1, 1939, and two days later, Britain and France declared war. The lowest priority for defense were the approaches from the Ardennes Forest-regarded as “impenetrable”-between the Maginot Line and Belgium. With reduced requirement for mobile forces on that front, the French could allocate more of their manpower to the Belgian border on the north, where a German attack, if there was one, was expected to come. The entire French-German border, from Basel in Switzerland to the Longwy on the Luxembourg frontier, was protected by the Maginot Line, a continuous string of linked concrete fortifications, mine fields, barriers, ditches, and prepared fields of fire. They had more tanks, more artillery, more men under arms, and about the same number of combat airplanes. The French were ahead of the Germans, or nearly so, in almost every category of military power. “The French army has long been called by experts the ‘best in the world,’ and its finest divisions undoubtedly are unmatched,” he said. The military editor of The New York Times, Hanson W. Nobody wants war but if we are forced to win a new victory then we will win it.” “Its equipment is the best, its fortifications are first rate, its morale is excellent, and it has an outstanding high command. Maxime Weygand, the retired chief of staff. “The French Army is stronger than ever before in its history,” declared Gen. Photo: Imperial War MuseumĪs war clouds gathered over Europe in the summer of 1939, the French were boldly confident of their capability to defend themselves should Germany be rash enough to attack. British soldiers wade from the beaches at Dunkirk to a waiting destroyer during a massive evacuation effort just before the fall of France.
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