what you want in a tank:
range: you want to be able to knock him out
before you come in the range of his gun
power: your gun needs to penetrate his armor
armor: don't let the round hitting you be lethal
otherwise
have speed enough to scramble for cover.
Europe isn't big enough for both France and Germany.
They share a border while feeling distrust, one for the
other. The same holds true with Germany's relations
with Russia, the empire to the east that has an historic
longing for smaller lands along its borders.
It's in this context, within the vise grip of powerful rivals,
that fashions this militaristic society with a pugnacious
attitude toward those threatening Germany's existence.
Two reasons for striking your rival rapidly and with surprise:
wars must be won quickly. Germany hasn't
the resources to win protracted battles of attrition.
avoid having to fight on two fronts:
Russian and French armies moving on Berlin
from opposite ends of the kingdom is the nightmare.
You can only win taking on one at a time.
General von Schlieffen planned
a hard, fast knockout blow through Belgium,
a roundhouse right to the jaw before Paris could
fully mobilize and counter this thrust
opening the First World War.
Schlieffen Plan Comes Up Short
German forces outrun their supplies
before securing victory -
falter at the Battle of the Marne.
Nothing in military training prepared Hitler's generals
for the test he gave them.
General Wilhelm Keitel: Hitler's Chief-of-Staff
rose to the top to everyone's surprise by being
a servile "yes man". Nervous disposition.
Following the war Keitel was hanged by the
Nuremberg war crimes tribunal.
Walther von Brauchitsch: Army Supreme Commander
Opposed Hitler's invasion plans for Austria,
Czechoslovakia and France, but was ultimately
compliant with the Fuhrer's decisions.
After the war Brauchitsch would die
of pneumonia at a British Military prison
before the Field Marshal could by prosecuted
by the Nuremberg tribunal.
General Manstein was exiled to Poland
because of his ceaseless promoting for attacking
France through the Ardennes - sending vast
armies of armor down narrow mountain roads
crossing river and stream, amidst thick forest.
Any fool knows this force would soon be stopped
in its tracks by blown bridges and a gauntlet
of devastating shelling. With these assumptions
in mind it was clear your big punch would
never arrive to deliver the knockout blow.
Manstein was of a different frame of mind -
with a solution to Hitler's demand:
make victory quick.
Win by Deception
The Manstein plan, Plan Yellow, relied on France's
assumption that any German attack must come
through Belgium. You lose the advantages of armor
by attacking the Maginot Line or moving through
the Ardennes. So says conventional wisdom.
But the battle won't be in the Ardennes.
German armor will arrive along the French Meuse
unexpected. Once beyond the river
they will flank French defenses, rapidly
expanding their advantage in what is now
open tank country all the way to the English Channel.
The elite French and British forces will be encircled,
cut off from reinforcement and all supplies.
French Meuse in the Ardennes
There's maybe a hundred miles of winding road
separating Germany from the banks of the Meuse
and every bit of it would soon be filled with German armor,
troops and their supplies.
It took Hitler's forces four days to thread
their way through the forest, all the while
their intentions going undetected at Allied HQ,
where General of the Army Gamelin played
General Custer heading for the Sioux village.
Bombardier perch on Henkel He-111
Germany's skillful use of paratroopers swiftly
overcame Dutch and Belgium resistance
to capture critical bridges intact,
insuring free passage for the endless tanks,
half-tracks and trucks rolling through followed
by the steady trudge of boots.
The battle was over for the Dutch when
the Germans took to bombing Rotterdam
to speed their government's decision to surrender.
French and British forces take the bait.
Just as Gamelin predicted the Germans
were using Schlieffen's plan of attack through Belgium.
What the Allies hadn't foreseen was how quickly
German forces were rolling up Belgium resistance.
It was now more urgent than ever that
French and British troops win the footrace
across Belgium, beating German armor
to Allied built fortresses along the River Dyle.
14 May, 1940
German armored columns emerge from the forest
at a number of points along the Meuse River
between the French towns of Dinant and Sedan.
French forces defending the area have few
anti-tank or anti-aircraft weapons. Many of the troops
consist of reservists, middle-aged family men,
well past their military prime. They were deliberately
placed here and are evidence of French certainty
this was the last place they expected trouble.
It's called turning the flank - an army makes its way
around and behind to its enemy's rear, creating havoc
and ultimately defeat for the defenders unless
a powerful counterattack by their own forces was
in the offing.
In this instance the French had no miracle
arrival of cavalry in the nick of time -
an armored force to counter Germany's
surging advance didn't even exist.
Rommel in France
Twelve squadrons of Stuka dive-bombers
helped German Panzers drive French defenders
from the banks of the Meuse.
On 15 May, a mere five days since the first fired shots,
French Prime Minister Paul Renaud got on the phone
with London. Churchill was dumbfounded when
Renaud delivered the news that the war
to save France was lost.
There was no ready defense to prevent German armor
from roaming at will across the French countryside.
The unfolding military failure would be epic in scope.
A democracy resuming its bitter quarrel
amongst themselves once the crisis
of The Great War was over in 1918.
The result was a government too politically weak
to make the hard choices protecting its freedom.
How startling were the consequences.
Paris, City of Lights, to be
run by Nazis
__________________________
love
dad
© Tom Taylor
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