What Went Wrong for France?

Many of you know that Germany had succeeded in utterly defeating and taking over France in World War II, a feat they had almost (but not quite) accomplished in World War I. When France fell in June of 1940, the world was absolutely shocked. France, the global superpower who succeeding in defending from the German army for four years in World War I, had been brought to its knees in JUST SIX WEEKS. That’s ridiculous! Imagine your favorite country being all well and good and then just over a month and a half later completely subdued by a hostile regime. Crazy.

But how could this have happened? France was so strong and completely capable of holding out! What happened that they were beaten so swiftly? What went wrong? Well for that, we need to examine what the French was thinking in terms of preparing for the inevitable war.

 

The Maginot Line

After World War I, France knew they had to do something to beef up the defenses on their shared border with Germany. They couldn’t have Germany just storm right into their country. So, they built a wall of some of the most formidable defenses the world has ever seen, called the Maginot Line that could defend itself from both land and air assaults. This defense was so formidable that, if France was a car, it would definitely have been on Pimp My Ride. No doubt. Furthermore, if France were a Creamery ice cream flavor, it would totally be Mint Nittany (Mint Nittany=best flavor). There was no one in the world that would even think about attacking this line, and France knew it. But that was all a part of The Plan….

 

The Plan

France had a set game plan from day one. This plan had three defensive axes: The Maginot Line, The Ardennes Forest, and Belgium. First of all, the Maginot Line acted as an impassible barrier on the border of France and Germany. Then, The Ardennes Forest acted as another impassible barrier (or so they thought) to the Northeast of that. These barriers would effectively force the Germans to attack through Belgium, where the bulk of the French army would rush to meet German forces and act as the third impassible barrier. France’s strategy was looking pretty cozy at this point. Defeating Germany would be a piece of cake…

…Except for one thing; one error in analysis that would prove to be fatal to the French as the Germans would exploit it: The Ardennes Forest.

 

The German Plan

It was pretty easy to see what France’s strategy was: use their two barriers to the east to guide the fighting toward Belgium, where French Troops would rush up to stall the Germans from entering France. Regardless of whether or not they could predict the France’s strategy, Germany had no other choice but to attack through Belgium since the Maginot Line was standing in their way. This is ultimately what they ended up doing. Except that wasn’t all.

 

While planning Germany’s course of attack, Hitler had a crazy idea that would be extremely risky yet rewarding beyond their wildest dreams if it worked out. He suggested that they take multiple panzer divisions (army group A) through the Ardennes Forest and expose France’s underbelly, while army group B, consisting of normal infantry, tied up allied forces in Belgium in the attack that France expected. His generals did not believe what they were hearing. It was thought that the Ardennes Forest would be a logistical nightmare to put swarms of vehicles through. It was also a concern that, if the tank columns were spotted by French aircraft while passing through the valleys, they would be sitting ducks for bombers and the whole operation would end in disaster. However, after more surveillance, they concluded that it was possible and that would be their plan of action. The end result was one of the most devastating military campaigns of the modern world. German panzer divisions went through the forest undetected and broke through the wood line just a few days after the invasion, completely exposing hundreds of thousands of British and French troops to the very real threat of encirclement. This would end up setting the stage for the Evacuation of Dunkirk and the very quick fall of France. For the allies, this whole ordeal was a massive military disaster. In hindsight, we can conclude that it is important to carefully examine all possibilities of an event so that we are aware of our weaknesses and may be prepared for the worst. Seeing only one’s own strength is the greatest weakness.

 

One thought on “What Went Wrong for France?

  1. It’s obvious how knowledgable you are in this topic, and I appreciate how you implement your own sense of humor into the posts!

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