France fights on out of Corsica

France fights on out of Corsica

I wonder what would happen if the French government instead of surrendering on June 22nd 1940 instead moved to the island of Corsica where they would fight on.

1, Is Germany capable of launching an invasion of the island.

2, Is the French fleet capable of defensing the island.

3, What would the effect be whit the French government not surrendering and instead fighting on based out of Corsica.
 
Corsica would be hard to supply. Certainly FFO! may want to hold it, but having it be the main center of strength is unwise, IMHO.
 
Corsica would be hard to supply. Certainly FFO! may want to hold it, but having it be the main center of strength is unwise, IMHO.

Is the island not capable of sustaining itself and if not can supplies not come from French Africa ore is that not enough to supply the island.
 
Is the island not capable of sustaining itself and if not can supplies not come from French Africa ore is that not enough to supply the island.

You don't want the centre of your Government based on an island forced into self-sufficiency, especially when there are other places to go.
 

Jeremy Lin

Banned
The French Army could have retreated to Algeria and created a corridor with the English in Egypt but their best strategy should have been to depart to England and form an army in exile.
 
In any situation where the legitamate French goverment evacuates mainland France the french colonies will remain loyal. While the french may use Corsica as a staging area for the evacuation the centre of any continuing french hostilities will be in Algeria, especialy as at that time it was legaly part of metropolitan France. What Corsica would be useful for would be as a base from which to bomb Italy. Because of this the Germans under presure from their Italian allies would probably stage an invasion. That close to Italy and shielded by Sardinia the allied navies would find it impossible to intervene, the Italian navy under friendly aircover would prevent any light forces stationed in Corsica reaching the invasion force. The Heavy allied ships would not be risked as their losses in this case would be very heavy.
 
The French Army could have retreated to Algeria .

This is a scenario that often comes up in AH, and it's one of my favorites. According to one book I have, the French could have assembled 15 infantry divisions in N. Africa, along with most of their modern planes (and some American ones that were ordered but not delivered) and the French Fleet, along with a few squads of tanks. The force would be not very mobile (lack of trucks and fuel), but would give Italian forces in Libya a hard time...
 
This is a scenario that often comes up in AH, and it's one of my favorites. According to one book I have, the French could have assembled 15 infantry divisions in N. Africa, along with most of their modern planes (and some American ones that were ordered but not delivered) and the French Fleet, along with a few squads of tanks. The force would be not very mobile (lack of trucks and fuel), but would give Italian forces in Libya a hard time...

Honestly I dont think I've ever seen a discussion on France keeps on fighting from exile - properly I mean, with the legitimite government fleeing to London without an Armistice. The French Fleet and colonies all on side from June 1940 could be a boost to the Allies - certainly, it weakens the Italian position in Libya. Would it be impossible for Anglo-French forces to capture Tripoli before the *Afrika Korps pops up to reinforce them?

Churchill greenlights an invasion of Sicily in 1941 :rolleyes:

It also raises question on Japan's aquisition of Indochina - any move in such a timeline is a de jure declaration of war, not a muddled fait accompli with an ally's puppet. If Japan doesn't have the gumption, its attack into mainland South-East Asia is going to be a lot harder.
 
Honestly I dont think I've ever seen a discussion on France keeps on fighting from exile - properly I mean, with the legitimite government fleeing to London without an Armistice. The French Fleet and colonies all on side from June 1940 could be a boost to the Allies - certainly, it weakens the Italian position in Libya. Would it be impossible for Anglo-French forces to capture Tripoli before the *Afrika Korps pops up to reinforce them?

with the Free French in N. Africa and the Brits swiftly conquering Libya, it's debatable if there would even be an Afrika Korps... Hitler might just decide to write off the whole thing and concentrate first on Britain and second on Russia...
 
You don't want the centre of your Government based on an island forced into self-sufficiency, especially when there are other places to go.

Well, the French could probably use Corsicans like the Navajo code-talkers in this case. Which begs the question - I wonder if there's enough room in Ajaccio to house everybody?
 
Well, the French could probably use Corsicans like the Navajo code-talkers in this case. Which begs the question - I wonder if there's enough room in Ajaccio to house everybody?

It would be utterly stupid to use the Corsicans as code talkers, considering that Corsican is a dialect of Italian with a relativly high degree of mutual understanding between both languages.

In a scenario where France Fights On like the one posited by the France Fights On project, North Africa and not Corsica would be the main centre of resistance for the following reasons:
-Better harbor infrastructure
-Basic industrial infrastructure
-Possibility of total self sufficiency on food with the right investments and decisions
-Harder to bomb from Italy

Corsica would be best used as a staging area for planes and fast toperdo boats groups alongside possibly commando groups for suprise attacks on the mainland.

The only way for the Germans to take the island considering allied naval superiority would be through a mass paratrooper assault combined by naval reinforcements once bridgeheads have been taken by the Fallschirmjägers.

Even then things won't be easy as the geography utterly favours the defender and heavy equipment like tanks is of amost no use in Corsica mountainous terrain.
 
Much like Crete and Malta, Corsica would have been very handy to hold onto as a forward base, but maybe not secure enough to be the captial of Free France. It would certainly put Italian Sardinia in a vice.
 
How close to running out of supplies, manpower, and equipment did the Germans come just in knocking out Continental France and the BEF? They had to build up (phony war) to do what they did.
 
It would be utterly stupid to use the Corsicans as code talkers, considering that Corsican is a dialect of Italian with a relativly high degree of mutual understanding between both languages.

That probably would only be the case if you used the northern dialects (say, those in Bastia or Calvi). The southern dialects (the ones that use "beddu" [with a retroflex /ɖ/] for "bellu", cf. the French cognate "belle") would probably throw Italians off.
 
It also raises question on Japan's aquisition of Indochina - any move in such a timeline is a de jure declaration of war, not a muddled fait accompli with an ally's puppet. If Japan doesn't have the gumption, its attack into mainland South-East Asia is going to be a lot harder.

Japan moved into the nothern part to cut Chinese supply via the railway from IndoChina (which they failed to cut via an offensive from the Chinese side of the border). The French resisted Japanese pressure until September 40, when faced with the prospect of a real invasion they had to agree to let the Japanese in.

A legit French government would resist and would be able to reinforce the colony from other places. If Japan doesn't close the railway the China war for them becomes much tougher. I wonder if Japan just invades the colony anyway. What other choice do they have???

Would Britain really DOW in Japan in September 1940 over a Japanese invasion of northern IndoChina with a goal of only cutting the railway. The USA wouldn't come in then and Britain and France would have a lot on their hands.
 
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The population of Corsica is about the size of Malta so supplying the place wouldn't be hard for a combined British - French navy with bases in Africa.

The Germans wouldn't make any serious effort to take the place as long as a Battle of Britain was going on and an Italian effort solo would be a dismal failure.
 
Isn't theere also the question of what change would be needed to get the French to even try such an option? After all several other countries chose the 'government in exile' strategy and the French had options if they didn't want to base it in Britain so what would need to be different to make them pursue it?
 
You would need to have the Italians stay neutral, then much like the Nationalist Chinese the government can set up shop on Corsica while claiming to be the true government of France. What ever puppet government the Germans allow would of course despute this denouncing the Free French as traitors and dupes of the British. Even in this senario the main center of the Free French would still be North Africa as the main base of the Navy and whatever aircraft have survived the fall of mainland France. There's just not enough room on Corsica for it to be the main base. THe question then becomes which of the two French governments will the empire follow? I believe that with the exception of Indochina the empire will support the Corsican French. Indochina under pressure from Japan would be forced to follow the puppet government and accept Japanese "protection from the British, and Chiangs bandits".
 
You would need to have the Italians stay neutral, then much like the Nationalist Chinese the government can set up shop on Corsica while claiming to be the true government of France. What ever puppet government the Germans allow would of course despute this denouncing the Free French as traitors and dupes of the British. Even in this senario the main center of the Free French would still be North Africa as the main base of the Navy and whatever aircraft have survived the fall of mainland France. There's just not enough room on Corsica for it to be the main base. THe question then becomes which of the two French governments will the empire follow? I believe that with the exception of Indochina the empire will support the Corsican French. Indochina under pressure from Japan would be forced to follow the puppet government and accept Japanese "protection from the British, and Chiangs bandits".

The Navy went Vichy; even assuming the Italians don't enter the war and bring contention for the med into the picture, how exactly would Corsica go the way of Taiwan?

Historically, there was a rump French state on the mainland, with control of all French possessions on the med coast.

A scenario with no armistice, with the whole of the mainland being overrun and the island holding on has logic to me. It doesn't work as a capital, and Algiers was a part of Metropolitan France on paper, so the government would likely shift there. A Vichy with control of Marseilles and Algiers wouldn't have a Taiwan in Corsica.
 
The thing is with the legitimate government continuing the fight the navy would still be under their orders. Vichy was the legal government in real life DeGaule and the Free French were technically deserters and traitors. No one can say what choice the Navy would have made as Churchill took that choice for them. Once the RN attacked they had no where else to go they had to stay loyal to Vichy. Whether official or not after this Britain was at war with France.
 
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