Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Maginot Line

Starting point is 00:00:00 After the First World War in France, many generals thought that the end of the war was really just a pause before another war began. They wanted to make sure that the next time war broke out with Germany, they were ready and could never be invaded again. To that end, they created a series of defensive fortifications that they believed to be impregnable. Spoiler alert, it didn't work. Learn more about the Maginot line, why it was built and why it failed on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. What if your perceptions about the past were wrong? ThruLine is a podcast that takes you back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed. It effectively turned day into night.

Starting point is 00:00:54 And how it shaped the world now. Time travel with us every week on the ThruLine podcast from NPR. The story of the Maginot Line begins in the First World War. There is an adage that says generals are always. preparing to fight the previous war. This is because the soldiers who fought in one war are the leaders years later when the next war takes place. However, everything they know and all of their experience came from previous wars. So that is what shaped their worldview. This could be seen in the early days of the First World War when armies engaged in frontal cavalry charges. Needless to say,

Starting point is 00:01:34 they didn't work very well against machine guns. World War I, especially on the Western Front, evolved into a highly defensive war with trenches extending for hundreds of miles along the front line. When the war ended, French military leaders were in agreement about the need to prepare for the next war with Germany, which they were certain would happen eventually. They didn't want to have a repeat of the war they had just fought. Of the 8.5 million French men that were mobilized, 6.5 million were either killed, wounded, or went missing. In the decade after the war ended, there were continued lower-intensity conflicts between Germany and France. In 1923, Germany defaulted on the reparations payments agreed to in the Treaty of Versailles, and France sent in troops to occupy the RUR industrial

Starting point is 00:02:19 region. Moreover, in another clear violation of the Treaty of Versailles, Germany had begun rearming as early as 1921 with the aid of the Soviet Union. The British didn't want the French unilaterally enforcing the treaty, and yet they weren't really that interest in getting involved in continental Europe again either. And the Americans, they had reverted back to their traditional isolation as foreign policy. Moreover, Germany had a larger economy and a much larger population than France, with 70 million people versus 40 million people. French military theory held that any future war with Germany was going to be what they

Starting point is 00:02:54 called a la guerre de lingerie, or a long war or a war of attrition. The belief was that the only way to beat a numerically and economically superior Germany would be to stop a quick German advance and cause Germany to exhaust their national resources, which they had in short supply. Basically, what sort of happened during the First World War. So, in France, there was this widespread belief that there was going to be another war with Germany, and that the war was going to be a long war of attrition. However, there was serious disagreement over how France should prepare. There were two schools of thought as to what France's strategy should be. The first camp was led by Marshal Joseph Joffrey. Joffrey was the commander-in-chief of the French

Starting point is 00:03:38 forces on the Western Front for the entirety of the war. Joffrey believed in the creation of a static defense line, which would be a much stronger, more powerful, and more permanent version of the trenches that developed during the war. On the other side were younger officers and politicians such as Paul Reynode and a young Charles de Gaulle. Members of this camp realized that military technology had evolved rapidly during the war and that two innovations in particular, aircraft and tanks, were going to be the future. They envisioned a defense of France that was highly mobile and modern able to counter any threat

Starting point is 00:04:12 wherever it would arise. Needless to say, the old guard won out. Joffrey convinced Marshal Philippe Betan, who held a great deal of clout. However, the person who championed the idea and managed to make it a reality was the French Minister of War, André Maginot. Maginot, a member of parliament, introduced legislation to fund the defensive project in 1926. After heavy lobbying efforts, he managed to secure 3.3 billion francs, and the measure was passed by an overwhelming vote of 274-4 and 26 against. The value of 3.3 billion francs would be about

Starting point is 00:04:48 $3.8 billion today. Maginot, for obvious reasons, became the namesake of the fortifications. Construction on the Maginot line began in 1928, well before the rise of Hitler and the Nazi party in 1933. Whatever one thinks about the Maginal line, you have to confess that they were extremely well designed and were a wonder of engineering at the time. As Maginot Line author William Alcorn noted, quote, the Maginol Line was a technological marvel, far and away the most sophisticated and complex set of fortifications built up to that time.

Starting point is 00:05:24 End quote. The line was actually several different lines, each of which served different purpose. at the actual border crossings were fortified bunkers. These were designed to give early warning of an attack as well as to slow any tanks that might come through. They had the ability to lay explosives and set up roadblocks, but they were only designed to slow not to stop. About five kilometers or three miles beyond the borders were a series of blockhouses with anti-tank guns. There were also lines of metal anti-tank barriers that would have to be crossed. And again, these were only designed to slow an enemy and to give the main lines.

Starting point is 00:05:59 of defenses more time. The main line of defense lay 10 kilometers or six miles beyond the border. The main line consisted of a series of large and small fortresses known as Gross Uvrage and Petit Uvrage. The fortresses were constructed out of steel and concrete and buried underground. There were 142 Uvrages scattered across the border of France and Germany, and these were a far cry from the muddy trenches of the Great War. The fortresses were connected by underground, tunnels. They had barracks for sleeping and living, as well as mess halls and offices. Redundant telephone lines connected the fortresses. Large guns that could be retracted underground were placed inside, and small train tracks connected the fortresses to the outside world so they could be safely

Starting point is 00:06:45 supplied with munitions. The air supply was also filtered to prevent the use of chemical weapons on everyone inside. All of the fortifications were electrified and could withstand a very long war in relative comfort, at least compared to the previous war. On top of the major fortresses, there were fortified observation posts on hilltops as well as scattered machine gun nests. One of the really innovative defense schemes were entire valleys that could be flooded in the event of an enemy attack. In addition to the physical military aspects of the Maginac line, there were political and diplomatic ones as well. By creating the line, it was a signal to the rest of the world, and especially to the British, that France was not going to be the aggressor in any future war.

Starting point is 00:07:28 And to Germany, it was a message that they should not try another invasion of France. While the design of the Maginol line was impressive, it went way over budget and had massive delays in construction. The total cost ended up being between two to three times more than the original budget amount. The fortifications were still being worked on as late as 1939 and 1940 after the war had already begun in Poland. In response to the Maginal Line, the Germans in 1936 began construction of their own defensive fortification along the French, Belgian, and Dutch borders, known as the Siegfried Line. Up until this point, what I've described is a marvel of engineering and something that should have withstood any attack. Yet, if you have an even cursory understanding of the history

Starting point is 00:08:14 of World War II, you know that the Maginol Line failed miserably. So, what happened? Germany knew about the line. It wasn't a secret and they knew about the long war theory, which they largely knew to be true. When Germany finally invaded on May 10, 1940, their entire invasion plan, known as the Manstein plan, was largely built around avoiding the Maginal Line. The Germans had three armies, one facing the Maginal Line near the French border, one which would enter Belgium, and one between the two which would go through the Ardennes in southeast Belgium. Despite all the effort and money that went into the construction of the Maginol line, there was one glaring failure.

Starting point is 00:08:58 The line only extended along the French and German border. The French-Belgian border was only lightly defended. And the ironic thing is that if you remember back to my episode on the Schleifen plan, in the First World War, the Germans invaded France through Belgium. In the Manstein plan, the army pointed at the Maginel line was just a diversion. The main attack thrust came through the Ardennes, which was heavily forested and thought to be impassable, and through the plains of Belgium. By bypassing the Maginal Line, they were able to conquer France in just six weeks, a speed that shocked not only the French, but the Germans themselves. There were some hastily built forts along the Belgian border that were constructed in the months before the invasion, but they did next to nothing.

Starting point is 00:09:45 The Germans didn't bypass the Maginol line completely. there was one fortress that was assaulted with the Germans taking it in four days, with a complete loss of life of all French personnel inside. And the other few attacks along the line were also largely successful. The Maginot Line was cut off by German forces from the rest of France, rendering it inert. After the invasion, the Germans took control of the Maginal Line, and when the Allies invaded France in 1944, they also largely just ignored it. But the failure of the Maginol line wasn't just a colossal line.

Starting point is 00:10:18 failure of military planning and tactics, the Maginal Line resulted in over a decade of misallocation of resources. From the moment the funding was initially approved in the bill sponsored by Andre Maginot, the Maginot was overwhelmingly the largest expenditure in France's military budget. The fact that they had large cost overruns only made things worse. All of the money spent on the Maginal Line was money that could have been spent on building tanks and airplanes capable of fighting a modern war. They could have built an army to rival the German army, but instead they spent everything on static defense.

Starting point is 00:10:57 Furthermore, when the invasion that they had spent almost 20 years preparing for finally happened, 52% of the French army was tied up in the Maginot Line and was unable to respond and maneuver when the German threat finally arrived. Arguably, the Maginol Line did more to hurt France than to protect it. Believe it or not, after the Second World War ended, France initially reoccupied the Maginot Line. However, by the early 1960s, it became obvious that the fortifications had no defensive value, and it was finally abandoned.

Starting point is 00:11:30 Much of it was sold to private parties, and some of the fortresses returned into museums. Some current uses include wine cellars and mushroom farms. Today, the very term Maginol line has become a metaphor for a defensive barrier or strategy that inspires a fault sense of security. In the end, the Maginal line was ultimately a failure because the French military establishment was trying to fight the previous war and not planning for the next one.

Starting point is 00:11:58 The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Peter Bennett and Cameron Kiefer. Today I have a special request from listener Scott Collins in Oregon. Scott is a completionist club member and has asked me to give a special shout-out to his mother-in-law Kathy who works at a senior center in Tiger, Oregon. Kathy, your son-in-law sends you as love. And I personally want to send a special thanks to everyone at the senior center you work at who listens to the podcast.

Starting point is 00:12:28 You're all proving the adage that you should learn something new every day. No matter your age, you should never stop learning. I hope you all enjoy the show and keep listening. Remember, if you leave a review or send me a boostogram, you too can have it read on the show.

Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Maginot Line

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