People like to shit on the French for folding so fast to the Germans, but it must be remembered that it really was a surprise to everyone including the Germans themselves.
To the German high command perhaps, but not to the people who knew it could be done.
The more one looks into the Third Republic, the more one finds just how despicable the French really were. At the top, they were all rotten. They cared for nothing but their own maneuvering for power. When the British offered a political union to stave off defeat, the French contemptuously rejected it as an attempt to seize French colonies.
the Maginot line was a serious set of fortifications
The Germans breached the Maginot Line with a regular attack. It's forgotten today, but it happened.
"...my own part in this campaign was limited to the fighting in Lorraine, where I served as chief of staff (Ia) of the 197th Infantry Division. It formed part of the First German Army which on 14 June attacked the famous Maginot Line at Puttlingen, south of Saarbrucken. I had a good opportunity of seeing the battle at first hand, although in our division only the artillery and an engineer battalion were engaged in the actual breakthrough.
The Maginot Line was widely believed to be impregnable, and for all I know there may still be those who think that the fortifications could have resisted any attack. It may be of interest to point out that the Maginot defenses were breached in a few hours by a normal infantry attack, without any tank support whatever. The German infantry advanced under cover of a heavy air and artillery bombardment in which lavish use was made of smoke shell. They soon found that many of the French strong points were not proof against shells or bombs, and moreover, a large number of positions had not been sited for all around defense and were easy to attack from the blind side with grenades and flamethrowers. The Maginot Line lacked depth, and taken as a whole the position was far inferior to many defensive systems developed later in the war. In modern war it is in any case unsound to rely on static defense, but as far as the Maginot Line was concerned the fortifications had only a moderate local value."
-- Major General F.W. von Mellinthin, Panzer Battles: A Study of the Employment of Armor in the Second World War
I disagree.
To the German high command perhaps, but not to the people who knew it could be done.
The more one looks into the Third Republic, the more one finds just how despicable the French really were. At the top, they were all rotten. They cared for nothing but their own maneuvering for power. When the British offered a political union to stave off defeat, the French contemptuously rejected it as an attempt to seize French colonies.
The Germans breached the Maginot Line with a regular attack. It's forgotten today, but it happened.
"...my own part in this campaign was limited to the fighting in Lorraine, where I served as chief of staff (Ia) of the 197th Infantry Division. It formed part of the First German Army which on 14 June attacked the famous Maginot Line at Puttlingen, south of Saarbrucken. I had a good opportunity of seeing the battle at first hand, although in our division only the artillery and an engineer battalion were engaged in the actual breakthrough.
The Maginot Line was widely believed to be impregnable, and for all I know there may still be those who think that the fortifications could have resisted any attack. It may be of interest to point out that the Maginot defenses were breached in a few hours by a normal infantry attack, without any tank support whatever. The German infantry advanced under cover of a heavy air and artillery bombardment in which lavish use was made of smoke shell. They soon found that many of the French strong points were not proof against shells or bombs, and moreover, a large number of positions had not been sited for all around defense and were easy to attack from the blind side with grenades and flamethrowers. The Maginot Line lacked depth, and taken as a whole the position was far inferior to many defensive systems developed later in the war. In modern war it is in any case unsound to rely on static defense, but as far as the Maginot Line was concerned the fortifications had only a moderate local value."
-- Major General F.W. von Mellinthin, Panzer Battles: A Study of the Employment of Armor in the Second World War