I’m not sure if this is a factual question, or if I’m asking for historial opinion. But anyway.
Why did Nazi Germany, after invading France in 1940, allow part of France to remain unoccupied, with its own government and a capital at Vichy? How did this benefit Germany? Did they not have the manpower to occupy all of France?
The Vichy government was a puppet government, headed by Marshall Petain. DeGaulle fled France and ruled free French in exile.
Yes, I know about Marshal Petain, et al. I’m asking why Germany allowed a puppet government to rule two-fifths of France’s territory, instead of occupying all of France.
What additional advantage would it give them? They had all they needed in the Vichy government, and to physically occupy France would engage troops that could be used elsewhere.
Hitler was not especially interested in conquest in the the West. Had he won the war, the nations of France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Denmark and the United Kingdom would have continued to exist. In the East, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Austria (among others) would have been destroyed.
The so-called ‘French State’ was the rump of France that the Germans did not require for the war against the UK. By allowing it to exist, the Germans freed themselves of having to rule a bunch of territory they did not want.
Further, the Etat served as a hostage to Vichy policy. They claimed they were forced to do whatever out of fear that if they did not, the Unoccupied Zone would be seized.
Now, moving to my opinion on the subject…
The EF was simply the wet dream of the French right wing. Parliament voted itself out of existence. There was no German requirement for this. The French were able to use the war as an excuse to arrest lefties, unionists, Jews and other undesirables.
No other ‘occupied’ power cooperated so fully with German policy as the French.
There were military potential for a puppet state in WWII France. France had one of the largest navies in the world at 189 ships. Many of these were under the control of the Vichy government after France capitulated. (cite: http://users.swing.be/naveditoen/edito/9931.html#9931)
As long as it remained under Vichy control, the navy was a potentially powerful force (though I don’t think it was ever used…then again, I’m not a military historian). However, once it became clear that Germany was going to commandeer these vessels, the Frenchmen in Vichy that were not Nazi sympathizers scuttled the entire fleet.
There were some minor uses of the EF Navy (in the resistance of the Franco-British liberation of Madagascar. Otherwise the vast majority of the fleet was scuttled.
In North Africa, the EF Army fought the Americans with skill and tenacity. They welcomed the Germans into their territory with open arms.