German victory France Luxembourg The Netherlands Belgium France Britain 1941–1943 1944–1945 Germany Strategic campaigns The Saar Offensive was the French invasion of Saarland, Germany, in the first stages of World War II, from September 7 to October 16, 1939, in response to the German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939.

French mobilisation suffered from an inherently out-of-date system, which greatly affected their ability to swiftly deploy their forces on the field.

[4] The French command still believed in the tactics of World War I, which relied heavily on stationary artillery, even though this took time to transport and deploy.

[6][7] Consequently what followed was what historian Roger Moorhouse called a "sham offensive on the Saar" [8] that began on 7 September, four days after France declared war on Germany.

[6] On 10 September, while a minor German counterattack retook the village of Apach, French forces reversed the loss only hours later.

The French 32nd Infantry Regiment made further gains on 12 September, seizing the German town of Brenschelbach with the loss of one captain, one sergeant, and seven privates.

As the withdrawal was taking place, on 28 September a counterattack by the German 18th Infantry Regiment (from the then newly formed 52nd Division) in the area between Bischmisheim and Ommersheim was repelled by French forces.

[12] General Maurice Gamelin ordered his troops to stop "not closer than 1 kilometre (0.6 miles)" from the German positions along the Siegfried Line.

[14] From 16 to 17 October, the German army, now reinforced with troops returning from the Polish campaign, conducted a counteroffensive that retook the remainder of the lost territory, still held by French covering forces, which withdrew as planned.

"[17] General Siegfried Westphal stated that if the French had attacked in full force in September 1939 the German army "could only have held out for one or two weeks.