Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1914-09-04
PARIS IS HEAVILY FORTIFIED
If Germans do Reach City They Can.
not Penetrate Defenses.

If Germans do Reach City They Can
not Penetrate Defenses.
Ever since the terrible days of No
vember and December, 1870, when the
German army camped at the very
doors Of Paris, the French have been
building forts to withstand the Ger
man armies.
All of France is heavily fortified, but
about the city of Paris in particular
has all the ingenuity Of French engi-
neers been applied to annihilate any
army that might again reach the cap
ital.
Should invading German armies
break through the network Of frontier
forts, should they come through Bel
gium and escape the artillery of the
French army, should they elect to
skirt the heavily fortified cities and
hills and strike at Paris, then these
invaders would meet a line Of fortifi-
cations the like of which the world has
never seen.
The network Of forts about Paris
contains so many minor forts that
none but those at the French war Of
flee know their actual number and
strength.
The tourist who visits the country
frequently comes upon little clump
of trees about which the ground is un-
cultivated, the grass uncut and the
weeds rank. If he moves close to the
clump Of trees he gets a glimpse Of
block of masonry that reminds him OF
some neglected ruin.
If he tries to find out what sort of
ruin it is and walks up to the clump of
trees he sees not a neglected ruin laid
low, but a bit Of clean-cut masonry
sunk into the earth some 80 or 40 feet,
in the center Of which is prison-like
building with huge eyelets cut here
and there.
If the visitor has any imagination.
while he sees no guns and no soldiers,
he can fancy that behind those huge
eyelets big guns lurk.
If he attempts, however, to verify
his fancy by following the footpath
that leads through the bushes and
grass up to the sunken wall Of mason
ry and earth thrown up loosely, care
lessly, he will find himself suddenly
facing a French soldier, who cries:
"Halte le!"
Then the visitor is very sure that he
has stumbled upon fort, the guns of
which in peace time are merely guard
ed by a squad Of artillerymen, but
which in war time are guarded by a
half regiment ready to hurl miles
through the air hideous, death deal
ing projectiles with the precision of a
sharpshooter
These artillerymen know to a foot
every bit of ground for miles around,
just how their guns must be pointed
to reach a certain spot and annihilate
an enemy.
While Paris has had her walls,
drawbridge and fanking towers and
trenches for a thousand years, it was
in the year 1910 that the growing city
was first protected against artillery
fire. The celebrated Notifications of
Paris within five years were completed
at an expense of s30,000,000.
These Notifications, which are still
to be seen today, are 81 miles in length
and have no less than 81 bastions. The
ramparts are 32 feet in height, with
parapet 10 feet in width. The moat, in
which cows Craze in peace times, is 4s
feet wide.
But the range of modern artillery
has practically made these fortifica-
tions useless, except to repel an as
sault of old fashioned hand-to- hand
fighting, when, perhaps, half million
men would try on all sides to force an
entry into the city 1t was these old
Notifications which held back the Ger
mans in 1870.
To keep back the invader, however
to a distance of at least 80 miles on all
sides, is the reason for the existence
of the chain of outside forts, which
have been built at an expense Of al
least $5O,OO0,O0O.
There are three great chains Of forts
about the Paris Of today. The first cir
cles the city at the Notifications, the
second on the higher plains two miles
distant from the city and the third at
distance of IL to Is miles, according
to the lay Of the ground and the hills
ha of of str
and offense.
Were any army to dare to come
within reach of the outside chain Of
forts it is not too much to say that the
invaders could be held off and perhaps
literally destroyed by a few hundred
gunners. And other French troops
would be employed merely as a safe
guard to hold back any stray body of
troops that might steal up to one of
the forts.
While the actual number of these
forts-and even their POSITIONS
known to only few heads, it is esti-
mated there are no less than a total
of 200. They are planned to work to-
gether like the crew of a big boat.
Each big one has a particular bit Of
territory to guard, and about this big
one has been arranged a system Of
cross-fire through which it would be
next to impossible to break.
Every contingency has been provid-
ed for. Should one fort be silenced by
guns of the enemy, there is another
French fort that can in turn play on
its own fallen fort and prevent the
enemy from occupying it.
For an army to venture to Paris is
like mouse walking into trap.
In the second great chain Of forts
there are no less than 80, each Of which
is considered impregnable to charge
by troops or from exploding cannon.
The defender can stay underground
practically and yet continue his fire.
Between the line Of forts and the
outer line are said to lie all kinds of
dynamite pitfalls which can be fired
by electrical wires, as the mines in a
i 4. 4,