JF Ptak Science Books LLC  Post 396

Poor Andre Maginot–his is the name behind what must be the heaviest bad idea in history–or at least among bad ideas that can have weight.  The Ligne Maginot, or Maginot Line, was probably better referenced as the Maginot Hole, as once the advance came from the East, the “Line” was completely and totally ineffectual, and the soldiers in the miles of tunnels and fortifications became, simply, men in a hole.  The thing about the Maginot Line was that it pointed to exactly the spot where the French Army could be found; therefore, the Germans avoided it. 

It is difficult to believe that when all of this concrete was being poured and tunnels being dug along the German border between Switzerland and Luxembourg between 1929 and 1936 that someone, somewhere in France wasn’t reading the Illustrirte Zeitung, watching the growth of the Luftwaffe. 

However, as much as that should’ve stopped this massive and insane project, it was not the airplane that buried the buried defenses–it was indeed the feared tanks.  But the Panzers of Heinz Guderin and Erwin Rommel didn’t go through the Maginot Line, they went around it, passing through the supposedly impassible  Ardennes.  Case closed.  Paris gone.

At least someone in France should’ve been reading their Clausewitz: “If you entrench yourself behind strong fortifications you compel your enemy to seek a solution elsewhere.”

But the drawings are pretty.  And if you moved everything back in time 30 years the idea would’ve made more sense.