Could have ended WW2 in 1939 durring Saar offensive

>could have ended WW2 in 1939 durring Saar offensive
>"lol no let's got back to the Maginot line, but first lie to the Poles saying we're coming to help"
>"this forested region will surely be impenetrable!"
>strategy of defence with Maginot line as centrepiece
>"lol no send everyone to Belgium and the Netherlands to attack them"
>Germany literally about invade France
>he quite literally knows the exact date they'll attack
>"no we have to wait"
>they invade, sends 40 fucking divisions away for his retarded Dyle plan
>French get cut off, destroyed in belgium
>rump force still in France also BTFO
>"REEEEEEE I DINDU NOTHIN EVERYONE BELOW ME IS AT FAULT"

seriously, what was his fucking problem?

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spectrum.library.concordia.ca/977623/1/Parker_MA_F2013.pdf
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>could have ended ww2 in 1939
I'm not so sure about that, the border was hardly undefended

You can hardly blame a single man

A quick wiki

The Siegfried Line at the start of the war had serious weaknesses. German General Alfred Jodl said after the war that it was "little better than a building site in 1939", and when Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt inspected the line its weak construction and insufficient weapons caused him to laugh.

I imagine Runstedt and Jodl were capable of an assessment.

The French military was geared to a defensive war, all their doctrines and logistics were tied to this defensive posture, had the French attacked, they might have occupied some clay for a while, but they had no ability to maintain a force in the field and ultimately they would have been destroyed, probably even more easily than irl.

The reason the Maginot line failed is because of Belgium.

it's one of those rare instances where you actually can

around Saarland the Siegfried line was woefully unfinished, Westphal said himself that if the French had attacked in September of '39 that Germany would have barely been able to hold out for 1-2 weeks, especially with the massive armour superiority the French had over the Germans

>hero and genius in the first world war
>goes full retard in the second world war

any other hilarious exposures of incompetence in WW2?

>The French military was geared to a defensive war, all their doctrines and logistics were tied to this defensive posture

that's the thing, he disregarded his own fucking overall strategy to try and engage them in Belgium and the Netherlands, nothing he did made any sense

>putting geriatrics in charge of your military

seriously, why was their military leadership all fucking 60+ years old

>"Gamelin ordered his troops back behind the Maginot Line, but only after telling France's ally, Poland, that France had broken the Siegfried Line and that help was on its way."

what did he mean by this?

all your armchair generals fell for the ' if General X did Y instead of Z then we would've had a different outcome' meme
first of all Gamelin didn't have the foresight of what we have today,even if he had all the intelligence and premonition in the world he still couldn't have control all the variables in the battlefield,the plan that he has was centered on the Maginot Line
now most people would argue that the Maginot Line was an abject failure but it did exactly what its job was, to provide a barrier from a direct attack from the German-French border, The French would want to have the Germans attack in Belgium since it confer them many advantages especially have a stronger casus in German aggression and general reverence to their experiences in the great war
now i have no idea what would happen if the French actually managed to plug the gap in the Ardennes, the krauts will probably be bottlenecked and have a hard time achieving breakthrough
As with the Saar Offensive the French was still unsure on their offensive capability and in any case wasn't willing to try anything without assurance of its success from the previous war.
Gamelin was archaic in his plan and deployment yet he's just the result of the current French mentality at the time

the french would rather have someone else backyard as a battlefield rather than their own
atleast thats what i can assume of their mentality at the time

Did ne really sayed to the Poles that help was arriveing ?

Petain

>all your armchair generals fell for the
>Westphal said himself that if the French had attacked in September of '39 that Germany would have barely been able to hold out for 1-2 weeks
It seems that Westphal was also armchair general

>even if he had all the intelligence and premonition in the world

you mean like knowing to the exact date the Nazis were going to invade your country?

>doesn't post amusing greentext

yes he is
its a subtle attempt to take snide jabs at the french retardiness
the information could be wrong, the germans couldve changed their times due to delays etc

>Armor
>Used for attacking fixed fortifications with any effect
>Ignoring that in 1-2 weeks the Germans would have mobilized another 30 or so divisions if the attack started in September 9th, nevermind the troops that could be transferred back as the main Polish resistance was broken.

New to the thread, but his statements, while maybe technically correct for the Siegfried line itself, ignore the enormously rapid mobilization the Germans were undergoing in September and that the numerical advantage of the French would evaporate in that week or two.

>attacking fixed fortifications

once they broke through the Siegfried line, where were all these heavy fortifications supposed to be?

World war 2 was a war of information as well as a war of physical arms, Germany relied on intelligence that told them that the allied invasion to reclaim france would have it's main thrust at pas de calais, how'd that work out for them?

It would take, if we treat Herr Westphal's comments as gospel, 1-2 weeks to break through the Sigfried line. After that, with the poor armored doctrine of the French (Never leave your artillery! No, not even then!) and the rapid German mobilization, they won't need them, they'll just snow the French under with their ATGs and Luftwaffe superiority.

spectrum.library.concordia.ca/977623/1/Parker_MA_F2013.pdf
axishistory.com/axis-nations/145-germany-heer/heer-unsorted/3420-the-german-mobilization-1939