Taking over

Famed World War I commander Joseph Joffre conceived of an impregnable defensive line that would make another German invasion impossible. French War Minister Andre Maginot began the construction (1930) and the fortification is mamed for him. The result was a vast, complex defences system. It was not the last of the great gun-bearing fortifications--this was Hitler's even more massive Atlantic Wall. France also built defences along its coasts and in its North Africa possessions. [Kaufmann] It was a massive system of defences, most of which was built underground. There were three interdependent fortified belts with anti-tank emplacements and pillboxes protecting bomb-proof artillery casements. These concrete and steel emplacements stretched between Luxembourg and Switzerland. Artilery emplacements and interlocking strong points were designed to stop a German invasion. The Maginot Line has gone down in history as a gigantic military failure. In fact it did prevent a German break through, but the Germans simply went around it. While the Maginot forced the Germans to go around it, criticism over the cost is valid. It cost 7,000 million francs and adsorbed a substantial share of French fedense spending. French military planners believed that the Ardennes, the heavily wooded and hilly area to the north of the Maginot Line, was impassible to tanks and thus could be lightly defended. Perhps the greatest weakness of the Maginot Line was the cost. France spent so much monrey on it that it neglected the air forces and mobile armor and infantry that were needed to support defensive operations behind even strong defensive lines. This of course was particularly important because the Maginot Line was never completed. Plans were in place to continue the Maginot Line to the Channel. The War broke out before this project began. Thus the Maginot Line stopped at the Belgian frontier.