Victory in the Saar: France Wins in 1938-9 ATL
Intro
French Army Chief of Staff Edmond Buat in 1923: “I’m convinced that a new war with Germany is inevitable in the next 20 to 30 years”
French military leaders had long predicted the resurgence of Germany and the threat it would pose to France. The danger of Germany became ever clearer with the rise of Adolf Hitler’s and the Nazi Party. Many thought Hitler’s Germany could simple be warded off through appeasement and defensive measures, this however proved to be folly. Hitler's aggressive foreign policy would shatter balance of power left in the wake of the World War One.
It was not until March of 1935, as German troops rolled into the Rhineland, that the German danger came to France's doorstep. France's protective cushion was gone and Nazi soldiers were at the French Republic’s borders. French Prime Minster Pierre-Étienne Flandin resigned in disgrace over the crisis. The French people now looked for someone who could protect them from future German aggression; the man who stepped forward was Paul Reynaud.
Reynaud’s election to Prime Minster was supported by men on both sides of the ideological spectrum. The right hoped to keep its popularity with the people and the far left viewed Nazi Germany as an evil that needed to be stopped. The new Prime Minster would have to bring both the right and the left together in order to stop Nazi Germany in its tracks.
Reynaud had recognized the danger Germany posed earlier then most of his fellow politicians. In the early 1930’s, Reynaud had pushed hard for a swift rearmament process and resistance to any violation of the Versailles Treaty. He was against France hiding behind the Maginot Line and favored offensive warfare. In this implementing his vision he found an able partner in Colonel Charles de Gaulle. De Gaulle in 1934 wrote a piece entitled “Toward a Professional Army”, it favored an aggressive style of warfare that relied on mechanized infantry and masses of tanks.
As Prime Minster, Reynaud would set about championing de Gaulle’s ideas and began actively promoting them to the people. If in the future war came France would again take to the offensive as it did in the time of Napoleon.