User blog comment:Crazy sam10/Origin weapon menu icons found in game files/@comment-86.41.18.200-20130822194149/@comment-3171236-20130823012452

The French were the biggest of the Western Allies in World War 1, having more troops deployed than the United Kingdom, and losing many more lives as well.

It was the French (with the British, and later the Americans) that held back German Assaults into France in both 1914 and 1918 (both times the allies could have easily lost the war, because the German Army was just 30 miles away from Paris), and the French who built a huge line of fortressess meant to defend France against Germany in case of a second war. However, the depression was really hard on France (who possessed one of the most prestigious militaries in the world at the time), and the Blitzkrieg tactics used by the Nazis were new to the French Generals whose strategies had evolved little from WW1.

The Fall of France in 1940 absolutely terrified people. Here was one of the most heavily defended countries in the entire world, and it fell within a month to a country who had, in the course of seven years, had gone from a defeated war power to a World Power hellbent on nothing short of complete domination of Europe.

And then the Blitz began...