How did France plan to defend itself againist Germany?

Answer 1

Very little I'm afraid. Except for a few officers French military thinking was still based on the static warfare and massed infantry charges of the first war. Although they had a significant number of tanks they did not really know how to use them and they did not realize what the Germans could do with theirs. I think one anecdote illustrates the point. When the Germans crossed the river Meuse it was very late in the afternoon. The French assumed that the Germans would have to wait until the next day to bring a large infantry force across the river which would then advance on foot. Thus the French thought they had plenty of time to organize a counterattack. Actually, the German tanks were rigged with snorkel devices which allowed them to cross quickly. They brought a significant armored force across the river in the evening and then advanced during the night. By the next morning they were more than twenty miles into the French rear area destroying supplies and command posts and breaking up reserve formations. By the time the German infantry crossed the river the French had nothing with which to counterattack, or even put up much of a defense.Michael Montagne

The defence strategy for France was just as pathetic as the United States's excuse for not entering the war. First the French never acknowledged the strategy used by the krauts in the Great War.A powerful yet unknown burst through the Ardennes.The french felt that the Germans would attack at the border with France.Sureeeee they would.They built a massive line of defense called the Maginot Line, streching hundreds of miles.A whole city of underground tunnels,weapons and men.Sadly the krauts went right around it.When the fighting commenced,Germany was dominating in every aspect of the battle.The french tanks were sent into the fray spread out with little backup fuel.The truly mezmorizing panzers formed in single file.The blazed through Frances fields trapping many french and british columns.If not destroyed by better armed tanks or infantry,they were left to the Stuka dive bombers.Only a few sprinkels of counterattacks were made,but the allies were caught off guard without any real strategy.

Hello Oliver

Taking the liberty of understanding your question in a narrow military sense, I am assuming you mean attempts at countermeasures against German combined-arms spearhead attacks.

The Allies had never seen the type of attack launched by the Germans and had no immediate response to it (except the responses known, "straightening out the lines", from WWI, which were inadequate). There were a number of local counterattacks, French, British and Belgian, and several instances of successful local resistance, but none of these altered the situation (the "Blitzkreig" - i.e. groups of German combined arms forces penetrating deep into the French rear).

The French were, ironically perhaps, to find the keys to defense only after the nothern armies had been crushed, and the British had been chased out of France.

The last French defensive line was constructed in the light of her very recent experiences, using hedgehog positions with allround defense, capable of withstanding encirclement and periods of isolated resistance. These defensive structures were quite novel at the time, but became standard procedure later in the war.

Problem was, the French were now too few left to make the line of hedgehogs very strong, and the line could not be constructed with the depth necessary to catch a piercing armnoured blow. The men were severely demoralised and only a small core of diehards remained (e.g. the colonials) at a quality needed to hold the hedgehog positions. The line did not hold.

In short, they had found out how to do it, but no longer disposed of the means to do it.

That's concerning effective countermeasures - i.e. defense. At no point during the campaign in 1940 did the French army manage to master the German offensive use of combined arms, nor find ways of excelling them.

Combined arms operations were merely one manifestation of superor C3I and the flexibility made possible thereby. The allies were a long way from reaching the same standards as the aggressor nations, as manifested by the subsequent defeats in the Western Desert, in Singapore and the Philippines. Eventually though, the allies firmly caught up, and the humiliated Fee French were among the first to do so, being forcibly open-minded.

SincerelyTommy

Hey Tommy,I'd like to comment on the last line of your answer when you stated the French never mustered a combined arms attack against the Germans this is not true.general DeGaul launced an attack with massed tanks that hit general Rommel and the 6th Panzer divion they broke through the German defenses and almost overran the divions HQ Rommel stopped them by using a Flak battaion with 88's the guns were lowered and aimed over open sights the first time in the war they had been used against tanks. Later they were mounted with gun sights than modified so they could fire while still limbered to there towinf vehicle and finally a purpose built anti tank gun was made.

One point doesn't seem to have been touched on here: the idea that the Maginot Line was meant as the main defense against Germany is a myth. The French higher-ups were well aware that the Germans were capable of bypassing the Maginot Line and going through Belgium even though it was neutral; they built it to force them to do just that, hoping it would bring other neutral countries (maybe even the US?) to the Allies' side.

Their big mistake was in assuming the Ardennes, the heavily forested, hilly region that the Germans actually attacked through, was impassable to troops and tanks. (Some of the detailed info on tanks you guys have got gives us hints about why they made this mistake.) They thought the Germans would have to attack the long way, through flat northern Belgium; as soon as they heard of German army crossing the border of Belgium, the main bulk of the French troops on the Maginot Line went on this mad race (impressively speedy, apparently) to the north of Belgium--placing themselves to the *north* of the troops they were supposed to fight & whose southward progress they needed to stop! They were soon surrounded, of course, and forced to surrender. This explains why so many French soldiers became POWs, and why so few French troops were left to defend the borders of France where the Germans actually came through.

My source is a book on myths of WW2; don't remember the author, sorry.

Answer 2

French defenses pre-1939There was a series of forts, called the Maginot Line, along the border with Germany. They were very modern for the time and some were linked by underground railway. In the late 1930s this 'line' was extended along the border with Belgium. However, most historians take the view that these fortifications created a false sense of security.

Answer 3

After WW1, they built the Maginot Line, along their border with Germany. This was a massive defensive fortifiations with underground bunkers that could be used for troops and support and command and control. In 1940, the Germans defeated this defensive line by attacking through Belgium and going around it.

Answer 4

A line of defence known as the Maginot Line was constructed. It had high-tech (for the time) bunkers, and long-ranged fixed artillery pieces. Unfortunately for France, German forces eventually went around the line, and the guns were never fired there.

The French army stood by ready for invasion, but were ill-prepared in terms of leadership and equipment. Their tactics were also outdated, and some divisions were still mounted on horseback.

The leadership was ineffective due to use of traditional military tactics which would not work against German tanks and aircraft, and a lack of communication by radio between generals. A lot of communication of orders was carried out via motorbike.

The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) also stood guard in France.

Before the invasion of France, the French forces did nothing while German forces conquered a shattered Poland.

Answer 5

We built the Ligne Maginot (Maginot Line, from the Minister of War André Maginot).

This was a line of concrete fortifications, all along our Eastern frontiers, especially the Franco-German frontier, with cannons, machine guns, mortars, tunnels network, tons of ammunition and food, radio devices, land mines, anti-tanks obstacles and of course thousands soldiers in position.

Maginot Line was weak on Northeastern frontier because we had military agreements with Belgium, our ally, and because the Ardenne Forrest was supposed to be a natural obstacle.

When Germany invaded Poland, we moved into West Germany ; no resistance because they were busy to Eastern Europe, so we decided to get back again behind the Maginot Line. When they have finish with Poland, they launched the Blitz on Belgium, quickly defeated them, and entered in France by the Ardennes Forrest at the town of Sedan (Battle of Sedan).

Then, being in the back of the Maginot Line, they can easily destroy the divisions positioned behind the fortifications and reach Paris.

Answer 6

Maginot Line

Answer 7

Siegfried Line

Answer 8

Belgium