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warspite1 -> RE: OT: Decisive Campaigns: Blitzkrieg (7/28/2017 6:54:05 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Jorge_Stanbury
Dunkirk has certainly triggered some interest in that battle; still can't understand how the French were not able to launch a counter offensive once the Ardennes were breached..
I mean, I understand the surprise, but there were a lot of divisions on reserve (including the few French armored divisions); definitively they had numerical superiority against the overextended panzers... too slow to react? WWI pace of advance mentality?
warspite1
Remember Gamelin had used up his intended reserves when he decided on the Breda Variant. So all the best French troops were in Belgium.
Yes the French had their generally excellent tanks (but lacking radio) but the speed of reaction was woeful, as was the co-ordination with the infantry - some of whom , having been broken on the Meuse, were heading west and not sticking around for any counter-attack. And of course there was the lack of communication that afflicted the entire army from the top down. Orders took hours to get to the front. Gamelin was fighting WWII at WWI pace. He was sure the Germans wouldn't be able to attack across the Meuse until day 10 iirc.
I recommend Blitzkrieg (Lloyd Clark) This gives an excellent impression of just how bad things were and Dunkirk (Hugh Sebag-Montefiore) tells of the 'dereliction of duty' by Gamelin and Georges in failing to marshal their tank forces quickly enough.
By the time the French recovered - and lets be clear, many, many Frenchmen did their job - it was all too late and the damage had been done. All the luck was with the Germans (who survived their own wobbles) and the rest, as they say, is history....
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