HOW DID IT FAIL?!

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>teleports behind you
nothing personal,France

>>2516489
Belgium complained that the wall didn't include them so France stopped at the Belgian border, then Belgium only put in a half-assed effort into their part of the wall.

Belgium too busy with waffles, chocolate, and pedos to put up a decent wall.

>spent literal billions in 1930's money to build a fuckoff massive wall directed to keep a certain enemy out
>think a forest is an impenetrable wall and stop the wall there
gee i wonder

>>2516524
>Belgians are so cucked they build a wall to defend france.

>Having failed in its purpose, the line has since become a metaphor for expensive efforts that offer a false sense of security.

Thanks Wikipedia.

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>>2516548
though the real problem was that france had not adopted modern organization, doctrine, and tactics. they were still fighting like it was WW1, even though they had some of the best equipment and vehicles if de gaulle had been in charge of the army. he would have beat the germans back across the forest and the rhine

The French concept was that the Maginot Line would stop them from being flanked as they marched in to rescue Belgium. Because they were advancing in Belgium any bunkers there would have been pointless. During all this they managed to overlook a miserable region where they were not advancing, but also barely defending.

Remember that Germany had years of practice marching their armies into other countries. The only thing that could stop them in the Ardennes was shitty traffic control, and every officer in charge had helped advance through Austria, the Czechs, Poland, etc. Even then there was a house full of angry Belgians that ignored orders to retreat and nearly ruined the whole plan.

>build what is possibly the most elaborate system of fortifications ever
>supposed to be utterly impassible, will turn back any attack
>Germans go around it and it does fuck all the entire war

>build an ocean liner that is supposed to be unsinkable, name it the "Titanic"
>it sinks in its maiden voyage

>Japanese attack an American military port to preemptively cripple their navy
>most of the ships weren't even at harbor
>get nuked

the 20th century is proof that god has a cruel sense of humor

>>2516859
To be honest, it would probably take more than just having De Gaulle at the head. Changing a military's culture is a massive task, especially when there's no perceived need to change systems. While I don't doubt bringing France up to the same tactical/operational level of Germany would have been decisive, I do doubt that changing the head of the army without a thorough overhaul of the more junior officers who are the ones who would actually need to implement this stuff would do much.

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>>2516489
We thought germans wouldn't come by the Ardennes, no tank can go through these huge and dense forests, it would take them too much time.
They went through the Ardennes

It wouldn't matter if the French had actually attempted to fight for more than 10 days.

>>2517037
>Germany had years of practice marching their armies into other countries.
Yes, particularly the time they marched through Belgium in 1914

>>2516489
Because Belgium and the Netherlands are nonstates and no one cared enough about the fucking Dutch to fight Nazi Germany. French are the true autists for expecting "muh laws and conventions" from interfering with military strategy. Not to mention, massive fortifications were vastly outdated. WW2 was the dawn of modern maneuver warfare.

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>>2516489
>Have impregnable fortifications in Alsace-lorraine
>Have the BEF on the Belgian border
>Literally only have to protect the Ardennes with your military
>Lose the Ardennes
Fucking frogs

>>2517453
It wasn't to bad an idea, after all the belgians did stonewall the germans in WWI

>>2517378
>Surely they wouldn't do the same thing twice

>>2517093
But the Maginot line did serve its purpose, it was supposed to channel the Germans into Belgium instead of into Alsace-Lorraine

That the mobile forces failed in Belgium doesn't take away from its success.

>>2516489
Can someone please explain to me what the real strategic thinking was behind building the maginot line? Was it supposed to stop a German invasion outright or as >>2517521
says, channel them upwards?

>>2517360
De Gaulle literally wrote the book the Germans used on France.

>>2517599
And how does that respond to what I was saying at all?

>>2516548
>spend literal billions in 2010's money to build a fuckoff massive wall directed to keep a certain enemy out
>think two oceans are an impenetrable wall and stop the wall there

>>2517591
The Maginot line had a variety of different objectives;
1) Guarding the frontier
The French were concerned about the potential for a lighting strike across the frontier which would capture Alsace-Lorraine. Given that Alsace-Lorraine held a disproportionate amount of French war-making capability, since it had vast iron fields and a lot of the French steel industry, this was very important.
2) Give the army time to mobilize
The way the French army was set up it, in peace time it was very small, consisting of a few active divisions that just existed to train reserves. In war-time, this would expand, the number of divisions would quadruple and the French would field an extremely large army. But if an enemy attacked suddenly, then the French army could be defeated before it could properly mobilize. By having a fortified line, it would gain the French additional time to mobilize.
3) The number of divisions needed to defend Alsace-Lorraine would be reduced
With the Maginot line the French didn't need to keep so many troops in Alsace-Lorraine, and could send more to Belgium. They seem to have sort of wasted this and kept too many forces there originally, then stripped them and sent them north after the disaster in Belgium, and then the Germans attacked the undermanned Maginot line.
4) The Germans would be forced to go through Belgium
The Germans could only go to Belgium, unless if they wanted to attack into essentially impregnable (with the mobile divisions) fortifications. This would mean that the French only would have to plan and theorize how to fight there, and even more importantly, fighting would happen on foreign soil instead of French soil, avoiding the immense destruction visited on France in WW1.
Also it would help to make it a long war, where France would be perceived as the defender, which the French decided would maximize their strengths vis-a-vis Germany with Britain on their side.

>>2516489
You can't just make a harder shell for something that is shrinking and expect it to survive. The Germans outnumbered the French in WWI and their doctrine and organization was superior, yet revanchism is a hell of a drug and they fought way above their weight class, enduring more than any society has ever survived.
France in fact did not survive to the second World War. The Battle of France was a correction, not a defeat. France as it existed, a communitarian, marxist, dysfunctional shit hole filled even then to the brim with blacks and semetics disloyal to the native government, did not actually exist as it did on paper. NAZI Germany did.

>>2516489
>Belgium complained that the wall didn't include them so France stopped at the Belgian border

They complained it didn't include them so they stopped at the border?

>>2517789
>enduring more than any society has ever survived.
Fuck off frog. I can name a dozen societies in Eastern Europe who survived far worse. Belarus literally lost 50% of their fucking population in WW2.

>>2517858
He's probably an Amerilard, it doesn't sound like the way that a French would talk about their own nation.

>>2517707
It's pretty hard to build a wall on an ocean.

>>2517858
And Germany and Russia fought one battle that lost more men than every American who died in war ever.

>>2517916
There is a joke that one certain building in Stalingrad, which was strategically important, cost the lives of more Germans than the defense of Paris.

It is interesting that the people of Eastern Europe who had far shittier lives than Western Europeans struggled much harder. I guess it's easier not fearing death when you have nothing.
>tfw staying poor is exactly what the Soviets wanted

>>2517941
When they were told they were to fight to the death, the overwhelming feeling was of relief.

>>2517883
Son of recent US immigrants (Denmark, Germany). Not to mention I referred to France as "they".
>>2517858
Belarus is a fake country much like Belgium.
>>2517916
Proportionally and psychically, I believe France suffered more if you count their ass raping in 1870. Total societal value lost definitely goes to Germany, and human mass technically has to go to Soviet Union, though communists aren't people.

>>2516511
>nothing personal,France
as wrong as can be

>>2518152
>Total societal value lost definitely goes to Germany
After the First World War, sure. The Second World War only made things better.

East Germany was so comfy.

>>2518244
The amount of patents stripped, machinery stolen and cash payments after WWII is unmatched in the stripping of resources of a single nation, because no nation has made more of a contribution to humanity in a 50 year span than Germany, 1880-1930.
Overall goes to England btw. Its pointless to resist.

>>2518281
Oh sorry, I thought you meant culturally when you said societal.

Britain only has overall if you assume the Empire was gonna stick around any longer anyway (it wasn't).

>>2516859
That was exactly the fucking problem in ww1 though. They fought it like it was still 1871.

>>2518286
I meant contribution, but the loss of the Empire and the colossal joke that is the Commonwealth is a pretty steep hit to survive. No wonder the British drink themselves stupid, eat themselves to arrest and poison their land with shitskins when its already the most densely populated island in history.

>>2518302
They do that because of the Industrial Revolution. It's the natural effect of cramming tonnes of people into shitboxes and then being really successful.

It's not very dense though. Not literally speaking.

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>>2518311
Its literally only behind Shitstainistan, China and Belgium and is more mountainous than each but China.

>>2518381
Not Singapore? Not Taiwan?

>>2518403
Meme country and yes, Taiwan

>>2518403
>>2518409
Wait a second, Taiwan is just China. Got me again you fuckers.

>>2518411
China is not a state.

>>2518414
Neither is the UK.

>>2518418
Yes it is.

China is analogous to Ireland. Doesn't matter whether it's in the UK or the Republic, it's Irish either way.

>>2516489
belgians

>>2516859
French army was organized in exactly the same way as all other major armies of the time.

>they were still fighting like it was WW1
Oh you were just pretending to be retarded, I see.