The Maginot Line: The History of the Fortifications that Failed to Protect France from Nazi Germany During World War II by Charles River Editors

Author:Charles River Editors
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
Publisher: Charles River Editors
Published: 2015-06-14T21:00:00+00:00

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With a mobile, independent tank force such as the kind Charles de Gaulle and other French “mavericks” envisioned, France might have exploited the opportunity offered by the Maginot Line. A powerful advance through Belgium might have inflicted sufficient damage to stop the Germans in their tracks, while the Maginot Line and its interval forces prevented frontier penetration elsewhere. Indeed, The advocates of such a tank force – a French equivalent of German Panzer corps – attempted one last time to persuade France's leadership to adopt a modern armored fighting vehicle doctrine. Proving that foresight sometimes exists also, even though the highest decision makers disregarded it in this case through a combination of preconceived notions added to financial and political difficulties, these men outlined the exact situation well before the actual disaster that witnessed the defeat of France. “It was in this context that De Gaulle's spokesmen made a public plea for the creation of an armored corps. […] Jean Le Cour Grandmaison led off. [...] ‘The indispensable complement to the fortified system in the East,’ he argued, would be ‘a maneuvering force, mobile enough and powerful enough either to stem a breakthrough without delay, ... or to exploit immediately in depth a halt in the enemy's offensive.’" (Hughes, 2006, 246). However, with strategic mobility reduced to a walking pace, the French proved unable to go on the offensive and give the Wehrmacht a bloody nose sufficient to cripple Hitler's invasion plan and save France, at least temporarily.

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