Invasion of France revised.

With the German army's invasion of France showed the world that the Germans were a real threat and not something to be trifled with.
In last weeks entry we went over the basic outline of the invasion now we will go over the strategy's and tactics they used.


The French had thought that tanks were there to support the infantry. Were as the Germans thought that the infantry supported the tanks. This tactics really started to make a deference in the battles to come. With the German panzers swarming the French tanks and destroying them.

 Tanks of the 1930s followed the same style. Small lightly armored vehicles with a Howitzer or a Heavy machinegun. While the heavy tanks of the time were massive and slow. But they could carry bigger and better guns. Some of them even had two or three guns.

French char b1

The French main battle tank at the time of the invasion. Was the Char b1. Which for how much we make fun of the French tanks it was actually vary good. it had a frontal armor thickness (the front of the tanks had the strongest armor of the entire tank) of 60mm. while in comparison the b1's counter part the panzer 4 had only 37mm frontal armor that doesn't sound like much but when talking about supper strong metal its a lot. any way back to my praising of the French tanks the b1 had two guns a 75mm howitzer mounted in the hull and 47mm anti-tank gun in a turret on the top of the tank. The b1 only week ness was in the middle of the hull was a vent that allowed the engine to breath. this was the tanks only weakness. and as usually
the German commanders were able to exploit this.

panzer 3

The German army had two main battle tanks the panzer 3 and 4 the panzer 3 was a infantry support tank made to take out light armored vehicles  while the panzer 4 was made for knocking down buildings. both of these tanks mind you were far inferior to the French and English tanks but the German commanders far mad up for this downfall with new tactics and strategy's. the panzer 3 had armor of of 15mm  at the thickest it also had a 37 mm main gun.

panzer 4 short barrel

the panzer 4 had a armor thickness 37mm and a main gun of 75 mm this was a short barreled low velocity gun this fired a armor piercing and a high explosive gun.

tog 2

 both of these tanks were the main stay of the German armored forces but they were outclassed by the French tanks and the English armored forces that made a showing here. the English had no main battle tank but they had a large number of tanks but my favorite tank was the tog2 this tank had 75 mm frontal armor with a 76.2 mm main gun. the strangest part of this tank was that it was 33.3 ft. long this tank was never produced in large numbers but it is a funny looking tank.

the Germans also had a massive self propelled gun called the Thor this gun was it had a 24 inch main gun was 35 ft. long and weighed 131 tones this was a honorable mention tank it was amazing and I would like to suggest that you look more into it.

the thor
 

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.

Erwin Rommel
 

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.