Germany lacked many of the natural resources needed for the wars of the 20th century, and it knew that victory and materials had to be accumulated in the early stages of World War II to succeed. On June 29, 1919, delegates signed the Treaty of Versailles, ending World War I, and the voices of French military leaders rose up, predicting that Germany would recover from defeat and invade Europe again.
In fact, both France and Germany knew that the Second World War was about to break out, and even when the ink on the treaty ending the First World War was not dry, some French leaders openly opposed the terms of the treaty, feeling that these provisions had too much financial impact on Germany, so that it would eventually rebuild its army, and the German leaders knew that the peace clause would be unpopular and might lead to revolution.
So France prepared to fight a mainly defensive war against Germany, and built the Maginot Line and formed an alliance with Belgium to defend it. At the same time, Germany began to claim that World War I was defeated by politicians, not soldiers. Once Hitler became Führer and cooperated with other pro-war groups, Germany would also begin to rearm. The seeds of World War II have sprouted, and everyone is trying to prepare for the coming battle.
For France, the plan was to send second-rate troops to the strong fortress line known as the Maginot Line, while first-rate troops equipped with tanks and other modern weapons would enter Belgium to the north and east, helping the Belgians hold the line along rivers, canals and Belgian forts.
But there was a gap between the Belgian and Maginot lines, and that was the Ardennes, a heavily forested and hilly area that was too dense and rugged for most tanks to pass. At the same time, the German plan was premised on the French plan. Germany knew that the Maginot Line was almost insurmountable and that an attack on it would be suicidal. They also knew that Belgium, a historically neutral country with a young king, was a relatively weak ally. But there was good news for the Germans, who knew that German tanks could pass the Ardennes, but it would be a slow and challenging battle.
Tanks were only available for about 20 years in the final sprint of World War II, and most tanks in World War I were useless in steep hills, rugged terrain, and even thick mud. The idea that tanks could cross muddy ground in dense forests and hit French positions might seem crazy. The British had tried to warn France of the dangers of the Ardennes gap, but France had barely listened.
So Germany set a trap. First, German troops began to undermine the purposes of the Treaty of Versailles, including the invasion and occupation of the Sudetenland, an area of Czechoslovakia inhabited mainly by Germans. France and Britain were not ready for war, signing the Treaty of Munich, allowing Germany to hold the Sudetenland as long as they promised not to invade any other country.
Fearing the worthlessness of his treaties with France and Great Britain, King Leopold II of Belgium re-declared Belgium's neutrality and reorganized his army for purely defensive purposes. This is a huge problem for France. France could not hold joint exercises with Belgium or allow it to assemble troops in Belgium for joint defense, but could only deploy to Belgium after the German invasion. In this way, once the war broke out, there would be a competition between France and Germany for strategic territory, and the strategic territory would be quickly occupied.
When Germany invaded the Low Countries in May 1940, 39 French divisions crossed Belgium and began to prepare for the German army, but the first French attack during World War II was a huge trap set by the German army. At the same time, the Germans stopped an Army Group near the Maginot Line to prevent the French from drawing troops from there. This meant that the Ardennes was guarded only by trees, and Hitler was ecstatic. As France focused its attention to the north, the German armored forces did not face any resistance.
The entire Army Army Group A, with 7 panzer divisions and 37 other other types of panzer divisions, circled far to the rear of Belgium and France, which had fallen into the Trap of Germany, and while the German army was converging around Paris, the French forces were on the Belgian plains. On May 14, 1940, just a few weeks after the German invasion, French troops withdrew from Paris, saving the city from the ravages of war. The French forces even began to destroy their own oil and weapons reserves to limit what germany would gain in victory.