15. France’s 1940 Oops Moment
France was traumatized by World War I, and by the massive devastation suffered by the parts of the country that had been fought over. So the French devised a plan to avoid repetition: construct a powerful and well-nigh impregnable line of fortifications along the border with Germany. Designated the Maginot Line, the fortifications were intended to secure the Franco-German border to the south. In the meantime, the bulk of the mobile French army was stationed in the north.
If war broke out, the Maginot Line would hold the Germans in the south. While that was going on, the mobile French army in the north would advance into Belgium as soon as the Germans attacked, to fight as far forward and outside of France as possible. In one of history’s greatest oops moments, the French were about to discover that their plan was not nearly as good as they had imagined it to be.