Bob the Bookie wrote: The French were very easy to conquer because they were simply "morally exhausted" from the first World War where they had the most per captia deaths of any country.
Incredibly wrong; the French fought very well during WW2. I hate how this stereotype of the French as cheese eating surrender monkeys gets perpetuated. They lost the battle of France due to superior Germany techniques and NOT superior German weapons. France had the best army in Europe and near parity with the German air force. German won the battle of France due to the following:
1. Concentration of armor. The prevailing doctrine was that tanks should support infantry and be dispersed throughout the divisions. The Germans used revolutionary tactics; concentrating their tanks in armored divisions to achieve local superiority in numbers even though their tanks were neither as good nor did they have as many tanks as the allies.
2. Coordinated air, tank, and infantry attacks were used by Germany.
3. Germany attacked through the Ardennes where third line, "C" French divisions were stationed. In other words, the best Germans fought against the worst French divisions.
4. Germany had 3 army groups, A, B, and C. Army group A executed the "Sickle stroke" that tore through the Ardennes and surrounded the main French forces that were in Northern France. Army group B baited the French and made them think that the main thrust was going to be through Belgium and the Netherlands like in WW1. Army group C opposed the Maginot line and just held the line.
5. The flank of the armored thrust of Army Group A was very vulnerable to counterattack but the allies weren't decisive and didn't counterattack effectively.
Also, most German tanks were the terrible Panzer I and Panzer II's; they had few Panzer III's or IV's. Finally, the vast majority (like 90%) of the german army was horse-drawn--it was far from being mechanized like propaganda movies shoe them as.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtfmQKENDlM