Chapter 173
< World War II - Versailles (5) >
Deploying the French Army to the Soviet Front was something La Rocque had first proposed during our talks, but to reach this conclusion, I had to do a lot of thinking and go through the process of persuading our Cabinet through considerable argument.
If La Rocque's France had officially signed an alliance with the Soviet Union, this would have been impossible, but thanks to La Rocque holding off on the alliance until the very end, a compromise was possible.
Britain and Belgium strongly opposed it, saying the French Army couldn't be trusted and citing the fact that Algeria was left to them, but they had to back down when faced with the demand to dispatch their own military force to the Eastern Front.
They received help, but they didn't want to dispatch their troops, they wanted France neutralized, and they hoped Germany would take care of the Eastern Front on its own.
They had no conscience to begin with.
In fact, the other Allied Forces besides Germany also had much to gain from the French Army's deployment to the Eastern Front.
The weak Belgian Army, which had few troops left and no motivation, was put to use guarding Paris instead of being dragged to the Eastern Front only to create a hole in the lines.
Besides, Britain and the Netherlands could now project their entire military force into Asia without hesitation, so wasn't this a good thing for them in the end?