January 7 is the anniversary of the 1932 death of André Maginot. Sadly, dying after eating bad oysters was just the start of his unfortunate legacy.
n. a
line of fortifications along the frontier of France from Switzerland to
Luxembourg, begun in the 1920s as a defense against German invasion and widely
considered impregnable, but outflanked in 1940
n. in
extended use, indicating a preoccupation with defense (of the status quo,
etc.), or with a particular means of defense
—Oxford English Dictionary
Though French foreign
minister André Maginot did not live to witness its naming or its inability to
withstand the German invasion in World War II, he will forever be associated
with one of the greatest military failures in history—the Maginot Line.
Born in Paris in 1877,
Maginot advanced through the political landscape to become the French
undersecretary of war in 1913. Had it not been for the outbreak of World War I,
Maginot might likely have led a quiet bureaucratic life drinking wine and
eating cheese. As it was, Maginot quickly enlisted, distinguished himself in
combat, and was promoted to sergeant. He was badly wounded in the leg during
the defense of Verdun and received France’s highest military honor for his
bravery—the médaille militaire—but his experience of a German invasion stayed
with him for life.
The French truly took a
glove to the face in World War I, and after the war there were fewer young
Frenchmen, fewer French babies, and a national sense of dread that a future war
might be devastating. So France decided to start nesting. After becoming the
minister of war in 1922, Maginot began supporting a plan to build a fortified
wall, almost two hundred miles long, along France’s eastern border from
Switzerland to Belgium. He successfully argued that it was a better investment
to focus on static defense than modern armor and aircraft. It took four more
years to secure funding, but construction finally began in 1930. Sadly, Maginot
fell ill after an unsuccessful skirmish with tainted oysters and died of
typhoid fever in January 1932 (see also Typhoid Mary). Even though he had not
conceived of the idea and was not responsible for its actual design (see also guillotine),
the French decided to name the fortification after their fallen hero.
The Maginot Line was
actually a series of self-sufficient forts dug deep into the ground,
interspersed with machine gun posts, tank obstacles, and “pillbox” bunkers. The
line was never truly intended as an impregnable defense, only to provide
advance warning against a surprise attack. Unfortunately, its construction in
the 1930s fostered a false sense of security, and, in 1940, German tanks
entered France relatively easily by circumventing the line to the north and
entering through the Belgian forests. To be fair to the hapless French, the
Germans did also use high-tech gliders and explosives to break through the
Belgian line, and the French forts on the line proper did hold. But the
subsequent German roughshod run over the French countryside and the fall of
Paris within a month led to a lamentable legacy for Maginot and his beloved
line.
France constructed a
monument to Maginot near Verdun in 1966. Several structures along the Maginot
Line were auctioned off to the public in 1969, but the rest lie in decay to
this day.