Precisions about the two World Wars in France

After today’s class discussion, I wanted to give more information about the two World Wars from the French viewpoint. First of all, in the First World War, the armies of France and Germany faced each other for a very long time without any major victories and the line of front stayed relatively stable during most of the war. This line was located in the east-northern part of France, as shown on the enclosed map. Thus Germany occupied a very little part of the French territory. The war between France and Germany lasted around 4 years. In comparison, France surrendered to Germany around two months after the beginning of the German invasion in the Second World War. The situation in France was thus totally different between the two World Wars. The northern half of France was occupied by Germany for four years during the Second World War whereas most of France was not occupied at all during the First one. This fact is important to keep in mind when we read Irène Némirovsky’s Suite Française. Moreover, the First World War was also referred to by the French people as “The Last War” because it had been so terrible that they did not want to go to war ever again. In the period between the two World Wars, the French people had the feeling another war with Germany needed to be avoided at all cost. This is the main reason why France and its allies did not react and let Germany reinforce itself by breaking the terms of the treaty of Versailles. People did not really believe that Germany would be ready to go to war once again after the disaster caused by the First World War for both sides. This why France was so unprepared and also to some extent unwilling to fight Germany in the Second world War. These resignation and lack of willingness to fight are very well depicted in Storm in June, the first part of Irène Némirovsky’s Suite Française.

 The French front during the First World War

 

France during the Second World War