Friday, May 27, 2011

The Maginot Line Fortress

The Maginot Line , named after French Minister of War André Maginot, was a line of concrete fortifications, tank obstacles, artillery casemates, machine gun posts, and other defences, which France constructed along its borders with Germany and Italy, in light of its experience in World War I, and in the run-up to World War II. Generally the term describes only the defences facing Germany, while the term Alpine Line is used for the Franco-Italian defences.


 The French established the fortification to provide time for their army to mobilise in the event of attack, allowing French forces to move into Belgium for a decisive confrontation with German forces. The success of static, defensive combat in World War I was a key influence on French thinking. The fortification system successfully dissuaded a direct attack. However, it was strategically ineffective, as the Germans did indeed invade Belgium, defeated the French army, flanked the Maginot Line, and proceeded relatively unobstructed.


Military experts extolled the Maginot Line as a work of genius, believing it would prevent any further invasions from the east (notably, from Germany). However, the German army in World War II largely bypassed the Maginot Line by invading through the Ardennes forest and via the Low countries, completely sweeping by the Line and conquering France in days. As such, the Maginot Line has come to mean a strategy or object that people put hope into but fails miserably. It is also the best known symbol of the adage that "generals always fight the last war, especially if they have won it".

Built  1929-1934 (later perfected until 1940). Length is about 400 km.It consisted of 5600 long-term fortification, 70 bunkers, 500 artillery and infantry units, 500 casemates and bunkers and observation posts.

For the construction of the Maginot Line was spent around 3 billion francs ($ 1 billion in the prices of those years). The total number of troops on the line reached 300 thousand people. In multi-level underground forts were equipped with living quarters for personnel, power, powerful ventilation systems, narrow-gauge railways, telephone exchanges, hospitals, rest rooms, out of reach for the shells and bombs. In the upper ground floor housed elevators equipped with gun casemates. They were dug in the ground a concrete "box" with thick walls and ceiling of 3,5-4 meters.



















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