Why didn't France attack Germany in 1939?
we are in the summer of 1939 in Europe
Germany was seen as a huge threat to
world peace on the 23rd of August
Germany made a deal with the Soviets
this pact between these two historic
rivals shocked the Allies but Great
Britain and France didn't know much
about the fact that these documents
included instructions on how each turn
Europe will be divided between them it
was about the countries that existed
between the two powers and one of them
was Poland Poland feared a German
invasion and the Allies promised that
they would declare war if Poland would
be attacked the invasion started on the
morning of the 1st of September on
September 3rd in 1939 the UK and France
declared war on Germany but nothing
major happened just a tiny invasion in
the province of Saarland but not a
full-scale offensive in order to stop
the Germans why did this happen before
trying to answer this question we want
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the description on September 3rd 1939
when the UK and France declared war on
Germany both Polish people and
government officials became enthusiastic
hoping massive support from their allies
on the streets there were spontaneous
demonstrations of support for the French
and British
some people expected again a conflict on
two fronts thus Germany would be forced
to withdraw some of their troops but
nothing major happened one reason could
be unprepared miss neither France nor
Great Britain were prepared for an
upcoming conflict and they were not
looking forward for another one before
this there were some settlements between
Germany Great Britain France and Italy
that permitted German annexation of the
Sudetenland in western Czechoslovakia
where about three million people in the
Sudeten area where of German origin it
became known in May 1938 that plan was
made for the occupation of
Czechoslovakia neither France nor
Britain felt prepared to defend
Czechoslovakia however both were anxious
to avoid a military confrontation with
Germany at almost any cost after this
event the German officials doubted that
Chamberlain the Prime Minister of Great
Britain had the stomach to go to war in
defense of Poland and that's why Germany
went on a full-scale offensive in the
East at this point Germany gambled its
chance they believed that the Allies
will not declare war and even after they
did the big hope was that they will not
attack and that's what happened another
reason the hope for peace judging what
happened we can assume that France and
Great Britain hoped until the last
second to avoid again a new great
conflict but the invasion of Poland
should have been the end of these hopes
here the problems probably was the
immaturity of both French and British
governments the French especially tried
so hard to avoid war there was some
defeatism among the French while on the
other side the society was pushed to
fanatism and militarism the memories
from the Great War of how France
suffered a long-lasting conflict the
impact on the economy at the time plus
the indecision of its government to take
profit from a huge opportunity to defeat
Germany in the first phase of the war
made France a victim after some months
those two first weeks could have changed
history
but the moment was lost in Poland
couldn't resist against
big opponents then the realization by
the middle of September that the Polish
armies were so badly defeated and that
the Germans would soon be able to move
their superior forces to the west
created a fear of German superiority in
arms and in the air also the French
government had insisted from the start
that the British air force should not
bomb targets in Germany for fear of
reprisal on French factories this bad
decision greatly affected the morale of
soldiers in both camps France being seen
as a weak country with no sense of
action by the German authorities this
mistake will lead to the conquest of
France by German troops eight months
later due again to poor decisions this
has created some jokes about the French
army but these jokes are not true the
problem was not in the French army or
with the ordinary French soldier but
with the weak decisions and strategies
put in place by the government the
Allies considered it madness for Germany
to attack France given its strong ally
the United Kingdom also having a large
army and some huge defense structures on
the Maginot Line that is why they
preferred the defence of their own
country and did not consider a major
attack on Germany to a certain extent
Germany was underestimated even if an
allied offensive would have been poorly
prepared the Allies would have had a
huge advantage against the Germans
Germany had only 23 divisions on the
Western Front while the Allies had a
hundred and ten divisions and those
German divisions were poorly equipped
compared to those in Poland the French
had four to one advantage in artillery
and the Germans hardly had any planes
there a German General declared that
Germany would easily be defeated in 1939
if the Allies helped the poles the bulk
of manpower as well as nearly all
mechanized units and Luftwaffe were used
against Poland
if we did not collapse already in the
year 1939 that was due only to the fact
that during the Polish campaign the
approximately a hundred and ten French
and British divisions on the west were
held completely inactive against the 23
German divisions another German General
stated that if the French had attacked
in full force in September 1939 the
German army could only have held out for
one or two weeks in 1939 both France and
Britain were massive colonial powers
facing two of the most powerful
countries in the world would seem like a
bad idea and the British and French
thought this would stop the German
expansion and threatened to go to war if
Poland would be invaded also the Allies
thought that the USSR posed a
significant threat to Germany and due to
different ideology and the hatred
between these regimes a non-aggression
pact seemed highly unlikely after making
a pact with the Soviets the British and
French were indeed surprised but they
still tried to call for peace sending
Germany and ultimatum and waiting for
the reply however after the devastating
first world war Britain and France had
kept at peace so all their equipment was
in storage it took weeks for France to
mobilize their artillery the British had
gotten new Spitfires to use instead of
their Hawker hurricanes but had not
swapped the planes as war did not seem
imminent it seems that they didn't see a
new world conflict coming and they just
focused on their own defence by the time
they got the stuff together they
realized none of their planes could even
reach Poland without refueling after the
Soviets invaded from the east it was
clear that it was impossible to defend
Poland
France then readied for the invasion of
the Saarland in Germany but their
commanders believed that the war would
be fought like world war 1 with
stationary forces they did invade the
Saar but the French were half arted
there was no intention to go in a
full-scale war and the offensive failed
to reach its objective
once Poland fell the German troops
strengthened the front line and forced
the French to retreat on their initial
defensive position they will never
attack again and after eight months
France will be invaded by Germany they
will capitulate only after 46 days we
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