Re:The Digital Maginot Line (2018)
by bambax on Tuesday June 23, 2020 @08:09AM
(#23612798)
> Ardennes, it turned out, was not impenetrable. Moving through the forest would perhaps have been a futile effort for an army using the attrition warfare strategies prevalent in World War I, but it was vulnerable to new modes of warfare. As the French focused on building the Maginot Line, the Germans developed exactly such a new model of warfare — Blitzkrieg —and sent a million men and 1500 tanks through Ardennes (while deploying a small force to the Maginot Line as a decoy).
While not outright false, this isn't exactly true. Ardennes' forest was in fact near impenetrable, but the Germans took the road. It would have been more than feasible to stop them while on that road, but before a decision could be made as to attack them there, they were through and it was too late.
The débâcle had many causes but the major one was a failure of thinking. In 1938 an important French general, Louis Chauvineau, wrote a book called "Is an invasion still possible?" in which he, of course, answered by the negative. The book enjoyed a modicum of success and had a reprint in... 1940: it was still in bookshops in France when Hitler was parading in front of the Eiffel tower.
While not outright false, this isn't exactly true. Ardennes' forest was in fact near impenetrable, but the Germans took the road. It would have been more than feasible to stop them while on that road, but before a decision could be made as to attack them there, they were through and it was too late.
The débâcle had many causes but the major one was a failure of thinking. In 1938 an important French general, Louis Chauvineau, wrote a book called "Is an invasion still possible?" in which he, of course, answered by the negative. The book enjoyed a modicum of success and had a reprint in... 1940: it was still in bookshops in France when Hitler was parading in front of the Eiffel tower.
Beware of experts.