page_title: Fortified Sector of Colmar
section_title: Concept and organization
hierarchical_section_title: Fortified Sector of Colmar / Concept and organization
caption_attribution_description: Insigne du 42ème Régiment d'infanterie de l'armée de terre française
context_page_description: The Fortified Sector of Colmar was the French military organization that in 1940 controlled the section of the French frontier with Germany in the vicinity of Colmar. The fortifications were built as part of France's Maginot Line defensive strategy, but the sector lacks the large interconnected fortifications found along France's land border with Germany. The sector's principal defense was the Rhine itself, which could be crossed only by boat or by seizing a bridge crossing. The sector's fortifications chiefly took the form of casemates and blockhouses. The SF Colmar was flanked to the north by the Fortified Sector of the Lower Rhine to the north and the Fortified Sector of Mulhouse to the south. The Colmar sector was directly attacked by German forces on 15 June 1940, capturing or destroying most of the fortifications in the sector in three days.
context_section_description: The Maginot Rhine defenses employed three lines of defense, with blockhouses or casemates close to the Rhine (the first line), backed by infantry shelters (the second line). The third line was a strong series of casemates, built on the model of interval casemates in the northeastern sections of the Line, but without lower levels. All of the Colmar fortifications were built in the mid-1930s by the Commission d'Organisation des Régions Fortifiées (CORF). CORF was responsible for the major fortifications of the Maginot Line, but in this area no major positions or ouvrages were built.
  The riverbank fortifications were of a basic nature, with protection only up to 155mm caliber, machine gun armament and no electrical system.  The second and third lines were more robust in construction and equipment, with electric generators and anti-tank weapons. The heaviest concentration of fortifications were in the area of Neuf-Brisach, itself a preserved fortress from the Vauban era. Neuf-Brisach guarded a strategic bridge across the Rhine.
caption: Insignia of the 42nd RIF.
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