Why were the French so useless in WW2 despite performing

Free French were hardcore as fuck

Country had suffered terrible losses in WW1, everyone was tired of wars and just wanted to get on with their lives.
That and outdated strategy, French generals were mentally still stuck in past war.

>>3258592
Because you lack of education?

I don't know shit about military history, but I think french basically fought ww1 as if they were still in the franco prussian wars, and fought ww2 as if it was still ww1. Both of which led to disasters.

Due to winning WWI the French lept the same increasingly senile generals, and essentially the same tactics (except BIGGER).

Due to losing WWI, and essential dismantling of their military, the German generals mostly retired, and you had junior officers from WWI in command - with fresh ideas.

>>3258592

In WW1, France just used human waves and got mowed down by the German machine guns and artillery. This happened again, and again, and again. They won only because Britain and eventually America provided them with enough men that they could wear down the Germans over time through attrition.

In WW2, France learned its lesson, but they overcompensated. No longer did they throw soldiers lives away in pointless offensives. However, they became too overcautious, and too unwilling to risk their soldiers. Hitler, being a master manipulator, exploited this newfound reticence to score a quick victory over France.

>>3258592
The thing is that the French did fight admirably. Their tanks were miles ahead of the German tanks available at the time, to the point where the Char B1 was literally impervious to German tank guns. Where they did manage to get into the fight properly, they were extremely successful.

The problem is that the French military was organizationally a fucking mess, especially in their tank corps. What's more, their generals were stubborn, and used outdated ideas on the strategic level.

However, people tend to forget that the only reason the Brits were able to evacuate at Dunkirk was because the French held their ground at Lille, tying up seven German divisions for four days.

>>3258592
Literally right next to Germany with nowhere else to fall back to.
Eastern Europe did worse in that regard but they were able to at least fall all the way back to Stalingrad.

The French basically had to sit and take a full strength German invasion with nowhere to run and no back up after the Brits left.

As >>3258754 said hey performed well, just in a short time frame. They took down significant German numbers and made Rommel their bitch.

>>3258592

The rate of operations was sustained by the mass usage of meth. After the blitzkrieg they tried phasing out because a lot of soldiers would be rendered immobile for days after it wore off.

Meth also explains the perk and cheer of the 50s thru early 1960s. Those lonely housewives needed something to beat the boredom of 1950s homes. Remember, before cable, before internet, and before mobile phones. What a boring shithole.

And then when those responsible men and housewives suffered a downer. And what a downer! What vicious nightmares stalked America throughout the 60s!

You can't write a history of the 1950s and 1960s without investigating the pervasive usage of medical meth. Imagine what insane dreams of rational order were built into the minds of men...