Why didn't France attack Germany in 1939?

we are in the summer of 1939 in Europe

Germany was seen as a huge threat to

world peace on the 23rd of August

Germany made a deal with the Soviets

this pact between these two historic

rivals shocked the Allies but Great

Britain and France didn't know much

about the fact that these documents

included instructions on how each turn

Europe will be divided between them it

was about the countries that existed

between the two powers and one of them

was Poland Poland feared a German

invasion and the Allies promised that

they would declare war if Poland would

be attacked the invasion started on the

morning of the 1st of September on

September 3rd in 1939 the UK and France

declared war on Germany but nothing

major happened just a tiny invasion in

the province of Saarland but not a

full-scale offensive in order to stop

the Germans why did this happen before

trying to answer this question we want

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the description on September 3rd 1939

when the UK and France declared war on

Germany both Polish people and

government officials became enthusiastic

hoping massive support from their allies

on the streets there were spontaneous

demonstrations of support for the French

and British

some people expected again a conflict on

two fronts thus Germany would be forced

to withdraw some of their troops but

nothing major happened one reason could

be unprepared miss neither France nor

Great Britain were prepared for an

upcoming conflict and they were not

looking forward for another one before

this there were some settlements between

Germany Great Britain France and Italy

that permitted German annexation of the

Sudetenland in western Czechoslovakia

where about three million people in the

Sudeten area where of German origin it

became known in May 1938 that plan was

made for the occupation of

Czechoslovakia neither France nor

Britain felt prepared to defend

Czechoslovakia however both were anxious

to avoid a military confrontation with

Germany at almost any cost after this

event the German officials doubted that

Chamberlain the Prime Minister of Great

Britain had the stomach to go to war in

defense of Poland and that's why Germany

went on a full-scale offensive in the

East at this point Germany gambled its

chance they believed that the Allies

will not declare war and even after they

did the big hope was that they will not

attack and that's what happened another

reason the hope for peace judging what

happened we can assume that France and

Great Britain hoped until the last

second to avoid again a new great

conflict but the invasion of Poland

should have been the end of these hopes

here the problems probably was the

immaturity of both French and British

governments the French especially tried

so hard to avoid war there was some

defeatism among the French while on the

other side the society was pushed to

fanatism and militarism the memories

from the Great War of how France

suffered a long-lasting conflict the

impact on the economy at the time plus

the indecision of its government to take

profit from a huge opportunity to defeat

Germany in the first phase of the war

made France a victim after some months

those two first weeks could have changed

history

but the moment was lost in Poland

couldn't resist against

big opponents then the realization by

the middle of September that the Polish

armies were so badly defeated and that

the Germans would soon be able to move

their superior forces to the west

created a fear of German superiority in

arms and in the air also the French

government had insisted from the start

that the British air force should not

bomb targets in Germany for fear of

reprisal on French factories this bad

decision greatly affected the morale of

soldiers in both camps France being seen

as a weak country with no sense of

action by the German authorities this

mistake will lead to the conquest of

France by German troops eight months

later due again to poor decisions this

has created some jokes about the French

army but these jokes are not true the

problem was not in the French army or

with the ordinary French soldier but

with the weak decisions and strategies

put in place by the government the

Allies considered it madness for Germany

to attack France given its strong ally

the United Kingdom also having a large

army and some huge defense structures on

the Maginot Line that is why they

preferred the defence of their own

country and did not consider a major

attack on Germany to a certain extent

Germany was underestimated even if an

allied offensive would have been poorly

prepared the Allies would have had a

huge advantage against the Germans

Germany had only 23 divisions on the

Western Front while the Allies had a

hundred and ten divisions and those

German divisions were poorly equipped

compared to those in Poland the French

had four to one advantage in artillery

and the Germans hardly had any planes

there a German General declared that

Germany would easily be defeated in 1939

if the Allies helped the poles the bulk

of manpower as well as nearly all

mechanized units and Luftwaffe were used

against Poland

if we did not collapse already in the

year 1939 that was due only to the fact

that during the Polish campaign the

approximately a hundred and ten French

and British divisions on the west were

held completely inactive against the 23

German divisions another German General

stated that if the French had attacked

in full force in September 1939 the

German army could only have held out for

one or two weeks in 1939 both France and

Britain were massive colonial powers

facing two of the most powerful

countries in the world would seem like a

bad idea and the British and French

thought this would stop the German

expansion and threatened to go to war if

Poland would be invaded also the Allies

thought that the USSR posed a

significant threat to Germany and due to

different ideology and the hatred

between these regimes a non-aggression

pact seemed highly unlikely after making

a pact with the Soviets the British and

French were indeed surprised but they

still tried to call for peace sending

Germany and ultimatum and waiting for

the reply however after the devastating

first world war Britain and France had

kept at peace so all their equipment was

in storage it took weeks for France to

mobilize their artillery the British had

gotten new Spitfires to use instead of

their Hawker hurricanes but had not

swapped the planes as war did not seem

imminent it seems that they didn't see a

new world conflict coming and they just

focused on their own defence by the time

they got the stuff together they

realized none of their planes could even

reach Poland without refueling after the

Soviets invaded from the east it was

clear that it was impossible to defend

Poland

France then readied for the invasion of

the Saarland in Germany but their

commanders believed that the war would

be fought like world war 1 with

stationary forces they did invade the

Saar but the French were half arted

there was no intention to go in a

full-scale war and the offensive failed

to reach its objective

once Poland fell the German troops

strengthened the front line and forced

the French to retreat on their initial

defensive position they will never

attack again and after eight months

France will be invaded by Germany they

will capitulate only after 46 days we

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