you forgot frances most important neighbor, the brave and mighty mountain folk of Andorra, oft forgotten by all including france when it isn't their turn to rule the country
Correction: the First Reich was the Holy Roman Empire.
Yes, yes it was, my bad
the recent battle for Kyiv is basically the counterfactual "what if the French were prepared for the push through the Ardennes"
Say hey froggies we are invading and they will have a hissy fit and give up
Correct me if I’m wrong but … I always thought the FIRST Reich was the Holy Roman Empire (which almost always had a German as titular head). Bismarck’s creation was the 2nd Reich, and our mustache wearing friend built the THIRD.
Many years ago my sister had a 2CV and we jokes that people shouldn't get in one if they were prone to getting seasick, hit the brakes too hard and the whole body rocked.
Yup, and going round corners the whole suspension would rock...
@@HardThrasher I'd forgotten about that.
Leaning the other way to balance it out as if we were in The Italian Job..
Friend of mine had one. At one point we were driving on the Autobahn (zut allors!) on the way back from a concert (Dire Straits). I still have no idea how fast we were going, since the needle of the horizontal odometer had gone so far towards the right that it had disappeared.
And then in 1944 the Germans went through the Ardennes again. They failed, but not for a lack of surprise.
It's like the German version of General Melchet "We will catch the watchfull frogs totally off guard. Doing precisely what did 18 times before is the last thing they'll expect us to do this time."
FYI, France actually intended the Maginot Line to extend to cover the Belgian frontier...
...but since at the time of beginning construction, Belgium was France's ally...Belgium demanded that France actually defend Belgium, and building a defense line that essentially gave up Belgium as lost was unacceptable to Belgium.
France, for the sake of that alliance, didn't extend the defenses.
Belgium then declared strict neutrality when Germany militarized the Rhineland...and then begged for help when Germany invaded in 1940.
Inter war politics were *wild* in France
France my favorite South American country😊
Look we can discuss how to invade France but we all know the Germans perfected it quite well.
France isnt hard to invade, but they are rather recalcitrant in staying down. They are the French after all. They are an enigma....
"How to invade France"?
Well, I mean, y'know, it's through the Ardennes, isn't it?
Every.Bloody Time.
Well, more often than not.
I think you'd have better luck entirely going around Switzerland clockwise than through it.
Good skiing and decent pasta in Northern Italy
The reason that the Ardenne was thought inpenetratable by tanks, is because jeeps were not invented yet. ( I love my jeep! Now 4 years old)
You left out the infamous "Emser Dispatch", a messge fro the Kaiser to Nappy III which Bismarck tweaked to make it unacceptable to France, thus prompting the declaration of war which Bismarck had sought.
NO NOT THE FRENCH
8:32 NOTHING CHANGES
I keep rewinding and listening to this sentence but, I can't make out what is being said,
14:12
British and the French were having
14:13
adults sit there a thing so was the...
Is it just a blip in the editing of the audio? It seems like this happens often during Hardthrasher's videos. Or am I just missing a joke somehow?
'At the same moment the British and the French were having a little sit down and a think, so was the Germany High Command..'