Hi, does anyone own a copy of Basil Liddell-Hart's The Other Side of the Hill"? If you do, I've two things need checked about things he's reputed to have said in the book about the "Impassable" Ardennes... 1/ Apparently he toured the area in 1928, and came away from that tour with the impression that the French Army was already convinced of the impenetrability of the Ardennes. I'd like to know if it says who told him that, or how he got that opinion in 1928? 2/ Apparently he also says that in 1933 when the War Office was considering the future of armour in the British Army he was asked to suggest what could be done with large armoured formations; he answered that an armoured thrust through the Ardennes was feasible.....and was told by the War Office that the Ardennes was "impassable" - I'd like to know WHO at the War Office asked him for his opinion, and who told him that the Ardennes was impassable?
Phylo - Don't know the answer to your first query - but the second in 1933 - wasn't he advisor to Hoare Belisha as Defence Minister at that time... Cheers
Tom, thanks for coming back to me, I'm not sure on the dates for Hore-Belisha's tenure as Sec of State for war - I thought it began in 1937. I'll have to check... EDIT: looks like it was Viscount Hailsham in 1933, time for some googling!
I have LH's book, what I did find was (in a footnote):. When in November 1933 I was consulted as to how our tank formations could best be used in a future war I suggested that, in the event of a German invasion of France, we should deliver a counter-stroke throug the Ardennes. I was thereupon told that "the Ardennes were impassable to tanks" to which I replied that, from pesonal study of the terrain, I regarded such a view as a delusion. But he doesn't go into details about the individuals he had this discussion with, IMHO it leaves a big doubt as to how "official" the talks were. Alistair Horne in his To Loose a Battle goes into the issue in some depth and reports a 1938 French wargame/manouvers under Gen. Prételat, where a German attack of seven divisions and two armoured brigades punched through both the Ardennes and French defenses with ease. Apparently Gamelin reacted to the results by stating that reinforcements could be easily despatched in response. IMO the flaw of the simulation was that while it did simulate the German breakthrough capability, the exploitation speed of the combined arms panzer divisions, that made French reaction speed wholly inadequate, was not well simulated by the Motorized division + Tank brigades of the wargame.
TOS, thanks for the above, and thanks for checking. Alistair Horne in his To Loose a Battle goes into the issue in some depth and reports a 1938 French wargame/manouvers under Gen. Prételat, where a German attack of seven divisions and two armoured brigades punched through both the Ardennes and French defenses with ease. Apparently Gamelin reacted to the results by stating that reinforcements could be easily despatched in response. IMO the flaw of the simulation was that while it did simulate the German breakthrough capability, the exploitation speed of the combined arms panzer divisions, that made French reaction speed wholly inadequate, was not well simulated by the Motorized division + Tank brigades of the wargame. I've come across Pretelat's report before, it's mentioned in Ernest May's "Strange Victory". There he calls it a "map exercise", so I don't know for sure if that was an adjudicated wargame, or a "hard" exercise on the ground in the Ardennes; given that the Ardennes was in Belgium, I have my doubts as to the latter! Hence probably why they were using (incorrect!) simulations! One thing May notes is that Gamelin subsequently suppressed the results of the exercise!
