Had such an attack been prepared and launched, the French would have had a good chance of breaking through the thin German defenses and of occupying the Ruhr, the industrial heart of Germany. The French could also have accomplished this goal by disregarding Belgian objectives and marching through Belgium. However, the French General Staff had no such plans. (...) In fact, the aim of the French General Staff was to have the Poles hold out as long as possible in order to gain time for France, hence the commitments. When the British asked gen. Gamelin at the first meeting of the Supreme Allied War Council at Abbeville on September 12, whether he would change his strategy if the Poles fought for two or three months, he replied that he would not do so. In his view, the role of the Poles was to win precious time for the Allies, so they could prepare for the moment when Germany would transfer the bulk of her forces to the West. Thus, it is hard to avoid the impression that the French deliberately misled the Poles to believe they would launch an offensive against Germany–and then left them to fight alone." Anna M. Cienciala, „Poland in British and French Policy in 1939: Determination to Fight or Avoid War?” w: The Polish Review, v. XXXIV, 1989, no.