Clayton Donnell - The Battle for the Maginot Line 1940

The French Perspective

Clayton Donnell

First published in Great Britain in 2017 by

Pen & Sword Military

an imprint of

Pen & Sword Books Ltd

47 Church Street

Barnsley

South Yorkshire

S70 2AS

Copyright Clayton Donnell 2017

ISBN 978 1 47387 728 3

eISBN 978 1 47387 730 6

Mobi ISBN 978 1 47387 729 0

The right of Clayton Donnell to be identified as the Author of this Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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Ive wanted to write this account of the battle for the Maginot Line since 1988, perhaps even as early as 1964, when I saw my first concrete bunker resting quietly in an open French field. I was fascinated from the very beginning and my curiosity about the origin and construction of the Line and the role it played in the Second World War has never been satisfied. So in this book I have taken the opportunity to describe the layout of the Line, its marvelous technical features and the thinking behind it. I have presented a detailed account of the defence mounted by the French when the Germans and then the Italians invaded in 1940. Ive also looked at the way the Germans used parts of the Line as they tried to slow the Allied advance in 1944. Finally I have added much thought and discussion that hopefully persuades the reader who holds such an opinion, to reconsider whether the Line deserves an unfortunate reputation as a military failure.

I would not be writing books at all if not for my friend Joe Kauffmann, who introduced me to my editor at Pen and Sword. Marc Romanych, a fellow Maginot Line author with a great interest in the Line, provided me with several great photos to use in the book, as well as some excellent source material from his website digitalhistoryarchive.com. John Calvin runs wwii-photos-maps.com and he also sent me some photos of German troops youll find in the book. If you want First and Second World War archival photos, maps and documents, visit these two sites. Jean-Yves Mary, author of many excellent books on the Maginot Line, provided several great vintage photos. Hans Vermeulen, a long-time friend, from the Ouvrage du Fermont, was a huge help to me in finding answers to questions and also contributed some excellent photos from his collection. Thanks to Michel Grami from our Maginot Line Facebook site Ligne Maginot Nord-Est for the use of his beautiful photo of the Reibel twin machine gun from Casemate Oberroedern Sud (sorry I had to be make it grayscale). Pascal Lambert of wikimaginot.eu permitted me to use several photos. You can get lost for days in this website. I have. I want to thank my family my wife, who has put up with my grumbling over the past eighteen months; my artist, who is also my daughter Erin, who optimized the photographs and built the maps from scratch; and my brother who always encourages me to look at the glass as half full. Finally, there are several photos in the book from my old friend Dan McKenzie who is now no longer with us but who will always be with us and who I miss every time he comes into my thoughts. Thanks to his wife Alison who has graciously allowed me to use some of Dans excellent photos. I dedicate this book to him.