In May-June 1940 Germany shocked the world by defeating the combined forces of France, Britain, Holland and Belgium in the Battle of France.
At the time no one expected that the French forces would be defeated in such a short campaign. During the interwar period the French Army was thought to be the best trained and equipped force in Europe. On the other hand Germany had only started to rearm in the 1930’s.
The sudden collapse of France led to a search for the reasons of this strange defeat. There was no shortage of excuses. Every part of France’s defense strategy came under attack, from the old Generals of WWI that tried to control the battle from the rear to the funds wasted building the Maginot line.General Gamelin who commanded the French forces told Churchill that the defeat was due to: ‘Inferiority of numbers, inferiority of equipment, inferiority of method’.
Was that true? Considering the role played by the German Panzer divisions in cutting off the northern part of the front it is important to have a look at their strength.Did the Germans have more tanks than the Franco-British Alliance?
According to Panzertruppen vol1, p120-121 the German Panzer divisions used in the Battle of France had the following strength on May 10 1940:Div | Regt | Pz I | Pz II | Pz III | Pz IV | Pz 35 | Pz 38 | Pz Bef | Sum |
1 Pz Div | 1,2 | 52 | 98 | 58 | 40 | 8 | 256 | ||
2 Pz Div | 3,4 | 45 | 115 | 58 | 32 | 16 | 266 | ||
3 Pz Div | 5,6 | 117 | 129 | 42 | 26 | 27 | 341 | ||
4 Pz Div | 35,36 | 135 | 105 | 40 | 24 | 10 | 314 | ||
5 Pz Div | 31,15 | 97 | 120 | 52 | 32 | 26 | 327 | ||
6 Pz Div | 11 | 60 | 31 | 118 | 14 | 223 | |||
7 Pz Div | 25 | 34 | 68 | 24 | 91 | 8 | 225 | ||
8 Pz Div | 10 | 58 | 23 | 116 | 15 | 212 | |||
9 Pz Div | 33 | 30 | 54 | 41 | 16 | 12 | 153 | ||
10 Pz Div | 7,8 | 44 | 113 | 58 | 32 | 18 | 265 | ||
Total | 554 | 920 | 349 | 280 | 118 | 207 | 154 | 2,582 |
The same source gives the following losses at the end of the battle in page 141:
Pz I | Pz II | Pz III | Pz IV | Pz 35 | Pz 38 | Pz Bef | Sum | |
May | 142 | 194 | 110 | 77 | 45 | 43 | 38 | 649 |
June | 40 | 46 | 25 | 20 | 17 | 11 | 31 | 190 |
Total | 182 | 240 | 135 | 97 | 62 | 54 | 69 | 839 |
How did the German tank strength compare with the Allies? According to The Blitzkrieg Legend: The 1940 Campaign in the West, p37-38 the French Army had in the Northeastern Front 3.254 tanks, the British Expeditionary Corps had 310 plus 330 in transit from the UK, the Dutch Army had 40 armored vehicles and the Belgian Army roughly 270. Total for the Allies came to 4.204.
So in the field of tanks the Germans were definitely outnumbered. If we look at tank types it’s easy to see that they were also outgunned. Their main vehicles were the Panzer I and Panzer II. The first had only two machineguns and the second a 20mm gun. Against Allied tanks equipped with guns of 37mm caliber and over they were cannon fodder.
The German victory was not due to a numerical or qualitative superiority in armored vehicles. Instead it had to do with the way they used their armored forces, grouping them together, supporting them with ample airpower and providing them with dedicated infantry, anti-tank, artillery and communication units.