THE MAGINOT LINE

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20912, 18 September 1939, Page 12

THE MAGINOT LINE

VAST DEFENCE WORKS FRANCE'S SHOCK ABSORBER STEEL. AND CONCRETE *Hie Maginot Line consists of a chain of forts and blockhouses. The first section constructed was from lionguyon, opposite Luxembourg, to the Vosges, and the line was subsequently extended along the Rhine to the Swiss frontier, and later again was carried along the Belgian frontier to beyond Lille. Liddell Hart, in his latest book, “The Defence of Britain.” says that the line is intended to gain time rather than as an impregnable barrier—as a shock absorber to cover the process of mobilisation. Designed from Experience The fortifications were designed in the light of experience in 1914-18, for though in 1915, after the rapid fall of the Belgian and Russian fortresses, the French Command lost faith in their own fixed fortifications, the stability of Fort Douamont and Fort Vaux—taken by the Germans and recaptured by the French eight months later—gave evidence of the. power of steel and concrete to withstand heavy bombardment. For the building of the Maginot Line materials were tested by howitzer fire, and the cover is thick enough to withstand the impact of three shells striking at the same point. Protection against gas is given by maintaining an atmosphere pressure Inside the forts slightly higher than that outside. The gun control is somewhat similar to that In naval defence. Gunners do not see their targets, but lay their guns by following pointers on a aeries of dials, controlled by an officer in a heavily armoured observation post. The details of fire control are very complex. Communication within and between the forts is by telephone, along duplicated lines, each of which is covered by more than 20 feet of concrete; the main telephone exchange is 150 feet below the surface. A network of underground galleries connects the caesments with tho living quarters, magazines, and power stations, which arc also deeply buried. The galleries are divided into “attacklight” compartments by armour-plat-ed doors, covered by interior gun chambers, so that even if the enemy penetrate into a fort they can still be prevented from capturing the whole of it except by a piecemeal process. The intervals between the forts are filled with a chain of blockhouses, each with a group of about a dozen men, armed with machine and antitank guns, and expected to be capable of holding out for three days. The blockhouse garrisons are usually provided with a separate shelter, linked to it by a covered passage. Garrison units vary according to the sectors in which they are stationed, and, after trench warfare practice, spend 15 days in the line and 15 out. Inherent Strength "The inherent strength of this great concrete barrier,” says Liddell Hart, “and the development of similar fortifications to reinforce the natural barrer of the Alps along the FrancoItalian frontier, gives the French Army a much higher strength for defence than is conveyed by any numerical reckoning of its forces, and it also enables a higher proportion of these forces to be kept mobile, for reinforcing any sector against which an enemy may concentrate his effort. When account is taken of the power of modern defence, the limited length of the Franco-German frontier in relation to the size of ,the French Army, and the strength of the fotifleations here, it is not easy to imagine that any assault upon it could have much chance of success.”