We hear a lot about the French collapse, resistance and Free French contributions, and something of the eventual French occupation of postwar Germany. I know much less about in between.
How enthusiastically did the French join their own, or Allies', units, how well were they able to reorganize if they did, and how much of a relative contribution were they able to make to the eventual defeat of Hitler and Japan?
I take this from the book Free France's Lion by William Moore. The French army of 1944 could be roughly split in two different standards. One was the second armoured division headed by Philipe Leclerc. It comprised most of the battle hardened veterans and Frenchmen who had escaped France to join the FFA in 1940-1944. This division was well equipped with US materials and had excellent gunners and high standards. It's leader philippe Leclerc was an aggressive commander and was often hard to work with other commanders.
The other main force was the rest of the French First army. Though heavily involved in Italy, Corsica and Africa it was often equipped with older or captured weapons. It also had more African solders who were deemed to be not as effective as the French who escaped occupied France. A lot of ex Vichy supporters found their way to this army whom Leclerc mostly could not stand.
In 1944 the French first army would play a large part in the landings in Southern France, Operation Dragoon. The second armoured division on the other hand would closely cooperate with the British and Americans in liberating Strasbourg and Paris.
Later on in the war the French first army would be one of the main forces to ''besiege'' the Atlantic Pockets. Though the liberated parts of France were enthusiastic to join the allied cause and recruitment was booming the French found many problems in arming these soldiers. Supplies from the US and UK were lacking and since the French armament industry was in ruins these soldiers would often be equipped with captured German weaponry. This greatly limited their effectiveness.