| 106. "The French got off pretty easy in the war." What do you call "pretty easy?" Here is what this war cost France: Military casualties: Killed.....200,000 Wounded....230,000 --------- Total......430,000 Civilian casualties: Killed in bombings..... 60,000 Killed in Battle of France 1940.... 30,000 Killed in other military operations.... 20,000 Shot or massacred in France.... 40,000 Total civilians killed in France..... 150,000 Deportees killed or died in Germany : Political prisoner.. 130,000 Laborers..... 20,000 Prisoners of War.. 30,000 Total.... 180,000 Total civilians and deportees killed or died.... 330,000 Disabled civilians : In France... 127,000 Deportees (returned from Germany).... 228,000 Total... 335,000 Total military and civilian killed . . . 530,000 Total . military and civilians killed, wounded, disabled 1,115,000 IN MATERIALS 1,785,000 buildings were destroyed. 5,000 bridges were blown up. Three-fifths of all French railroad stock was either destroyed or taken to Germany by Germans as they retreated in 1945. Half of all the livestock in France was lost or stolen. Three-fourths of all the agricultural equipment was lost. 12,500,000,000 man-hours of labor, which millions of Frenchmen were forced to perform for the Germans, were lost to France. The national debt increased 32 billion dollars. These figures represent a loss to France of half of her national wealth -- or the total earnings of all Frenchmen, for two years:Deportees.. 765,000 Forced workers in France.. 850,000 industrial workers in French plants (wor- king for Germany)... 2,500,000 Agricultural workers growing crops for German conscrip- tion.......... 780,000 Total...... 4,895,000 Hours of work lost to France due to mass deportations..... 7,427,304,000 Hours of work lost to France because of forced labor in France for the Germans... 5,124,335,000 Total... 12,551,639,000 Destruction of buildings, agriculture, Industry, war material etc 2,342,000,000,000 German exchange extortion (setting the franc at 20 francs to the mark, instead of a the real value - 10 francs to the mark.) 1,832,000,000,000 Pensions to military and civilian dead and disabled 359,000,000 Cash payments to maintain German army of occupation 2,353,480,000,000 Agricultural products taken by Ger- mans or damaged 668,253,000,000 Transport and Communication damag- ed 1,527,222,000,000 Industry and Commerce requisitioned or damaged 448,474,000,000 Clearing and removal costs 556,580,000,000 War material taken bv Germans or damaged 246,361,000,000 Special charges imposed on France in addition to the direct costs of German occupation. 102,000,000,000 Estimated total money cost to France of the war : 98 billion dollars. Estimated total cost to U.S. - 300 billion dollars. France is about one fourteenth the size of the United States. You can put nearly all of France into Utah and Nevada. |
