The French Conscript of the Phoney War
On 2 September 1939, the day after the invasion of Poland, France declares general mobilization and calls up around five million men. Among them, a draftee of the conscript class, a skilled worker in civilian life, receives his marching orders and joins a unit assigned to the fortified sectors of the Maginot Line.
During the "Phoney War," from September 1939 to May 1940, the North-Eastern front remains largely inactive: long weeks of waiting, fatigue duties, boredom and uncertainty, with no major fighting in the West.
Faced with this assignment and this demoralizing wait, the draftee can serve loyally, contest or refuse his assignment, or desert.
Mobilized in September 1939 and sent to the Maginot Line, how does this draftee respond to his assignment orders?
The vast majority of the roughly five million French men mobilized in 1939 served loyally, enduring the waiting and boredom of the Phoney War with no fighting in the West until May 1940. Desertions and refusals of assignment remained marginal. During the German offensive of May-June 1940, around 1.8 million French soldiers were taken prisoner and spent years in captivity in the stalags and oflags. The dominant documented behavior was therefore obedience and loyal service.
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