B-17engineer
Colonel
I believe that either massive counter attacks and not letting the Germans walk right around the Maginot line would stop. ALso more fighters to meet the Germans..........what are your thoughts...........
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I believe that either massive counter attacks and not letting the Germans walk right around the Maginot line would stop. ALso more fighters to meet the Germans..........what are your thoughts...........
Or they could've moved the entire country west of Ireland.
The # 1 failure was no strategic reserve, Gen Gamelin put almost all of the defending units into the line. When the Germans broke through at the Ardennes, there was nothing to block the Panzers, the French Govt sacked Gamelin, they tried to pull some divisions out of the line (from the southern sector) to send them north to plug the gap. By then it was too late.
You cannot defend against a mobile army without a (mobile) reserve force! And it's not like they didn't know about "Blitzkrieg", the same tactics were used in Poland.
Just a thought.......France had 'old' soldiers strategizing against a modern army using advanced tactics. The U.S. also had old soldiers saying, for example, how the airplane couldn't have an effect towards shipping, but the difference was the U.S. happened to have had just enough young minds at a high enough level to counter some of the old guard mentality. France didn't have that luxury.
I think Thorlifter is on the right track The fact is that France had poor leadership, both political and military. They had a lot of men under arms, some of their equipment was as good or better than Germany's and they had the Royal Navy watching their back at sea. With good leadership they should have been able to fight the Nazis to at least a draw. It would be somewhat akin to Frank Leahy taking his Notre Dame team of 1941, with the tactics, training and size of the coaching staff of those days up against the Ohio State team of today. No contest.
I believe that either massive counter attacks and not letting the Germans walk right around the Maginot line would stop. ALso more fighters to meet the Germans..........what are your thoughts...........
The French could have wiped the floor with the Germans in 1936 over the march into the Rhineland.
But didn't.
Would have solved a lot of problems and got rid of Hitler.
If they couldn't fight the Germans when they could have won easily then they were going to be in trouble when they had a proper fight on their hands.
The # 1 failure was no strategic reserve, Gen Gamelin put almost all of the defending units into the line. When the Germans broke through at the Ardennes, there was nothing to block the Panzers, the French Govt sacked Gamelin, they tried to pull some divisions out of the line (from the southern sector) to send them north to plug the gap. By then it was too late.
You cannot defend against a mobile army without a (mobile) reserve force! And it's not like they didn't know about "Blitzkrieg", the same tactics were used in Poland.