Evening star., 1945-07-18
Moginot Line Was Mokeshift Fortificution,
But Public Didn't Know, Gen. GumeIn Saws
Third OF a Series.)
BY GEN. MAURICE -GUSTAyE
GAMELIN.

definition before discussion. There
fore, I ask, what was the Maginot
Line exactly?"
On this point there are still some
serious antiquities. There are
many people, even in France, who
believed the country lay sheltered
behind la Ligne Maginot" and
| that it protected all our dangerous
frontiers. To calm public opinion
and to give confidence, our govern
ment never thought it necessary
officially to correct this error. Our
propaganda itself permitted the
misconception to be uttered and be-
lieved, even though it fell to me
finally to protest. For believe that
in democracy it is always necessary
to proclaim truth, however disagree
able 1t may be.
The name "Maginot Line" was
given after his death, regrettable
loss for us, to system of perma-
nent Notifications erected between
1929 and 1884 on our eastern FROM
| tier (Gamelin's reference is to-
Andre Maginot who, after becoming
French Minister of War in 1929,
secured the money to carry out
fortification plans on which the
military had been working for nine
years.
Maginot Secured Funds.
Not that Maginot was the orig
inator Of it. 1t was worked out by
a military commission headed by
Gen. Guillaumat, one of our most
remarkable leaders in the last war.
His proposals were approved by
Marshal Petain, who also partially
influenced the preliminary work,
not so much in the installations
themselves as in the drawing of the
line; and by President Painleve,
who then was Minister of War. But
1t was Maginot who in 1929 and
1880 obtained from Parliament the
necessary appropriations.
From technical point of view,
the system was composed of series
of installations, that is to say, forts
of varying strength, connected by
easements. There were two "forti-
fed fronts" between the Rhine and
the Luxembourg border which we
called "the fortified zone of the
River Lauter" and "the fortified
zone of Metz"
The first Notifications were ex-I
tended from the Rhine at the same
level as the southeastern horn Of
the Haguenau Forest, as far as the
eastern slopes Of the Vosges. west
of Bitche. The second extended
from the upper valley. of the Med
toward Faulquemont, up to the old
town of Thionville on the Moselle.
A wide gap, therefore, remained be-
tween the two. On the Rhine, no
forts we're built, but only two lines
of pillboxes, widely spaced, one on
the bank itself and consequently in
full view of the German bank, and
the other on the level of the first
villages of Alsace.
Line Extended in 1881.
In 1881, Maginot obtained approv-
al to extend the works from Thion-
vile to Longuyon, that is to say,
Up to the Belgian border. In 1882
the question was raised of begin
ming in the same way the organiza-
ton Of the defense Of our northern
border, where there were only a.
series of pillboxes on the edge of
the forest between Maubeuge and
Condesurescaut.
But Marshal Petain torpedoed the
plan in circumstances that I could
describe in detail, having been
closely linked with the affair.
From 1884 onward it was decided
to develop the system. first by
creating to the west of Longuyon a
bridgehead north of CHEERS at Mon
medy and then by closing the gap
between the two fortified zones.
After 1885, when 1 succeeded Gen.
Weygand as supreme commander,
it appeared to us that it was very
late to begin large-scale building
Of new installations, completion of
which would require several years.
War might break out at any mo-
ment, and besides, all the appro-
priationS available had to be put
into works that needed to be, quickly
modernized. Therefore we decided:
To complete our "Maginot Line"
by erecting obstacles, including a.
network of iron wires, fields Of rails
and of antitank mines, and by
building blockhouses to give depth
to the position.
Not a Permanent System.
FTn nlnCn ~ -
Notifications and progressively to
extend it up to Dunkerque on the
left and to the Jura Mountains on
the right, by merely creating what Il
called "a bony framework for the
battlefield" composed of pillboxes
and blockhouses and other barriers
MmEEH a