What was France involvement in world war 2?

Answer 1

Battles were fought at Dinant, Sedan, Amiens & Abbeville, France during May 1940.

Richard V. Horrell WW 2 Connections.com

I feel that the one and only answer already given to this question is not good enough.The French army fought in 1940 but was badly led and the French politicians were either stupid or dishonest or both.The French lost a lot of men in 1940.Many went to Germany as prisoners of war.Some people feld to Britain and fomred the free french and lots of french forces were outside France anyway in the french empire in Africa and Asia.In France the Vichy govt under Petain fought against the french who did not want to help the Germans.DE GAULLE after a struggle for their hearts and minds won the majority of french people outside France round to the idea of a new France fighting alongside the allies.Britain and later when thy joined the war America helped the french and French troops fought in Italy in 1943 and in North Africa,at Bir Hakeim (a Paris metro station is named after this battle.)Another metro station is called JACQUE BONSARJENT after a french man who refused to be pushed off the pavement by a German soldier,he was executed).French naval and air units fought Germany from Britain and French units landed on D day with the rest of the allies.French troop numbers were small at first but they fought weel because they wanted to prove that it was not just Americans and British who had liberated Europe.The French helped occupy Germany in 1945.

Other than the initial fighting with Germany, I don't recall any historical record of significant actions taken by organized French military units. There were some small engagements, part of the French Navy defected to England, and there was the noteworthy bravery of the Resistance.

Although Eisenhower ordered Patton to allow DeGaul to enter Paris as the liberator, France had little impact in the winning of WWII.

"There were some small engagements, part of the French Navy defected to England, and there was the noteworthy bravery of the Resistance."

Kind of wrong. France was one of the most important armies in the Italian Campaign, and French troops were the first to crack the Gustav Line, allowing Polish troops to take Monte Cassino and the Americans to liberate Rome.

Furthermore, although the French troops were not so important in the liberation of Northern France (the only significant contribution being the French 2nd Armored Division under the 3rd U.S. Army), the French First Army under General de Lattre de Tassigny was half of the entire force that liberated all of Southern France (Operation Dragoon being the "other" D-Day that popular media and Hollywood don't talk about). The French First Army would continue to fight and penetrate deep into German territory by the end of the war.

We can say that the French were "unimportant" in winning the war as a whole, but then again we can say that of any Ally aside from the Big Three. But imagine if the French and all the other underdogs of the war were not a part of the fighting; how many more American, British, and Soviet lives would have been lost?

Oh, and just to add, there were about 1,250,000 French soldiers fighting the Axis by the end of the war. That's about the same number of troops as the American military has today.

250,000 French Allied soldiers died in WW2. 400,000 American Allied soldiers died in WW2. Seems like a big difference until one realizes that at the time period, France only had 17% the amount of people the United States did.

France's role in the war is seriously underplayed. The situation is even worse because the media and particularly dim people enjoy ridiculing and making fun of France, falsely stating things like France never fought. As if WW2 was a joke.

Answer 2

Battles Dates

Atlantic September 1939 - May 1945

Berlin April 16 - May 2, 1945

Britain July 10 - October 31, 1940

Bulge December 16, 1944 - January 25, 1945

El Alamein (First Battle) July 1-27, 1942

El Alamein (Second Battle) October 23 - November 4, 1942

Guadalcanal Campaign August 7, 1942 - February 9, 1943

Iwo Jima February 19 - March 16, 1945

Kursk July 5 - August 23, 1943

Leningrad (Siege) September 8, 1941 - January 27, 1944

Leyte Gulf October 23-26, 1944

Midway June 3-6, 1942

Milne Bay August 25 - September 5, 1942

Normandy (including D-Day) June 6 - August 25, 1944

Okinawa April 1 - June 21, 1945

Operation Barbarossa June 22, 1941 - December 1941

Operation Torch November 8-10, 1942

Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941

Philippine Sea June 19-20, 1944

Stalingrad August 21, 1942 - February 2, 1943

D-Day June 6, 1944

AnswerStalingrad AnswerThe Battle of Kursk and the Battle of the Atlantic. Michael Montagne AnswerTwo main battles that Canada was involved in:

The battle of Dieppe was a raid at Dieppe, France, on August 19, 1942. 6100 soldiers were involved, 4963 of these were Canadian. The purpose of the raid was to test new techniques and equipment, before the actual invasion of Europe by Allied forces. It was also meant to show support for Russia, which was under attack by Germany at the time.

The two main strategic advantages of the raid were surprise and darkness. Unfortunately these were both lost when the Allies encountered a German convoy not far off the coast of France. The noise that ensued in the fight with the convoy warned the Germans of the pending raid, and set back the timing of the attack. In addition, the Allies experienced communications problems with their new technology.

Once the Germans knew that they were coming, the Allies didn't have much of a chance. Once the force hit the beach of Dieppe, which was surrounded by cliffs, they had nowhere to go. The Germans thought that the raid was an actual attack and sent a lot of reinforcements.

The result was the deadliest battle in terms of one day's losses for Canadians. Only 2210 of the original 6100 soldiers returned to Britain. 882 Canadians had been killed, 587 had been wounded, and 1873 were taken as prisoners.

A second battle was Operation Overlord, or D-Day, which took place on June 6, 1944.

By 1943, the Allies knew that they would have to act soon to free Europe from Hitler's clutches. They decided that the attack would occur in May, 1944. The allies trained extensively for the invasion, and every single last detail was carefully planned out. The Allies even staged radio transmissions that made it seem as if they were going to invade North east of Seine, to trick the Germans. In the end, 2/3 of all bombs dropped in the battle were dropped away from the real target to draw the Germans away.

The invasion was postponed to June 5 due to technical difficulties, and then again by another day due to weather. When the weather cleared, the Allies attacked early on June 6, to great success.

AnswerBattle of Normandy and Battle of the Bulge. AnswerBattle of Midway and the Battle of the Coral Sea AnswerMeasured by the number of casualties (any other suggestions regarding how we measure importance?) these were definitely Stalingrad and Kursk (Prokhorovka) followed by Moskva and Berlin.

Regards

Answer1. Stalingrad AnswerThere were many battles fought in WW2 but a few important names you will hear are

-Midway- The battle between the U.S. and Japanese naval fleets..... This was the turning point in the war against Japan because most of Japan's fleet was destroyed

-D-Day- the invasion of Normandy which game the allies a foothold on Europe

-The battle of the Bulge- last major offensive Hitler launched to try and hold back allied powers

Stalingrad- Battle deep in russia where the Russians finally defeated the Germans and were able to go on the offensive... This was a major turning point in the war because the Nazi army suffered heavy loses and the moral sapped

-Battle of Britain- Battle fought over Britain... Air battle between G.B.'s Royal Airforce and Germany's Luftwaffe.

-If you are talking about the pacific war than one battle for this question would be Iwo Jima.

Hope that helped

-Stephen Meyer 15,Dylan

Battle of Midway, D-Day, & Battle of the Bulge on the Western and Pacific fronts. On the Eastern front, Operation Barbarossa, Battle of Stalingrad, and Battle of Berlin changed the course of the war.

The BATTLE OF BRITAIN was one of the longest battles.

The Battle of Britan lasted around 4 months with the heaviest fighting over 5 weeks from mid Auguest to September.

One of the longest Battles was the siege of Leningrad but it wasn't considered to be important because there was no decisive result.

Midway was the most decisive Battle in the Pacific.

Stalingrad was the most decisive Battle in Russia

2nd Alamain was the most decisive in North Africa

The Falaise pocket was the most decisive Battle of the invasion of France.
Pearl Harbor - [Dec. 7th, 1941] The surprise attack on the naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

Battle of Stalingrad - [1942] The Soviets beat the Germans out of Stalingrad and the Germans began to be pushed out of the Soviet Union.

Battle of Midway - The U.S. navy beat the Japanese navy.

Normandy, France (D-Day) [1944] U.S., British, and Canadian troops were able to attack Germany from the West.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki - [1945] The U.S. dropped bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This ended WWII.

Answer 3

France declared war on Germany a couple of days after it invaded Poland. Then there was a period they called the "phony war," in which nothing happened on the border between France and Germany for about 7-8 months, because France's strategy was heavily defensive so they weren't going to move till Germany moved, and Germany was busy building up its strength and fighting elsewhere--overrunning Poland, and later invading elsewhere such as Denmark & Scandinavian countries.

Then in the spring of 1940 Germany attacked, and outmaneuvered the French decisively by going through a region that was considered impassable & so hadn't been defended; most of the French army ended up trapped behind enemy lines and taken prisoner, very few were left in the way of the German army, and the German army overran France with remarkable speed. (This phase of the war, and the strategy of great speed and overwhelming force the Germany used for it, was called blitzkrieg, German for "lightning war.) Before the German army could get all the way to the south coast of France, the French gov't sued for peace and signed an armistice.

According to the armistice agreement the Germans occupied the northern half of France, while the southern half was "free" and under its own government, based in the city of Vichy and therefore known as the "Vichy government". It was essentially

For the rest of the war the French military activities were restricted to the resistance and the "Free French." There were several networks of resistance, some of whom did things like assassination and sabotage and others were more like spies, focusing on getting intelligence on the Germans to provide to England & the Allies. The Free French were an army of French people who gathered in exile (mostly England) under general De Gaulle, a French general who went to England after being fired from the French army for refusing to accept the armistice. These "Free French" formed themselves into an army that was equipped and armed by Great Britain and the U.S., and participated in D-Day and the liberation of France.
France decided to combat the Axis powers with Great Britain when Germany blitzkreg Poland. The Allied force fought valiently but they were no match for the German war machine. The French army fought Germany inside their own country but surrendered after fighting a long hard battle. The Germans marched in France feeling confident they'll win. A secret resistence fought on the German army throughout the war. When the D-day invasion happened, the resistence began to convince the citizens to fight the Germans. Together, the French and Allied army pushed the Germans out of France. Also, throughout the rest of the war, the french army combined with the other nations, pushed through Nazi Germany to the capital of Berlin. When the Germans surrendered, France, along with the other nations in Europe, began celebrating known as V-E day (Victory in Europe Day)

Answer 4

Not many. The French caved pretty quickly, once the Germans got past the Maginot Line by going through Belgium and through the Ardennes Forest. Answer: Invasion of Normandy? In 1944, the single largest invasion in military history ever before and ever since. How about the air battles over France? What of the guerrilla warfare by the French Resistance? And you can't forget the Bulge in the winter of '44-'45.

Answer 5

They were part of the Allies, and after Hilter took over Czechoslovakia, Britain and France declared war. Basically France got whooped as Hilter invaded them through Belgium and then the Vichy government was set up(bad/on Hitler's side). France wasnt safe until D-Day when the allies attacked throught the underbelly of France in Normandy..

Answer 6

That would require a very complexed and lengthy answer. For the sake of expediency and accuracy please consult the link to this answer.

Answer 7

They were in the Battle of France in which they fought the Germans and France lost