Risk :: WWII:Europe

[Ruddertail]

Meh, in any case, it doesn't usually matter how well the individual soldiers fought. It's how well they fight together, and how well they utilize tactics. And technology, of course.

[The Beatles]

Field Marshal Haig had a cunning plan...

[Devari]

Since we've done it the last nine times, they certainly won't expect us to do the same thing again!

[Gen. Volkov]

Actually, the French soldiers gave up rather quickly in WW2. They are reports of them running, abandoning their own tanks, at the mere report of German panzers in the area. French soldiers standing their ground were the exception, not the rule. (Unless cornered, as they were in the Maginot Line when the Germans encircled it) They actually had better tanks than the Germans did. The Germans just had better coordination, tactics, and strategy. The Germans did have better planes than the French, and slightly better guns.

[The Beatles]

Don't forget that the French Army was severely superannuated. The average German soldier was some 10 years younger than the average French soldier, IIRC.

[Gen. Volkov]

There was that too. But I don't think that excuses them for breaking and running. The average age was 36, which is not that old, not that much less fit than the average german age of 26 or so. There's a slight physical difference, but not enough to be that big of a factor yet. Unless of course, you are referring to some other factor that I am not seeing.

[The Beatles]

No, that's just what I'm referring to. It doesn't perhaps excuse it, but maybe explains it.

[Gen. Volkov]

Explains maybe a little of it. I think alot of it is explained by the French not wanting to fight. They were just getting over the trauma of WW1, and there was a huge pacifist movement at the time. It was a drafted, not volunteer army, so for all those reasons, Army morale was absurdly low. When viewed in that perspective, it kind of makes sense. But the Brits had all the same issues, but they had a volunteer army, so the morale made all the difference, plus that grim, hang on at all costs, grit and determination that the Brits just seem to have. Americans share it too a degree, it's a "damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead" sort of attitude. An American marine in WW1 expressed it best, "Come on you sons of bitches, do you want to live forever?". The French just didn't have that attitude.

[The Beatles]

I suppose so. Mind you, the Germans had the same effect, because the Nazis really convinced everyone they were going to win. At the last moments of the regime, in the defense of Berlin, even children pitched in...

[Gen. Volkov]

*Nod* They had it too.