i am surprise we didn’t even talk about this big useless defensive line during world war 2, kind of like the chinese great wall or the US national missile defense. Sounds and looks good but do nothing during the war
I will start with a noob question, how can a “strong” defensive line be not armed with anti-aircraft gun, search lights or at least some anti aircraft equipment?
if they have it, the glider will sure have a tough time landing on the line
I think the maginot line did more harm than good. The was the French deterent to war in France. Which is funny in a way coz a famous French guys once said something to the extent that “Those that hide behind defenses will eventually be defeated.” Anyhow I think the based to much of their military doctrine on this “invincible line” and defensive thinking.
The Maginot Line might have been of some use, if it had been extended along the Belgian border, in order to cover the invasion route that had been used several times in the past.
Presumably the planners didn’t read History :?
Or they made the mistake of assuming tanks couldn’t get through the Ardennes!
The reason it wasn’t extended was mostly political - the belgians were neutral so didn’t want it through their territory, and the French didn’t want to build it facing Belgium as that would be seen as abandoning them in case of their neutrality being breached.
But it did work, sort of…
The Maginot Line was never meant to be the end all, be all of defensive fortifications…
That was merely French Propaganda and a known lie that the French propagated, but were ultimately guilty of believing themselves. It was meant to intimidate and deter a German attack directly over the Franco-German frontier, and to delay an attack so that mobile French reserves could be called up for a war-winning counter attack --projected for 1941-1942… The Line did in fact keep the Germans at bay during the “Phony War” to an extent, and the French Army actually launched a limited excursion into Germany, which proved successful and could have turned into a larger invasion had the stupid old French Generals not had their heads implanted firmly up their asses for so long, since the 1920’s…
I believe the French had in fact planned on an extension into the Belgian Frontier, but was never completed, but was planned before hostilities.
Anyways, the Maginot Line never completely fell to the Germans thought the did develop siege tactics to knock out parts of the line and penetrate it, but the German armored advance was so successful, that these efforts were largely ignored. But French soldiers in the Line were firing on the last day of the battle, before the disgraceful armistice and capitulation…
In a sense, it wasn’t the line that failed, but the French lack of understanding of their own strategic and tactical doctrine. Much like the fact that the French tanks were often superior to the Germans, but like the Maginot Line, the French high command was unable to employ them effectively… In fact, the Maginot Line was later used by the Germans, against the advancing US Army, and again by the French as a buffer to delay a feared Soviet invasion, into the 1950’s should they have swept through Germany…