on may 10 1940 the German army invaded the country of France with the blitzkrieg.
the French had built at the conclusion of the first world war. Which the French had lost a appalling amount of men and machines. The French military commanders just couldn't let that happen again. Therefore, they built a massive fortification along the entire French and German border, the
Maginot line.
the
Maginot line was a massive underground fortress that was literally underground it with pillboxes and cannons the only problem was (and here is the best part) it stopped at the France and belgium border so if you wanted to get past the line you just went through Belgium which is what the Germans did.
The Germans went around the line. Thrue the
ardennes forest, a time proven battle ground. Which the French were hopeing would be able to hold back any form of invasion. But this would prove false. For in the time of motorization, Moving across rough terrain easer. this proved to be a short a hard war for the French and there soon to arrive British allies.
One of the biggest mistakes that most people make including myself, was that Germany had the best tanks but this was not the case.
The French
char b1, was the best tank at this time. It was far superior to the german heavy tank at the time the
panzer 4.
www.worldwar2facts.org/world-war-2-tanks.html
Now you are probably asking yourself why then didn't France win then.
Well France had the one thing that can always make you lose, bad commanders. While the German commanders just started to make a name for them self's such as
Erwin Rommel and
Joseph Gerbils.
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Erwin Rommel
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The French thought of tanks as mobile pillboxes. Were as there German's thought of them as a tool to victory. This was the main resone that the Germans won
in next weeks entry I will go more over on depth the early tank battles before we finish the invasion of France.