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There was always a feeling that the French were really brainless, and they even made such wonderful things as the Maginot Line.
Spent half of the military budget to build a defense line that is said to be indestructible, and then only repaired a section because the north is the Netherlands and Belgium. You can’t repair people’s homes. Does this defense line make sense? I found a picture online and you can see that it only has a section of the German French border, but not the north.
Later on, it turned out to be meaningless because Germany bypassed the defense line and directly infiltrated France from Belgium, successfully liberating France. The word “Maginot Line” became a joke.
Later on, after reading many books, I realized that it was completely different.
01
Offensive cult
Before the World War I, the German General Staff suffered from a kind of “Canny disease”.
What does it mean? During the Roman Empire, Hannibal, the lifelong enemy of the Romans, defeated many with a small number in Cannes and engaged in a beautiful encirclement and annihilation battle, playing the flanking tactics to the limit. That battle destroyed the main Roman field army, beheaded two consuls and more than 80 senators, almost causing Rome’s waist to be damaged.
Before World War I, Count Schryfen, who had planned the German attack on France, was an unmistakable Hannibal fan. The combat plan he designed for the German army was a typical “Canney tactic”, where the main force attacked from the side, bypassing Belgium, and attacking Paris from the north.
Draw it casually, as shown in the picture below. This is the famous “Schlieffen Plan”. It can be seen that Germany did not directly cross the German French border, but bypassed Belgium.
This is why the “Battle of Cannae” just now has a direct impact on the World War I, and even on the later “World War II”, because the later “Blitzkrieg” is an improved version of the “Schlieffen Plan”.
His opponent France was very funny, and made a strange “Order 17”. There were almost no specific details and plans in this plan. The main thing was that the French army rushed out and, with extremely firm determination and will, mounted bayonets on rifles and launched a pig dash, completely defeated the German army and recovered Alsace and Lorraine lost decades ago.
To say more about this “Alsace Lorraine”, I have been to Alsace, which is still in France. It belongs to the northeast of France. It is the main tourist and wine chateau. Many domestic tycoons have bought wine chateaus there. The “Riesling” that many kids know is a specialty of Alsace. Some people there speak German and some speak French. Germany and France fought for thousands of years in this area, and for a long time it was Germany’s territory, which was later taken by France.
After taking it away, the people there agreed with France more in concept, so after the “Franco-Prussian War” ended, the place was taken back by the Germans, but the representative of Alsace Lorraine swore in the French Parliament that the two places belonged to France for generations, waiting for France to liberate. The French also put a black veil on the statue of Strasbourg in Place de la Concorde, symbolizing that France is crying and must wash away the humiliation and take back those two places in the future.
After the outbreak of the war, the German army took the lead in attacking Belgium according to the plan, and France invaded Germany from the German French border. The offensive cult has achieved astonishing results on the Western Front, but this effect is different from what people imagine. The decisive charge of the French soldiers almost turned into a massacre under the German machine gun. The French blood dyed the wine rich Alsace area red, and finally nothing was captured. Fortunately, the German attack on France was also very difficult, and it was quickly blocked north of Paris and unable to advance.
Then the war turned into a stalemate and turned into a bitter Trench warfare. The French, who turned to defense, unleashed their previously unrecognized combat power and carried it to the end of the war until Germany surrendered. The French not only became the victors, but also recaptured Alsace and Lorraine, whom they had always dreamed of.
Shortly after the end of World War I, the French realized that Germany would make trouble sooner or later. Considering the terrible experience of the French in the attack of World War I, they also wanted to think about their natural skills in defense. There were too many people killed in the war, so they put the construction of a defense line that would never fall on the agenda.
Regarding this defense line, the French actually have a more complex purpose.
The most crucial point is that the French have put in so much effort and do not want to have a decisive battle with the Germans on this line of defense. On the contrary, behind the line of defense is the industrial zone of France, where the French cannot accept a bad war.
So they prepared to block the Germans’ path with a defensive line, forcing them to detour north and take Belgium.
Repeating the situation in World War I, the battlefield between Germany and France shifted to Belgium (Belgium cursed “every batch”). This is not a later comment. Historians found out the minutes of the meeting of the French staff, which clearly stated that the purpose of the Maginot Line was to let the Germans bypass, and then the British French coalition went to the Belgian border to wait for the German invasion.
Why not go into Belgium and wait? Because Belgium is a Neutral country, unless it asks for help from other countries, whoever goes in is an invasion. So Britain and France waited on the border for Germany to invade.
Will Germany follow the French plan?
In fact, the decision of the German General Staff did not touch this defense line hard, but bypassed Belgium and followed the “Schlieffen Plan” in the “World War I”.
According to this idea, the battle plan for attacking France was also formulated. At the beginning, the plan was called the “yellow plan”, which was completely the French idea. The Germans bypassed the Maginot Line, passed through Belgium, and attacked Paris from the north when the French did not pay attention.
The Germans thought that the French were hiding behind the Maginot Line and waiting for them to attack. Unexpectedly, they were schemed by the French, who were waiting for them in Belgium.
In the first game between the two sides, the French had the upper hand.
02
Britain
The French know one thing, that the World War I can finally end with the victory of France and the return of their lost territory, not because the French are so arrogant, but because their ally is Britain.
Today’s Britain is like a Husky. Back a hundred years ago, Britain was now the United States. At that time, although Britain’s industry was no longer the dominant power of the past, its foundation was still strong, and even many American companies were controlled by British capital. There are also nearly unlimited overseas soldiers, Indians, New Zealanders, Canadians and Australians, who can be cannon fodders.
More importantly, Britain has Absolute advantage in the ocean, which can block Germany’s overseas trade routes. Even if it is difficult, it can also trap Germany. However, judging from the later situation, the strength of the British navy is not much different from that of Germany. A “Battle of Jutland” broke out between the two sides, and a draw was made. It can be seen that the strength of the German Navy has become very strong. However, since then, the German Navy has been huddled in the port and has not come out. The sea has become a hunting ground for the British Imperial Navy.
If France were to fight Germany alone, although they had great confidence in their abilities, they would still be a bit vague. If Britain could join, there would be almost no suspense about the outcome.
So before World War I, the French, facing the upcoming war, almost made every effort to pull Britain into the water. However, in the end, the British came to an end because of the Germans.
As I said just now, in order to surprise the French, the Germans did not force France from the front of the German French border. Instead, they bypassed Neutral country Belgium and attacked France from Belgium.
This has caught the attention of the British people. You can also see from the map that Belgium is also next to Britain, just across the English Channel. It was in Belgium that the Duke of Wellington defeated Napoleon.
So in the eyes of many British conservatives, Belgium is the true frontier of Britain. As a result, Belgium’s neutrality was facilitated, and Britain was the guarantor country. If anyone attacked Belgium, it would be in the face of Britain, and it would directly threaten the British mainland, and Britain would come to an end.
In both World Wars, the Germans invaded Belgium and humiliated Britain in terms of interests and reputation, so Britain ended up with France on both occasions.
The end of Britain meant the simultaneous end of Britain, Australia, Canada, and the United States. Germany, as one of the largest industrial countries at the time, was very, very difficult to win, but ultimately did not win.
On the eve of World War II, the French began to miss Britain again. As long as they continued to drag Britain into the water, Britain would continuously draw troops from India and let the United States produce weapons.
So how can Britain send troops? As long as Germany attacks Belgium, Britain will send troops. Now you understand the logic of the Maginot Line, which has two main functions:
1. Don’t fight in France, build a defense line to force Germany to take a detour and fight in Belgium;
2. We need to bring Britain into the water, and the way to do so is to have Germany attack Belgium;
So we built an unbreakable defense line along the German French border, so that the Germans didn’t want to launch a strong attack at all. At that time, the Germans would have to detour through Belgium like in the previous war. Britain must come to terms with the Germans both morally and profitably.
However, the later situation was somewhat magical, with the French planning to reach the beginning but not the end.
Germany was already preparing to use the “yellow plan” to attack France from Belgium, but then it directly encountered the British French coalition waiting there. If things develop according to this, the entire German thinking is in the French calculations.
However, there was an unfortunate incident that unexpectedly helped Germany. A German officer was reporting with the “yellow plan” of the battle plan when he accidentally deviated and made a forced landing in Belgium. The Allies obtained Germany’s combat plan. The senior leaders of the Allied forces were not surprised by this plan, because they had pushed it in the military chess game before, and even the Maginot Line was built for this purpose.
But the Germans have to change their plan because it leaked out. Hitler strongly opposed the consensus and approved a plan similar to Wei Yan’s “Ziwu Valley Miracle”. The troops were divided into two routes, one continuing their original route from Belgium to attack France, while the other was in danger, allowing the tank regiment to attack France from the dangerous Ardenne Mountains. Just like the following picture, I drew it casually:
The Ardennes Forest is too dangerous. The French General Staff repeatedly surveyed it before the war and thought that Peloton could not pass, so they did not set up much defense. Unexpectedly, the German armored forces directly passed through.
After the war broke out, Germany really attacked Belgium, and the British and French allied forces rushed to meet it. Unexpectedly, an armored force suddenly came out of the forest on the edge, and a wave of textbook “Pincer movement” was staged. The “Canny Tactics” that the Germans had wrestled with for half a century finally became clear.
Enfalton was disorganized and suffered a complete defeat, almost being blocked and killed in Dunkirk. There is also the plot from ‘The Dark Hour’ where the British and French forces are surrounded by the sea, and the British quickly use civilian boats to pick up their troops.
However, since Britain had been permanently involved in the war, it had to fight hard, so it brought several nephews and cows to fight against the Germans. For example, in the British Air War, many Canadian pilots piloted American planes and fought against German dogs in the sky. The “British Air Battle” was awarded by a small number of British people, with a large number of Canadian and Australian pilots.
Because Germany’s tactics were too successful, France soon surrendered in the war, and Germany established a Puppet state in France.
However, the advantage of France’s dragging Britain into the water also came out. Charles de Gaulle went to Britain to establish an exile regime called Free France. This Free France sounds like a non mainstream, but it is not. Although France is no longer there, its overseas colonies and colonial garrisons are still there. The French Navy, depending on the situation, ran out. In 1943, the French army, along with the colonial army, had a total of approximately four to five million. These four to five million people were almost all equipped by the United States in the later stages.
Later on, as everyone knows, Hitler went to attack the Soviet Union and kicked it to the iron plate. In 41 years, he attacked the Soviet Union and was defeated in 45 years.
The Allies also began to counterattack, and the French legion with the “Lorraine Cross” symbol on its flag returned to France, taking over power, and the era of Charles de Gaulle began. You can see that there are so many black people in France nowadays, many of whom are descendants of colonial soldiers who fought back with Charles de Gaulle and shed blood for France, so France quite accepts them.
03
Epilogue
By now, you should have noticed that the French are actually far sighted and, to some extent, calculating to the limit. Unexpectedly, a mistake by the Germans would have saved Germany, let alone the obvious impact that new technology could have once put into war. Going deeper, all ‘big chess’ may be vulnerable to technological progress and ideological displacement.
This is why I can hardly see the Conspiracy theory or the statements of the big chess party with complicated plans.
It’s nothing else, complex plans are extremely easy to lose control, and a slight deviation may be a serious deviation from the previous plan’s trajectory. Almost all who have had actual combat experience rather than hiding in the study know that half of any awesome plan will be invalidated once it is implemented. So the kind of super large ‘big chess’ where each step relies on the previous step and is embedded in one ring, is almost impossible to operate, except in novels.
Of course, this is not to say that planning should not be done, there should still be a plan. But it means that no plan can truly be executed until the end, and it is repeatedly adjusted in the middle. In the end, looking back, there may be an unreasonable gap from the initial plan.
So I say the essence of the world is’ competition and loss of control ‘. To achieve something, first have a goal, then make a plan, and constantly replace old ideas with new ones during execution. Don’t worry about losing control. If you lose control, readjust according to the goal. Losing weight, studying, working, even the ‘Five Year Plan’, as well as war, are basically like this. In rare cases, it is possible to plan from the beginning to the end.
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