A slightly different direction into the opening stages of WWII:
DE GAULLE S CONCEPT OF A MOBILE, PROFESSIONAL ARMY:
https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA509926.pdf
The causes of France's rapid collapse!:
Among the important immediate causes identified is the French failure to mass armored forces for use against the attacking German thrusts.
It is clear that the French error ensued from an inability to recognize the potential of mechanized warfare, not from a shortage of armored vehicles.
By May 1940, France and Germany were approximately equal in the number of tanks available for combat on the western front,
France having 2,43 I and
Germany 2,439 (not counting command vehicles). The Germans massed their ten armored divisions into an armored group, two separate corps, and one separate division, while France haphazardly scattered her three armored divisions, three mechanized divisions, and her remaining twenty-seven non-divisional tank battalions among the eight French armies.
While the Germans recognized the potential of massed armored forces in conducting rapid, mobile operations, French armored units were committed to battle in a piecemeal fashion, resulting in their "melting away one after the other like snow flakes in the sun, without having any appreciable effect on the course of the battle."
General Charles De Gaulle offered his famous plan for the formation of a highly mobile army, insisting that it be formed with professional rather than citizen-soldiers.
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"WITHOUT A PROFESSIONAL ARMY, THERE CAN BE NO FRENCH DEFENSE".
Lieutenant Colonel ' ',' .Charles De Gaulle, 1934
"France had no army in peacetime in the old sense of the word," according to Irving M. Gibson."She had only a permanent frontier guard and 240,000 rrecruits under training. The active army was described even in French law as a training rather than fighting force. This system was to last through 1939 and the beginning of World War II.
De Gaulle asserted essentially that quality is better than quantity. A professional army is superior to the nation in arms, and France should construct a strongly armored, professional army.
De Gaulle firmly believed there were instances when France would want to attack outside her own borders. Therefore, he rejected the defensive nature of the nation in arms and, in effect, called for the creation of an army that could launch a "preventive strike" or initiate an immediate offensive upon the declaration of hostilities.
A professional army would have both an offensive and a defensive capability, could be used immediately without wasting precious time mobilizing,
France would still require a system of reserves, since this elite force could not possibly destroy all the forces of the enemy in an all-out war. But the "picked troops" of a professional army would be the foundation of France's defenses and would be the "vanguard of the mobilized nation.
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The French military hierarchy rejected De Gaulle's highly mobile, professional army without adequately studying the merits of large armored formations.
```Alert!!!... Now... "a what if!!!"... the French High Command had accepted De Gaulle's Professional Army Concept?.```
"Hitler" likely still would have made an attack on France anyway. However...
with De Gaulle's professional army on hand at this time... events may have just worked out differently. If it doesn't... then the
"Regular Events of History",,, continue on as before!.
France was not interested in being at war with Germany or invading Germany... or even occupying Berlin... so a blunting of a German invasion of France... could have led to some kind of armistice or compromise to cease that military invasion effort.
Germany ... at this stage... would then focus directly on Chezchoslovakia and Poland without any serious concern of military intervention from the Western Powers... since Germany was now at peace with France.
At this point in time!... Germany would still need "Iron-Ore" from Sweden and "Aluminum" from Norway... which would to some limited extent... involve British Intervention... likely without French intervention since Germany and France would have had concluded some kind of cessation of hostilities.
Later... Germany would or could come to the aid of
"Mussolini"... in his endeavor to recreate the Roman Empire. Now!... without the British or Americans to interfere... until the British would confront Mussolini in Libya... which would still-not necessarily involve American participation.
Hitlers ambitions for the conquest of Russia would now be free of major encumberances... Hitlers hands would be basically untied!... without a hindering restrictive 2-front war to contend with. The invasion of Russia will now be a much easier task-at-hand!.
