Figure 1.-- Photographs of France during the inter-War era are notable for the small numbers of cars and trucks on city streets. This was in sharp contrast to car-filled American streets. This photograph was taken in St. Hilare. France after World War I had Europe's largest automobile industry, but gradually lost its lead.

France had one of the largest economies in Europe, after Britain, Germany, and the Soviet Union. France France of all of the four major countries had the smallest industrial plant, but it also had a very substantial agricultural sector. Unlike Britin and Germany, France could largely feed its population and was not dependent on large-scale food imports. France had an important automobile industry. At the end of World War I it was the second largest world manufacturer, howver far behind the United States. World production was 2.4 million cars and America produced 2.3 million of that total. Of the 0.1 million cars produced, France produced about half or 40,000 units. The French motor industry was the largest and most modern in Europe. One author describes it as highly 'innovative'. Like other European automobile industry, they had not mastered mass production like the Americans. This was because French workers and farmer could not affird to buy cars and trucks. The automobile was a luxury item for the well-to-do. The automobile industry was particularly importnt because not only did it helped to enlarge other baic industries such as steel and rubber, but in time of war it could be conveted into military producrtion, including trucks, armored vehicles, aircraft and other war material. Car oroduction grew in France, but the French industry gradually lost its lead. The United States would never again so completely dominate the world automobile industry, although even by 1930 about 60 percent of cars were built in America. France which had been the european leader was replaced by Britain which produced 237,000 units. france produced only 230,000 units. European manufacturers were still not using American methods. Unlike other countries (Britain, Germany, and the Soviet Union), American manufacturers did not have a French subsidiary or joint venture. The German invasion and occupation put most of French industry, largely undamaged in the fightening, at the disposal of the Germans. And the Vichy policy was colaboration. The Germans seem more intent on plans to dismantle French industry than incorporating it into the German war economy. The Germans did import large quantities of consumer goods, paid for by reparations and over-valued Reich Mark. The enormouus potential for warv oproducftion was not tapped to any serious degree. [Speer] Albert Speer after his appointment as Armaments Minister sought to increase the use of French industrial capacity. Speer sought to use French plants for armd production, guaranteeing the workerts from conscription for compulsory war work in the Reich. This led to a major confrontation with Franz Saukel, General Plenipotentiary for Labour Deployment. [Speer, p. 415-16.]

Sources

Speer, Albert. Inside the Third Reich (Avon, New York, 1970), 734p. Speer's accounts for the most part seem accuarate, if self serving. Speer's connection with forced labor are surely his most serious connection with NAZI brutality and murder. Thus passages on this subject should be taken with a decgree of skepticism.

Created: 3:08 AM 8/23/2014
Last updated: 3:08 AM 8/23/2014