How to make France do better in the early stages of WW1

BigBlueBox

Banned
So what are some realistic ways France could have done better in the beginning of the war? Better leadership? Better tactics? Better weapons? Any late war tactics and strategies and weapons they could have adopted earlier? Any bad generals which were replaced by better generals and should have been replaced sooner?
 
So what are some realistic ways France could have done better in the beginning of the war? Better leadership? Better tactics? Better weapons? Any late war tactics and strategies and weapons they could have adopted earlier? Any bad generals which were replaced by better generals and should have been replaced sooner?
Don't charge entrenched machine guns
 

CaliGuy

Banned
So what are some realistic ways France could have done better in the beginning of the war? Better leadership? Better tactics? Better weapons? Any late war tactics and strategies and weapons they could have adopted earlier? Any bad generals which were replaced by better generals and should have been replaced sooner?
Avoid attacking the Germans in Alsace-Lorraine and thus avoid getting mauled by the Germans there.
 

pansagi

Banned
Realistically, France should've had better mobilization, and slightly better leadership. Some of the generals where completely incompetent for when it came to modern warfare. Other than that was knowing they'd go through Belgium to avoid the complete hell that was Vougges and Verdun and playing complete defensive, having fortification on the rivers of paris, etc.
 
The French come very close to defeating the Germans and the changes don't have to be great. Keeping to little things that prevent huge butterflies:

1) Adopting a modern uniform in 1911 like was proposed. This would have won them many firefights for no cost at all

2) When going to the three year law, retaining the class of 1911 instead of calling up the class of 1914 early. In OTL 2/3 of the French army had served less than a year and was physically unfit as well as poorly trained

3) The Army of the Alps- five regular and one reserve division- should have never been deployed there. Italian neutrality was obvious early in the crisis and local demolitions would have done enough even if the French guess wrong. Putting this north of the fifth army would have kept the Germans from constantly threatening the northern flanks

4) Instead of rushing to meet the Germans, only a small screening force should have been sent beyond the fortress line. Its mission merely to slow the German advance, wearing the Germans down for a counter attack. This would have saved the French army six days of marching and allowed them to exploit their victory at the Marne. The French army was in much poorer physical shape than the Germans as they recruited 90% of eligible men versus the Germans taking only about half. The physical standards had to be sacrificed for numbers

5) Realizing to take proper advantage of the Russian alliance, France should wait until the Russians had mobilized and drawn off some German forces before launching the Western offensive. Buying the Russians a week before they launch their East Prussia offensive would have meant victory there and Moltke being forced to pull six corps East instead of just two.

6) Pulling one Army from the South and moving it to Paris as a strategic reserve. From there, it could take advantage of the internal lines and move either to strengthen the Fortress line or attack the German offensive in the North

7) The French should have made use of their Fortress line. Joffre's premature offensive meant attacking beyond it. The French had 850,000 men tied down in their Fortresses. Falling back on them doomed the German offensives and the French eventually rely on them to win at the Marne

8) By relying on the fortress line, the French could reinforce it with their reserve division. There are 450,000 men in them and they do poorly in our time because Joffre expected too much of them. French reservists did less active service than German and they had the same problem of lower standards than the Germans that the active army had. They needed time to get in shape and adapt to military life

9) The French also had vacancies for 6,000 Sergeants and 23,000 corporals Higher pay would have solved this

10) Tactically, the French aren't any worse than the Germans. While people mock the French over aggresiveness, they ignore the Germans marching in dense files that were easy picking for French gunners. Its a bit silly to expect two armies that hadn't fought a major war in over forty years to have modern, effective tactical doctrines

Basically, this means adopting the strategy that was used to save France at the Marne from the onset. Its success is demonstrated.

A good POD for these changes would have been the Russians standing firm on their ground and making clear to the French that they couldn't launch an offensive for three weeks and that France should give that offensive a week to have effect
 
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