Saar-Offensive

The Saar Offensive (French for " Opération Sarre " ), often offensive de la Sarre, called the advance of the French army on the frontier in the Saarland and Rhineland-Palatinate at the beginning of the Second World War in September 1939.

The French General Staff ordered the operation to do the obligations of the Franco- Polish assistance pact against the German Reich from May 1939 enough. French troops crossed on 9 September 1939, the frontier at several points. The troops of the Wehrmacht retreated to the Westwall heavily fortified. On 12 September, the French army was up to eight kilometers on German territory, where numerous German towns were filled in the cleared red zone without much resistance. The limited offensive was the determination of the strength of the defenses of the Siegfried Line to the destination. On September 21, Maurice Gamelin ordered General, the troops withdraw back to their original positions on the Maginot Line. On October 17, the last French troops left German territory. Some French generals such as Henri Giraud did not agree with the retreat and saw a missed opportunity to urge the German Reich into a war on two fronts.