Everything about The Saar Offensive totally explained
The
Saar Offensive was a
French operation into the
Saarland on the German
1.Armee defence sector in the early stages of
World War II. The purpose of the attack was to assist
Poland, which was then
under attack. However, the assault was stopped and the French forces withdrew.
According to the
Franco-Polish military convention, the French Army was to start preparations for the major offensive three days after mobilisation started. The French forces were to effectively gain control over the area between the French border and the
German lines and were to probe the German defences. On the 15th day of the mobilisation (that is on
September 16), the French Army was to start a full scale assault on Germany. The pre-emptive mobilisation was started in France on
August 26 and on
September 1 full mobilisation was declared.
A French offensive in the
Rhine river valley area (
Saar Offensive) started on
September 7, four days after France declared war on Germany. Then, the
Wehrmacht was occupied in the attack on Poland, and the French soldiers enjoyed a decisive numerical advantage along the border with Germany. However, the French didn't take any action that was able to assist the Poles. Eleven French divisions advanced along a 32 km line near
Saarbrücken against weak German opposition. The French Army had advanced to a depth of 8 kilometres and captured about 20 villages evacuated by the German army, without any resistance. However, the half-hearted offensive was halted after France seized the Warndt Forest, three square miles of heavily-
mined German territory.
The attack didn't result in any diversion of German troops. The all-out assault was to be carried out by roughly 40 divisions, including one armoured division, three mechanized divisions, 78 artillery regiments and 40 tank battalions. On
September 12, the
Anglo-French Supreme War Council gathered for the first time at
Abbeville in France. It was decided that all offensive actions were to be halted immediately. By then the French divisions had advanced approximately eight kilometres into Germany on a 24 kilometre-long strip of the frontier in the
Saarland area.
Maurice Gamelin ordered his troops to stop
not closer than 1 kilometre from the German positions along the
Siegfried Line. Poland wasn't notified of this decision. Instead, Gamelin informed marshal
Edward Rydz-Śmigły that half of his divisions were in contact with the enemy, and that French advances had forced the
Wehrmacht to withdraw at least six divisions from Poland. The following day the commander of the
French Military Mission to Poland General
Louis Faury informed the Polish chief of staff, general
Wacław Stachiewicz, that the planned major offensive on the western front had to be postponed from
September 17 to
September 20. At the same time, French divisions were ordered to retreat to their
barracks along the
Maginot Line. The
Phony War had begun.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Saar Offensive'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://saar_offensive.totallyexplained.com">Saar Offensive Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
