Maginot lines

[wodan11]

Originally posted by Modo44

Dude, a Maginot line implies multiple squares (i.e. a long border), and that's what I was referring to.

That may have been what you had in mind, but it wasn't what you were referring to. From the quote you were replying to: "At least if there is a narrow piece of land you can cut off. "

Those require a lot of units to hold effectively, and are nowhere near feasible.

We're in agreement, then.

Wodan

[Unimatrix11]

Which would have been exactly the problem for the french, had they, as some plans had it, extended the line to the sea and built a second one in front of paris: There simply would have been not much left of the french army, had they have to man those lines.
A fortress is supposed to save you troops - the way the maginot line was conceptionalized and used, it was rather a sponge that sucked up troops. It all became really absurd, when the french high command insisted on keeping up a 2.5 to 1 troop ratio against the germans at the Rhine, even after Guderian and Rommel had crossed the Meuse and thus pretty much by-passed it. Even then the french thought their biggest problem was to prevent the encirclement of the line, sending reserves, (tank forces to guard (!) forest trails !) there instead of to the somme...

[Chemical Ollie]

Interestingly enough, the Germans themselves used the "unbreakeable line" tactic quite much on both the Eastern and Western fronts when they were pushed backwards in 1944-45, probably because it costs more effort to kill a dug in unit than a mobile unit. It didn't stop the allies, but I surely believe the German generals had some thought behind it.

[joncnunn]

No, that was Hitler overulling the Generals.

Originally posted by Chemical Ollie
Interestingly enough, the Germans themselves used the "unbreakeable line" tactic quite much on both the Eastern and Western fronts when they were pushed backwards in 1944-45, probably because it costs more effort to kill a dug in unit than a mobile unit. It didn't stop the allies, but I surely believe the German generals had some thought behind it.

[Unimatrix11]

correct, joncnumn (reading "lost victories" by Manstein right now )