Recolitus
25-11-2006, 01:51
Important Officials
(NOTE: Due to France's inability to keep a solid government for a period of time, I am going to use Officials from Paul Reynaud's government from March 21 - June 16, 1940)
(NOTE II: Most information on leaders taken from Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.com) articles)
President
Albert Lebrun
Lebrun was elected president of France following the assassination of president Paul Doumer by Pavel Gurgulov on May 6, 1932. Re-elected in 1939, largely because of his record of accommodating all political sides.
Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs
Paul Reynaud
Like Winston Churchill, Reynaud was a maverick in his party and often alone in his calls for rearmament and resistance to German aggrandizement. Reynaud was a supporter of Charles de Gaulle's theories of mechanized warfare in contrast to the static defense doctrines that were in vogue among many of his countrymen, symbolized by the Maginot Line, and was an outspoken opponent of appeasement in the run-up to the Second World War.
Minister of National Defense and War
Édouard Daladier
Daladier became Minister of War for the Popular Front coalition in 1936, and became Prime Minister again on 10 April 1938 after the fall of the Popular Front. His term in power saw the Munich Agreement, when France backed out of its obligations to defend Czechoslovakia against Nazi Germany. When the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was signed, Daladier responded to the public outcry by outlawing the French Communist Party, which had refused to condemn Joseph Stalin's actions.
Minister of the Commerce and Industry
Louis Rollin
No information available
Minister of Military Marine
César Campinchi
No information available
Minister of Information
Ludovic-Oscar Frossard
Elected to the Chamber of Deputies (the lower chamber of the French Third Republic) on a Socialist platform with the 1928 and the 1932 Cartel des gauches; Frossard quit the SFIO parliamentary group during the latter 1936 mandate. His departure did not prevent him from becoming Minister of Propaganda (and the first one ever in this capacity) in Blum's Second Popular Front Ministry (March-April 1938). From 1935, Frossard had been a member of the governments of Pierre Laval and Albert Sarraut (as Labor Minister), as well as that of Camille Chautemps (as Minister of State in charge of the Services of the Presidency of the Council).
Minister of Supply
Henri Queuille
No information available
Commander of the 4th Armoured Division
Colonel Charles de Gaulle
Outspoken critic of Germany and called for reformation of the French armoured divisions, he proposed the formation of a professional mechanized army with specialized armored divisions, in preference to the static theories exemplified by the Maginot Line.
Economy
The "Great War", robbed France of a generation of its youth, and of some of the youthful imagination necessary for facing Germany again, only 25 years later, in the Second World War, when a by-then aged French general staff was ill-prepared and entirely-defensive up against an even more militant German economy and army.
Population/Yearly output of steel in tons
41,600,000/6,221,000
Military
Supreme Commander: Maréchal de France Maxime Weygand
Armee de Terre
Armee des Alpes: Général OLRY
1st Armée: Général BLANCHARD
2nd Armée: Général HUNTZIGER
3rd Armée: Général CONDE
4th Armée: Général REQUIN
5th Armée: Général BOURRET
8th Armée: Général GARCHERY
9th Armée: Général CORAP
Réserve de GQG: Général PRUGAR KETLING
Infantry: 900,000 Regulars; ~5,000,000 Trained and Ready to be called up
Tanks:
Renault FT17: 534
Renault R35/40: 1035
Hotchkiss H35: 398
Hotchkiss H39: 790
FCM 36: 90
Renault D2: 75
Renault B1 & B1 bis: 313
FCM 2C: 6
Somua S35: 243
Panhard 178: 923
Organization:
1. Armee
2. Corps
3. Cavalry Company
4. Artillery Company
5. Infantry Company
6. Engineers Company
7. Signals Company
8. Transport Company
9. Medical Company
10. Finance and Quartermaster Company
Marine Nationale
4 Battleships: Dunkerque, Strasbourg, Richelieu and Jean Bart
71 Destroyers
76 Submarines
2 Battle cruisers
7 heavy cruisers
12 light cruisers
Armée de l'Air
Zone d'Opérations Aériennes Nord - Général d'Astier de La Vigerie
Zone d'Opérations Aériennes Est - Général Bouscat
Zone d'Opérations Aériennes Sud - Général Odic
Zone d'Opérations Aériennes Alpes - Général Laurens
826 Fighters
250 Bombers
Organization:
1. HQ
2. Groupement
(NOTE: Due to France's inability to keep a solid government for a period of time, I am going to use Officials from Paul Reynaud's government from March 21 - June 16, 1940)
(NOTE II: Most information on leaders taken from Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.com) articles)
President
Albert Lebrun
Lebrun was elected president of France following the assassination of president Paul Doumer by Pavel Gurgulov on May 6, 1932. Re-elected in 1939, largely because of his record of accommodating all political sides.
Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs
Paul Reynaud
Like Winston Churchill, Reynaud was a maverick in his party and often alone in his calls for rearmament and resistance to German aggrandizement. Reynaud was a supporter of Charles de Gaulle's theories of mechanized warfare in contrast to the static defense doctrines that were in vogue among many of his countrymen, symbolized by the Maginot Line, and was an outspoken opponent of appeasement in the run-up to the Second World War.
Minister of National Defense and War
Édouard Daladier
Daladier became Minister of War for the Popular Front coalition in 1936, and became Prime Minister again on 10 April 1938 after the fall of the Popular Front. His term in power saw the Munich Agreement, when France backed out of its obligations to defend Czechoslovakia against Nazi Germany. When the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was signed, Daladier responded to the public outcry by outlawing the French Communist Party, which had refused to condemn Joseph Stalin's actions.
Minister of the Commerce and Industry
Louis Rollin
No information available
Minister of Military Marine
César Campinchi
No information available
Minister of Information
Ludovic-Oscar Frossard
Elected to the Chamber of Deputies (the lower chamber of the French Third Republic) on a Socialist platform with the 1928 and the 1932 Cartel des gauches; Frossard quit the SFIO parliamentary group during the latter 1936 mandate. His departure did not prevent him from becoming Minister of Propaganda (and the first one ever in this capacity) in Blum's Second Popular Front Ministry (March-April 1938). From 1935, Frossard had been a member of the governments of Pierre Laval and Albert Sarraut (as Labor Minister), as well as that of Camille Chautemps (as Minister of State in charge of the Services of the Presidency of the Council).
Minister of Supply
Henri Queuille
No information available
Commander of the 4th Armoured Division
Colonel Charles de Gaulle
Outspoken critic of Germany and called for reformation of the French armoured divisions, he proposed the formation of a professional mechanized army with specialized armored divisions, in preference to the static theories exemplified by the Maginot Line.
Economy
The "Great War", robbed France of a generation of its youth, and of some of the youthful imagination necessary for facing Germany again, only 25 years later, in the Second World War, when a by-then aged French general staff was ill-prepared and entirely-defensive up against an even more militant German economy and army.
Population/Yearly output of steel in tons
41,600,000/6,221,000
Military
Supreme Commander: Maréchal de France Maxime Weygand
Armee de Terre
Armee des Alpes: Général OLRY
1st Armée: Général BLANCHARD
2nd Armée: Général HUNTZIGER
3rd Armée: Général CONDE
4th Armée: Général REQUIN
5th Armée: Général BOURRET
8th Armée: Général GARCHERY
9th Armée: Général CORAP
Réserve de GQG: Général PRUGAR KETLING
Infantry: 900,000 Regulars; ~5,000,000 Trained and Ready to be called up
Tanks:
Renault FT17: 534
Renault R35/40: 1035
Hotchkiss H35: 398
Hotchkiss H39: 790
FCM 36: 90
Renault D2: 75
Renault B1 & B1 bis: 313
FCM 2C: 6
Somua S35: 243
Panhard 178: 923
Organization:
1. Armee
2. Corps
3. Cavalry Company
4. Artillery Company
5. Infantry Company
6. Engineers Company
7. Signals Company
8. Transport Company
9. Medical Company
10. Finance and Quartermaster Company
Marine Nationale
4 Battleships: Dunkerque, Strasbourg, Richelieu and Jean Bart
71 Destroyers
76 Submarines
2 Battle cruisers
7 heavy cruisers
12 light cruisers
Armée de l'Air
Zone d'Opérations Aériennes Nord - Général d'Astier de La Vigerie
Zone d'Opérations Aériennes Est - Général Bouscat
Zone d'Opérations Aériennes Sud - Général Odic
Zone d'Opérations Aériennes Alpes - Général Laurens
826 Fighters
250 Bombers
Organization:
1. HQ
2. Groupement