Thread by @PhillipsPOBrien

Intrigued by how people denigrate what the French had to face in 1940 while forgetting that the French were fighting a more powerful Wehrmacht than was used to attack the USSR in 1941. Yes you have heard that right. France had to fight a stronger Germany than the Russians!

What you say, that can’t be because there were more tanks attacking Russia? Thats true for tanks; as there somewhat over 3000 German tanks involved in Barbarossa and only a little over 2500 when they attacked France.

Yet the small difference is dwarfed by the much smaller Air Force that the Germans were able to use to support Barbarossa. It was approximately half the size.

On April 1, 1940 as the Germans were preparing to attack France and the Low Countries they had almost 4000 combat aircraft available for operations. Oroh when they attacked Russia they had just over 2000.

In the crucial categories for which we have exact data they are:
April 1, 1940
1656 long range bombers; 356 bomber/recon; 392 dive bombers; 1258 single engine fighters

On June 28, 1941 as the Germans had on the Eastern Front:
730 LRBs, 290 bomber/recon, 303 dive bombers, and 828 single engine fighters.

So combined in these crucial classes the Germans had 3662 aircraft ready to attack west in May 1940 and only 2152 on the eastern front when they attacked Russia. (These can all be found in German quartermasters reports data of which is in the UKNA)

As one German aircraft had a value approximately 8 times that of a German tank, the 1500 extra aircraft alone (and this is only some of the extra) would have been worth more than 10,000 tanks.

So really, what the French and British had to face in May 1940 was a relatively much more powerful force than was thrown against the USSR in 1941.
People who like to make fun of the French, please shut up!