Название: The Maginot Line: The History of the Fortifications that Failed to Protect France from Nazi Germany During World War II
Автор: Charles River
Издательство: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 1514381656
Год: 2015
Формат: EPUB, MOBI, PDF (conv)
Страниц: 56
Размер: 6,7 МБ
Язык: Английский

As architects of the most punitive measures in the Treaty of Versailles following World War I, the French government made natural targets for Teutonic retribution, so the Maginot Line, a series of interconnected strongpoints and fortifications running along much of France's eastern border, helped allay French fears of invasion. The popular legend of the Maginot Line portrays the frontier defenses as a useless “white elephant” project that was prompted by a gross misapprehension of warfare's new realities in the mid-20th century and quickly overwhelmed by the forceful advance of the German blitzkrieg. English idiom today invokes this vision of the Maginot Line as a metaphor for any defensive measure strongly believed in but actually useless. Indeed, usages such as “Maginot Line mentality,” describing an overly defensive, reactive mindset, perpetuate the legend.