A French "Guderian"

lot of misconceptions in this thread


1. the maginot line was effective where it was in place, the germans feared it enough to not attack it frontally, but instead conducted an oblique manuever around
2. france had more and better tanks than germany (not even counting the 3000 ft-17's parcelled out to the infantry regiments)
3. france had better anti tank guns... both their 25mm and 47mm piece where ballisticly superior to the german 37mm piece
4. france had more and better artillery pieces than germany

France had a Guderian like figure... his name was Jean Baptise Estienne http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Baptiste_Eugène_Estienne

the problem was he died in 1936 and was largely out of the loop by about 1927ish and nobody of his quality replaced him

an excellent pod would be foor him to better groom his subordinates to create a clear line of succession and continuity in the service




france's main problems in armored warfare (and generally) where several fold

1. France's divisions in 1940 where largely inexperienced where as 60+ German divisions had seen combat in some form or another in Poland alone... experience is a force multiplier
2. France's resupply system (both for fuel and ammo) was untested and as it proved in combat unable to cope with the vigors of world war 2 conditions (particularly under air bombardment)... Germany on the other hand had the drives into austria/czechoslavakia and case white to figure out how to nourish mechanized speerheads... several critical french formations ran out of fuel/batteries/ammo at different points which left them easy pickings for supplied German formations
3. France had no credible AA defenses for their field divisions. Their most common weapon was an 8mm machine gun which lef their divisions highly vulnerable to low and medium altitude strikes and straffing runs which did great damage and disorganization
4. The French air force despite having modernish enough aircraft where in no way prepared for the super high tempo of operations and the high level of experience the LW brough to the table, which saw them land so many damaging blows in the first week that the french air force had no chance to find their footing and adapt to what was happening to them
5. The Dyle plan was fucking insane

all of those things are fairly easy to fix with pre war pod's
 
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