Misplaced Pages

#812187

80-595: The Alford Valley Railway is a 2 ft ( 610 mm ) narrow gauge railway in the Howe of Alford , Aberdeenshire , Scotland . It is located at what used to be the terminus of the passenger and goods Alford Valley Railway which connected with the Great North of Scotland Railway main line at Kintore . The construction of the Alford Valley Railway started in 1856 and the line opened in 1859 as

160-484: A principal line of resistance made up of the most heavily armed ouvrages , which can be roughly translated as fortresses or big defensive works. This consisted of blockhouses and strong-houses, which were often camouflaged as residential homes, built within a few metres of the border and manned by troops to give the alarm in the event of a surprise attack and to delay enemy tanks with prepared explosives and barricades . Approximately 5 km (3 mi) behind

240-535: A tunnel network with attached underground facilities, such as barracks, electric generators , ventilation systems, mess halls , infirmaries and supply caches. Their crew consisted of between 100 and 200 men. These fortresses were the most important fortifications on the Maginot Line, having the sturdiest construction and the heaviest artillery. These were composed of at least six "forward bunker systems" or "combat blocks" and two entrances and were connected via

320-492: A Great North of Scotland Railway (GNSR) branch line from Kintore railway station , northwest of Aberdeen , with stations at Kemnay , Monymusk , Tillyfourie , Whitehouse and Alford . The line also served Kemnay Quarry and three other granite quarries in the area. The summit of the line is just west of Tillyfourie at 618 feet (188 m) where a mile-long cutting 30 feet (9.1 m) deep required cutting through particularly hard granite. The train took just over an hour for

400-475: A backup. It also had state-of-the-art living conditions for garrisoned troops, supplying air conditioning and eating areas for their comfort. French and British officers had anticipated the geographical limits of the Maginot Line; when Germany invaded the Netherlands and Belgium , they carried out plans to form an aggressive front that cut across Belgium and connected to the Maginot Line. The French line

480-687: A defensive strategy was needed to counter Germany. The French assumption was always that Germany would not go to war without conscription, which would allow the German Army to take advantage of the Reich ' s numerical superiority. Without the natural defensive barrier provided by the Rhine River, French generals argued that France needed a new defensive barrier made of concrete and steel to replace it. The power of properly dug-in defensive trenches had been amply demonstrated during World War I, when

560-463: A depth of 2 m (6 ft 7 in). These anti-tank obstacles extended from end to end in front of the main works, over hundreds of kilometres, interrupted only by extremely dense forests, rivers, or other nearly impassable terrains. The anti-tank obstacle system was followed by an anti-personnel obstacle system made primarily of dense barbed wire. Anti-tank road barriers also made it possible to block roads at necessary points of passage through

640-466: A few soldiers manning a single machine gun post could kill hundreds of the enemy in the open and therefore building a massive defensive line with subterranean concrete shelters was the most rational use of French manpower. The American historian William Keylor wrote that given the diplomatic conditions of 1929 and likely trends – with the United States isolationist and Britain unwilling to make

720-466: A good view of the surrounding area. Their purpose was to locate the enemy, direct and correct the indirect fire of artillery, and report on the progress and position of critical enemy units. These are large reinforced buried concrete bunkers, equipped with armoured turrets containing high-precision optics, connected with the other fortifications by field telephone and wireless transmitters (known in French by

800-487: A metaphor for expensive efforts that offer a false sense of security. Constructed on the French side of its borders with Italy , Switzerland , Germany , Luxembourg and Belgium , the line did not extend to the English Channel . French strategy, therefore, envisioned a move into Belgium to counter a German assault. Based on France's experience with trench warfare during World War I , the massive Maginot Line

880-681: A much lighter extension was extended to the Strait of Dover after 1934. The original construction did not cover the area ultimately chosen by the Germans for their first challenge, which was through the Ardennes in 1940, a plan known as Fall Gelb (Case Yellow), due to the neutrality of Belgium. The location of this attack, chosen because of the location of the Maginot Line, was through the Belgian Ardennes Forest (sector 4), which

SECTION 10

#1732786751813

960-438: A network of tunnels that often had narrow gauge electric railways for transport between bunker systems. The blocks contained infrastructure such as power stations, independent ventilating systems, barracks and mess halls, kitchens, water storage and distribution systems, hoists, ammunition stores, workshops and spare parts and food stores. Their crews ranged from 500 to more than 1,000 men. These were located on hills that provided

1040-510: Is housed in the railway station building. The original locomotive shed was situated to the east of the station but this has also now been demolished. To the west of the station the granite carriage shed of the previous railway is now used by the Alford Valley Railway. The Grampian Transport Museum and Alford Heritage Museum are nearby. The railway closed in 2017. A new group, the Alford Valley Community Railway,

1120-404: Is off the map to the left of Maginot Line sector 6 (as marked). The specification of the defences was very high, with extensive and interconnected bunker complexes for thousands of men; there were 45 main forts ( grands ouvrages ) at intervals of 15 km (9.3 mi), 97 smaller forts ( petits ouvrages ) and 352 casemates between, with over 100 km (62 mi) of tunnels . Artillery

1200-556: The 1 ft  11 + 3 ⁄ 4  in ( 603 mm ) gauge Brecon Mountain Railway . Maginot Line The Maginot Line ( French : Ligne Maginot , [lˈiɲ maʒinˈo] ), named after the French Minister of War André Maginot , is a line of concrete fortifications , obstacles and weapon installations built by France in the 1930s to deter invasion by Nazi Germany and force them to move around

1280-655: The British Expeditionary Force landed in France in September 1939, they and the French reinforced and extended the Maginot line to the sea in a flurry of construction from 1939 to 1940, accompanied by general improvements all along the line. The final line was strongest around the industrial regions of Metz , Lauter and Alsace , while other areas were, in comparison, only weakly guarded. In contrast,

1360-764: The Ffestiniog Railway in Wales and the Cripple Creek and Victor Narrow Gauge Railroad in Colorado . World War I trench railways produced the greatest concentration of 600 mm ( 1 ft  11 + 5 ⁄ 8  in ) gauge railways to date. In preparation for World War II , the French Maginot Line and Alpine Line also used 600 mm ( 1 ft  11 + 5 ⁄ 8  in ) gauge railways for supply routes to

1440-656: The South African Class NG15 2-8-2 locomotives started their career on the 600 mm ( 1 ft  11 + 5 ⁄ 8  in ) gauge. The Otavi Mining and Railway Company in South West Africa (now Namibia ) were transferred to the 2 ft gauge railways in South Africa and currently some surviving locomotives reside in Wales on the 1 ft  11 + 1 ⁄ 2  in ( 597 mm ) gauge Welsh Highland Railway and

1520-538: The Soviet Union . The secret German-Soviet cooperation started in 1921. The German statement following The Manchester Guardian ' s article that Germany did not feel bound by the terms of Versailles and would violate them as much as possible gave much offence in France. Nonetheless, in 1927, the Inter-Allied Commission , which was responsible for ensuring that Germany complied with Part V of

1600-538: The "continental commitment" – the decision to build the Maginot Line was not irrational and stupid, as building the Maginot Line was a sensible response to the problems that would be created by the coming French withdrawal from the Rhineland in 1930. Part of the rationale for the Maginot Line stemmed from the severe French losses during the First World War and their effect on the French population. The drop in

1680-607: The 16-mile (26 km) journey. Until 1883, by law the third class fare on one train a day could not be more than a penny per mile. In 1923 GNSR was incorporated into the London and North Eastern Railway and, in 1948, became part of the Scottish Region of British Railways . The line closed to passengers on 31 December 1949, when driver Mr James Tocher drove the last passenger train into Alford Station. The goods service closed exactly sixteen years later on 31 December 1965, when

SECTION 20

#1732786751813

1760-613: The British Empire. About 55 per cent of overseas imports arrived in France via the Channel ports of Calais , Le Havre , Cherbourg , Boulogne , Dieppe , Saint-Malo and Dunkirk . Germany had to import most of its iron, rubber, oil , bauxite , copper and nickel , making naval blockade a devastating weapon against the German economy . For economic reasons, the success of the strategy of la guerre de longue durée would at

1840-730: The French Premier Raymond Poincaré responded by sending French troops to occupy Germany's Ruhr region. During the ensuing Ruhrkampf ("Ruhr struggle") between the Germans and the French that lasted until September 1923, Britain condemned the French occupation of the Ruhr . A period of sustained Francophobia broke out in Britain, with Poincaré being vilified in Britain as a cruel bully punishing Germany with unreasonable reparations demands. The British—who openly championed

1920-577: The French could only go so far with alienating the British. From 1871 forward, French elites had concluded that France had no hope of defeating Germany on its own, and France would need an alliance with another great power to defeat the Reich . In 1926, The Manchester Guardian ran an exposé showing the Reichswehr had been developing military technology forbidden by the Treaty of Versailles in

2000-608: The French defensive front. A rapid advance through the forest and across the River Meuse encircled much of the Allied forces, resulting in a sizeable force having to be evacuated at Dunkirk and leaving the troops to the south unable to mount an effective resistance to the German invasion of France . The Maginot Line was built to fulfill several purposes: Maginot Line fortifications were manned by specialist units of fortress infantry, artillery and engineers. The infantry manned

2080-537: The French occupation of the Ruhr. French plans for an offensive in the 1920s were realistic, as Versailles had forbidden German conscription , and the Reichswehr was limited to 100,000 men. Once the French forces left the Rhineland in 1930, this form of leverage with the Rhineland as collateral was no longer available to Paris, which from then on had to depend on Berlin's word that it would continue to abide by

2160-789: The German position on reparations—applied intense economic pressure on France to change its policies towards Germany. At a conference in London in 1924 to settle the Franco-German crisis caused by the Ruhrkampf , the British Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald successfully pressed the French Premier Édouard Herriot to make concessions to Germany. The British diplomat Sir Eric Phipps , who attended

2240-417: The Germans were exhausted, France would begin an offensive to win the war. The Maginot Line was intended to block the main German blow if it should come via eastern France and divert it through Belgium, where French forces would meet and stop the Germans. The Germans were expected to fight costly offensives, whose failures would sap the strength of the Reich , while the French waged a total war , mobilising

2320-578: The Maginot Line. There are several kinds of armoured cloches. Cloches are non-retractable turrets. The word cloche is a French term meaning bell due to its shape. All cloches were made of alloy steel. The line included the following retractable turrets. Both static and mobile artillery units were assigned to defend the Maginot Line. Régiments d'artillerie de position (RAP) consisted of static artillery units. Régiments d'artillerie mobile de forteresse (RAMF) consisted of mobile artillery. The defences were first proposed by Marshal Joseph Joffre . He

2400-518: The Rhineland region of Germany until 1935. Still, the last French troops left the Rhineland in June 1930 in exchange for Germany accepting the Young Plan . As long as the French occupied the Rhineland, it served as a type of collateral under which the French would annex the Rhineland in the event of Germany breaching any of the articles of the treaty, such as rearming in violation of Part V; this threat

2480-585: The Rhineland. Given the diplomatic situation in the late 1920s, the Quai d'Orsay informed the government that French military planning should be based on a worst-case scenario that France would fight the next war against Germany without the help of Britain or the United States. France had an alliance with Belgium and with the states of the Cordon sanitaire , as the French alliance system in Eastern Europe

Alford Valley Railway - Misplaced Pages Continue

2560-532: The Ruhr within a year. The great conclusion that was drawn in Paris after the Ruhrkampf and the 1924 London Conference was that France could not make unilateral military moves to uphold Versailles as the resulting British hostility to such moves was too dangerous to the republic. Beyond that, the French were well aware of the contribution of Britain and its dominions to the victory of 1918. French decision-makers believed they needed Britain's help to win another war;

2640-529: The Treaty of Versailles, was abolished as a goodwill gesture reflecting the "Spirit of Locarno ". When the Control Commission was dissolved, the commissioners in their final report issued a blistering statement, stating that Germany had never sought to abide by Part V and the Reichswehr had been engaging in covert rearmament all through the 1920s. Under the Treaty of Versailles, France was to occupy

2720-472: The acronym T.S.F., Télégraphie Sans Fil ). This system connected every fortification in the Maginot Line, including bunkers, infantry and artillery fortresses, observation posts and shelters. Two telephone wires were placed parallel to the line of fortifications, providing redundancy in case a wire was cut. There were places along the cable where dismounted soldiers could connect to the network. These were found from 500–1,000 m (1,600–3,300 ft) behind

2800-580: The advance to the English Channel , the Germans overran France's border defence with Belgium and several Maginot Forts in the Maubeuge area whilst the Luftwaffe simply flew over it. On 19 May, the German 16th Army captured the isolated petit ouvrage La Ferté (south-east of Sedan ) after conducting a deliberate assault by combat engineers backed up by heavy artillery , taking the fortifications in only four days. The entire French crew of 107 soldiers

2880-662: The birth rate during and after the war, resulting in a national shortage of young men, created an "echo" effect on the generation that provided the French conscript army in the mid-1930s. Faced with a manpower shortage, French planners had to rely more on older and less fit reservists , who would take longer to mobilise and would diminish the French industry because they would leave their jobs. Static defensive positions were therefore intended not only to buy time but to economise on men by defending an area with fewer and less mobile forces. However, in 1940, France deployed about twice as many men, 36 divisions (roughly one third of its force), for

2960-570: The border there was a line of anti-tank blockhouses that were intended to provide resistance to armoured assault, sufficient to delay the enemy and allow time for the crews of the C.O.R.F. ouvrages to be ready at their battle stations. These outposts covered the main passages within the principal line. This line began 10 km (6 mi) behind the border. It was preceded by anti-tank obstacles made of metal rails planted vertically in six rows, with heights varying from 0.70–1.40 metres (2  ft 4  in  – 4 ft 7 in) and buried to

3040-676: The casemates is similar to the ones found in the southern part of the Maginot Line, and photographs of them are often confused with Maginot forts. Following the Munich Agreement and the German occupation of Czechoslovakia , the Germans were able to use the Czech fortifications to plan attacks that proved successful against the western fortifications (the Belgian Fort Eben-Emael is the best-known example). The World War II German invasion plan of 1940 ( Sichelschnitt )

3120-588: The commander of the Metz sector and other officers, the general outlined the French problem in extending the line to the sea in that placing the line along the Belgian-German border required the agreement of Belgium, but putting the line along the French-Belgian border relinquished Belgium to the Germans. Another complication was Holland, and the various governments never resolved their problems. When

3200-500: The concept of la guerre de longue durée . Germany had the largest economy in Europe but lacked many of the raw materials necessary for a modern industrial economy (making the Reich vulnerable to a blockade) and the ability to feed its population. The guerre de longue durée strategy called for the French to halt the expected German offensive meant to give the Reich a swift victory; afterwards, there would be an attrition struggle; once

3280-489: The conference, commented afterwards that: The London Conference was for the French 'man in the street' one long Calvary as he saw M. Herriot abandoning one by one the cherished possessions of French preponderance on the Reparations Commission, the right of sanctions in the event of German default, the economic occupation of the Ruhr, the French-Belgian railway Régie , and finally, the military occupation of

Alford Valley Railway - Misplaced Pages Continue

3360-712: The defence of the Maginot Line in Alsace and Lorraine. In contrast, the opposing German Army Group C only contained 19 divisions, fewer than a seventh of the force committed in the Manstein Plan for the invasion of France. Reflecting memories of World War I, the French General Staff had developed the concept of la puissance du feu ("the power of fire"), the power of artillery dug in and sheltered by concrete and steel, to inflict devastating losses on an attacking force. French planning for war with Germany

3440-492: The defences and capturing the cities of Colmar and Strasbourg . By early June, the German forces had cut off the line from the rest of France, and the French government was making overtures for an armistice , which was signed on 22 June in Compiègne . As the line was surrounded, the German Army attacked a few ouvrages from the rear but was unsuccessful in capturing any significant fortifications. The main fortifications of

3520-558: The event of an enemy offensive. These were built near the major fortifications so fortress ( ouvrage ) crews could reach their battle stations in the shortest possible time in the event of a surprise attack during peacetime. A network of 600 mm ( 1 ft  11 + 5 ⁄ 8  in ) narrow gauge railways was built to rearm and resupply the main fortresses ( ouvrages ) from supply depots up to 50 km (31 mi) away. Petrol-engined armoured locomotives pulled supply trains along these narrow-gauge lines. (A similar system

3600-555: The event of the German military reoccupying the Rhineland or breaking Part V, while Locarno committed Britain and Italy to come to French aid in the event of a "flagrant violation" of the Rhineland's demilitarised status, it did not define what a "flagrant violation" would be. The British and Italian governments refused in subsequent diplomatic talks to define "flagrant violation", which led the French to place little hope in Anglo-Italian help if German military forces should reoccupy

3680-536: The fixed border defenses. Australia has over 4,000 kilometres (2,500 mi) of 2 ft ( 610 mm ) gauge sugar cane railway networks in the coastal areas of Queensland , which carry more than 30 million tonnes of sugar cane a year. Many 2 ft ( 610 mm ) gauge and 600 mm ( 1 ft  11 + 5 ⁄ 8  in ) gauge railways are used in amusement parks and theme parks worldwide. The interchange of rolling stock between these similar track gauges occasionally occurred; for example,

3760-594: The fortifications near Metz and in northern Alsace towards the end of 1944. During the German offensive Operation Nordwind in January 1945, Maginot Line casemates and fortifications were utilised by Allied forces, especially in the Bas-Rhin department in Grand Est , and some German units had been supplemented with flamethrower tanks in anticipation of this possibility. In January 1945 von Luck with 21 Panzerdivision

3840-500: The fortifications. It was impervious to most forms of attack; consequently, the Germans invaded through the Low Countries in 1940, passing it to the north. The line, which was supposed to be fully extended further towards the west to avoid such an occurrence, was finally scaled back in response to demands from Belgium . Indeed, Belgium feared it would be sacrificed in the event of another German invasion. The line has since become

3920-473: The last train was driven by Mr Robert Asher, and attended by Mr James Elder, guard, both Aberdeen, and Mr Walter Mearns, fireman, Inverurie. The narrow gauge railway, built from salvaged equipment from the New Pitsligo peat moss railway, was proposed in 1979 and opened in 1980. Originally it ran for 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) from Haughton Park station through Murray Park Woods. Then in 1984 another line

4000-580: The lighter weapons of the fortresses and formed units with the mission of operating outside if necessary. Artillery troops operated the heavy guns, and the engineers were responsible for maintaining and operating other specialist equipment, including all communications systems. All these troops wore distinctive uniform insignia and considered themselves among the elite of the French Army. During peacetime, fortresses were only partly manned by full-time troops. They would be supplemented by reservists who lived in

4080-524: The line were still mostly intact, many commanders were prepared to hold out, and the Italian advance had been contained. Nevertheless, Maxime Weygand signed the surrender instrument and the army was ordered out of their fortifications to be taken to POW camps . When the Allied forces invaded in June 1944, the line, now held by German defenders, was again largely bypassed; fighting touched only portions of

SECTION 50

#1732786751813

4160-399: The local area and who could be quickly mobilised in an emergency. Full-time Maginot Line troops were accommodated in barracks built close to the fortresses. They were also accommodated in complexes of wooden housing adjacent to each fortress, which were more comfortable than living inside, but were not expected to survive wartime bombardment. The training was carried out at a fortress near

4240-618: The penetration, capturing four petits ouvrages. The 1st Army also conducted two attacks against the Maginot Line further to the east in northern Alsace. One attack broke through a weak section of the line in the Vosges Mountains , but the French defenders stopped a second attack near Wissembourg . On 15 June, infantry divisions of the German 7th Army attacked across the Rhine River in Operation "Small Bear", deeply penetrating

4320-514: The principal line of resistance. These were buried concrete bunkers designed to house and shelter up to a company of infantry (200 to 250 men). They had amenities such as electric generators, ventilation systems, water supplies, kitchens and heating, which allowed their occupants to hold out in the event of an attack. They could also be used as a local headquarters and counterattack base. Flood zones were natural basins or rivers that could be flooded on demand and thus constitute an additional obstacle in

4400-432: The propaganda about the line made it appear far greater a construction than it was; illustrations showed multiple storeys of interwoven passages and even underground rail yards and cinemas . This reassured allied civilians. Czechoslovakia also feared Hitler and began building its own defences. As an ally of France, they got advice on the Maginot design and applied it to Czechoslovak border fortifications . The design of

4480-524: The resources of France, its empire and allies. Besides the demographic reasons, a defensive strategy served the needs of French diplomacy towards Great Britain. The French imported a third of their coal from Britain, and 32 per cent of all imports through French ports were carried by British ships. Of French trade, 35 per cent was with the British Empire and the majority of the tin , rubber , jute , wool and manganese used by France came from

4560-412: The so-called Kriegsschuldlüge ("War guilt lie") that Germany started the war in 1914, the French had little faith that the Germans would willingly allow the Rhineland's demilitarised status to continue forever, and believed that at some time in the future, Germany would rearm in violation of Versailles, reintroduce conscription and remilitarise the Rhineland. The decision to build the Maginot Line in 1929

4640-465: The standard of the rest of the line. As the water table in this region is high, there was the danger of underground passages getting flooded, which the line designers knew would be difficult and expensive to overcome. In 1939 U.S. Army officer Kenneth Nichols visited the Metz sector, where he was impressed by the formidable formations which he thought the Germans would have to outflank by driving through Belgium. In discussion with General Brousseau,

4720-464: The tank obstacles. These bunkers were armed with twin machine-guns (abbreviated as JM — Jumelage de mitrailleuses — in French) and anti-tank guns of 37 or 47 mm (1.5 or 1.9 in). They could be single (with a firing room in one direction) or double (two firing rooms in opposite directions). These generally had two floors, with a firing level and a support/infrastructure level that provided

4800-533: The terms of the Versailles and Locarno treaties, which stated that the Rhineland was to stay demilitarised forever. Given that Germany had engaged in covert rearmament with the co-operation of the Soviet Union starting in 1921 (a fact that had become public knowledge in 1926) and that every German government had gone out of its way to insist on the moral invalidity of Versailles, claiming it was based upon

4880-827: The town of Bitche in Moselle in Lorraine , built in a military training area and so capable of live fire exercises. This was impossible elsewhere as the other parts of the line were located in civilian areas. Although the name "Maginot Line" suggests a relatively thin linear fortification, it was 20–25 kilometres (12–16 miles) deep from the German border to the rear area. It was composed of an intricate system of strong points, fortifications and military facilities such as border guard posts, communications centres, infantry shelters, barricades, artillery, machine-gun and anti-tank-gun emplacements, supply depots, infrastructure facilities and observation posts. These various structures reinforced

SECTION 60

#1732786751813

4960-484: The troops with rest and services ( power-generating units , reserves of water, fuel, food, ventilation equipment, etc.). The infantry casemates often had one or two "cloches" or turrets located on top of them. These GFM cloches were sometimes used to emplace machine guns or observation periscopes. 20 to 30 men manned them. These small fortresses reinforced the line of infantry bunkers . The petits ouvrages were generally made up of several infantry bunkers, connected by

5040-534: The two countries had signed an alliance in 1920, by which the French army would operate in Belgium if the German forces invaded. However, after France had failed to counter the German remilitarisation of the Rhineland , Belgium—thinking that France was not a reliable ally—abrogated the treaty in 1936 and declared neutrality . France quickly extended the Maginot Line along the Franco-Belgian border, but not to

5120-455: The very least require Britain to maintain a benevolent neutrality , preferably to enter the war as an ally as British sea power could protect French imports while depriving Germany of hers. A defensive strategy based on the Maginot Line was an excellent way of demonstrating to Britain that France was not an aggressive power and would only go to war in the event of German aggression, a situation that would make it more likely that Britain would enter

5200-537: The victory of 1918 had been achieved because the British Empire and the United States were allies in the war and that the French would have been defeated on their own. With the United States isolationist and Britain stoutly refusing to make the "continental commitment" to defend France on the same scale as in World War I, the prospects of Anglo-American assistance in another war with Germany appeared to be doubtful at best. Versailles did not call for military sanctions in

5280-471: The war on France's side. The line was built in several phases from 1930 by the Service Technique du Génie (STG), overseen by Commission d'Organisation des Régions Fortifiées (CORF). The main construction was largely completed by 1939, at the cost of around 3 billion French francs (around 3.9 billion in today's U.S. dollar’s worth). The line stretched from Switzerland to Luxembourg and

5360-614: Was a tacit French admission that without the Rhineland as collateral, Germany was soon going to rearm and that the terms of Part V had a limited lifespan. After 1918, the German economy was twice as large as that of France; Germany had a population of 70 million compared to France's 40 million, and the French economy was hobbled by the need to reconstruct the enormous damage of World War I, while German territory had seen little fighting. French military chiefs were dubious about their ability to win another war against Germany on its own, especially an offensive war. French decision-makers knew that

5440-415: Was always based on the assumption that the war would be la guerre de longue durée (the long war) , in which the superior economic resources of the Allies would gradually grind the Germans down. The fact that the Wehrmacht embraced the strategy of Blitzkrieg (Lightning War) with the vision of swift wars in which Germany would win quickly via a knockout blow was a testament to the fundamental soundness of

5520-415: Was built in the run-up to World War II , after the Locarno Conference in 1925 gave rise to a fanciful and optimistic "Locarno spirit". French military experts believed the line would deter German aggression because it would slow an invasion force long enough for French forces to mobilise and counterattack. The Maginot Line was invulnerable to aerial bombings and tank fire; it used underground railways as

5600-493: Was coordinated with protective measures to ensure that one fort could support the next in line by bombarding it directly without harm. The largest guns were, therefore 135 mm (5.3 in) fortress guns; larger weapons were to be part of the mobile forces and were to be deployed behind the lines. The fortifications did not extend through the Ardennes Forest (which was believed to be impenetrable by Commander-in-Chief Maurice Gamelin ) or along France's border with Belgium because

5680-558: Was designed to deal with the line. A decoy force sat opposite the line while a second Army Group cut through the Low Countries of Belgium and the Netherlands, as well as through the Ardennes Forest, which lay north of the main French defences. Thus the Germans were able to avoid a direct assault on the Maginot Line by violating the neutrality of Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands . Attacking on 10 May, German forces were well into France within five days and they continued to advance until 24 May, when they stopped near Dunkirk . During

5760-497: Was developed with armoured steam engines in 1914–1918.) Initially above-ground but then buried, and connected to the civil power grid, these provided electric power to the many fortifications and fortresses. This was hauled by locomotives to planned locations to support the emplaced artillery in the fortresses, which was intentionally limited in range to 10–12 km (6–7 mi). There are 142 ouvrages , 352 casemates , 78 shelters, 17 observatories and around 5,000 blockhouses in

5840-404: Was killed during the action. On 14 June 1940, the day Paris fell, the German 1st Army went over to the offensive in "Operation Tiger" and attacked the Maginot Line between St Avold and Saarbrücken . The Germans then broke through the fortification line as defending French forces retreated southward. In the following days, infantry divisions of the 1st Army attacked fortifications on each side of

5920-425: Was known. Although the alliances with Belgium, Poland , Czechoslovakia , Romania and Yugoslavia were appreciated in Paris, it was widely understood that this was no compensation for the absence of Britain and the United States. The French military was especially insistent that the population disparity made an offensive war of manoeuvre and swift advances suicidal, as there would always be far more German divisions;

6000-517: Was opposed by modernists such as Paul Reynaud and Charles de Gaulle , who favoured investment in armour and aircraft. Joffre had support from Marshal Henri Philippe Pétain , and the government organised many reports and commissions. André Maginot finally convinced the government to invest in the scheme. Maginot was another veteran of World War I; he became the French Minister of Veteran Affairs and then Minister of War (1928–1932). In January 1923, after Weimar Germany defaulted on reparations ,

6080-480: Was powerful enough to deter successive German governments all through the 1920s from attempting any overt violation of Part V. French plans as developed by Marshal Ferdinand Foch in 1919 were based on the assumption that in the event of a war with the Reich , the French forces in the Rhineland were to embark upon an offensive to seize the Ruhr. A variant of the Foch plan had been used by Poincaré in 1923 when he ordered

6160-404: Was run from Alford station, alongside Alford Golf Course, to Haughton Park about 1.35 kilometres (0.84 mi) away where there is a platform. However, the original Murray Woods line was then closed. The current station building is on the site of the original granite structure which was demolished after British Rail closed the line. The passenger platform is the original. A small railway museum

6240-478: Was subsequently formed with the intention of reopening the line. After six years of closure, the Alford Valley Community Railway was re-opened in August 2023 to passengers. 57°13′55″N 2°41′56″W  /  57.232°N 2.699°W  / 57.232; -2.699 2 ft and 600 mm gauge railways Most of these lines are tourist lines, which are often heritage railways or industrial lines, such as

6320-494: Was tasked with cutting through the old Maginot Line defences and severing Allied links with Strasbourg as part of Operation Nordwind. He was told there were no plans available of the Line but that it was “barely manned and constituted no obstacle”. However they came up against fierce resistance and concentrated American artillery fire. They had to withdraw on 6 January 1945 and again after another attack on 8 January, although they drove

6400-587: Was weak near the Ardennes . General Maurice Gamelin , when drafting the Dyle Plan , believed this region, with its rough terrain, would be an unlikely invasion route of German forces; if it were traversed, it would be done at a slow rate that would allow the French time to bring up reserves and counterattacks. The German Army, having reformulated their plans from a repeat of the First World War-era plan, became aware of and exploited this weak point in

#812187