Figure 1.--Here French childre in Le Harve area are waitimy the door of a U.S. Army mess hall for GIs to comeout so they cam pick at mess kits for something to eat. La Harve was on e of thevAtlantic U-boat basesvheavily bombed by the Allies. |
|
Hitler had with Stalin's aid launched War (1939). But in fact he saw East as providing the resources he needed to secure victory. This is very clear in Mein Kampf nearly two decades earlier. As the war played out, however, it would be primarily the occupied West that would be the mainstay of the German war effort, especially France. The Germans through various mechanisms exploited France to support the War effort. As a result, vast quantities of consumer goods and food flowerd from France to the Reich. This required a strict rationing program in France and the ration levels were progresively lowered as the War increasingly went against German. There was some war damage in 1940, but mostly in northern France. Not only was there rationing, but as the Red Army stopped the Germans before Moscow and it became clear that the War would be an extended slugfest, the Germans began conscripting French and other Western workers for war work in the Reich. The quick collapse of the French Army (June 1940) and the German Army (August 1944) meaning that a wide swath of the country was untouched physically by the War. That is not to say there was not significant damaged. Until 1944 there was relatively little war damage during the occupation, except for the ports from which German U-boats operated. This changed as D-Day approached. Not only were beache defenses bombed, but the transport lines, especially the rail lines from the Reich supplying the beach defenses. Then after D-Day there was more more more war damahe, but mostly in Normandy. After the Allied breakout from the D-Day lodgement (August 1944), the Germans for the most prt withdrew behind the defenses oif the West Wall. The great hardships of the German occupation continued into the immediate post-War era. The most immediate problem was food. German occupation policies had affected the farm economy and it woulf take time to recovery. It was not just a matter of food shipments to the Reich. The farm economy was adversely affected in many ways.
Navigate the CIH Cold War Section:
[Return to Main French World War II Economic Recovery page]
[Return to Main French Cold War page]
[Return to Main Cold War European country page]
[Return to Main Cold War country page]
[Return to Main Communism page]
[Return to Main French page]
[About Us]
[Assessment]
[Biogrphies]
[Countries]
[Communism]
[Culture]
[Decolonization]
[Economics]
[Famines]
[Fashion]
[Freedom]
[Hot wars]
[Human rights]
[Inteligence]
[Mass killing]
[Military]
[Pacifism]
[Phases]
[Science]
[Totalitarianism]
[Bibliographies]
[Contributions]
[FAQs]
[Images]
[Links]
[Registration]
[Tools]
[Return to the Cold war Home page]
[Return to the 20th century wars and crises]