The Maginot line
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The Maginot line
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History | Fortifications & weapons | Tourism on the Line | The Tunnel | ||
" Whatever is the conception that one can make himself of a future war, there is a necessity that remains imperious, it's to prevent the territory from invasion. We know what disasters it can accumulate so the victory, itself, isn't able to compensate the irreparable damages. The defensive organizations of borders that we want to realize, doesn't have another goal that to block the way of a still possible invasion. The concrete is better, in this way and is cheaper than a wall of chests..."
Andre Maginot, french minister of war, asking to the parliament for the creation of the fortification line which took his name.
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Underestimated, given back responsible of the disaster of 1940 by an bad-informed public, the Maginot line seemed condemned to the oblivion... Fortunately these last years, many associations undertook to clear works to open them to the public. These museums of the fortification are the memory of the Maginot line. Threw that the reality appears to the contrary of all ideas instilled by a public opinion that, after the war, looked for responsibles to justify the biggest defeat of the French history... |
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However, the three quarters of fortresses are still abandoned. Depredations
committed by clandestine scrap merchants who, after the departure of the
army, dismantled the interior installations and outsides to resell copper,
bronze and steel then of vandals who left their garbages or appropriated
there many "souvenirs", reduced to the state of wreckages most works.
The course of these underground with the only light of a carbide lamp remains a magic experience... |
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