Today is Wednesday the 10th. We are continueing with our presentations and Mr. Bruns has dropped us with a very good bombshell. Mr. Bruns will be gone tomorrow for an appointment with his wife so wewill be watching a movie tomorrow and we will not be presenting. To topt off, we only have 30 minute classes tomorrow and get a two hour earlyout! this just keeps getting better and better.
The next group to go was France. France was one of the worlds major powers. France didn't fair so well in WW2. General Charles de Gaulle was the leader of the Free French Forces. Urged his fellow Frenchmen toresist the Germans. The Free French Forces was an organization that wasset up to fight off of the oppressive Germans. They had to set up inGreat Brittain because the Germans had taken over all of France withina month.
The Vichy government was the government in France that Hitler allowed to control France. The Vichy was most famous for hunting down French Jews and turning them over the Germany. Right before the startof the War, Hitler asked to take over Austria. Everyone figured thatthis was alright. It was nothing to go to war over, and everyone knewthat Austria had previously asked to annex itself with Germany.
Hitler used this to further his goals to take more and more European land. Hitler was able to get a lot of land without any repercussions. He knew that Great Britain and France did not want to go to war andwould negotiate with him. After France was liberated from the Germans,they were struck with poverty and destruction. Much of the landscapewas completely ravaged and it took years for them to rebuild their oncegreat cities.
Their President, incidentally Charles De Gaulle, was set on getting France back onto their feet. They needed to rebuild their infrastructure and keep order. France went into World War 2 imposing asa strong World Power. France was actually very weak and fell quickly toGermany which had developed into an extremely strong world power.
The French's military strategy was to build up their defense. They built a large concrete barrier along the border of France to Italy. The wall was equipped with machine guns, trains, and hospitals, all ofwhich would build on the imposing structure of the wall. Hitler simplycut through right where the wall stopped. France lost a lot of rep. formaking such a tactiacal mistake. They worked so hard on building uptheir defenses that they did next to nothing to build up theiroffense.
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