What is the minimal amount of modern U.S. troops and equipment needed to keep France from falling in 1940?

[Free-Stater 101]

So a portal has opened up in France 1940 and on the other side of out it is a U.S. vaguely like our own but excluding the political madness of the past twenty years, this U.S. decided to to the decent thing and help prop this France up to withstand invasion although from a minimalist standpoint of helping the French over overwhelming force.

What is the least amount of equipment and troops needed to help the French stop the Germans dead in their tracks?

 

[Bear Ribs]

None. France lost largely because their doctrine was outdated and they had no answer to the Blitzkreig. With foreknowledge of German plans and positions from the Future!US they'll be able to stop the Germans in Belgium and force them into a pincer against the Maginot Line.

 

[Arlos]

No, even with our « outdated » doctrine we shouldn’t have lost, originally, our plan for maginot was that it was supposed to extend to the Belgian borders, with the Belgian paying for their own parts, they assured the British and French they made the defensive work when they in fact did not.
That wouldn’t have been enough on its own to be a fatal blow tough.
See, the German troops that kicked us down were in fact the ones that went through the Ardennes, not the ones that went through Belgium, and we did in fact have several layer of static defense here AND a reserve army of 100+k soldiers; here’s the kicker, once the Germans went through their borders, the Belgian panicked and asked the French for help, the civilians government, eager to keep and allies into the war and not wanting fighting to break in French soil, overrode military concerns and ordered the sending of emergency renforcement to fight in Belgium...You guessed it, the reserve army supposed to defend the Ardenne was sent into Belgium, leaving a few well built, but woefully inadequate line of defense to face the Germans main offensive thrust alone...

 

[Zachowon]

No, even with our « outdated » doctrine we shouldn’t have lost, originally, our plan for maginot was that it was supposed to extend to the Belgian borders, with the Belgian paying for their own parts, they assured the British and French they made the defensive work when they in fact did not.
That wouldn’t have been enough on its own to be a fatal blow tough.
See, the German troops that kicked us down were in fact the ones that went through the Ardennes, not the ones that went through Belgium, and we did in fact have several layer of static defense here AND a reserve army of 100+k soldiers; here’s the kicker, once the Germans went through their borders, the Belgian panicked and asked the French for help, the civilians government, eager to keep and allies into the war and not wanting fighting to break in French soil, overrode military concerns and ordered the sending of emergency renforcement to fight in Belgium...You guessed it, the reserve army supposed to defend the Ardenne was sent into Belgium, leaving a few well built, but woefully inadequate line of defense to face the Germans main offensive thrust alone...

You also decided not to hit the large amount of vehicles building up for the Ardennes assault as well.
Yall also didn't have radios in every tank, which also didn't help, and yalls airforce was horrendus

 

[Husky_Khan]

Two best places would be trying to stop or delay zee Germans inside the Ardennes... Four roads through the Ardennes choked with over forty thousand vehicles sounds like a wet dream for air support or artillery I feel.

Otherwise the crucial moment was contesting the River Crossing at Sedan itself.

The French, as stated above, could've won but reacted far too slowly and the Germans were working at a far higher operational tempo and lower ranked command initiative.

So hmmm not being a military expert I would say the smallest self contained unit would be a BCT but 300 Strykers and five thousand troops is too much. For maximum Btech style minimalism...

One Fires Battalion. Three batteries of M109 Self Propelled Artillery to protect them from counter battery fire and possible air attack.

One Air Defense Artillery Company with those M1097 Avenger Humvees. I think I'd prefer some sort of radar controlled SPAAG but that's not a thing at the moment. I don't think mounting Centurion CRAM on HEMTTs is a thing yet. So chances are the Air Defense Company will simply run out of Stinger Missiles. Oh well. Hopefully they do enough damage to make it exciting!

And hmmm a Battalion or two of Stryker borne infantry. The vehicles can provide armored transport and the guns shred almost anything the Nazis have. Bring along the Stryker Cavalry Squadrons as well. They can be the immediately deployable reserve to contest any river crossings or squish any potential beachheads. Putting them in static defense at predicted sites would be wasteful. And using anything heavier would violate the small footprint. And putting them in Humvees infeel would expose them to more casualties from enemy fire, artillery and air support. So I'll go with Stryker Battalions as the ready reserve.

 

[ATP]

You also decided not to hit the large amount of vehicles building up for the Ardennes assault as well.
Yall also didn't have radios in every tank, which also didn't help, and yalls airforce was horrendus

Their airforces was good,i read that problems was becouse they were husbanding their planes thinking about long campaign,when german send everything they had.As a result,they burned more then 300 D.520/as good as Me 109/ which never was used in depots.
What forces - 2 Apache and 2 Blackhawks with green berets to kill Hitler.They knew,where he was

 

[S'task]

It sounds like the smallest amount to add would be a single surveillance satellite, mobile earthstation, and the crew to run the satellite and analyze the data coming from it, thus allowing the French to have a real time, highly detailed picture of where exactly the German troops were at any given time...

 

[IceWing_mk1]

1x USAF Pilot
1x F-22 Raptor
1x B61 Mod 12

I believe that removes Berlin and the high command from play

 

[bintananth]

1x USAF Pilot
1x F-22 Raptor
1x B61 Mod 12

I believe that removes Berlin and the high command from play

It wouldn't even need to be an F-22. Any aircraft capable of getting to Berlin from Eastern France one-way while carrying a 700lb bomb will do.

You would still need the right ground crew and a proper airfield though ...

 

[Lord Sovereign]

No, even with our « outdated » doctrine we shouldn’t have lost, originally, our plan for maginot was that it was supposed to extend to the Belgian borders, with the Belgian paying for their own parts, they assured the British and French they made the defensive work when they in fact did not.
That wouldn’t have been enough on its own to be a fatal blow tough.
See, the German troops that kicked us down were in fact the ones that went through the Ardennes, not the ones that went through Belgium, and we did in fact have several layer of static defense here AND a reserve army of 100+k soldiers; here’s the kicker, once the Germans went through their borders, the Belgian panicked and asked the French for help, the civilians government, eager to keep and allies into the war and not wanting fighting to break in French soil, overrode military concerns and ordered the sending of emergency renforcement to fight in Belgium...You guessed it, the reserve army supposed to defend the Ardenne was sent into Belgium, leaving a few well built, but woefully inadequate line of defense to face the Germans main offensive thrust alone...

So the French Army was led to disaster by the French Government? Sounds about right.

 

[paulobrito]

Basically, the French rolled a series of 1's while at the same time the Germans rolled a big series of 20's.

 

[Simonbob]

1. At sufficient velocity.

 

[ATP]

It wouldn't even need to be an F-22. Any aircraft capable of getting to Berlin from Eastern France one-way while carrying a 700lb bomb will do.

You would still need the right ground crew and a proper airfield though ...

I remember some AH fiction with modern Australia /from 2010,nit current/ was ISOT to 1939 - by 1940 they made few A bombs and tossed them on Berlin and other cities using Hercules transport planes.