Fortifications and Border Fortifications

[Ken]

I am unsure on where to ask these questions, since I am curious about both Axis and Allied border fortifications, so I put the questions here.

Did any country fortify their borders during the war?
How did they forfity their borders? (walls.. towers..trenches.. barbed wire..?)

How useful were those fortifications?
How did the fortifications prevent tanks or units from invading territory?

Did the Third Reich fortify Greater Germany's borders?

How could improvements in fortifications alter or delay certain outcomes or aspects of the outcomes of the war?

Thank you.

[Logan Hartke]

France did (the Maginot Line). It worked halfway; it kept the Germans from attacking there, but did it keep them from overtaking France, obviously not. Germany had the Siegfried Line and the Atlantic Wall. Italy/Germany had the Gothic Line. Finland had the Mannerheim Line.

Logan Hartke

[Christian Ankerstjerne]

As for their effectiveness, they were by-passed half the time, so they weren't really serving their purpose...

The Germans also used concrete bloks to stop tanks, dragon teeth, i believe they were called - I think these were quite effective, but again, static fortifications can be by-passed most of the time...

Christian

[Oleg Grigoryev]

As for their effectiveness, they were by-passed half the time, so they weren't really serving their purpose...

The Germans also used concrete bloks to stop tanks, dragon teeth, i believe they were called - I think these were quite effective, but again, static fortifications can be by-passed most of the time...

Christian

the only fortified area that did its job was the one around Leningrad - Leningradskiy UR

[Gwynn Compton]

What about Tobruk? Those defence lines were one tough nut to crack.

Defence lines should serve one purpose in my mind, and that is to funnel the enemies forces into a narrow channel where you can annhilate them

[Antti V]

France did (the Maginot Line). It worked halfway; it kept the Germans from attacking there, but did it keep them from overtaking France, obviously not. Germany had the Siegfried Line and the Atlantic Wall. Italy/Germany had the Gothic Line. Finland had the Mannerheim Line.

Logan Hartke

Finland had (and still does have) another fortification line built during WW2: Salpa Line. It´s fortification line which was built after Winter War in 1940 to east border. It´s over 1300 kilometers long, including trenches, bunkers, tank barrigades etc. from shore of Gulf of Finland to North Karelia and after that it continues without trenches but some tank barrigades to Arctic Sea. (Part of that line is today in Russia side in Petsamo area.) It´s military value is today very small, but it´s value in WW2 was very important (even it wasn´t needed to use). Even Soviets had succeeded to break Finnish defence line in 1944, they should have go thru Salpa Line, which was mainly better fortificated than Mannerheim Line was during Winter War.

[HaEn]

Hi Ken. The Netherlands had their "waterlinie", a series of polders that could and were flooded to keep the enemy from reaching the western provinces, where the capital (Amsterdam), and the seat of parliament (Den Haag) were. It did not keep the German army from overruning the land in 1940 though; they just dropped their paratroopers behind it. In '44 the Germans used the same tactic against the Allieds, the only result it had was that the western part of the Netherlands was now virtually isolated, and slowly starved. Making things worse, the Dutch parliament in exile had ordered the railroads to a total strike. Additionally the Allied "jabos" strafed everyting that moved on the road, when spotted. Regards. HN.

[MadJim]

The Czechs had some interesting fortifications, but when they had to get out of the Sudetenland - they had to give them up!

[Andy H]

After the beginning of WW2 Britain started a defensive construction phase which gathered pace after the fall of France in June 1940 and the real threat of invasion.

The main defensive line-called the GHQ Line was meant to defend London,Bristol and access to the industrial Midlands. Though certianly not on the scale of the Maginot or Siegfried Lines several large bunker complex's were constructed and use was made of older pre existing fortifications. Many of the bunkers etc are still visable today along with anti-tk ditches and dragon's teeeth-If yu know where to look.

From the Shire