THE FORTRESS THAT DIDN’T WORK
You’d have to travel 100 miles (160 kilometers) an hour for two whole
hours to get from one end to the other of a line of fortresses along the
eastern border of France. And you’d have to pay two million dollars a
day every day from January through most of July to build this long line
of fortresses.
It’s called the Maginot Line, and it got its name from Andre Maginot, a
French hero of World War I. The Maginot Line was built after World War I
and before World War II to protect France from Germany.
Along the Maginot Line, French soldiers rode elevators down to their
living quarters underground. They raced on bicycles with messages
through the tunnels between the forts. Others carried supplies on a
special underground railroad.
Today, much of the underground parts of the Maginot Line have been made
into bomb shelters. The Royal Canadian Air Force stores supplies in
another part of it. And one of the forts is a radar station.
You’d think such a fort would really protect France. But during World
War II, the Maginot Line didn’t help France a bit. The Germans just went
around it.
This is how part of the Maginot Line in France looked during World War
II.
