Harvest of Mars: History and War

The Fall of France: The "Strange Defeat" of World War II

Season 1 Episode 3

“The generation to which I belong has a bad conscience.”
- Marc Bloch, 1940

In the episode, we take a look at the fall of France to Nazi Germany during WWII.  Although the German Blitzkrieg has a reputation for being a military powerhouse, the reality is that the Allied forces were stronger on paper.  Not only did the Allies lose, but they also did so in spectacular fashion as France surrendered after just six weeks of fighting in what the famous historian Mark Bloch called a "Strange Defeat."