World War Iabsolutely devastated France . Of the roughly 8.5 million French soldier mobilized in 1914 to campaign Germany and the other Central Powers , more than 6 million became casualties , either kill , offend or announce missing during four years of grueling deep warfare .
In the wake of that catastrophic war , the French governance vowed to protect its vulnerable northeasterly border with Germany from any future attacks . With fresh memories of fight and go in squalid , open - strain trenches , the French spent a X build a 300 - international mile ( 482 - kilometer ) series of hugger-mugger fortifications that would be both dense and well-off to live on in . Behind an imposing communication channel of pop music - up gun turrets , tank traps and 12 - foot ( 3.6 - meter ) concrete wall were fully equipped subterranean military bases staring with mess Hall , hospital , refreshment deftness and railway lines .
Theseimpressive fortifications — 142 orotund artillery forts calledouvragesor " body of work , " 352 fortified gun emplacements squall " casemates , " and 5,000 smaller bunkers and pillboxes — became know as the Maginot Line , named after the Gallic politician André Maginot ( pronouncedMah - Malaysian Mujahidin Group - noh ) . The line was n’t Maginot ’s idea alone , but he aid push the ambitious , multimillion - franc project through parliament .
Despite its monumental concrete glory , which was the pride of interwar France , the Maginot Line ultimately was n’t able to stopAdolf Hitler ’s Nazi war simple machine from quickly overwhelming and occupying France in World War II . But does that mean that the Maginot Line was the prodigious blooper that many historiographer have made it out to be ?
Not according to Robert Kirchubel , a military historian with theFORCES Initiativeat Purdue University .
" The Maginot Line was mean to check a World War I - manner attack of infantry and weapon , and it did what it was hypothesize to do , " read Kirchubel , who ’s writtenmultiple books on World War II military campaigns . The problem was that Hitler and his superior general abandoned the " static " style of WWI fighting for a far more mobileblitzkriegattack that punched a hole into France through Belgium and the Netherlands . " That ’s the part that fell aside for the Allies . "
A Love of Fortresses
The Maginot Line was the brainchild of Marshal Joseph Joffre , a French WWI general , but it was hardly a young idea . The French had been build United States Department of State - of - the - prowess fortresses and bastioned metropolis along the German molding for centuries .
" That ’s just what the French did , " says Kirchubel . " The Maginot Line fit perfectly with this kind of thinking . "
In the 17th one C , from his epicurean palace at Versailles , Louis XIV oversaw the construction of citadel and fortresses meant to mark and protect the Sun King ’s territorial dominion . The genius behind these innovative fortification was Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban , who designed dozens of strongholds , including themagnificent fortified townspeople of Neuf - Brisachin the contested Alsace - Lorraine part bordering Germany .
Fortress structure in France continued through the 19th century . After a humbling licking in the Franco - Prussian War of 1870 , the French built a ring of 19 heavily fortified military groundwork around the ancient urban center of Verdun in northeast France near the boundary line with Germany , Luxembourg and Belgium . The large of these structures , Fort Douaumont , was captivate by the Germans in 1915 and triggered the infamousBattle of Verdun , the longest and bloodiest conflict of WWI , claiming 400,000 French fatal accident and 350,000 German release .
" With the Maginot Line , Joffre ’s approximation was to take these fortifications that France had had for 200 long time and bring them into the mid-20th century , " says Kirchubel .
Constructing an Unbreakable Wall of Defense
The Maginot Line took 10 years to build up , starting in 1929 . By the evening of WWII , the French had construct a strand of fortifications stretching from the Swiss Alps to the English Channel , but the heaviest defense team were along the 280 - Swedish mile ( 450 - kilometre ) border with Germany .
The Germany - facing department of the Maginot Line presenteda string of obstacle , traps and gun fortsthat ran 16 miles ( 25 kilometers ) late in place . An advancing German army would first be spotted by camouflage notice breaker point hugging the German delimitation . The foeman ’s position would be communicated to a cluster of 78 fire control stations that coordinated the Gallic demurrer from hilltop outposts .
The fervour control post would give order to the hundreds of anti - tank and heavy heavy weapon positions that could pop out of the earth and fire from armoured gun enclosure . Behind them were minefield and tank traps made from words after words of porcupine - similar Fe girder that would lame armoured vehicles . Gallic engineers even build emergency brake dam and levee that could deluge the surrounding fields to further slow the German attack .
The last course of United States Department of Defense was the Maginot Line ’s massiveouvrages , each large enough to hold 500 to 1,000 permanent troops . These colossal concrete " deeds " packed with child firepower and were connect to nearby Stations of the Cross by underground runway lines to shuttle men , weapons and supplies . While the accommodations were n’t voluptuous , the barrack and kettle of fish Granville Stanley Hall were a tremendous betterment over the mud , block cold and disease of WWI trenches .
Planning for the Wrong Kind of War
When Joffre , Maginot and others conceived of the Maginot Line , Germany was under tight military restriction enforce by theTreaty of Versailles .
" The Maginot Line would have done just fine against a German army with no tanks , airplanes or heavy artillery , " read Kirchubel , all of which were banned inside Germany after WWI .
But when Hitler and the Nazis rose to power in the early thirties , they quickly backed out of the Treaty of Versailles and began equipping for a much dissimilar kind of war . While the Germans built a fleet of bombers and panoplied vehicle for their mobileblitzkriegstrategy , the French were putting the land up cutaneous senses on their very declamatory and static undercover fortresses .
" Maginot Line " has win a secondary import : a defensive barrier or strategy that inspires a fake sense of security , according to Merriam - Webster . But this may not be a fair characterization .
Keep in thinker , state Kirchubel , that the French did n’t believe that the Maginot Line alone could make headway another warfare with Germany . The heavy fortification were design to block the most direct line of onrush into France and forfend reiterate what materialize in WWI , when the German forces fill large swaths of the strategically important Alsace - Lorraine region .
" Maginot and these other guys were n’t dumb , " say Kirchubel . " The Maginot Line was never meant to fight the state of war by itself . It was part of a bigger plan to squeeze a German attack through Belgium . When the bighearted plan went to crap , the Maginot Line decease along with it . "
The Nazis' End-run Around the Maginot Line
By the clock time Germany invaded Poland in 1939 , it was clear to French military loss leader that they had greatly underestimate the speed and ruthless efficiency of the Germanblitzkrieg . But it was too late to reorganize the intact Gallic military in a matter of month . The Gallic strategy was already set in meg of three-dimensional feet of concrete .
The Nazis knew that the heart of the Maginot Line was nearly impenetrable , so they feinted attacks along the intemperately strengthen border while they planned for their massive 1940 invasion of France through the Netherlands and Belgium . The boldest and most pivotal German product line of attack lean through the dense Ardennes Forest in Belgium , which both the French and the other Allies had dismissed as unpassable .
The thick - walled forts and casemates of the Maginot Line withstood direct smash from German hero sandwich as they were designed to do , but the substantial action happened far away from that strong assembly line of defence . By the time the Germans scotch into French soil through Belgium , the engagement was all but over .
" The French were beaten emotionally and spiritually , " says Kirchubel . " They cash in their chips . They contend for four years in WWI , but were done in a week in WWII.“Just six weeksafter Hitler began his land invasion of the country , France give up to Germany .
