What was the Maginote line? Did it work? why or why not?

Answer 1

Once failed, one would expect to change it, but not the French they maintained it, thinking it could never happen again.

The Germans just bypassed them a second time, leaving the French gobbed smack, with white flags in hand.

Answer 2

The Maginot Line was a large defence line expanding from the Swiss Border to the Arddenne Forest. The construction of Maginot Line nearly bankrupted France. The Germans at the time had 3 plans.

1) Attack the Maginot Line with overwhelming force and risk thousands of casulaties and leave the northern flank vulnerable, but if they break through they can flank the allied armies, but this was unlikely.

2) Attack where the Allied Generals expected the attack to come, once again, this plan was unlikely because the two armies were pretty evenly matched except the Germans had a sufficient advantage in aircraft

3) Go through the Arddenne Forest and try to flank the area of concentrated Allied Armies. 60%(estimate)

The Magiont Line failed because it was clearly visible and no smart enemy would attack it. So the only other place to attack, the Allies thought was throught the lowlands(Belgium, Holland, etc..) They paid little attention to the Arddene Area (Luxemburg) since it was a trechourous forest that they thought tanks couoln't get through, so they lost France. Luckily for them, the German High Command didn't know what to do with the success, so they ordered a general halt, if they didn't, the 10th Panzer Division could have annihalted the Dunkirk Defenders....

All in all The Magionat Line was a major failure

Answer 3

The Maginot line was a system of forts built into the mountains along the french borders of Belgium and Germany. The line was incomplete at the out break of the war the open areas were covered by regular military forces. The open areas were the northern tip of France and the middle of French border this area is called the ardennes. The northern area was covered by the French and British armies thou they didn't have the time to form up they thought they would as the Belgian forts on the German border were quickly dug out of the ground by huge rail guns and destroyed. This was also the 1st time blitz tactics had been used and counter tactics hadn't been devised yet. This lead to the destruction of the allied forces in the north. In the ardennes the area is all small rivers and thick woods and thought to be impenetrable to tanks and artillery the Germans proved the assumption wrong when they came through the ardennes and cut the french armies off from there supply. Thus the Maginot line wasn't defeated directly but through the defeat of France's regular armies. The allied forces were forced to retreat to Dunkirk to escape to Britain. The French were now alone and had no armies with which to stop the Germans so they Surrendered. Today the Maginot line is used as a shelter for the french Nuclear forces and a tourist attraction.

Answer 4

The Maginote line was a defensive line near the border of France and Germany built up by the French when Hitler came to power and started increasing the German's military strength. It consisted of bunkers, artillery guns, and other machines that would thwart the German advance.

The plan to stop the Germans was to swing an army of British and French soldiers from the hinge of the Maginote line (the Ardennes Forest) like a door shutting right into the Germans. It failed, however, when the Germans dive-bombed the Belgium cities in order to make the civilians head in the opposite direction towards France and somewhat thwart the British and French soldiers.

Next the Germans got their corps of engineers to chop throught the Ardennes (the hinge/weakest point of the Maginote line) in order to make a way for the German blitzkrieg army to get through. The Maginote line was a big failure because once the Germans got past the Ardennes, they attacked the Maginote Line from behind and destroyed it. They later took Paris and all of France quickly throught their blitzkrieg warfare except for the South.

Answer 5

All of this is correct I would just like to add that as an additional insult to this failure of French military engineering the Germans used the fortifications of the Maginot Line as supply depots to support Wehrmacht operations in France. Additionally, the Maginot Line was already deteriorating when the war finally came due to water damage in the underground facilities. One of the largest problems was that the French could not convince the Belgians to continue the wall into their territory, and they couldn't wall Belgium out due to their defense agreements following WWI.

Answer 6

The Maginote line was a series of forts, trenches and bunkers the French built on the their border with Germany.

It was completely ineffective as the Germans both went around and flew over the defenses. The defenses were never completed, nor had the French properly prepared for the eventuality that the Germans "could" breach the line (lack of infantry).

This is about the most comprehensive link on the net:

http://www.maginot-line.com/index.htm

Answer 7

The Maginote Line was a line of stationary, fully enclosed concrete gun emplacements connected by tunnels that lined the French border. They were constructed just after WWI and were thought to be the best way to protect the border. The French learned the hard way that static defenses are useless if there's a way to just go around them - which is exactly what the Nazis did. They just went around them and captured France anyway.

Answer 8

The "Maginot" line was a military defense installation put in by the French to defend against attack by Germany. It didn't work because the tactics for warfare had changed by the time it was in place. In fact, it was actually a hindrance to the French defense in WWII because the troops were tied to its location and couldn't move. It would have worked during WWI, but in WWII it turned out to be a disaster. It was, for the most part, a big long wall and a tunnel with gun implacements. Airplanes made it pretty much a "relic" of a bygone era.

Answer 9

From personal knowledge (and watching the history channel too much) it was a line of trenches dug by the allies (france, belgium, etc.) to stop Nazi troops from advancing west across europe. World War I consisted primarily of opposing sides in trenches shooting at each other with machine guns, cannons and cavalry so the French figured World War II would be more of the same. However, the Nazis had figured out tank warfare and just went right through the trenches with their tanks. The Maginot line barely slowed them down.

Answer 10

All of what is said above is correct. It might be important to note that at the beginning of World War II the French standing Army was considered to be one of the best in the world. They were well trained and equiped.

The French however did not learn from History. In World War I rather than taking on the French Army along the border of Germany the Germans attached from the "lowland" countries. This flanking manouver was called the Schlieffen Plan. It did not work in World War I, but it worked perfectly in World War II.

Answer 11

It was a presumably impregnable fortification between France and Germany.
It may have worked if it had been fully manned abd the German's had played by French rules. The Germans merely bombed the hell out of it and went round the side and went in through the back door.

That is the simple explanation but it is worth a read if you search.