France was one of the major combatants of the First World War. She suffered significant losses as a result. Her military deaths alone numbered: 1,397,800, while her civilian killed were 300,000. As if this wasn’t horrible enough, her military wounded exceeded 4,266,000. All told, France lost 15% of her pre-war population of 39,600,000. Such losses were beyond comprehension, and gave new meaning to the word, catastrophic.

Her leaders were determined that such a tragedy would never again repeat itself. As a result, they devised a plan to protect her eastern border in the event of another gut wrenching European war. To that very end, they constructed a series of extremely powerful fortifications that were designed to be impenetrable. This system of defenses was termed: THE MAGINOT LINE.

In the spring of 1930, the French government, spearheaded by the constant and unrelenting pressure from Defense Minister Andre Maginot, approved 3000 million Francs for the new defense system. Work began in earnest that very summer.

Taking full advantage of the mountainous and rugged terrain that separates France from Germany, French engineers were able to construct the single greatest static defense system in the history of the world. Specifically, the Maginot Line had six basic, yet very powerful, defensive layers.

First, there was a 40 foot wide tank trap at its base. Secondly, there were a series of barbed wire entanglements expanding several miles wide. These were followed by hundreds and hundreds of concrete pillboxes, housing heavy machine guns, as well as 37 mm cannons. Next, came the forward gun emplacements. They housed either 75 mm or 155mm cannons, and were protected by over ten feet of solid concrete. These also numbered in the hundreds, and were capable of reigning death and destruction down upon an advancing enemy at a distance up to five incredible miles . Further up the hillside, several hundred feet from the forward gun emplacements, were specially designed casements that also housed heavy machine guns. Finally, at the highest point on the hillside were hundreds of observation points protected by several feet of solid concrete. From these observation points, the French defenders could not only see an enemy advancing from several miles away, but, they could also direct artillery fire down upon them as well.

Contrary to popular belief, which is almost always wrong, the Maginot Line was also very well protected and well equipped with numerous rear guard defenses. For example, there were dozens of gun emplacements housing heavy artillery pieces, and revolving case mates with heavy machine guns facing westward as well. So, as you can see, the main armament of the Maginot Line’s defenses were enormously formidable, to say the least.