Post by MCGARRYHmm
From Wiki
Saar offensive: "from 7 to 16 September 1939. The purpose of the attack
was to assist Poland, which was then under attack. The all-out assault
was to have been carried out by roughly 40 divisions, including one
armored division, three mechanised divisions, 78 artillery regiments and
40 tank battalions. The offensive was stopped and the French forces
eventually withdrew amid a German counter-offensive on 17 October."
Obviuously they were just 4 days too late
Sorry, but like most Wiki articles the obviousness is illusory. :(
The problem was mobilization - always an issue when it came to war
between Germany and France. On 1 September 1939 Germany had been
executing its full mobilization plan since 27 August and had been
partially mobilized since the spring. France's mobilization began
at 0001 hours 2 September, so Germany had an effect "jump" of six
days on them. Before mobilization began the entire regular army of
Metropolitan France, which included North Africa, consisted of 33
divisions and 2 Spahis brigades - the active army in France
consisted of just 25 divisions. To get to the roughly 40 divisions
required moving the 8 colonial divisions from North Africa to France
and mobilizing 7 others. See the problems developing?
The French mobilization consisted of activating 39 reserve infantry
divisions along with various reserve army corps and army units. The
schedule assumed that on M+7 (9 September) 41 divisions would be
available in France, North Africa, and the Levant:
36 DI (Infantry Division)
3 DC (Cavalry Division)
2 DLM (Light Mechanized Division)
On M+12 (14 September) there would be 63 divisions:
58 DI
3 DC
2 DLM
On M+17 (19 September) there would be 83 divisions:
78 DI
3 DC
2 DLM
On M+22 (24 September) there would be 86 divisions and mobilization
would be essentially complete:
81 DI
3 DC
2 DLM
2 DLM
The real problem was that French forces in the Saarland as of circa
8 September consisted only of
(courtesy David Lehmann and Louis Capdebosq):
IIIème Armée
Corps d'Armée Colonial (CAC)
12ème Division d'Infanterie Motorisée (DIM)
3ème Division d'Infanterie Nord-Africaine (DINA)
1er Corps d'Armée (CA) (1st Army Corps)
2ème DINA
42ème Division d'Infanterie (DI)
IVème Armée
9ème CA
6ème Division d'Infanterie Coloniale (DIC)
4ème DINA
20ème CA
11ème DI
21ème DI
9ème DIM
23ème DI
5ème CA
15ème DIM
3ème DIC
And were faced by:
1. Armee
XII. AK
79. ID (2.)
34. ID (1.)
15. ID (1.)
52. ID (2.)
Generalkommando der Grenzrtruppen Saarpfalz
6. ID (1.)
36. ID (1.)
9. ID (1.)
Grenz-Kommandantur Saarpfalz (total of 26 infantry, 9 MG,
6 engineer, and 10 AT companies, 29 artillery and five
flak batteries)
IX. AK -
71. ID (2.)
25. ID (1.)
33. ID (1.)
En route - 75. ID (2.), 209., 214., 223., 231.,
246. ID (all 3.), 268. ID (4.)
In other words, 10 divisions, with another 7 en route.
So 12 French divisions to attack at least 10 in fortified
positions. The best the French could hope for was to
concentrate at one sector and make a penetration that
might cause the Germans to strip forces from the Polish
front. The did achieve a penetration, but it did not
result in a German withdrawal. Instead, by the time
mobilization was complete, the German campaign in Poland
was ending and massive forces were being redeployed to
the French border.
BTW: Note that there were no "armored divisions" the DLM
were light mechanized divisions similar to the German
leichte-Division. They consisted of two light tank brigades
for a total of four battalions and 174 tanks, two mechanized
cavalry battalions, an artillery regiment, and division
services. They had few infantry and were intended to act
as mechanized cavalry, screening the movements of an army
or corps. There were ***no*** division-sized heavy tank
formations in the French Army until January 1940 when the
1re DCR was formed. Prior to that the B1 and B1-bis were
formed in battalions and brigades (Groupe de Bataillons
de Chars) attached directly to infantry corps for infantry
support. Furthermore, by the end of 1937 only 34 Char B1
were complete (3 others were used as test beds) and in
1938 the improved Char B1-bis had only begun production.
Possibly a single brigade of two battalions had completed
formation by the Munich Crisis. Otherwise, for "heavy tanks"
there were the 10 Char 2C, which were getting a bit elderly.
Cheers!