Is March 1939 too late for a quick defeat of Hitler

Imagine bRITAIN, Poland AND France get the right strategy. Could Poland have mobilized earlier and had defence in depth

Could France have put together a force capable of making an early offensive?

If Poland were fighting a bit better and Hitler panicking about the invasion of the Ruhr would Stalin stand pat?
 

Commissar

Banned
Imagine bRITAIN, Poland AND France get the right strategy. Could Poland have mobilized earlier and had defence in depth

Could France have put together a force capable of making an early offensive?

If Poland were fighting a bit better and Hitler panicking about the invasion of the Ruhr would Stalin stand pat?

The French lack the specialized equipment to breach the Siegfried Line and lacks fundamentals such as mine detectors.

Poland is utterly indefensible as the Germans can hit them from too many directions and by fully mobilizing that early, they'll be wrecking their economy and most of their troops will end up pocketed and fewer of them will escape.

Now if the French had developed their own analogs to Hobart's Funnies and had them in numbers and mine detectors, plus delayed action fuzes for artillery shells, then they could breach the Siegfried Line and begin pouring into the Saar and Ruhr.
 
The French lack the specialized equipment to breach the Siegfried Line and lacks fundamentals such as mine detectors.

Poland is utterly indefensible as the Germans can hit them from too many directions and by fully mobilizing that early, they'll be wrecking their economy and most of their troops will end up pocketed and fewer of them will escape.

Now if the French had developed their own analogs to Hobart's Funnies and had them in numbers and mine detectors, plus delayed action fuzes for artillery shells, then they could breach the Siegfried Line and begin pouring into the Saar and Ruhr.

Commissar

I've heard other things about the Siegfried Line, i.e. that basically propaganda aside there wasn't a lot there. Also a lot of the German army [and population] was still very, very nervous about a new war at the time. If the French hit the German defences hard, especially given their artillery and heavy armour they would probably make deep inroads towards the Rhine and then there's a likelihood of both Stalin and a lot of Germans having 2nd thoughts about Adolf. Really has to be France because too late for Britain to get a sizeable modern force for continental service although they could probably get some units in support.

The other option is if the western allies can reassure the Poles enough for them to agree to Soviet forces entering Poland. [Getting them out again afterwards could probably be a real pain however].

Steve
 
Commissar

I've heard other things about the Siegfried Line, i.e. that basically propaganda aside there wasn't a lot there. Also a lot of the German army [and population] was still very, very nervous about a new war at the time. If the French hit the German defences hard, especially given their artillery and heavy armour they would probably make deep inroads towards the Rhine and then there's a likelihood of both Stalin and a lot of Germans having 2nd thoughts about Adolf. Really has to be France because too late for Britain to get a sizeable modern force for continental service although they could probably get some units in support.

The other option is if the western allies can reassure the Poles enough for them to agree to Soviet forces entering Poland. [Getting them out again afterwards could probably be a real pain however].

Steve

I must agree. The Siegfried Line was only partial completed during "The Phony war", and was heavily beefed up by the German propaganda. If France strats mobilizing in March of 1939, perhaps along side the UK, maybe Hitler won't attack Poland, hence IOTL he attacked believing the allies would once more back down.
 
the last opportunity the allies had for a quick (ie less than a year) victory against Germany, was Munich... March 39 is too late; by that point the german army is too large to be completely defeated without heavy (which the french where loath to sustain) casualties
 
the last opportunity the allies had for a quick (ie less than a year) victory against Germany, was Munich... March 39 is too late; by that point the german army is too large to be completely defeated without heavy (which the french where loath to sustain) casualties

I learn something new from this site every day. This would've been interesting then, if the Western Allies had listened to those like Churchill and Eden who had argued against losing the support of the Czech Army and in favor of confronting Germany early on.
 
Commissar

I've heard other things about the Siegfried Line, i.e. that basically propaganda aside there wasn't a lot there. Also a lot of the German army [and population] was still very, very nervous about a new war at the time. If the French hit the German defences hard, especially given their artillery and heavy armour they would probably make deep inroads towards the Rhine and then there's a likelihood of both Stalin and a lot of Germans having 2nd thoughts about Adolf. Really has to be France because too late for Britain to get a sizeable modern force for continental service although they could probably get some units in support.

Steve
While I think Hitler would have backed down or forced to if the west mobilized early I think the French would in case of war still not breach the Siegfried line out of two causes: They believed the German propaganda and their doctrine between the wars did not support the deep and fast offensives of blitzkrieg needed to threaten the Ruhr but was based on the fighting of the Great war
 
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