I'm too busy to wade into any of this stuff except to say that I keep getting notifications that I've been tagged. Ok...The Brits had a better Army than the U.S. did at the beginning of World War II--and certainly when the Yanks arrived in North Africa.
Obviously they were more experienced, and as you noted before that is a major factor with which we can all agree.
We were visiting Verdun a few years back, in December, with friends of ours, and I remarked how tough it would have been as a poilu in those forts in those conditions even with no combat happening. My friend noted they were "country boys" back then and used to privation, and tough as nails. He was born on a farm in Brittany in 1938 and knew about such things personally, ended his career as CEO of a rather large company.
I know some French soldiers in WW One mutinied, I can understand it. I have a harder time understanding why more didn't really.
France - WWI, Battlefields, Armistice | BritannicaThere are few more depressing sights and sites to visit than Verdun (the town seems quite nice).
The Nivelle Offensive failed to achieve its strategic objectives and by 25 April, most of the fighting had ended. On 3 May, the French 2nd Division refused to follow orders to attack and the
mutiny soon spread throughout the army. For most of the time events were independent and were focused on specific demands, more liberty, more time with families and better conditions in
cantonments. From 16 to 17 May, there were disturbances in a
Chasseur battalion of the 127th Division and a regiment of the 18th Division. Two days later, a battalion of the 166th Division staged a demonstration and on 20 May, the 128th Regiment of the 3rd Division and the 66th Regiment of the 18th Division refused orders. Individual incidents of insubordination occurred in the 17th Division. Over the next two days, spokesmen were elected in two regiments of the 69th Division to petition for an end to the offensive. By 28 May, mutinies broke out in the 9th Division, 158th Division, 5th Division and the 1st Cavalry Division. By the end of May more units of the 5th, 6th, 13th, 35th, 43rd, 62nd, 77th and 170th Divisions mutinied and revolts occurred in 21 divisions in May.
[6] A record 27,000 French soldiers deserted in 1917; the offensive was suspended on 9 May.
[7]