... control over the armies in the North-East was Georges job; there were many command centres scattered over a large area, and this led to slow communications, it took 48 hours for one of Gamelin's orders to arrive and be executed on the field. This command system weakened further by the mutual antipathy between Gamelin and Georges proved a recipe for disaster, for Georges was responsible for fighting a battle according to plans drawn up by Gamelin with an army that Gamelin had moulded to his own concepts. As a result, when the Germans launched their offensive in the west, no one was certain who was actually controlling the battle and this was compounded by the proliferation of headquarters and an inadequate communications system. The Allied army was another inadequacy, in terms of numbers it was as large if not larger than the Germans: they had 144 divisions, 13974 guns, and ...

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