Cougar
You ought to read Ernest May’s “Strange Victory,” which recounts the Phoney War, the casting of Allied “war strategy” as well as the casting and re-casting of “Case Yellow” by the Germans.
The Allies were absolutely convinced that they only had to maintain a blockade of Germany and Germany would collapse internally without a shot being fired. Since France was carrying the weight of the “land campaign” it’s pretty evident from May’s book that the French political and military leadership just didn’t have any stomach for real fighting. They came up with all sorts of grandiose plans, including, as bizarre as it sounds, a military expedition against the USSR oil resources in the Caspian area to deprive Germany of economic resources! Yes, it was being seriously discussed that the way to beat Germany was not to fight her, but to take on the USSR instead! Fortunately for the Allies, they weren’t really serious about fighting the USSR either.
One plan that did emerge from the Winter War was the decision to occupy Norway and restrict German iron ore imports from Sweden (in warm weather, the ore ships could ply the Gulf of Bothnia, but in winter they had to be shipped down the Norwegian coast from Narvik). Those plans were well advanced. One of Homer’s posts shows the Royal Navy is re-deploying the battle fleet due to requirements of the situation in Norway. And, the British and French had allocated troops for their Norwegian Expeditionary Force, which explains why they were able to land it so quickly at Narvik in April.
It was either a case of the Germans beating the Allies to the punch, or, as with all the other Allied plans, there is some reason to believe they would not have actually carried it out. When it came right down to it, the Allies were reluctant to do anything but sit, so there is good reason to believe the French would have invented reasons to not invade Norway. And without the French, the British would not have landed troops. The British, though, were going to use the Royal Navy to mine Norwegian waters.
Sounds interesting. I’ll add that to my reading list. Thanks.
Interestingly, Raeder wanted to use British plans for Norway as part of his defense at Nurenburg, where his role in the Weser Exercise was a major part of the case against him. The British prevented it.
This is the point which strikes me the most about the 1939-40 "Phony-War." It's the same thing we saw in Poland in August 1939 -- everyone apparently knew the strike was coming, and yet no one took effective action against it.
Same thing with Denmark, Norway, the Low Countries & France in 1940. And in 1941: the Balkans, Greece, Soviet Union and United States -- all just sat and waited for invasions which either were, or certainly should have been, obviously coming. Why?
Why were NONE of them better prepared? Why did none even consider taking preemptive actions. Why was it always necessary to accept the first blows, even when the enemy was a known rabid beast?
Or, to put it another way: here we focus on just France, but was any other country better prepared than France in 1940? I don't think so, and that suggests a mind-set that we don't fully understand today...