Construction of Maginot Line

The Maginot Line was a chain of concrete fortifications, bunkers, artillery casemates and underground tunnels built along France's border with Germany, with a shorter section facing Italy. It was named after André Maginot, the minister of war who championed it, and construction began in the late 1920s as France sought to avoid a repeat of the devastating German invasion of 1914. The line was designed to hold off an attack long enough for the army to mobilize and to protect the industrial region of Alsace and Lorraine. In May 1940 German forces avoided its strongest sections by advancing through the Ardennes and Belgium, and France fell within weeks. The line's name has since become shorthand for a costly defense that fails because the enemy goes around it.

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