Yeah, 10 Alpine divisions. The rest were defeated at the end of May, beginning of June, and in the surrounded Maginot Line.
The southern armies were forming and they could have brought colonials from africa.....
The point isto keep the Germans occupied in the west....
Also we havent make clear when the pod is,the further back stalin decides to attack the better the chances are for France to resist......
Yeah, 10 Alpine divisions. The rest were defeated at the end of May, beginning of June, and in the surrounded Maginot Line.
The best and most modern French armies had been sent north and lost in the resulting encirclement; the French had also lost much of their heavy weaponry and their best armoured formations. Overall, the Allies had lost 61 divisions in Fall Gelb.[213] Weygand was faced with the prospect of defending a long front (stretching from Sedan to the Channel), with a greatly depleted French Army now lacking significant Allied support. Weygand had only 64 French and one remaining British division (the 51st Highland) available.[213] Weygand lacked the reserves to counter a breakthrough or to replace frontline troops, should they become exhausted from a prolonged battle on a front of 965 kilometres (600 miles). The Germans had 142 divisions to use and total control of the air except over the English Channel.[213]
The French also had to deal with millions of civilian refugees fleeing the war in what became known as L'Éxode ("The Exodus"); automobiles and horse-drawn carts carrying possessions clogged roads. As the government had not foreseen such a rapid military collapse, little planning existed. Between six and ten million French fled, sometimes so quickly that they left uneaten meals on tables, even while officials stated that there was no need to panic and that civilians should stay. The population of Chartres declined from 23,000 to 800 and Lille from 200,000 to 20,000, while cities in the south such as Pau and Bordeaux rapidly grew in size.[214]
Adding to this grave situation, on 10 June, Italy declared war on France and Britain. Italy was not prepared for war and made little impact during the last twelve days of fighting. Italian dictator Benito Mussolini was aware of this and sought to profit from German successes.[215] Mussolini felt the conflict would soon end. As he said to the Army's Chief-of-Staff, Marshal Badoglio, "I only need a few thousand dead so that I can sit at the peace conference as a man who has fought."[216] However, French General René Olry commanding the Army of the Alps resisted all Italian attacks, and then repulsed German attacks from the Rhône valley.[citation needed]
Strength
France:
85,000
Italy:
300,000
At the start of the war, Olry's command consisted of ten divisions with over half a million men. By June 1940, all mobile troops had been stripped from the army and redeployed north to the main front against Germany. This left Olry with "three Alpine divisions, some Alpine battalions, the Alpine fortress demibrigades, and two Alpine chasseurs demibrigades" totaling between 175-185,000 men. Of this force, only 85,000 men were based on the frontier: 81,000 men (in 46 battalions) facing Italy, supported by 65 groups of artillery, and 4,500 facing Switzerland, supported by three groups of artillery.[34][35][36][nb 4] Olry's remaining force consisted of Series-B reserve divisions: second-line troops, typically comprised of reservists in their forties.[37][38] Overall, series-B divisions were a low priority for new equipment and there were also issues regarding the quality of training provided to the soldiers over the years.[39][40] However, the Army of the Alps maintained 86 platoons of section d'eclaireurs-skieurs (SES). These were elite troops trained in mountain warfare, skiing, mountain climbing, and equipped appropriately.[35][41]
Realistically Wiking, how many divisions did the French have left by mid June?