The Battle of Britain Five Months That Changed History, May—October 1940 by James Holland (z-lib.org).epub

agreed between the British and French Governments that you should be at
liberty to appeal to the British Government before executing that order.’ It
was an important proviso, and one that Gort would be eternally grateful for
once the German offensive began.
Nonetheless, as far as preparing for a German attack went, the French
were happy to pay lip-service to the British, but little more; indeed, the
British Government had accepted that direction of any land campaign
should be the responsibility of the French. The French war policy was much
the same as the British – that is, to wait until she had built up her strength
and then, and only then, to go on to the offensive. The great tragedy was
that in 1939 France was in fact already more than strong enough. French
forces were superior in numbers to the Germans in almost every department
at the outbreak of war, and still would be by May 1940. Sadly for the entire
history of the world, they had fallen for Nazi spin-doctoring, believing that
even Hitler would not be crazy enough to risk war if his armed forces were
not as invincible as had been made out.
In fact, the German Siegfried Line, or West Wall – the defensive system
along Germany’s western border – was underdeveloped and held by a mere
skeleton force throughout the Polish campaign. As it was, the Germans
nearly shot their bolt in Poland. Had the campaign lasted even a few days
longer, front-line units would have found themselves without any
ammunition at all. Had Gamelin mobilized his vast armies and marched
over the Rhine in September 1939, Berlin would have been theirs for the
taking and the war would indeed very likely have been over before
Christmas.
It was not to be, however. From the moment the guns fell silent in 1918,
France was determined that such a war should never happen on her soil
again. Unlike Britain, her response had been not to disarm but to build such
a strong defensive line that no attacker would ever again force its way
through.
France had fewer colonies than Britain and had been far more
traumatized than Britain by the experience of the First World War. The
attrition of the trenches had proved to the French that concrete was king. It
had also proved that the side with the stronger economy and the best
defences would ultimately prevail. This view did not alter in the 1920s and
1930s. The Maginot Line, a series of interconnected reinforced bunkers
mounted with heavy artillery and anti-tank and machine guns, and protected