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The Battle of France

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1. Introduction
2. History
3. Planning/Preparation
4. Execution/Action
5. Lessons Learned
6. Works Cited

Introduction

In the spring of 1940 Europe was enveloped in war. The German military machine had already conquered Poland, Denmark, and Norway. However, not content with northern and eastern expansion, Adolf Hitler wanted to control the western countries in Europe. Hitler had long been obsessed with attacking and controlling France. After their defeat in World War I, the German people, government, and military were humiliated by the enormous post war sanctions leveraged against them from the Treaty of Versailles. Hitler wanted to defeat and humiliate the French people in the same way that his country had to experience. …show more content…

The French knew what kind of war they expected to fight. They also expected, and wanted to fight the Nazis in Belgium, not on French soil.3
This defensive strategy resulted in military commanders convincing politicians to construct fortifications across France’s borders. These 140 kilometers of fortifications built from 1930-1937 were known as the Maginot Line. While not a fully connected wall of fortifications, they varied in strength and assets. The strongest, most heavily fortified area of the Maginot line stretched from France’s border with Switzerland and Germany. The Luxembourg and a very small portion of the Belgium border had smaller, less concentrated defense array. The Maginot Line structures were never intended to be similar to the Great Wall of China. The true purpose was to provide a formidable defense and free up manpower to be used in offensive operations somewhere else. Charles de Gaulle, a decorated and proven French military commander was against a defensive mentality. He proposed potential war strategies against the Germans, and why the defensive mentality should be abandoned. In a 1935 Parliament, the French War Minister struck blows against de Gaulle’s ideas by saying “How could one think that we are still thinking about an offensive when we have spent billions to establish a fortified barrier? Would we be mad enough to advance beyond

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