Why didn't/couldn't France invade down the Rhine valley in 1939?

[DoomBunny]

Those two are not mutually exclusive.
If you imprison all children without any contact that is very effective at preventing child sexual abuse. It would also be completly insane.
By the same token keeping a fleet that is as big as the next two fleets combined is effective but it also puts lots of strain on your budget and to hang your heart on being able to keep that standard is, frankly, insane.

Your analogies become stranger and stranger.

 

[Avernite]

This isn't true, it would be perfectly possible, in a situation of Mahanian dominance, for the German fleet to simply operate through the Channel and the Iceland gap. Though really, in this situation, one could simply land an army on the British Isles. Even if one assumes the need to establish a blockade around Ireland as well, and assumes this will be beyond German capabilities, one can still interfere with the British economy considerably by blockading the entire East coast, the Channel, Scotland, etc...

Yes, but by that point you're just interfering considerably with the British economy - which is also what you can do by blockading the German North Sea coast.

 

[DoomBunny]

Yes, but by that point you're just interfering considerably with the British economy - which is also what you can do by blockading the German North Sea coast.

Probably moreso. I don't have figures for that date, but certainly at the time one is looking at a large % of internal trade and logistical movement being done by coastal shipping. Cutting off the Eastern Coast and the Channel also blocks several of Britain's largest ports (including London and Southampton) and damages the entire East Coast (very reliant on shipbuilding, fishing, etc...), this is still a very serious blow to Britain.

That's also without considering that a blockade of the Irish Sea and Ireland itself are probably doable, and that, as said, Germany controlling the sea also gives her freedom to land troops, which Britain would be very hard pressed to respond too.

 

[Avernite]

Probably moreso. I don't have figures for that date, but certainly at the time one is looking at a large % of internal trade and logistical movement being done by coastal shipping. Cutting off the Eastern Coast and the Channel also blocks several of Britain's largest ports (including London and Southampton) and damages the entire East Coast (very reliant on shipbuilding, fishing, etc...), this is still a very serious blow to Britain.

That's also without considering that a blockade of the Irish Sea and Ireland itself are probably doable, and that, as said, Germany controlling the sea also gives her freedom to land troops, which Britain would be very hard pressed to respond too.

Hard pressed to respond to invasion?

The Ottoman Empire, with a railway network to laugh at, was able to reinforce Gallipolli sufficiently to repel the British-Anzac-French invasion. And Britain, with one of the most tightly knit networks of the world, would not be able to?

 

[TheLoneGunman]

You guys have veered far too off course for the topic of this thread.