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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.
"They shall not pass" (French: Ils ne passeront pas and French: On ne passe pas; Romanian: Pe aici nu se trece; Spanish: No pasarán) is a slogan, notably used by France in World War I, to express a determination to defend a position against an enemy.
In the south, fifteen infantry shelters or abris were built in the Corpo-de-Verga area, known as the "Mollard Line," named after the island's military commander. [3] These positions were built by the Military Works Arm ( Main d'Oeuvre Militaire , or MOM), which was responsible for many hastily built fortifications of the immediate pre-war period.
Following World War II, the French military reclaimed the Maginot Line with the aim of renovating and improving it against a possible attack by Warsaw Pact forces. The strongest positions, Rochonvillers, Molvange and Bréhain of the neighbouring former SF Crusnes were designated the môle de Rochonvillers ("breakwater") in 1951 and were placed ...
The Alpine Line (French: Ligne Alpine) or Little Maginot Line (French: Petite Ligne Maginot) was the component of the Maginot Line that defended the southeastern portion of France. In contrast to the main line in the northeastern portion of France, the Alpine Line traversed a mountainous region of the Maritime Alps , the Cottian Alps and the ...
The Vosges sector was part of the larger Fortified Region of the Lauter, a strongly defended area between the Sarre to the west and the Rhine valley to the east. The Lauter region was more important during the planning and construction phase of the Maginot Line than it was in the operational phase of the Line, when the sectors assumed prominence.
The Fortified Sector of the Escaut (Secteur Fortifié de l'Escaut), also known as the Fortified Sector of the Schelde, was the French military organization that in 1940 controlled the section of the Maginot Line between the French border with Belgium and Valenciennes, a distance of about 30 kilometres (19 mi).
The sector constituted part of the Alpine Line portion of the Maginot Line, between the Defensive Sector of the Rhône to the north, and the Fortified Sector of the Dauphiné to the south. The works combined a number of pre-1914 fortifications with Maginot-style ouvrages , with many forward-positioned cavern-style frontier stations or avant ...