Artillery

France's artillery, although largely obsolescent, was certainly numerous. In September of 1939 it consisted of almost 11,000 guns, many more tubes than the Germans could put into the field. Unfortunately for the French, nearly 6,000 of these were various versions of the Canon de 75 mle 1897, the famous "75" of WWI fame. Although still an effective gun, it was greatly outclassed by more modern field pieces and its flat trajectory made indirect fire impractical. It remained the mainstay of divisional artillery and of reserve independent artillery regiments. A number of 75's had been modernized with rubber tires and strengthened carriages to allow towing by motor vehicles. Efforts were being made to replace the 75 with different 105mm guns and howitzers.

France's heavy artillery was made up mostly of 155mm guns and howitzers, over 2,000 of these being the Canon de 155 mle 1917. The French also had dozens of railway guns, calibres ranging from 240mm to 520mm. Most of these were adaptations of pre-World War One naval pieces and were not comparable to the much more modern German guns in service.

This vast mass of artillery was organized into 200 artillery regiments upon mobilization in 1939, 44 of which were motorized or vehicle towed. Another 20 regiments were added by the time of the German offensive in May of 1940. Divisional regiments were usually 36 pieces strong if equipped with 75mm, 24 pieces if mixed 105mm and 155mm regiments. Independent 105, 145 and 155mm regiments also had 36 tubes.

The French Army was reasonably well supplied with anti-tank guns. There were two main types in service, the Canon Antichar de 25mm Hotchkiss and the 47mm Canon Antichar Mod 1937. The 25mm piece wasn't a good design, but it was adequate against most German armor of the era. Some of these were supplied to the British Army in France also. The 47mm was probably the best AT gun in the world at the time, definitely superior to the German 37mm.

Anti-Aircraft

France's anti-aircraft was greatly inferior in number and quality to that of its enemy. The responsibility for air defense (DCA) was divided: the Air Force was responsible for France's cities, the Army was responsible for the frontier and the Navy defended ports. Varying in calibre from 13.2mm to 105mm, most of these guns were emplaced in fixed mountings, of little or no use in the war of movement the Germans were about to impose on France. The 13.2mm machine-guns were mounted in pairs in French towns, probably mainly for morale purposes.

The Army operated semi-mobile or mobile 20mm guns of two types: the 2cm Mitrailleuse C.A. Oer (license copy of the Swiss Oerlikon) and the Mitrailleur CHM de 20mm Mod 1935, (license copy of the Danish Madsen 2cm Model 1935.) Both the Army and Air Force possessed large numbers of the Mitrailleuse de 25mm Hotchkiss, almost 1,000 being on strength. The Navy operated fixed 37mm modele 1925s for the defense of ports. The most common calibre for AA, as for artillery, was 75mm. Various models of this gun existed, with all three services, many of them World War One leftovers. A very few of the new 90mm de DCA Mod 1926 had been produced, most of them had gone to the Navy. The 105's were all elderly World War One era guns. The Air Force had also bought some Bofors 40mm AA guns from Belgium.

France had about 3,500 anti-aircraft guns by May of 1940. The Army was assigned almost 900 guns, the heavy (75mm) ones were concentrated into AA regiments. The light guns were spread out at concentration centers, road junctions and a few were assigned directly to units, 6-25mm per DLM and DIM as an example. But usually French field army units maneuvered with no anti-aircraft protection at all unless they happened to be close to one of the Army's AA concentrations. Given the Luftwaffe's emphasis on direct support, this was a most unfortunate policy.

The French Army in 1939

Introduction and Doctrine
Infantry
Cavalry and Armor
Artillery and Anti-Aircraft
Fortifications and Bibliography