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The military town was constructed by a multinational detachment of engineers, and the costs were covered by France and Romania with construction materials acquired from Romania. [5] It was reported in November that the French soldiers were living in "deplorable" conditions with insufficient food, poor hygiene, and bad heating. [6]
The Maginot Line (/ ˈ m æ ʒ ɪ n oʊ /; French: Ligne Maginot [liɲ maʒino]), [a] [1] 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 the fortifications.
The maintenance of overseas military bases enable the French Armed Forces to conduct expeditionary warfare, and often tend to be located in areas of strategic or diplomatic importance. In the French terminology, the "prepositioned forces" consist of the "sovereignty forces" based in the Overseas France and the "forces of presence" based abroad.
The Border Line bunkers were spaced between 500 metres (1,600 ft) and 750 metres (2,460 ft) along the northern border of Switzerland. [1] A number were integrated into bridge crossings of the Rhine and other rivers. [2] The large forts were armed with 75mm artillery and anti-tank weapons and were usually built into the forward slope of a hill.
The Redoubt positions and others in Switzerland were augmented by the Bison project, which involved the installation of anti-tank guns in new bunkers at key locations to provide a modernized pre-positioned force capable of defeating modern armor. A project to install automatic 120 mm mortars was completed in 2003. [42]
Acte de Médiation, 1803 Original in the Swiss federal archives. The Act of Mediation (French: Acte de Médiation) was issued by Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the French Republic on 19 February 1803 to abolish the Helvetic Republic, which had existed since the invasion of Switzerland by French troops in 1798, and replace it with the Swiss Confederation.
The French Community in 1959.. Following the accession to independence of its African colonies beginning in 1959, [1] France continued to maintain a sphere of influence over the new countries, which was critical to then President Charles de Gaulle's vision of France as a global power (or grandeur in French) and as a bulwark to British and American influence in a post-colonial world.
Over the winter, German deception operations were conducted and indications of an offensive through Switzerland diverted French attention at the end of 1916. The British were occupied by reports of troops and heavy artillery moving into Flanders and increased numbers of agent reports of troop movements from Lille, Tourcoing and Courtrai.