The Maginot Line: How Impregnable Fortifications Helped Make France MORE Vulnerable

The Maginot Line was France's insurance policy against Germany. After the Great War the French were determined never to see such a bloody and terrible fight happen on their soil again, so they built and incredible series of fortifications along their border with Germany. The Fortifications were ultimately meant to serve as a deterrent to direct German attack, and they succeeded at that, but they also helped to lull the French into a false sense of complacency that the German's exploited for their deadly attack through the Ardennes Forest.

[jameswhite]

two things about the attack on the ardenne,
1.the french ran a war game where the attacking force went through the ardenne forest and annihilated the defenders, the commander of the french army immediately declared it unrealistic because "reinforcements would be brought up before the enemy could capitalise on their attack".
2. the germans didn't send tanks through the ardenne forest, they deployed their bicycle units. the bike units were equipped with commercially available french bikes, so the troops could get spares easily.

[kyleshiflet]

Great example good idea bad exicution and planning

[kyluong]

Hitler was a socialist. Hitler made 25 promise, aka National Socialist Program. He actually fullfilled all of them.

[davegeisler]

The problem with the Maginot Line was, it should have been built from the start to go through Belgium all the way to the Sea. It was a sound design and cutting edge for the 1930s. If it was the BEF would have never been trapped at Dunkirk.

[SlashesWithClaws]

This is a topic I requested a while ago. I knew quite a bit about it, but there are always details you two touch on that I did not know about.