The French Republic joined the Second World War on September 3, 1939, but until May 1940, the so-called strange war. The actual, large-scale military operations began only in May 1940 (the so-called French campaign). Shortly after the mobilization, the French army grew significantly and numbered about 2.2-2.3 million people on the north-eastern border. It is assumed that the French armed forces at the time of the German attack in May 1940 consisted of 117 divisions. Infantry divisions constituted a significant part of them. Each of them (excluding mountain and motorized infantry units) consisted of 3 infantry regiments, divided into three infantry battalions. Each battalion, in turn, was divided into 3 infantry companies and a heavy company. A single French infantry regiment numbered approximately 4,080 men. At the division level, this also included: the command company, the company of anti-tank weapons, the company of sappers and other supporting units. In total, the French infantry division had about 17,000 full-time employees, 370 manual machine guns, 170 heavy machine guns, 81 50 mm grenade launchers, 29 60 mm mortars, 27 81 mm mortars, 40 25 mm AT guns, 12 47 mm AT guns, 36 .75 mm and 24 howitzers 155 mm caliber. The main problems of the French infantry in the course of the French campaign are poor communication, not very modern combat tactics, often - but not always! - low morale of soldiers or bad command. Another drawback was the very poor anti-aircraft defense.
Battle of Sedan Second Battle of Sedan) was fought on May 12-15, 1940, between German and French troops. On the German side, about 60,000 people and about 770 tanks were engaged in the battle, while the French engaged about 20,000 soldiers and about 300 tanks. The battle was fought in the course of the implementation by the German side of the plan of an offensive operation against France, which went down in history as the so-called sickle cutting plan. Its immediate cause was the German offensive with armored units carried out by the Ardennes, which in the further course assumed the capture of the city of Sedan in order to continue the entire operation. The operational significance of the Sedan lay in the fact that the city was an important road junction, and what is more, within its boundaries there was a very important bridge over the Meuse. The Battle of Sedan started very successfully for the Germans, who captured very important bridgeheads on May 12, and shortly after that, the German land forces - closely cooperating with the Luftwaffe - managed to neutralize the resistance points surrounding the city. Despite the fact that the Allies attempted to drive the Germans out of the city (the battles of Brion and Stonne), as well as attempted to destroy the bridge over the Meuse, they did not achieve their goals and suffered considerable losses (especially in the air force). The battle turned out to be decisive for the entire French campaign in 1940 and decided about the German victory.