The Maginot line was not a stupid idea - unless you also think the Great Wall of China and the Antonine Wall (built by the Romans to keep the Scots out of Britain) were dumb ideas. It's just unrealistic to assume that fortifications are the only defense needed. From Smithsonian Magazine:
>>The Maginot Line
It is known as a great military blunder, but in fact this stout
network of ingenious bunkers did what it was designed to do
When World War I finally ended,
France vowed never again to let
Germany, the so-called "beast
that sleeps on the other side of
the Rhine," violate its territory.
French politicians and generals
conceived the Maginot Line, a
network of forts and
blockhouses, as an obstacle to any future invasion. Although it
has become notorious as a universal metaphor for bungling, the
Line in fact was not the blunder it has been made out to be. In
many ways it was a model of clever engineering and
technological accomplishment.
Extending about 150 miles from Sedan in the west to beyond
Wissembourg in the east, the Line bristled with some 50 large
fortifications, each within cannon range of another. Buried 100
feet and more under hills and ridges, the impregnable complexes
were manned by up to 1,000 troops who were transported
between their elaborate barracks and heavily armed combat
bunkers by trolleys. They contained everything that was needed
to support life underground and were virtually impervious to
enemy infiltration.
Germany did invade France again, of course, but it had to go
around the Maginot Line to do so. The Line itself eventually
surrendered, but it was never taken by force. A number of old
fortifications have now been turned into wine cellars, a
mushroom farm and even a disco. A few private houses are built
atop some of the blockhouses, and, yes, a number of the owners
are German. <<
smithsonianmag.si.edu |
