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Have you ever heard a quote that was quite famous in Western countries? That quote sounds like this “It’s useless, it’ll only be a Maginot Line”. Do you know the meaning of those sentences? And do you know what Maginot Line is?
Maginot Line was a line of concrete fortifications, tank obstacles, machine gun posts and other defenses which France constructed along its borders with Germany before World War II. France equipped this line with connected bunker complex, 108 large forts and hundreds of smaller forts, land mines, anti-aircraft guns, anti-tank turrets, and other defense equipments. This 3 billion franc project was supported and planned by French minister of war and 1st WW veteran, Andre Maginot. For reassuring the civilians, propaganda about the line described the line by far greater that it was. The French government was extremely confident that the line would protect France from German and Italy invasion. They hoped to hold German forces at the line, a battle which they believed they could win because the superior power of defense at the line. France still believed that the war would go passively as the common war at that time, where defenses and fortifications were a key factor.
But Hitler and Germany refused to smash their heads against that man-made concrete wall. If they should attack France, they would attack from other way; from the north, where there was no Maginot Line.
Yes, the line stretched along the France borders, from the southern Mediterranean coast to northern Channel Strait. But, there are two gaps at the line. First, the line didn’t extend through the forest of Ardennes for about 500 kilometers by the confidence that the forest was ‘impassable’. Second, the fortifications along the border with Belgium were also not as strong as fortifications in other sections because France believed that Belgium forces would be able to hold and weaken the German invasion.
Unfortunately for France, Germans didn’t use passive war mentality as their opponents did, but they used active, mobile war: overwhelming forces was sent to attack and then rapidly continuing their movement as far as they can, which is now famous as Blitzkrieg (lightning warfare). For this usage, Hitler pointed General Heinz Wilhelm Guderian to lead the invasion to France. Guderian was a German general which is now famous as the first general in history who used tanks as main part of his forces. You should remember that tank was a newly-founded thing when 2nd WW began.
So, Guderian led three tank divisions passed through the forest of Ardennes. Because of the lack of defenses they met, in two weeks, the Guderian forces had arrived in Paris. Didn’t they meet any French troops? They met, but the French weren’t able to cope with overwhelming number of tanks. France had tanks too; with England, they are the first countries developed tanks. But unlike Germany, they didn’t believe in mobile war tactics so they spread their tanks along Maginot Line instead of concentrating the tanks at one spot.
The result was France - the strongest Allied nation in continental Europe - then surrendered only in two weeks. Their mighty Maginot Line was completely useless. The uselessness of Maginot Line then reproved when in 1944, English and American forces attacked France which was under German control. Allied forces attacked from Italy easily bypassed the line as the Germans did five years before.
I think now you’ve understood the meaning of proverb “their strong defense is just like a Maginot Line”. Maginot Line refers to a defense system or anything else that is extremely overestimated by the owner and is shown to others as a mighty protection against the danger, but in fact is useless and easily broken. For example, there is a student that will face a mathematic test. He learns only in a part that he thinks he can, and he talks to his friend that he is ready to face the test because he had studied. But, in the real test, there is only a little portion of what he had studied and he truly deserves the bad score.
That’s all about Maginot Line; a sad story about the mighty but useless defense.
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