The population of France in 1939: 39 million peopleThe population of Nazi Germany in 1939: 80 million peopleWhy did Stalin think they were going to exhaust each other in a WW1-style war of attrition? One side was clearly stronger than the other. France's eastern ally (Poland) was destroyed by Stalin himself, and the British expeditionaty force was no match to Wehrmacht.Did Stalin suck at math?
You know Germany already had the demographic advantage back in WW1 and still failed to knock out France right?
>>17434814Germany was not fighting France alone but Russia, France, and Britain. Austria-Hungary and Italy more or less canceling each other out.
>>17434819The point is, Germany wasn't expected to immediately smash France
>>17434803It's a travesty that the French celebrate the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, when it was those events what made them lose their prominence in Europe.The destruction of human life Europeans had in the 2 world wars, the French had it in the late 1700s and early 1800s, which killed most of their most athletic and corageous young men.If Petain hadn't surrendered and prevented the death of millions of younf French men again, today France would have a smaller population than Spain.
>>17434819>RussiaTook so much time mobilizing let alone appropriately arming their own soldiers and having effective railroads it's irrelevant to what he mattered, the battle of the Marne. The Germans could perfectly beat the French at the Marne but they were tactically outplayed.>BritainOnly an expeditionary corps in fall 1914
>>17434846Also, forgot to specify that the large majority of the German forces were concentrated on the Western front
