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Military blunders that Germany made in World War II

aid of the French put up a hard fight, and the Germans also had a tough time making it through the Ardennes forest, but they made it to Sedan and proceeded to cross into France.
The French weren't prepared for such a huge force, nor did they plan well enough for the Nazi's tactics. They had a large amount of artillery amassed along the Maginot and Meuse lines, which would have proved useful against an all infantry and armor attack, but the Luftwaffe quickly took out the artillery with a huge bombing campaign. This caused mass confusion and disorder amongst the French troops and the famous "Panic of Bulson" saw much of the French troops abandon the crossing points before the German armor even crossed.


Once the Nazi's crossed, they advanced at a very rapid pace in accordance with their Blitzkrieg tactics. General Erwin Rommel's army advanced so fast, that the signal corps could not set up field towers fast enough to keep within radio contact distance, earning his 7th Panzer Divison the title, Gespenster Division or "Ghost Division." Although the German armor and mechanized infantry were spread out, running low on fuel and far from the supporting infantry, the French were still reeling from the shock of the invasion and couldn't capitalize on the situation. Despite the fact that a heavy concentration of British and French troops were still intact in the North, Prime Minister Reynaud of France had given up and told Churchill, "We have been defeated. We are beaten; we have lost the battle."(Jackson, p. 9) There was a last ditch effort from the South by the French Fourth Armored Division commanded by General Charles de Gaulle, and although it did inflict some damage, it wasn't enough to discourage the Germans from continuing on.
The British Expeditionary Force that was holed up in the North eventually started fighting. They engaged the Germans at the River Scheldt which left them unable to do much other than dig in and defend. British General Ironside came to BEF Headquarters to speak with General Lord Gort, the commander of the BEF in France, about attacking South in attempt to not only try and save the British, but to make an impact on the German Army. This was not feasible considering there were only two divisions that could be mobilized because the others were already involved in heavy fighting.
There were many decisions to make at this point on both sides. The British wanted to stay and fight, but they knew that at this point it was becoming less and less likely


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Military blunders that Germany made in World War II

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