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

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by layers of obstacles, was named after the French Defence Minister – a

Verdun veteran – who devised the plan in the 1920s. Stretching from

Switzerland to the Belgian border, it cost more than 7,000 million francs.

The Maginot Line was a reasonable deterrent along France’s border

with Germany, but there were still 250 miles along the Belgian border that

were not so well protected. France would have liked to have stationed

troops in Belgium but the latter refused them entry because of her strict

adherence to her neutrality. Only when and if Belgium were attacked would

she allow Allied troops on to her soil.

This left Gamelin with a conundrum. On the one hand, there were

advantages to moving into Belgium to meet any German assault because the

French line would be shorter and French forces swelled further by the thirty

divisions of the Dutch and Belgian armies. Also, by moving into Belgium,

the battle could be fought clear of France and her northern industrial area.

On the other hand, if they stayed put on the French border, they would lose

those benefits but gain the advantage of well-prepared defences. It was a

tricky call.

Gamelin also had to decide where a German attack was most likely to

come. Yes, he had considerable forces at his disposal, but he had to defend

500 miles of the French border, whereas the Germans could concentrate

their forces at a point of their choosing. Thinking quite logically, he

assumed that the Germans would probably not attack the Maginot Line. He

also believed that a thrust through the Ardennes was unlikely. Although the

Ardennes forest lay just beyond the northernmost point of the Maginot

Line, the thick woods and deep valleys of this stretch of Belgium and

Luxembourg were felt to be unsuitable for tanks. Furthermore, there was

the major obstacle of the Meuse to cross as well. The Germans had made

much of their panzer force and Gamelin again fell for the propaganda.

Marshal Pétain, the French hero of Verdun in 1916, had called the Ardennes

‘impenetrable’. Gamelin, too, had described the Meuse as ‘Europe’s best

tank obstacle’. And so he reasoned that the Germans, as in 1914, would

advance through the Low Countries, where they would be able to put their

tank forces to best effect.

Gamelin had resolved his conundrum in his mind swiftly not least

because intelligence suggested the Germans were planning an attack soon,

and he asked Général Georges to produce plans for an advance into

Belgium that could be implemented the moment the Germans launched an

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