The Maginot Line at War

The complexity of the Maginot Line and its importance as France's first line of defence, led to specially trained fortress infantry, artillery and engineer units being formed to man it. These were further divided into active duty personnel and reserve personnel – the former permanently garrisoned the Line whilst the latter were recruited locally so that they could mobilise at a moments notice to provide the balance of the Maginot Line’s garrison. A naval system of "watches" was also employed to maintain a permanent guard.

There were, however, some difficulties. As most of the "ouvrages" and casemates were situated in populated areas, training on artillery, anti-tank and machine-guns, had to be carried out on ranges within existing French military bases rather than within the forts themselves. The works were also cold, damp and had poor lighting – so much so that in pre-war years the garrison had to be housed in more conventional wooden barracks above ground.

The French government tried to keep details of the interior of the "ouvrages" and casemates secret but was not adverse to exaggeration of both the extent and strength of the Maginot Line to foreign journalists. Many who were willing to buy into this deception began to imagine a continuous unbroken belt of concrete emplacements bristling with artillery atop a virtual underground city. The Germans themselves, however, had a fairly accurate view of the actual design of the Maginot Line. Information filtered back from a variety of sources. Many of the fortifications were built in regions that contained significant Germanic populations and numerous foreign workers, including Germans, were required in their construction.

The Maginot Line in Action

As the French High Command expected, when the German offensive finally came on 10th May 1940, it came not along the Franco-German border or on the Rhine, but further to the north in Holland and Belgium. It seemed at first that the defences had done their job – they had dissuaded the Germans from attacking the vulnerable Franco-German border region. Unfortunately, however, the French and British High Commands were unprepared for the new type of warfare that Hitler was about to unleash upon them – "Blitzkreig" or "lightning war". The Allied plan for an advance into Belgium to meet the German attack head on played straight into his hands.

Unlike 1914 when the main German thrust had come through central Belgium to sweep around Paris, this time the main blow came where the French least expected it – through the Ardennes Forest in southern Belgium. The very hinge between the French and British forces moving into Belgium and the Maginot Line itself.

Within days German troops were across the Meuse and fast-moving panzer and motorised divisions using Stuka dive-bombers as aerial artillery, were racing across the rolling hills of Picardy and Champagne towards the English Channel. Desperate to reform their front, the French High Command began transferring counter-attack divisions from the Maginot Line – units whose task it was to prevent the "ouvrages" and interval casemates becoming outflanked and isolated – to form a new front to protect Paris. Without these troops to protect them, German units began to infiltrate between the defensive positions and, from the 14th June, began to launch concerted attacks on the "ouvrages" themselves.

The "ouvrages", however, stood up well to German dive-bomber and artillery attacks - exactly as they were designed to. They even withstood the pounding of 305mm and 420mm shells of the type used to such devastating effect against the Liege forts in the First World War.

On 15th June, the Germans launched another offensive against the casemates along the River Rhine. Of weaker construction than the "ouvrages" to the north-west and highly vulnerable to high-velocity 88mm gun fire, the casemates were quickly knocked out and overrun.

With her field army virtually annihilated and German units from the Ardennes breakthrough threatening the rear of the Maginot Line positions, the French Government offered an Armistice which was signed on 25th June.

For many of the French garrison troops deep within the "gros ouvrages" it was a mystifying surrender. As far as they were concerned they had held out against the German attacks exactly as ordered. In fact, some garrison commanders thought the communication of an Armistice to be a German trick and only surrendered their forts upon the personal visits of French politicians.

Today the forts and casemates still stand along the border with Germany. Some, such as Ouvrage du Hackenberg, Ouvrage de Schoenenbourg and Casemate d’infanterie Esch, are open to the public who come to marvel at the ingenuity of the designers and industriousness of the builders that created such a colossal monument to military architecture.