I read another post arguing that Britain was less in danger of being overwhelmed by the Wehrmacht than history will have us believe. That makes me wonder what state the french military was in, since they were overwhelmed. If anyone has statistics and numbers that would be great!
The French military was generally considered the strongest in the world in 1939. And in many ways it was.
The French had developed a superb artillery system, pioneered the modern tank with their FT 17s, developed modern communication and command systems and equipped their divisions with a fearsome firepower by the end of ww1. It was mostly the French that broke the back of the Imperial German army in ww1.
The French armed forces mobilised some 5,5 million men (12,5% of the population) in 1940. These men had 5 802 tanks and other armoured vehicles, massive amounts of mortars, AT guns, light and heavy artillery (the French division included heavy guns and heavy howitzers) and 3 300 combat planes.
However, almost 1 500 of those tanks are outdated FT 17s. About 600 000 men are stationed in the colonies, and lots of men are held back in reserve, as the French are expecting a long war.
The French feared their "manpower hole" - the casualties in ww1 had caused a dip in demographics, making the conscript classes of 1937-1940 ususually small. They also feared the kind of casualties they had sustained in ww1 and focused on set-piece planned battle where they would use vastly superior firepower and logistics to oliberate the enemy rather than daring offensives.
Here's an older post of mine on French pre-war planning, doctrine and thinking..