How successful could a German attack on France through Italy be?

Thande

Donor
Just a vague idea I had, mainly from playing Civ4; but let's just say, out of the blue, that for some reason Italy joins Germany in WW2 from the beginning, and thus there is conflict along the Franco-Italian frontier from 1939 onwards. My guess would be that the French would probably have the advantage, but would be unwilling to press any gains due to fear of overextending their supply lines, wanting to keep the bulk of the army ready to reply to a German attack in the north, and the French army's innate conservatism of this period.

So when we come around to some time in 1940, instead of the attack through the Low Countries, how plausible would a German attack through Piedmont into the south of France be, assisted by the Italians? With only desultory feints in Alsace-Lorraine to discourage the French from concentrating their forces to the south.

Any of that make sense, or am I talking bollocks?
 
It's a clever idea, but driving tanks and running supplies over the mountains would be difficult. Still, I bet you could make it work. It's certainly audacious..

It's just a lot farther from, say, Marseilles to Paris than it is from Brussels to Paris, no?
 

Susano

Banned
Im no expert, but I do think its the latter ;)

The German Army would have to cross the Alps twice. They would lose teh surpise moment as soon as they poiu rover the Austrian passes, as that just takes too much time, and then would find the French soldiers well fortified on their Alps. Also, armoured warfare played a great role in German doctrine at the time, of course... the flat Low Countries are perfect for that. The Alps and generally mountainous South France not so much.
 
Perhaps if Hitler and Mussolini decide on the plan early enough extra units of Alpini could be formed, or the Arditi could be re-established to lead the attack. That would call for a competent Italian approach to warfare though, which isn't likely.
 
Italy joins Germany in WW2 from the beginning, and thus there is conflict along the Franco-Italian frontier from 1939 onwards.

There is a Thermopylae effect for the defence facing an attack between the Alps and the coast. OTL the Italians couldn't press a meaningful advantage, but ITTL the Germans would make the defense more problematic. OTL Gamelin took units from the Army of the Alps to reinforce first the Saar and then the Norwegian campaigns, so a knock on effect is possible. If the Axis could sustain meaningful mountain operations then they would be able to maintain an active front through the winter.

The French left flank would be destabilised and assuming a Luftflotte operating out of northern Italy then things would get hairy for the French, though again perhaps not decisively so. However the front would probably need reinforcement, which would have an impact on the Norwegian campaign and the planning around the defense of Belgium/north west France.

The other side of things is that the Mediterannean would immediately become a war zone. The Anglo-French had reasonably well developed plans for this, particularly on the naval side of things. There would be fleet actions, coastal bombardment, strategic interdiction of the Italian production centre, operations in Libya and Sardinia and planning around an invasion of Sicily.

The latter is probably beyond the capacity of the Anglo-French, but the other measures are able to be achieved and would also complement their strategy of attacking Germany by concentrating on the fringes.
 
Think about it: how many times has France been successfully invaded from the northeast? How many times has France been successfully invaded from the southeast? Or the southwest for that matter? The mountains make it difficult.
 
Switzerland might declare war on Germany... There is a treaty of demilitarisation of Haute Savoie as part of the agreement that saw it transferred from Italy to France in the 1860s, and it says something along the lines of if either side were to militarise it, or put troops through it, Switzerland would join the other

Now, of course, by 1940 the Swiss might be happy to regard this as a relic of ancient history ! But on the other hand, there may well still be recidivist elements in the government who never got over the fact that when the area was exchanged, Swiss Geneva did not get its share of the territory.

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
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