Chapter 205 Maginot Line
Paris France.
This important military meeting is being held in the Elysee Palace. The theme of the meeting is, of course, how to respond to the German attack! ?
The German army effortlessly brought Denmark, Norway, and the Netherlands to their knees in one day, which not only shocked Britain and France, but also frightened Belgium.
Belgium is located in northwest Europe, between Germany and France, and is a buffer zone between France and Germany. Although Belgium is a small country, it is not weak in strength and can be regarded as one of the top twenty countries in the world. Although Belgium has always strictly maintained its neutrality and declared itself a "permanently neutral country", it is very restless.
Before World War I, it was very close to Germany. After World War I, because it had a shadow on Germany, it became closer to France and became a part of France's strategy to encircle Germany. In 1923, Belgium followed France and occupied Germany's Ruhr industrial area, creating the Ruhr crisis and arousing hatred among the Germans.
Although Belgium and France are allies, they are not particularly close. In order not to irritate Germany, Belgium refused to cooperate with France in the military and refused to strengthen its armaments. Therefore, although the French built the impregnable Maginot Line on the German-French border, they had nothing to do with Belgium in the west. They only built some temporary field fortifications on the border. .
The German "Yellow Plan" intercepted a few days ago, in which the intelligence on the direction of the German army's main assault on France and its allies through Belgium, has greatly disturbed Belgium; while Denmark, Norway, and even its neighbor the Netherlands have surrendered to Germany. , which scared Belgium almost out of its wits; it immediately agreed to the deployment of troops by Britain and France in Belgium.
"These fools, it would be better if they agreed earlier." Gamelin, commander-in-chief of the French Army and commander of the British Expeditionary Force, muttered dissatisfied. "Hopefully it's not too late." They had negotiated with the Belgian government several times before. When the Maginot Line was being built, France had originally planned to build the line all the way to the seaside, but Belgium did not agree. Therefore, this line of defense stopped at the northern section of the German-French border.
"The recent mobilization of the German army is consistent with the yellow plan. It seems that they have not noticed the intelligence leak." After a few words about Belgium, Gamelin got to the point. "So, we must carry out further targeted counterattacks on the yellow plan."?
?At this moment, a staff officer ran in in a panic. "Report, the Germans are shelling the Maginot Line!"
"What?!" Everyone couldn't help but be stunned. Could it be that the Germans found out that the "yellow plan" was leaked and wanted to forcefully break the Maginot Line? !
Anyone familiar with World War II knows the story of the Maginot Line. After World War I, France spent a lot of money to build a so-called "impregnable" Maginot Line along the border between the two countries in order to prevent Germany from invading again.
The Maginot Line was named after France's then Minister of War, Maginot. He mainly built it in the Lorraine region of eastern France (ceded to Prussia and Germany during the Franco-Prussian War and taken back by France after World War I). Its construction range was from The total length from Longuillon to Belfort in France is about 390 kilometers, which can be called the "world's first line of defense."
The entire defense line includes the Metz fortification area, the Saar flood area, the Lauter fortification area, the Lower Rhine fortification area and the Belfort fortification area. The entire defense line consists of a support zone (4 to 14 kilometers in depth) and a main defense zone (6 to 8 kilometers in depth).
The entire defense line consists of a support zone (4 to 14 kilometers in depth) and a main defense zone (6 to 8 kilometers in depth). The engineering construction is strongest in the two fortification areas of Metz and Lauter. The Saar flood area is formed by using natural river obstacles and swamps. Construction of fortifications began only after 1935, and the fortifications are the weakest. The Lower Rhine fortification area uses the Rhine, Rhone, and Rhine canals as natural barriers, and only the support points composed of permanent shooting fortifications are built along the Rhine. A comprehensive fortification group that combines above-ground and underground parts and is suitable for circular defense was built in the most important areas of the Metz and Lauter fortification areas.
The ground part is armored or reinforced concrete machine gun fortifications and artillery fortifications, including 5,800 permanent fortifications, with a density of 15 per kilometer of frontage. There are 142 fortresses, 68 small multi-faceted forts and more than 150 forts. In front of each bunker, there is a trench 3 meters deep and 2 meters wide for protection. The entire fortress is equipped with a total of 344 artillery pieces of various types, the smallest of which has a caliber of 75mm.
The above-ground buildings are mainly fortresses. The outer wall of the fortress is generally 5 meters thick, and the armor of the armored tower is 300 mm thick, both of which can withstand direct hits from two 420 mm mortar shells. The main weapons of the fortress are range cannons and 135mm howitzers. Then the large fortress was surrounded by many small fortresses, generally consisting of three consecutive bunkers. And equipped with 5mm twin machine guns and 81mm mortars.
The anti-tank obstacles within the defense line mainly include anti-tank trenches, cliffs, cliffs, metal and concrete piles, and are reinforced with minefields. Anti-infantry obstacles are generally metal piles or wooden piles and barbed wire. In some areas, electrified barbed wire is also installed.
Even in the underground part, there is a lot of space. There are several floors, including command post, personnel rest room, food storage room, ammunition depot, first aid shelter, power station, filtration ventilation room, etc. There are also passages connecting the fortifications for electric vehicles. The weapons in the shooting fortifications are specially designed and installed.
Such a long line of defense, needless to say, must be very expensive. In terms of time alone, the Maginot Line began to be built in 1929 and was basically completed in 1940 at the beginning of the outbreak of World War II. The total cost was about 5 billion francs, which was equivalent to France's fiscal budget for several years.
The French were of course full of confidence in building such a huge line of defense. Marshal Petain of France once boasted: Neither airplanes nor tanks can change the war, and the security of the nation can only rely on fortifications! Even the marshal thought that the Maginot Line was indestructible, not to mention other generals. They all agreed that the era of rapid invasion of France was a thing of the past!
If it weren't for Germany's unexpected adventure to cross the Ardennes, the Maginot Line would really make Germany break a few teeth, and it would be hard to say whether Germany could win. Having said that, the obstruction of the Maginot Line forced Germany to cross the Ardennes and go deep into the territory, which seemed to have played the strategic role of the Maginot Line.
In fact, the French did not build the Maginot Line to stop Germany, but just wanted to use it to delay Germany. Due to the small land area and flat terrain of France, it lacks strategic depth. France needs a solid line of defense like the Maginot Line to increase France's strategic depth and buy time for France's mobilization and British support. At the same time, because France suffered heavy losses in World War I, a whole generation was lost, and the treasury was emptied. The French were really scared by the war. After the war, France not only lacked troops and labor, but also faced a serious economic crisis. The finances were almost on the verge of collapse. France did not recover until before World War II. Building the Maginot Line can not only effectively reduce the casualties of the French army and make up for the shortage of French troops, but also save a lot of money. The French built the defense line based on the country's own situation, not because they were stupid and rich.
In addition, because the French relied on positional warfare and trenches to defeat Germany, they stubbornly believed that defense was more effective than offense, and that solid fortifications and powerful firepower were the key to victory. Therefore, the French held on to this rigid thinking, and the Maginot Line was actually a direct manifestation of this strategic thinking. But the French forgot one thing: the best defense is offense, and no matter how solid the defense line is, it can't stop a capable general. In the Battle of France, the Germans bypassed the Maginot Line, crossed over the Ardennes Forest, and directly stunned the British and French forces. The Germans easily won the war. If the French listened to Charles de Gaulle's advice and formed a large-scale armored mobile force, France might not lose the war.
Now when they heard that the Germans were bombarding the Maginot Line, everyone was a little overwhelmed. Marshal Pétain was the first to react. "Are they bombarding the entire line? Is it heavy artillery?"
The staff shook his head. "They are shelling the defense line from Brumath to Strasbourg. They are basically using 150mm cannons."
Everyone showed a look of sudden enlightenment, and then sneered. "It seems that the Germans want to play the trick of 'openly repairing the plank road while secretly crossing Chencang', but they are not very clever. If they want to fool us, they should at least use 200mm caliber cannons."
The people who mocked the German army's poor tricks never dreamed that they guessed correctly that the German army's shelling was indeed "openly repairing the plank road", but unfortunately they guessed wrong that "Chencang" was not Belgium, but the Ardennes Forest, which was far more difficult to cross.