West End Workbench

[jwealleans]

Nothing LNER going on on the workbench at the moment, but best wishes from me to all my readers and here's to plenty of modelling in 2024.

[Atlantic 3279]

I look forward to the completed model of that.

[jwealleans]

Excavations for the layout have already begun. I'm still contemplating how to exhibit it.

[Dave]

I assume it will have working lights so you can run it on sirs layout.

Is it French ?

All the best.

[Chas Levin]

No safety chains? No guard rails? Is this tree properly secured for travel?

Merry unchained Christmas!

[jwealleans]

Is it French ?

It is - at the Forteresse de Schoenenbourg on the Maginot Line. Well worth a visit.

[Danby Wiske]

It is - at the Forteresse de Schoenenbourg on the Maginot Line. Well worth a visit.

I'll probably just go round the end of it...

[Dave]

I had a feeling it was Jonathan.

[Chas Levin]

It is - at the Forteresse de Schoenenbourg on the Maginot Line. Well worth a visit.

I'll probably just go round the end of it...

Loving your work there, Danby Wiske: classic reply!

[Danby Wiske]

Thank you Chas - glad to have exercised someone's chuckle muscles!

[jwealleans]

Laughter aside, I knew very little about the history of the Maginot Line or the effort the Germans put into attacking it even when their Ardennes offensive in 1940 was having such success. One of our guides commented on how relatively few British visitors they get, presumably because our Army didn't see action in that part of France in either war. Schoenenbourg was the most heavily engaged part of the whole Line in May and June 1940 and only surrendered several days after the rest of France capitulated. Much like the battlefield of the Linge which we visited the last time we were here, it's a whole area of the conflict we don't learn about in the British histories.

[Chas Levin]

And laughter aside again, I've never understood how the Maginot Line debacle could have happened. I know it's easy to criticise in hindsight, but was it really the case that no-one thought of the possibility of attacking forces going around the fortifications, even given the difficult terrain? Evidently not: sometimes we can't see things - in fact, if it isn't too awful a pun with respect to the Ardennes, I suppose they couldn't see the wood for the trees... (sorry ).

[jwealleans]

I'm sure that has been analysed by people far more qualified than me, but centuries of attackers going back and forth along the same routes, failure to appreciate the developments in mechanised warfare and the ensuing expectation that the fortifications would reduce the numbers required to secure the eastern border and allow time for the remaining armed forces to be deployed to meet any other threat all seem to have been factors. The Schlieffen Plan was based on a largely similar direction of attack and it had stalled in 1914 and thereafter failed to advance significantly. Only fifteen years later when the line was being planned, creating a more secure and manpower efficient defence for a large part of the Front must have seemed a sensible approach.

[Atlantic 3279]

Many years ago it was suggested in an historical documentary I watched that inter-war French governments were unable to devise or choose a way out of a diplomatic dilemma: Were they to continue fortifications like the the Maginot line along the Luxembourg and Franco-Belgian frontier, they would be forsaking or shutting out their allies, or at least the French speakers in those countries. Were they to try instead to arrange to extend the fortifications around Luxembourg and / or Belgium it might be seen by others as an attempt to annexe those countries or make them dependant upon or subservient to France. With large numbers of Dutch / Flemish speakers in Belgium, plus German speakers in parts of Belgium and Luxembourg there was a potential problem - although it seems to me that the French governments saw no similar reasons to hesitate to impose or reinforce French rule and identity upon long established Germanic speaking communities of the former Rhine Duchies of Alsace-Lorraine.

[jwealleans]

... it seems to me that the French governments saw no similar reasons to hesitate to impose or reinforce French rule and identity upon long established German speaking communities of the former Rhine Duchies of Alsace-Lorraine.

Can't disagree with most of that, but don't make the mistake of assuming the native language was German - Alsatian is a different dialect which both regimes did their best to stamp out, although it persists to this day. One of Isabelle's great aunts who lived to over 100 and died only a few years ago only spoke Alsatian and was unable to communicate with anyone in her care home until a Swiss-German resident was admitted.