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" Don't ever take a fence down until you know why it was put up." Robert Frost
- The Maginot Line dominated French military thinking in the inter-war years.
- French Fears and the Maginot Line
- Want reparation money
- Want a defensive position against Germany
- Build fortifications along French/German border
- Leads them into a false sense of security
- The French were in a continuous state of paranoia because of the Paris Peace treaty. They were scared that the Germans would rebuild their army and start another war.
- Seeing the Germans in ruins did not pose any problems to the French, but they still built a wall to mark a " defensive position" .
- The fortification/wall ran along the French/German Border, this created a false sense of security for the French.
- The wall was fully functional , with air conditioning , a railway line inside of it and specialized guns that would be pulled up by a set of hydraulics.
- It was a big disaster because the wall does not "move" ; therefore,the Germans went around it and above it , the wall never fired a shot.
- The Germans used the Blitzkrieg attack tactic.
Summary:
The Maginot Line, named after the French Minister of War André Maginot, was a line of concrete fortifications, tank obstacles, artillery casemates, machine gun posts, and other defenses, which France constructed along its borders with Germany and Italy, in light of its experience in World War I, and in the run-up to World War II.