sound extract

the Call of June 20, 1940

FRENCH!

I asked our adversaries to put an end to the hostilities.
Government indicated Wednesday the plenipotentiary ones charged with collecting their conditions.

I made this decision, lasts in the heart of a soldier, because the military situation imposed it. We hoped to resist on the line of the Sum and Aisne. The Weygand General had gathered our forces. Its name alone predicted the victory. However the line yielded and the enemy pressure has constrained our troops with the retirement.

As of June 13, the request for armistice was inevitable. This failure has surprised you. Remembering 1914 and 1918, you seek breadths reasons of them. I will say them to you.

May 1, 1917, we had 3.280.000 more men with the armies, in spite of three years of fatal combat. With the current battle day before, we had 500.000 less of them. In May 1918, us - planes 85 divided British; in May 1940, there were only 10 of them. In 1918, we had with us 58 Italian divisions and 42 American divisions.

The inferiority of our material was larger still than that of our manpower. French aviation delivered to against six its engagements.

Less strong than twenty-two years ago, we had also less friends.Not enough children, not enough weapons, not enough allied here are causes of our defeat.

The French people do not dispute his failures. All them, people knew in turn successes and reverses. It is by the way in which they react that they are weak or large.

We will learn the lesson from the lost battles. Since the victory, the spirit of pleasure carried on the spirit of sacrifice. One asserted more than one was useful. One wanted to save the effort; misfortune today is met.

I was with you in the glorious days. Head of the Government, I am and will remain with you in the dark days. Be at my sides. The combat remains the same one. They are France, its ground, its sons.