WWII: Could the Allies invade Germany in spring 1940?

[Jimbo808]

Instead of sitting back behind Maginot what if the French and British launch a full frontal attack on Germany? Could this be done and how far would they get, or could they go all the way and knock Germany out earlier in the war?

 

[Lalli]

I doubt that. They weren't ready for such invasion. They even couldn't defend France.

 

[KaiserWilhelm]

Not really. It’s generally easier to defend then attack and the Germans were clearly ahead at this point

 

[Ramontxo]

Any chance of this succeeding should have been in September 1939.

 

[Lalli]

Any chance of this succeeding should have been in September 1939.

I doubt that too. Probably there should be earlier POD. Perhaps if Britain and France decide put much more efforts to their militaries after invasion to Czhechoslovakia. But even that hardly is enough to do much for that.

 

[vetinari]

The Germans possessed a defensive line comparable to the Maginot one, in the Seigfried Line. The Allies attempted a small scale invasion in 1940, in the Saar. It failed and the French withdrew after a week or so. The Allies were unprepared for any large scale invasion attempt.

 

[Post]

The Siegfriedlne was not nearly as extensive as the Maginotline.

 

[DougM]

I am not sure that they could have done a lot worse in an invasion then they did on the Defensive. Of course it could have helped as it was in large part a result of bad command that the front collapsed. So perhaps they would have done a better job on the offensive.

That said, i dont think that the Wallies could have won a war by invasion in 1940. I think they would ultimately have failed and fallen back. However…. There is a minor possibility that just standing up to Germany would result in Germany backing down. We really are not sure how Germany/the Nazi/Hitler would react if someone resisted him early on. It was at least partly the string of successes from getting Austria and the Sudatenland and the the invasion of Poland and France that created the myth of all powerful Germany. But in truth Hitler showed a few indicators that he was extremely nervous. So he may have backed down if the Wallies had stood up to him and achieved even minimal success.
And we also have a few indicators that the German Army and its Airforce were a lot better at offensives tactics than at defense.
So while i suspect that the outcome will be much the same it is not 100% certain

 

[Coulsdon Eagle]

September 1939 is possible, but it will be a purely French affair, with the British Army nowhere near the numbers required. The Luftwaffe and the Panzers were concentrated in the East, and there was a rapid redeployment to the West even before Warsaw fell. The West Wall was a defensive system mostly on paper then.

Spring 1940 the British are stronger but the Germans are too, and their command is more suited to mobile warfare than Gamelin & Co.

1941 the Allies would have sufficient advantages to press an attack, but whether they had the tactical nous for a modern game by then is a doubt.

 

[RedSword12]

There was a much more substantial German force on the border with France during the Invasion of Poland than pop culture claims. The French were simply not ready for an attack, even against a numerically inferior opponent. As bad a look as Gamelin's withdrawal has, it was a rational response to the rapid collapse of Polish defenses and the present unsuitability of the French for conducting a strategic offensive. Did the French waste the time given to them by the Phoney War? Yes, but that does not mean the decision to break off was not a reasonable decision, given that France was prepared neither militarily nor politically to engage in an inevitably high-casualty invasion like that, not when defensible terrain further back provided a much better alternative.