13. French Plans to Avoid a Repetition of World War I
France was traumatized by World War I and the devastation suffered by significant parts of the country that were turned into battlefields. So the French devised a plan to avoid a repetition. The Maginot Line would secure the Franco-German border to the south, while the bulk of the mobile French army was stationed in the north, to advance into Belgium soon as the Germans attacked, to fight as far forward and outside of France as possible. The French fortified the south, and amassed enough mobile forces in the north to keep the Germans from bursting into France via that route. However, they ignored a stretch of wooded terrain in the center, the Ardennes Forrest. They deemed it impassable for tanks, and so kept it lightly defended. The Germans figured the Ardennes was actually passable, so they massed the bulk of their armor there.
