# The Phony War- WTH?!

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-phony-war-wth/766343>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [September 19, 2016, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-phony-war-wth/766343 "2016-09-19T11:44:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\
**Post date:** [October 13, 2016, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-phony-war-wth/766343/41 "2016-10-13T01:18:00Z")

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> [@Dissonance](#):
>
> I’m not sure how you arrive at this count, even adding the Belgian Army and the BEF into French 1st Army Group barely gets it to being slightly larger in size to the Second and Third Army Groups combined, or 1/2 on the Belgian border and 1/2 defending the Maginot Line; far more than was needed to defend it. […]
> 
> For the record, my count (not including the BEF or Belgian Army) is 34 divisions in First Army Group, 29 in Second and 10 in Third, so 34 on the Belgian border vs 39 guarding the Maginot Line:

Yes, I included the BEF and Belgian army, since they were supposed to operate together.

And my count, from your link, is 72 divisions on the Belgian border vs 29+10=39 along the Maginot line, which is much of the border, so it’s a vastly higher concentration of troops.

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**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\
**Post date:** [October 13, 2016, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-phony-war-wth/766343/42 "2016-10-13T01:24:30Z")

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Too late to edit : ETA : don’t have time to check what the discrepancy is right now.

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