Imagine leaving through these times
July 31, 1934: WWI beginning + 20 years
November 11, 1938: Armistice + 20 years
More amusingly: July 14, 1939: French revolution, Bastille day +150 years !
The two dates are very striking and somewhat ironic, considering what happened in May 1940. They are also quite revealing...
November 11, 1938 "Geez, 20 years ago 1.4 million men died, and for what ? back to square one..."
July 14, 1939 Bastille day + 150 years. That day was a huge military parade of a seemingly all powerful French Army and Air Force... (sigh) Weygand famously said "Ah, sure, what a parade... French Army never has been so strong !"
He must have felt weird only 10 months later, May 19, 1940... when Gamelin crétin was fired and he was called back in emergency to replace him.
To his credit, he did an honest job in early June (June 5 to June 9, say). Only to became a traitor as much as Pétain and Huntziger... he knew he wouldn't do any miracle with 64 divisions left against 145 German ones, and as such the idea of an Armistice was in his mind right from May 22 - and exactly a month later, it drove him to Vichy.
Sic transit gloria mundi...
These two dates are revealing how skizophrenic France had become.
