Germany just attacks into Maginot Line

Probably a rather silly question, but how would things have gone down if instead of going through Belgium for the most part Germany attacked headlong into the Maginot line?
 
They'll ultimately overrun the line and push the French back, but they'll suffer so many casualties in doing so and expend so many resources that their offensive will exhaust itself shortly thereafter.
 

Pangur

Donor
They'll ultimately overrun the line and push the French back, but they'll suffer so many casualties in doing so and expend so many resources that their offensive will exhaust itself shortly thereafter.
This is exactly why so why would they want to do that?
 
They'll ultimately overrun the line and push the French back, but they'll suffer so many casualties in doing so and expend so many resources that their offensive will exhaust itself shortly thereafter.
Would they really even overrun the line?
None of the main forts on the northern section fell during the fighting there historically, and the Rhine section only collapsed because the line divisions backing it up were withdrawn elsewhere. The Saar sector beat off a German attack on the 13-14th of June despite a very marked disparity in artillery, men, and aircraft.
Not to mention, that attacking directly into the line also means that the French corps and army level artillery which historically couldn't be utilized very well would be able to be brought into operation in the much slower paced warfare there, and the French had a lot more heavy artillery than the Germans. Its also where French counter-battery assets were located from my understanding.
The only advantage the Germans is that they are doing something the French don't expect, but it seems like French intelligence might notice the movement of millions of troops into the region as compared to the Belgian-Dutch part of the line.
The combination of bad geography, heavy fortifications, and an inherently static battle which the French doctrine and equipment is more suited for,
 
They'll ultimately overrun the line and push the French back, but they'll suffer so many casualties in doing so and expend so many resources that their offensive will exhaust itself shortly thereafter.

I've gamed this out a few times. "overrun" is the wrong term, maybe reduce or pick apart. The losses are so bad morale would probably collapse in the real world, but with the paper or cyber armies the German side can methodically pick apart the fortifications. After that they don't have the strength left to do much else. Only about half the existing French army was expended in this battle & none of the British need be it left the German side in a terrible position.
 

Pangur

Donor
This might make for a decent ISOT tale with the UT Tech from today - good old bunker buster stuff and get through the line with low casualities. Not sure if that would be enough to keep Belgium out of that war mind you
 
As long as there is any plausible alternative to a headlong rush into extensive prepared fortifications, it seems to me the Germans will take it. As a matter of fact that is essentially true even for 1914, when there was no Maginot Line.

Even granting that the Germans have more success than people expect, reverting to this kind of warfare seems guaranteed to slow down the advance dramatically and increase casualties dramatically. The whole point of the Manstein Plan was to avoid that kind of slog.

With all of this said I do think it would be interesting to see how people think an essentially WWI-era static fortification system stands up to "modern" 1940-era aerial bombardment, but whatever comes of it, it's hard to imagine a rapid breakthrough. In comparison the Germans punched through the Molotov Line in the east with little difficulty, but that's because it was unfinished, and the Stalin Line, because it was undefended. I wonder if there are any actually equipped and manned subsections of that line that give us a useful comparison. Brest Fortress lasted a week after being surrounded and it was a 19th-century design, but then again, once it was surrounded obtaining its surrender wasn't exactly a high priority for the Germans. The same is true for all the various skirmishes around the Maginot Line in our timeline.
 
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With all of this said I do think it would be interesting to see how people think an essentially WWI-era static fortification system stands up to "modern" 1940-era aerial bombardment, ...

The CORF fortifications were not remotely WWI fortifications. They bore about as much relationship to those as a late 1930s battleship bore to a early Dreadnought class.
 
The CORF fortifications were not remotely WWI fortifications. They bore about as much relationship to those as a late 1930s battleship bore to a early Dreadnought class.
Yes, I've been mentally cringing since I wrote that. I will humbly accept my reprimand.

The point was, even if the battle occurs on terrain of their choosing, I still have grave doubts about the French army being able to deal with the prospect of a sudden breakthrough and then a mobile war, but this has to be less likely along the Maginot Line than it does to the north.
 
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