In 1939, during the opening days of the Second World War, France had the opportunity to invade Germany whilst its forces were busy in Poland. What happened wasn’t a major offensive but instead a tiny, localised push into the frontier of Germany that ended before it really began. So why didn’t the French commit to a grander offensive and why did they just wait and watch as Poland was conquered? To find out watch this short and simple animated history documentary.
A special thanks to my Patreon subscribers:
Rikspuckot
SirJoe
Myller
MajesticFirebird
Scott W
robert lalonde
Steven B
Brendan W
CharÉTS
Justin Kubusch
Michael Kram
Leonard Frank
Cippalippus
Thomas Halter
Sean Long
Mik Scheper
Ted Parsons
Johann_Gambolputty_of_Ulm
LambOfLeg
David J. Bever
Joel Wasserman
Magdalena Reinberg-Leibel
Leland
Nathan Ngumi
Graham London
Juan Castillo
Robert Brockway
John Orr
Nuukov
Wolf
erez87
Roko Lisica
Bartosz Zasada
Tristan Kreller
Matt Busch
Andreas Mosand
Oriki
JT96
Valentyn
Larz Welo
Kevin Neuhaus
Colm Byrne
Hidamarisou – Webnovel translations
Donald Weaver
Glassford Global
Mario Peshev
Joell Bel
Yosef Waysman
blei95
Adam Probert
Nolan Peale
Sean Uzar
Jason Vandeventer
Ron Johnson
Jonny Minogue
Joseph Reinsch
Matt Reed
BattleGoat Studios
Shauna K
Tino
Bobby Koys
Benjamin Herson
Templar366
C. C. C.
Hexapuma
Moraxian
Justin Short
Juan Benet
Charles Kwiatkowski
Warren Rudkin
Mark Littlehale
Robert Meehan
Zachary
Harrison Wiener
T’Kotsl
Mario Mejia
Hiro P
Kevin Phoenix
Andrew Patane
Joseph Hutchins
Ruben Rodriguez
harmony
Tactical_Jackal
Joshportunities
Chris Weisel
Carr Nyuli
Contdoko12
William Adderholdt
Allen Rines
Mars Project
SketerK
Tim Stone
Bren Ehnebuske
T. c. north
Rob Rollins
Jesse Plung
Pongo
ContraryPython
Sean D.
Tony Belmonte
Brian Giordano
Duane Bridges
ARandomPaperClip
Andrew Sever
Jack Beckman
Peter Hopkins
Mark Ploegstra
Joshua Schneider
Rosebird
Hapalochlaena Lunulata
Burt Clothier
Steve Schroeder
Scriptmonkeys
Blue Cardinal
No way
Dullis
Colin Cecil
twang
Nathan Snyder
Philip Yip
Ali Sadighian
Mr.Myoozik
Ciege Engine
ThePalestRose
george tyler
Kaiserrin
Yared Cristiano
Hunter Bayliss
Zachary Pascalar
D. Mahlik
Alexander Kirk
Leena Al-Souki
Damon
Tranier Bocaj
Tim Stumbaugh
James
tegsirat
Ned Burke
Ted Ingram
Anthony McCann
Garrett Manarin
Will Sullivan
Jane Sumpter
A. J.
Richard Wolfe
Olive!
Carl Blanton
Joseph Kerckhoff
Ian M
blaZzinG_FurY
Angel Aguiñaga
George Caponera
David Hilbert’s Entscheidungsproblem
Shakira
Patty Culp
Afghanistan
Jacob Zachs
Chris PeBenito
lesser_sam
William Maywood
alexccg
Beth Resta
Peter Marino
Matthew Toles
Jamie van Brewen
Lord Chromium
Rabbi Rob Thomas
Nick Macarius
Tim Sweeney
Alex G.
Liquid Chief
khaki enthusiast
The Funks
BenDrums24
David Spellmeyer
Miky Hidalgo Morriss
Charles Doolittle
Random Insanity
WolfiZee
Seth Reeves
Erik Hare
Ben Jambor
Ethan Harlow
Tom Ebert
John Gross-Whitaker
Jonathan Niehaus
Serius_Loyola
Dr. Sarno
YugiJitsu Games
The Luminariian
Ryan
Sethars
NazGuul
Jasmin Vikk
Evelyn
ConspiracyPizza
DefinitelyNattox
Tom Langan
ChrisC1966
Sunset Awesome
Hatter24
Frankin D. Roosevelt
tadhg
Defender
Deep Brewed Flavour
Binero
Brendan Drake
Edward Harding
Shalin S
Eclipse
Davion
João Santos
Kasi
Tommi Hewitt
Hazzard
Noogie
Jan Bart Verbist
M Scho
Jackarice26
Vladislav Vasilev
Kameohawk
Schwarzer Hai
Lewis Kobrak
TradeFloorMonster
Phil Johnston
Tarsirrus
Ben L
Twinny Hill
Ash Elford
zemnmez
Rhys Little
KingKyumber
James
Rhys Jackson
44 Comments
the one thing you can always rely on is the french being unreliable.
Political cowardice
Because the French army was a joke back than, just like today.
In reality it was all about class struggle. Allies raised Hitler to defeat worker class in both their own country, in Germany and and in USSR. In truth they almost never fought Hitlers war machine. France surrendered its army to join Hitlers French legions, British escaped the mainland. WW2 was a tool developed to defeat worker class and communism.
Fuck youtube autodubbing.
The story is incomplete. Western "elites" were pretty much playing their usual BS and hoped to manipulate Nazis and Soviets to fight one another. Promises to Poland were pure BS because they wanted Nazi Germany to overrun Poland and fight Soviets. Hitler's "dreams" talked of expanding German "living space" into Poland and Russia, not France. All western countries not only allowed passively Hitler's Germany to rearm, they actively supported it with money and technology. Bush the father/grandfather of the future presidents was supervising the Germany rearmament effort on behalf of the US and world bankers. He was supposed to be tried for it after WWII but never was, for obvious reasons. This is why the West did absolutely nothing when Hitler annexed Czechoslovakia and Austria. Hell, Hitler was even proposed for a Nobel Peace Price for that. Poland knew what German plans were because they broke the Enigma. Poland tried to fully mobilize but France and England issued threats against Poland accusing them of warmongering. This was why Poland was forced to surrender the Enigma cracking secret to show the intelligence was credible. Still, this did not impress France and England because they KNEW what Germany was doing and were helping in it, sabotaging Polish war effort every way they could. True, there were politicians like Churchill who tried to oppose this insanity, but they were ridiculed and marginalized.
What happened later was Germany and USSR outsmarting the West and entering into the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact a week before invasion of Poland. There still was time to avoid bigger problems but the West still played the stupid game all the way until Hitler overrun France. The West would have been "buried" if Hitler wasn't cocky enough to attack Soviet Union before finishing off Brittan as possible threat. Stalin fantasized till his last days how "great" the world would have been if Hitler didn't "betray" him.
To make long story short – the West was run by idiots before WWII and is run by idiots today.
What about the colonial troops?? I mean they could have thrown in every man and then if it was too much retreated no?? Well they ;ost every colony after the war. They are still paying for that 1940 defeat politically.
French people were overpowered by the German military at that time.
They failed there, but could have bombed the road to the Ardennes Forest or mined the Forest.
France has been pretty pathetic militarily for the past 100 years or so
The French have never been known for fighting. They'd rather just surrender and let someone else do the fighting and liberating them.
None of their tanks has a forward gear ????????
0:08 Why is there a "R.I.P" on the calendar?
increase the volume of the voice
James Bisonette didn't sponsor the french army. That's why.
The animation drew the maginot line too long. It stopped at the border with Belgium and luxemburg
He forgets german defensive infrastructure such as the westwall. Which most definitely would have completely destroyed any chance of a big french offensive
0:16 is that a "The End of the World" reference?
It's truly a clash of generations, we knowing how WW2 went will never be truly able to understand or sympathize with those who experienced WW1, for than it was almost assured that no war could ever be worst then the one that past, and avoiding war was ALWAYS the best solution, we now feel that we know better, I don't think that we really do, yet still we will never truly be able to feel the same way they felt about their decision, because we now know how the war went and that in fact it can get worse then WW1.
The flickering Prime Ministers sent me
Great video as always thank you.
That's a lot of words just to say they are cowards. And the whole 🌎 knows it 😅
Kelly money maker did not make the money that's why
The French didn’t invade Germany because James Bissonette was guarding it by himself
This was great! I always learn new things! Cheers from Chile!
So France thought that winning too fast who be a problem?😂😂😂
France didn't want to provoke Hitler 🤣🤣🤣
France just did something small to keep themselves looking busy
The current attitude of Europe regarding the invasion of Ukraine is exactly the same: fear, indecision, acting too late. I remember, when 3 or 5 days after the invasion, Germany sent ONE fighter jet to Romania, to "increase Romania´s air defense capabilities". Pathetic. Luckly for us in Europe, Russia´s army is totally incompetent and outdated. If Russia was indeed a strong military power, they would now be in Berlin, due to the lack of European military response.
Had Europe mobilized in masse immediately after the invasion, sending hundreds of thousand´s of troops and equipment to the border of Russia and Belarus, Putin would have soiled himself and would have offered "a good will gesture", returning home in weeks. Being weak when facing violence, makes the violent party more powerful. Often, wars are not lost due to the power of the agressor, but due to the victim´s unwillingness to fight.
The biggest failure in the ww2
Love the 'End of Ze World' reference at 0:18!
I have a decent research subject for your channel.
Why during Falkland War 1982 NATO Article 5 was not invoked, and UK dealt with Argentina alone?
But I’m le tired
A man of culture I see. Love that throwback.
Because we had the worst general ever see gamelin who took office few year before war and remplace a very competent general weygan that retake office after the Belgium disaster weygan make a great defense but it was too late we loosed the British betrayed and we lost a good part of the army in Belgium and dunkerk he couldn’t hold it effeciently
Talks about the brits for only 5 seconds, even though their unwillingness to help was the main reason France didn’t want to invade germany, you should read a french history book.
Howdy History Matters idk if You take sugestions from the coments but heres one
-when did anthems became a thing?
Because they are stupid
We stop because we have reach our goals. 😂😢
Somewhat ironically, the German leadership did the same at Dunkirk.
Damn, beginning of the war was actually a masterful gambit from the mustache man
France vehicles had 3 reverse gears and 1 forward gear.
I caught that reference to the end of the world at 00:18 OG YouTube gold
I just thought of a really cool question that would be cool if answered in a video. Why did Ukraine take a piece of Czechoslovakia with it when the USSR fell apart? I was playing Hoi4 earlier today and noticed that ukraine has the right tip as a core and i double checked a map and sure enough its got me a little curious.
Could you do a video on why Czechia/Bohemia was never germanized even tho it was so long under german rule?
0:34
why do you put a rainbow on "friendship"???