French Preparations For WWII
Reading through Gudestein thread on German Total War Preparations, it had me thinking how could France better prepare for WWII? The goal being French victory in 1939, what positive changes could have been made to the French army, navy, air force and war industry?
A few ideas I was thinking about
In my view if France wants to win they have to recognize the German threat early. In the early 1920’s, French Army Chief of Staff Edmond Buat was “Convinced that a new war with Germany is inevitable term of 20 to 30 years, General Buat strives to deeply restructure the French army by promoting weapons and new techniques. “ His warnings however seem to have gone by unnoticed.
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmond_Buat
Imlay Talbot in his book
“Facing the Second World War: Strategy, Politics and Economics in Britain and France” takes the viewpoint that France did not do enough central planning and depended to much on free markets in preparations for the war. Is this valid? If France adopted a more Socialist approach to preparations, like they had under Albert Thomas in the WWI, would that have been more effective?
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Thomas_(homme_politique)
Finally, if funding for the Maginot Line, due to economic issues, was halted would that have forced France towards a more mobile army based on De Gaulle’s ideas?