The 1939 French "Great Attack" on Germany That Could Change Everything

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  • Опубліковано 11 лип 2024
  • How was the French attack on Germany in 1939? What was your result? Did he have chances of turning the tide of the war? What were the main mistakes they made? Why has this operation been practically forgotten? Very few know that on September 7, 1939, the French Army carried out an offensive in the Saarland that advanced between 8 and 10 kilometers along a front line of 32 kilometers. In total, 11 divisions and hundreds of tanks participated. Next in this show, we take a look at what this offense went like.
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    00:00 Introduction
    00:44 France and Germany at War
    01:50 The French Army mobilizes
    03:00 The French Attack begins
    04:00 German response
    05:28 Result of the Offensive
    06:14 The French withdraw
    07:00 German Counterattack
    07:10 Casualties and final conclusions
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КОМЕНТАРІ • 38

  • @shcomptech
    @shcomptech Рік тому +27

    The French and British declared war on Germany because Germany invaded Poland, but interestingly they didn't declare war on Russia when Russia invaded.

    • @mr.goeser1867
      @mr.goeser1867 Рік тому +4

      This is also my question for a long time, no historian is covering it, I do not understand, both committed same crime

    • @JDDC-tq7qm
      @JDDC-tq7qm Рік тому +3

      Because Germany is easier to defeat , French and British already tasted victory against the Germans in WW1 besides French and British declaring war on Russia would have huge consequences in Europe can you imagine an alliance of Germany and Russia the Axis would've been too powerful for the Allies

    • @JDDC-tq7qm
      @JDDC-tq7qm Рік тому

      ​@@mr.goeser1867besides Germany is closer to France and Britain while Russia is far away and is vast the French and British fought in the Russian civil war against the Red Army and they lost to Soviet Russia so thats probably another factor on why the allies didn't declare war on Russia

    • @captain5121
      @captain5121 Рік тому

      @@mr.goeser1867history matters did a good video on it and essentially there wasn’t a good reason to with Russia not directly connected as Germany was

    • @gaborczirjak4172
      @gaborczirjak4172 Рік тому

      @@JDDC-tq7qm This is your explanation, but people expected explanation from England and France, But they play dumb, like they never heard this question and they treat you accordingly, you should be satisfied with what they tell you and better you keep you mouth shut ! They playing this game with us, since WW2 ! Gabor Czirjak USA

  • @bevinboulder5039
    @bevinboulder5039 Рік тому +8

    It was definitely an opportunity lost.

  • @colder5465
    @colder5465 Рік тому +9

    The whole problem with the French (and the British, for that matter) was they thought the war with Hitler as some kind of a remake of WW1. They envisaged a long positional war only in a far better edition - without an occupation of one third of France, based instead of only field defense on Maginot line and so on. They didn't intend offensive actions at all. Why? We have a tight sea blockade and sooner or later we smother Germany economically. The result will be the same. And from this perspective the role of so-called "eastern ally" (not important - Poland or Soviet Russia, it's better to be Poland because France and Britain estimated Poland much higher than Russia) was clear: to allow time for smooth mobilisation and deployment of their forces. Was this plan good? It was golden and even brilliant - but only for WW1. It totally ignored that Germans learned their own lessons from their defeat. And they invented two things: the real monster - a Panzergruppe, and close air support. Before air forces and land army waged essentially two different wars. Close air support means that bombers and dive bombers act in close cooperation with land forces and first and foremost in their interests. And with that it became possible achieving the goal of so-called isolating a theater of operations. In other words, should any breakthrough occur, the air force would do everything to thwart reinforcements and supplies for a defending side. And even without all that the task of the defending side becomes next to impossible because the Panzergruppe has the speed of moving forward comparable with the speed with which the defendings side could bring its reinforcements on railroads. Simply speaking, the defending side simply doesn't have time for organising a new strong frontline. All this was totally unknown at the time, one has to acknowledge the Germans were far ahead in this field of all other nations.

    • @colder5465
      @colder5465 Рік тому +2

      One addition: why Britain and France estimated Poland higher and decided on starting the war with Hitler when he attacked Poland. They reasoned pretty simply: 1. Russia surrendered in WW1. All Lenin's words about imperialistic war didn't matter. Surrendered. Period. 2. In subsequent Soviet-Polish war the Soviets lost. Again, all Stalin's words about the necessity to go the path of a couple of hundreds years in one decade (he meant industrialisation) hadn't been heard. Western powers treated them roughly as the West today treats Putin's words. The dog barks - the wind carries. 2. Repressions in the army. Usually, people say that in these repressions many notable if not talented generals were killed and so on. For western powers all this didn't matter at all: who was killed and how talented or stupid the victims were. They reasoned simply: the army in which such a violent struggle occurs isn't battleworthy. In case of war at least part of generals will betray. If not some military coup. Based on these considerations, the British (and with them the French) preferred dealing with Poland. And now here on UA-cam you could watch historical conferences on the topic of how we made an error, we had to disregard Poland and wait for Hitler attacking the Soviet Russia. Essentially, we lost huge quantities of men and equipment and the whole country - France - just for nothing.

  • @MrNaKillshots
    @MrNaKillshots Рік тому +6

    They only attacked on a very limited basis, and then turned back, to avoid confrontation. That didn't work.

  • @glennhubbard5008
    @glennhubbard5008 Рік тому +7

    I imagine many thought about that over the next four years.

    • @petertucker524
      @petertucker524 9 місяців тому +2

      During German occupation the French generals would have agonised almost the point of Madness

  • @stefanomorelli4999
    @stefanomorelli4999 Рік тому

    Fantastic channel❤

  • @antoniasorianoperez2746
    @antoniasorianoperez2746 Рік тому

    Good history Channel

  • @JDDC-tq7qm
    @JDDC-tq7qm Рік тому +2

    It took the full might of Britain, USA and USSR to bring down Germany when France could've done it in 1939

  • @johnelliott7375
    @johnelliott7375 Рік тому +7

    It probably could have been the end of the war as soon as it started. Good example of the day!

    • @waracademy128
      @waracademy128  Рік тому +1

      Ty

    • @johnelliott7375
      @johnelliott7375 Рік тому

      @@waracademy128 always welcome and I will always enjoy your videos because you are as historical accurate as possible without going into the national archives of each nation and doing research. They would not permit it unless they got big money and a gag order on the information you found on the war and it's information for everything. Great evening and enjoy your day tomorrow

  • @rafaelmartinezmartinez2089
    @rafaelmartinezmartinez2089 Рік тому

    Good history channet

  • @antasosam8486
    @antasosam8486 11 місяців тому +1

    For some reason the fact that soviets and nazi was allied by then still secret agreement ( Molotoff - Ribentropf) are not taken into consideration. Actually France and GB feared much to see soviet tanks one nice day in front of them and beside Germans. Soviet armed forces was huge and they had more tanks than all other nations combined.

  • @eddy2561
    @eddy2561 11 місяців тому +1

    Why is ur audio so out of sync with the video??

  • @nerminerminerminermi
    @nerminerminerminermi Рік тому +1

    The french would have worn out all theie strenght with an all out attack. Most of their Equipment was sluggish and they had no idea of combined arms war aka Blitzkrieg

  • @whocares427
    @whocares427 Рік тому

    I think the fundamental issues that made the Germans win and Anglo-French lose in 1940 would still be there. Slower command loop. Poor mobility. Poor co-ordination at every level.
    The Germans would be weakened after Poland and wouldn't have time to rebuild like IRL. But on the other hand, the Anglo-French would be stretched out and exposed all over Western Germany. I think the most likely outcome is that a rapid war of movement would ensue after Poland falls and the Germans bring everything back west. The Germans would probably still win, just like they would win mobile battles in the desert or USSR in 1940-43. It should in theory actually be easier, since the Anglo-French would be all spread out instead of compact like IRL.
    And winning in this way would both let them defeat France months earlier than IRL, it would also be a massive PR victory. It would make it look like Germany defeated a French invasion and only then conquered France in self defence.
    The biggest risk to Germany would be some kind of coup or assassination attempt on Hitler, I think. It would be extremely likely. Almost certain. So it just comes down to if Hitler's magical luck can keep him alive until the first victories inside Germany

  • @freespeechisneverwrong9351
    @freespeechisneverwrong9351 Рік тому +1

    The French were still fighting the First World War and used the tactics from that. The Germans knew better.

  • @bigp3006
    @bigp3006 Рік тому +8

    I think the French could have done much more, especially with their numerical superiority. But it looked more like a half hearted attempt so things carried out as they did.

    • @fips711
      @fips711 Рік тому +1

      On paper or on a video game. But you need to take into account that they had not made preparations for an offensive war, they didn't even have the logistics to properly support the half-hearted probing attack that they did carry out. The German army had such an edge over them because they had carried out maneuvers when occupying the Rheinland, Austria and Czechia and put all their expertise into mobility.

    • @bigp3006
      @bigp3006 Рік тому

      Hence " things carried out as they did".

    • @mr.goeser1867
      @mr.goeser1867 Рік тому +1

      French and the Brit’s were war tired

    • @jeremymazon6437
      @jeremymazon6437 Рік тому +1

      After USSR showed its true colour by invading Poland the game was over! France had just no mean to take on Germany and USSR. Even today "GRUSSIA" (Germanie Russia) is the best worry of NATO.

    • @jeremymazon6437
      @jeremymazon6437 Рік тому

      @@fips711 They also carried out tank manoeuvers in Kazan (USSR) where they practiced large scale operation with radios.

  • @TheYeti308
    @TheYeti308 Рік тому

    And stuck west .

  • @yeeyee52
    @yeeyee52 Рік тому +3

    Imagine if the French army just went to the Elbe river in 1939. damn Hitler would've been finished. His life was built on a gamble if you look at it. He always rolled the dice (Barborossa, Fall Blau, Battle of the Buldge) even when the odds were stacked against him but sadly the dice he rolled had terrible consequences for Germany and humanity.

    • @Hoang-88
      @Hoang-88 Рік тому

      So true, the dice he rolled fail to save us from the degenerate society in the modern world today. I wish he has done better. He has too much mercy for his enemies and we all pay dearly for it.

  • @mohammedsaysrashid3587
    @mohammedsaysrashid3587 Рік тому

    I think the French had capabilities to do it more 🤔 than they did due to their's numerous superior at that times when majority of German divisions activated inside Poland 🇵🇱 territories...it seems to me they did half attempts for showing theirs strength 💪 front Germans... their's stopping in 10 kilometers depth its considered as short hype and military propagandist...what is questionable historically 😮...Are German intelligence realized 1- French population was divided severely between extremist right and left political wings 🪽 besides sever weaknesses of French government inside theirs branched systems? Or only bravery and stubbornness encouraged Germans?