French battleship

With the German invasion of France. England sent a expoditinary force to france. From 1939-1940, under the command of Genral lord Gurt. The force numbered one tenth of the total allied forces at that time. It also had the new Vickers mediam tank. This force landed in France after the German invasion of Poland. This force did nothing to stop the German invasion. It did the complete opposite in my opinion. It just helped it. the average German citizen rekonized that the main resone for their current hardship. for in the treaty of Versailles forced the German people to pay massive fines. bankrupting the country. Now you can see why the brits lost so badly.

British lee Enfield rifle used by the British
and all country's that the Germans had captured



M3 tank
 

But the arrival of the BEF or British expeditionary force, did slow them down. Until the Germans realized that there anti-aircraft gun was really good at taking out tanks. And the infamous 88 was born. The BEF didn't last long on France. It was evacuated in Dunkirk. The royal navy barely got the men out of there. They left a lot of gear and supplies on the beach.

The French were then left to fend for themselves. Shortly after the BEF left the French surrendered.
Under the agreement a new French government loyal to Hitler. Was created called the Vichy Government. This new Government was created and given control of the southern part of France.

The Vichy government was just a puppet to Germany.
Along with the surrender came French warships that greatly boosted the German navy. This addition helped the Germans take Africa from the British

British Vickers mark 3 tank
 

 A lot of people don't know that we actually fought the Vichy's. When we first entered the war we sent a army under Patton. To Africa. It was also the first time we had fought in Africa since the early 19th century. The French were still using the same equipment that they had against the Germans. While it was superior to the Germans at the time. It was not so against the Americans. If you have ever watched history shows were they said the M3 tank was out matched when it arrived. Then the French tanks were even more so. The M3's destroyed the French tanks.

When you see these three vehicles what do you think? That they are all tanks or armored vehicles.  Do you wonder why I am asking you this? Well I am asking you this to show you the different types of armored vehicles that were used in this war.

The first one is the M4 Sherman.  The most well know tank.  Everyone knows about this one.  It was the most widely used tank in the war it was also one of the weakest.  Even with these facts it was the most widly built tank of the war with over 50,000 tanks built. The Sherman armament is a 75, or 76mm gun, this was multi-purpose gun, used for both infantry and tanks.

The second one is an M7 priest. It was called a priest for its commander position which looked like a pulpit.  It is a self propelled gun meaning it has a howitzer or artillery piece instead of a cannon like the Sherman. It was a infantry support that could move itself.

The last one is the M36 Jackson.  It is a tank destroyer it's sole purpose was to destroy other tanks. It had a large caliber gun (meaning the length of the gun). The German TD (Tank Destroyer)  were a hull mounted gun, and the American had a open turret.

The Germans had the most of all of these types of tanks. they built the biggest too. Like the JagdTiger  was a immense thing with a massive gun,

They had in my opinion had the best tank. the Panzer5 or Panther. 
They also had the best tank destroyer. The Jagdpanther.














If you type into Google "German tanks of world war two".  You get the infamous Tiger tank. The most feared tank of the war and for good reason. In Normandy one tiger was worth 25 Sherman's. That means that for every Tiger killed 25 Sherman's were killed.

Invasion of France revised.

With the German army's invasion of France showed the world that the Germans were a real threat and not something to be trifled with.
In last weeks entry we went over the basic outline of the invasion now we will go over the strategy's and tactics they used.


The French had thought that tanks were there to support the infantry. Were as the Germans thought that the infantry supported the tanks. This tactics really started to make a deference in the battles to come. With the German panzers swarming the French tanks and destroying them.

 Tanks of the 1930s followed the same style. Small lightly armored vehicles with a Howitzer or a Heavy machinegun. While the heavy tanks of the time were massive and slow. But they could carry bigger and better guns. Some of them even had two or three guns.

French char b1

The French main battle tank at the time of the invasion. Was the Char b1. Which for how much we make fun of the French tanks it was actually vary good. it had a frontal armor thickness (the front of the tanks had the strongest armor of the entire tank) of 60mm. while in comparison the b1's counter part the panzer 4 had only 37mm frontal armor that doesn't sound like much but when talking about supper strong metal its a lot. any way back to my praising of the French tanks the b1 had two guns a 75mm howitzer mounted in the hull and 47mm anti-tank gun in a turret on the top of the tank. The b1 only week ness was in the middle of the hull was a vent that allowed the engine to breath. this was the tanks only weakness. and as usually
the German commanders were able to exploit this.

panzer 3

The German army had two main battle tanks the panzer 3 and 4 the panzer 3 was a infantry support tank made to take out light armored vehicles  while the panzer 4 was made for knocking down buildings. both of these tanks mind you were far inferior to the French and English tanks but the German commanders far mad up for this downfall with new tactics and strategy's. the panzer 3 had armor of of 15mm  at the thickest it also had a 37 mm main gun.

panzer 4 short barrel

the panzer 4 had a armor thickness 37mm and a main gun of 75 mm this was a short barreled low velocity gun this fired a armor piercing and a high explosive gun.

tog 2

 both of these tanks were the main stay of the German armored forces but they were outclassed by the French tanks and the English armored forces that made a showing here. the English had no main battle tank but they had a large number of tanks but my favorite tank was the tog2 this tank had 75 mm frontal armor with a 76.2 mm main gun. the strangest part of this tank was that it was 33.3 ft. long this tank was never produced in large numbers but it is a funny looking tank.

the Germans also had a massive self propelled gun called the Thor this gun was it had a 24 inch main gun was 35 ft. long and weighed 131 tones this was a honorable mention tank it was amazing and I would like to suggest that you look more into it.

the thor
 

on may 10 1940 the German army invaded the country of France with  the blitzkrieg.

the French had built at the conclusion of the first world war. Which the French had lost a appalling amount of men and machines. The French military commanders just couldn't let that happen again. Therefore, they built a massive fortification along the entire French and German border, the Maginot line.

the Maginot line was a massive underground fortress that was literally underground it  with pillboxes and cannons the only problem was (and here is the best part) it stopped at the France and belgium border so if you wanted to get past the line you just went through  Belgium which is what the Germans did.

The Germans went around the line. Thrue  the ardennes forest, a time proven battle ground. Which the French were hopeing would be able to hold back any form of invasion. But this would prove false. For in the time of motorization, Moving across rough terrain easer. this proved to be a short a hard war for the French and there soon to arrive British allies.

One of the biggest mistakes that most people make including myself, was that Germany had the best tanks but this was not the case.
The French char b1, was the best tank at this time. It was far superior to the german heavy tank at the time the panzer 4.
www.worldwar2facts.org/world-war-2-tanks.html

Now you are probably asking yourself why then didn't France win then.

Well France had the one thing that can always make you lose, bad commanders. While the German commanders just started to make a name for them self's such as Erwin Rommel and Joseph Gerbils.

Erwin Rommel
 

The French thought of tanks as mobile pillboxes. Were as there German's thought of them as a tool to victory. This was the main resone  that the Germans won

in next weeks entry I will go more over on depth the early tank battles before we finish the invasion of France.