Why was the Maginot Line even built if it didn't protect the most vulnerable areas?

Question

In WWI the Germans invaded through Belgium, in 1940 the Germans invaded through the low countries again.. The defenses did nothing to deal with the threat from this area.. This was also one of the shortest routes to Paris..

I'm saying they were retarded not to see the Germans doing the exact same thing they had done in WWI.

I agree this is all hindsight, but it seems odd to me that if you are attacked at a weak point, and then you do nothing to repair the weak point.

Answer 1

Because the Maginot Line wasn't finished yet. But there were budget problems.
The French (and British) thought that they could do the fighting in Belgium once the neutrality of Belgium was broken. So they had no urgency to complete the Maginot line.

One problem (and that no French couldn't explain to me) is that they thought that the Arden's couldn't be passed by a modern army. But this was already done in august 1914.
So the German passed between the Belgian fortifications and the Maginot line. The rest is history ending into Dunkirk.

Someone talked about the Belgian fortresses and huge railway guns : this is not correct. You are talking about WW1 and Big Bertha.
In WW2 : one fort was eliminated by paratroopers and hollow charges, the others where pounded during several days until all guns where out of order (or all ammunition exhaused).
One Fortress held out until the whole Belgian army had to surrender after 18 days heavy fighting.

As a Belgian I have visited some of these fortresses, if you need more information, you may send an email.

Answer 2

The Maginot line wasn't finished. The ardennes area was considered impassable to a large army the Belgium area was defended by impressive fortifications on the German Belgium border. unfortunately the Germans brought huge rail guns that dug the forts guns literally from the ground. It was thought the forts would slow the Germans long enough to allow french forces to enter Belgium and fight the Germans in Belgium. Besides the Maginot line didn't surrender France did after the line was flanked in the ardennes. The building of these forts was very expensive so sections were built at a time . The areas you faulting would have been built if the french had another 3-5 years. Perhaps why Hitler attacked in 1939 instead of 1944 like he told the German navy when they were planning the rebuilding of the kriegsmarine.

Answer 3

In addition to the excellent answers already provided to this question, the French recognized that armor (tanks) were the future of warfare, and, at the onset of WWII, the French armored corps was actually superior to the Germans in technology and numbers, but the Germans had superior tactics and all of their tanks were outifitted with the relatively new device called a two-way radio.

After careful evaluation, it was (mistakenly) determined that it would be impossible for an armored for to cross the low country and the Ardennes Forest with any kind of speed, so it was expected that the germans would try and race past the Maginot Line. Therefore, the bulk of the French armored units were deployed to support these defensive positions. Unfortunately for the French, the Germans used the Blitzkrieg and Para-infratry to great effect, and once they crossed Belgium, the French were out of position to stop the advance.

Answer 4

The french were hoplessly mired in a "World War I mode of thought". After suffering horrendous casulaties mounting attacks the French high command felt the best way to protect France was by building defensive fortifications. What they failed to realize was that static fortifications had severe limitations and had been made obselete by "Blitzkrieg" tactics. Furthmore the Line itself was in many was a delusion. Positions were sighted poorly the line didnt cover vulnerable areas it was too thin in some spots. It was a "feel good" type of thing for the French. They pinned the hopes on it and deluded themselves into thinking it would actually work. They failed to grasp that a change in Military thinking had occured. germany would use World War II tactics against a country still stuck in World War I thinking.

Answer 5

Hindsight is great. After a thing is done, everybody knows what should have been done. No military plan can possibly be perfect because in order to be perfect the enemy would have to let you know exactly what his plans are.
If history was reversed, and France was the agressor , the French could have attacked Germany through Belgium.
Battle history is great, and in just about every great battle decisions were made that later on seemed to be really bad.
After the race, we all know which horse we should have bet on.

Answer 6

The French could only build the maginot line as far as the Belgian border and rather than carry it on the Belgians opted for peaceful neutrality and the occasional fort.

Conventional military thinking at the time also determined that the Ardennes forest was too dense for a tank attack and so was a natural barrier.

WRONG!!

Answer 7

They ran out of money before they could finish it. A little note the Germans turned the line around and used it against Allied troops as they were fighting through France on the way into Germany.

Answer 8

The advent of greater mobility made the Maginot Line easy to bypass and really obsolete. We do the same thing now on a smaller scale when we bypass enemy positions to reach an objective such as a bridge which could cut off supply lines.

Answer 9

As Belgium was a neutral country the French didn't think that Hitler would invade it !!!!

They also thought that building the Maginot Line across the Belgium/French border would offend Belgium, so they stopped it short and only built it across the France/Germany border.

And as we all know, Hitler invaded France via Belgium !!!!

Answer 10

They just never thought that Germany would go through Belgium. They did not have the foresight.

You can ask a lot of questions like that though.

Why do we allow illegal immigration in the US?

Why is it that Hesbollah won't be disarmed?

Why did we have such poor planning for Iraq after conquering it?

Why didn't the titanic have more lifeboats?

Why didn't the US government connect all the dots before 9/11?