Sorry guys, but this is going to be another very short one.  General Weygand is trying to build up a viable line to keep the Germans from overrunning France.  General Giraud is trying to build up a mobile reserve and rebuild the French army for the long term.  Those two goals frequently clash in the frantic period as the battles around Dunkirk die down and the Germans get ready to head south to try to take the rest of France.  General Giraud tries very hard to hold on to newly forming units to keep them from being wasted by being sent into battle before they are properly trained and equipped.  Weygand needs every warm body he can grab to make a credible defense.  Most of the French defense industry, including almost all of its tank production is in the north of France.  Much of it is around Paris.  Weygand argues that France can’t equip new forces anyway if it loses in the north.  Giraud argues that the newly forming units have little combat capability against the Germans anyway and that throwing them into the battle is short-sighted.  He also fears that weakening North Africa too much will bring Italy and possibly even Spain into the war on Germany’s side.

As noted earlier, Giraud does get several newly forming divisions to finish their training and equipping in North Africa.  The French transfer four partly formed infantry divisions and the partly formed fourth DLM (essentially a light armored division) to North Africa to replace a similar number of complete divisions transferred to metropolitan France from North Africa.  One of the infantry divisions sent to North Africa is the 3rd Polish division, made up of Polish exiles.  Another of those divisions is made up of Czech exiles.  The fourth DLM is a DLM in name only.  It initially has no tanks other than some World War I era FT17s for training and very little transport.  Giraud manages to scrounge up a few dozen AMC-35’s that the French army has rejected due to engine reliability problems and thin armor.  He and sends them down to give the 4th DLM some credibility.

He also forms an armor commission, which sends representatives to the United States to buy any armor that the US has to offer.  There really isn’t much to buy.  The US has several hundred World War I-era tanks in storage, most of them a slightly improved US version of the FT-17.  The French buy a couple hundred of those for training and possibly use against the Italians and Spanish in North Africa.  The US also has some light tanks, but is still producing them in very small quantities.  A private US company, Marmon-Herrington, wants to get into the tank market, but doesn’t have a suitable design.  The French try to figure out if Marmon Herrington is capable of building a French design like the Somua S40.  That isn’t initially possibly because the S40 uses very large castings which Marmon-Harrington can’t reproduce.  France also looks into having Marmon-Herrington build a variant of the AMC-35 with a US-designed engine.  The French order four hundred US light tanks, but delivery won’t be until spring of 1941 at the earliest.

The US can supply large numbers of trucks with a relatively short lag-time.  They can also supply a considerable number of small arms. Roosevelt administration is combing the US arsenals for any small arms and artillery that can be sent to the French or British to rearm their forces.  Historically, the US shipped over 500,000 World War I-era rifles to the British after Dunkirk, along with several thousand machine guns and several hundred artillery pieces.  Initially much of that was slated for France, and in this scenario much of it may end up in French hands if the French decide to stay in the fight.

French tank production is up sharply in May 1940, as French industry makes a maximum effort to get tanks out to the troops.  The French produce over 400 tanks in May 1940, though over 300 of them are light R40s and H39s.  Most of those tanks go to shore up Weygand’s defenses in Northern France, a fact that infuriates Giraud.  His armored units get about 60 of the new tanks, all of them light H39s.  The rest go in penny-packets to improvised armored units acting as reserves for Weygand’s line.

The French political situation is getting nasty.  Petain is getting more and more defeatist, as is Primer Minister Reynaud’s mistress, who is increasingly pushing her way into political decision-making.  Giraud and her clash on a couple of occasions, and it looks like that is just the start of a feud between the two of them.  Hopefully more next time.
  <<more next-time.>>