The Maginot Line: France’s Most Ingenious Military Failure
France’s Maginot Line is well known for its failure to halt the German invasion of France in June of 1940. Named after André Maginot and constructed in the 1930s, the Maginot Line was thought by the French to be an impregnable and untouchable wall of defenses. The Maginot Line was an unbroken line of fortifications that went along the Franco-German border from Longwy, near where France, Belgium, and Luxembourg meet, to Switzerland’s border near Basel. The line stretched over about 471 miles covered with bunkers and fortresses connected by tunnels. The Germans did not go through the Maginot Line, but instead went north through Belgium to enter France. The construction of the Maginot …show more content…
In the end, it only took Germany a total of six weeks to capture France. Certain problems occurred with the construction of the Maginot Line in regards to the budget of the entire project, and how long it would take. The cost of the Maginot Line came to about one billion francs. Also the construction of the line was not even finished by 1939 when war was declared, and last-minute touches were still being made. There were some gaps in the line and it ended to the east of the city of Sedan. There was a long stretch of land to cover in a short amount of time, and at times France would try to do more things than they could accomplish in a short amount of …show more content…
French officials withdrew some interval troops from the Line to protect the capital. This process continued in stages until the end of the fighting, denuding the Line of badly needed support (Zabecki 1564). The Maginot Line could possibly have been utilized in different ways, and its strengths and weaknesses balanced out better with other parts of their border defenses. The line could have been used to play a decisive role to threaten the flank of the Germans preparing their attack in Ardennes, but when French cavalry ran into German armored units travelling through Luxembourg, it withdrew (Zabecki
France’s Maginot Line is well known for its failure to halt the German invasion of France in June of 1940. Named after André Maginot and constructed in the 1930s, the Maginot Line was thought by the French to be an impregnable and untouchable wall of defenses. The Maginot Line was an unbroken line of fortifications that went along the Franco-German border from Longwy, near where France, Belgium, and Luxembourg meet, to Switzerland’s border near Basel. The line stretched over about 471 miles covered with bunkers and fortresses connected by tunnels. The Germans did not go through the Maginot Line, but instead went north through Belgium to enter France. The construction of the Maginot …show more content…
In the end, it only took Germany a total of six weeks to capture France. Certain problems occurred with the construction of the Maginot Line in regards to the budget of the entire project, and how long it would take. The cost of the Maginot Line came to about one billion francs. Also the construction of the line was not even finished by 1939 when war was declared, and last-minute touches were still being made. There were some gaps in the line and it ended to the east of the city of Sedan. There was a long stretch of land to cover in a short amount of time, and at times France would try to do more things than they could accomplish in a short amount of …show more content…
French officials withdrew some interval troops from the Line to protect the capital. This process continued in stages until the end of the fighting, denuding the Line of badly needed support (Zabecki 1564). The Maginot Line could possibly have been utilized in different ways, and its strengths and weaknesses balanced out better with other parts of their border defenses. The line could have been used to play a decisive role to threaten the flank of the Germans preparing their attack in Ardennes, but when French cavalry ran into German armored units travelling through Luxembourg, it withdrew (Zabecki