A Georgia Girl in Germany

OK, OK, so I am WAAAY behind on this post...but at least I haven’t reached the one-year mark since I went on this trip...almost, but not quite. Last October, I went on a staff ride with work to the Maginot Line in Bitche, France. I’ve grown to enjoy military history, and this was a wonderful opportunity to see history first-hand.

As a side note, you can see all the wonderful fall colors that filled the landscape that day. Fall is in the air again this year, and the wonderful colors are simply amazing -- and everywhere we turn! I love the fall colors in Europe!

The Maginot Line was a line of concrete fortifications, tank obstacles, artillery casemates, machine gun posts and other defenses that France constructed along its borders with Germany and Italy following its experience in World War I, during the run-up to World War II. The defensive fortification was built to provide time for the French army to mobilize in the event of attack and/or to entice Germany to attack neutral Belgium to avoid a direct assault on the line. The system successfully dissuaded a direct attack. However, it was an ineffective strategy, since the Germans eventually invaded Belgium, flanked the Maginot Line and proceeded relatively unobstructed into France.

The visitor’s center is to the left, the entrance to Fort Simserhof fortress leads into the hillside is in the background and an alloy steel cloche -- non-retractable turret -- is to the right.

We walked up the hillside above the entrance in the photo above to a larger portion of the fortification, and I took notice of this sign alongside the rusted concertina wire. Yup, I stayed on the path...I didn’t want to veer onto something best left undisturbed!

This is what welcomed us when we entered the fortification. You can clearly see machine guns peering out from the walls, overlooking an empty moat. The moat was also designed to allow concrete to fall below the guns so as to not obstruct them and allow them to fire longer. Definitely formidable!

Even more formidable was seeing the machine gun from inside!

The line wasn’t really a linear line, but instead was a deep fortification, varying from between 20 to 25 kilometers deep. There were more than 100 kilometers of tunnels that stretched in many directions and connected the 45 grands ouvrages (main forts), 97 petits ouvrages (smaller forts) and 352 casemates.

There were several large generators that supplied power to the fortification. It was important for the larger encasements to have their own power plants so in case concrete fell on the wires outside (or if the wires were cut) they wouldn’t be without power.

This is the table where the officers would work -- right inside the generator room.

Here’s the transformer room.

In order to sustain the underground city, the fortress had to provide for basic necessities. Here’s one of the storerooms, and below is where meals were prepared. Talk about big vats to make stew and soup! The soldiers ate three times day, and the food was always warm. They even had a modern potato peeler.

The storerooms had ample room for food and wine. Yes, wine was preferred over water since water could rust the pipes! Everyone was allowed a quarter liter of wine per day.

Most of the men living in the fortification lived in open bay rooms like this. The artwork on the walls here are all original -- this Walt Disney enthusiast was very talented.

Higher-ranking officers had their own, smaller rooms.

There was even a four-room infirmary that included dental and doctors offices.

One of the more common ailments the soldiers were diagnosed with was “sickness of the concrete.” Can you imagine living in a concrete fortress non-stop for months on end? The fortresses’ designs were based on battleships, and were set up to survive underground for two to three months without resupply!

Here’s another room for the soldiers. Notice that the bunks are three beds high! They had to sleep three soldiers per bed -- talk about hot-bunking it! This was one of the better fortresses -- the smaller ones only had hammocks for the soldiers to sleep in.

We took a tour inside this part of the fortification on a narrow-gage railcar.

There are more than 1,100 cloches on the Maginot Line, and most of them had machine guns peering out of their windows.

After our tour, we drove to a nearby French military base (Camp de Bitche) for lunch. Along the way, we passed the Zitadelle von Bitche (the Bitche Citadel).

The French 57th Régiment d'Artillerie (57th Artillery Regiment) commander welcomed us before lunch.

The French really know how to enjoy food! Everything was delicious -- from the appetizers and dips to the Kir and wine (Kir is a cocktail made with crème de cassis -- blackcurrant liquor -- topped up with white wine that they poured in front of us). Carri and I thought even the plates were classy -- they certainly made it easy to enjoy our meals while standing.

The desserts were wonderful as well. I went back for seconds and could have enjoyed even more. Fruit really is the best dessert there is!

To read more about the Maginot Line, visit here (click on the British flag for the English version).

Labels: France, Travel