"Peter Skelton" a écrit dans le message news:
...

(snip)

They'd have gotten their butts kicked in the last war too, didn't
have reserves, didn't have telephones at HQ, unbelievable stuff.

Unbelievable, indeed, but a logical consequence of the sending the army in
Belgium. The defensive strategy (or whatever one call it) that prevailed
prewar had planned that, in cas of an attack, all the national telephone
system would pass under military rule and will be used as the main military
communication system. This was supposed to save money in prewar budgets,
even if it seems a bit irresponsible (a phone net was easily saturated by
military traffic, this net was not dense enough in some areas including the
Ardennes, a HQ was unable to relocate once it had found a practical
settlement, etc. you can pile up critics as high as you wish).
When the government sent the main battle force of the army in Belgium, it
cut the army from its main phone system... and general Gamelin did not raise
any finger to say that the plan was pointless, forcing his divisions to
communicate by pigeons, bicycles, cavalry and the like. Because, of course,
no wide radio net had been procured, since the national telephone was
here...

Regards,
Christophe
(grand son of a radio operator in the Armée des Alpes)