So France is third on the list?  France?  Seriously?

Check your history books. France clearly remembered when Germany handed their asses to them a mere 22 years earlier. Hence the reason why the built the Maginot line. That and enacted mandatory firearms registration just before Germany ignored the Maginot line and instead chose to invade along the route that they normally use to invade France through the Ardennes.

The largest reason why France went down so quickly was because they had everything lined up behind the Maginot fortifications and Germany flanked them. Also, did I mention that Germany really likes to invade France through the Ardennes and not across the supposedly impregnable line the French built to stop them? Also, the one fort in Belgium that they did attack directly held out for almost two whole days?

Indeed.

Also, let's not forget the wall across 80% of the US/Mexico border.  Yah, that sounds like a great way to spend millions of dollars.

I'm curious, what in the hell does the fact that France has a rather poor history with war have to do with their spending on weapons?

You can buy 10,000 guns even if you can't hit the side of a barn standing inside it with any of 'em.

 It'd be interesting to compare these figures with how much each of these countries is spending on Green Technology. I'd look for it, but I'm too lazy.

R

Agreed anyone would of fallen quickly and well everyone did untill the Germans started a to sided war. The simple fact is the ussr or even russia today is just to big and to cold to be conquered for any length of time. And well the british RAF did an awesome job for how out numbered they were. That said france is more than capible of defending them selves, france is just in the wrong place.... the germans were just better not that france sucked. Hell if america was next to germany at that time america would of gotten a huge  piece cut out of it.

Btw Vastet you say how far into russia the nazis got that is kinda the point everytime they are invaded what do they do, retreat and what for winter and suddenly they have the upper hand. napolean nazis it makes no differance. The place is to big and to cold.

Russia really is neither too big nor too cold to be conquered. It just requires preparation the likes of which have never been taken. Both Hitler and Napoleon were fools. Not only did they not have sufficient preparation, they opened their attacks on multiple fronts. Both were fighting in much of Europe and in North America too. Both of them had the capability to conquer Russia. Neither prepared for it, instead underestimating the Russians, making Russia the focal point for allied victory against both of them.

Also, until Stalingrad, the Russians weren't putting up much of a fight in WW2. The leaders were hiding in fear of the nazi advance. Hitler nearly pulled it off even without proper prep. But in the end his forces were overstreched, and the stalemate in Russia turned into a rout.

i think on the whole stalin just lucked out.  hitler was preparing barbarossa for like 2 years and stalin was in total denial about it, even in the face of all his commissars' frantic advice. 

there were definitely problems from the german side, one of the biggest being that the nazis focused way more on quality than quantity in weaponry.  for example, the luger was the supreme example of the gunsmith's art: like a swiss watch that kills.  it was also a helluva propaganda victory.  however, the cost and the intensity of skilled labor involved made mass production prohibitive.  not only that, it was so fucking perfectly made that it was hypersensitive to dirt and mud, making a fully-covering wooden holster with a hinged lid necessary.  the soviets, however, had no scruples about pounding shit out that would explode in a heartbeat--however, there was a lot of that shit.  it's kind of like a romero film: the humans have the intelligence and the technology but there are just too many fucking zombies.  (as someone who would have rooted for the soviets, i ask you to please not take that analogy too far.)

still, the soviets were not prepared at all, and stalin rabidly denied the possibility of any nazi breach of the molotov-ribbentrop pact until multiple reports of attacks against soviet positions reached the kremlin.  stalingrad was a brilliant fight, no doubt about it, and a helluva propaganda victory, but i think the tide was already turning due to the crazy logistics that russian conditions require.