What was the Magnot Line???

Question

does any1 know??

So far i know it's a french minister of a war andsomething about ww II

can u guys give me more information about it.

Answer 1

The Maginot line was a failed French defensive strategy created in the inter-war years. Basing their defense planning on the realities of the highly static Great War, the French built a huge line of costly and heavy fixed fortifications along their common border with Germany. It was armed with heavy guns, huge munitions deposits, underground railroads and an elaborate communications system. Basically is was a pre-built, heavily fortified "super trench" to repel a German invasion force attacking under conditions that would replicate the First World War.

Why this strategy failed was quite simple. Firstly because the Belgians were allies, politically the French diplomaticly could not fortify their common border. This left a huge whole in their collective defence. The Kaiser had gotten around the French troop concentrations on their common border by invading Belgium first and then going for Paris from the north and the Maginot Line failed to remedy that. Hitler simply sent the Wehrmacht into the Netherlands and Belgium just as the Kaiser did and quite literally drove around these huge fortifications.

The other part of the failure was even if Hitler had tried to go through the Maginot line, the static warfare of the First War was gone forever. Tanks were going to be the new weapon of the war. They were fast, numerous, and carried small guns. The big guns of the Maginot line were meant to take out other big guns, not fast moving tanks. That, and they were expensive which prevented the French from investing in tanks of their own which would have been the only effective weapon against Hitler's.

Anyway, I assume you see where I'm going. The Maginot Line was an expensive French weapon system built between the wars that just didn't do the job.

Answer 2

The Maginot Line was a monumental stupidity by the French during WW 1 where they thought the line of pillboxes and fortifications would stop the Germans. This was a concept based on static defenses/war. The germans did not believe in this and the french were left sitting on the bums and the Germans went around it.

Answer 3

This was a line of major fortifications inside the french border with germany.
It was built after WW1 to stop germany invading france so easily as they had previously done in 1914 and 1870 and it was named after the french minister of war..
In 1940 during WW2 the germans outflanked it by coming through Belgium and turning the right flank of the french army.

Answer 4

The Maginot Line was a defensive barrier set up by the French to stop the invading Germans in World War I. It failed to work, however, because the Germans went around the Maginot Line, rather than trying to go through it.

Answer 5

A waste, the french fortified the border with Germany, so Germany invaded France through the Netherlands and Belgium, around the Maginot line.

Answer 6

The “Maginot Line”, named after French minister of defense André Maginot, was a line of reinforced high caliber turret cannons and fortified machine gun bunkers connected by an reinforced underground rail line for moving explosives, shells, and if need be troops along part of the Eastern French Boarder constructed after world war 1.
It's limitations were somewhat known even when being built. It's main purpose was to buy time for French forces to organize for any invasion from Germany, or Italy.
There were several problems with it’s use. It’s turret guns were limited to a somewhat short range, and the Germans found out about it and went around it, outside the range of it’s guns. Later the Germans occupied it themselves when occupying France to little avail. During world war 2 mobile weapons became as powerful as any along the line. The allied forces knew enough to avoid it and in the end it suffered a lot of damage inflected by both armies.
Still it was considered a masterpiece of engineering in it’s day.
It’s lessons for future weapons were learned and most weapons after that were built mobile however less fortified.
The thinking after the failure of the line was that mobile guns could be moved in to positions to confront an army that moves, and can also be taken out of harms way when attacked.
The “Maginot Line” was severely damaged by actions during world war 2, by both sides.

Answer 7

I believe it's the "Maginot Line," the line of fixed fortifications the French had on their eastern border during World War I.

Answer 8

~As you can see from the conflicting answers you are getting, you should do your own homework. Step one, learn how to spell that which you need to research. Step two, go to Wikipedia or some such resource instead of Yahoo Answers.

The bozo's referring to the line as a WWI fortification are as woefully inept as the line turned out to be.

A modern day equivalent of the Line is the Star Wars defense system, but that's another story.

Answer 9

A very extensive line of defensive fortifications built to give the French time to prepare surrender papers.