WALL OF STEEL

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 35, 11 February 1931, Page 9

WALL OF STEEL

FRENCH FRONTIERS

MIGHTY BULWARKS

' Engineers of the French Army pushing steadily on with the work of forging a steel line of frontier fortifications. They will be the mightiest military bulwark in. the" history o£ the world.

It will be another three years before the chain o£ modern forts encircling France will be completed, says the British United Press. >The. plans call for 300 of these costly strongposts on the FrancoGerman frontier alone. Along the 187 miles of the borders of Alsace and Lorraine the 300 forts, large and small, which represent the latest product of the science of war, are already taking shape. These strongposts of steel and concrete, built to withstand the forces of most scientific forms of warfare, are placed at intervals of a kilometre (about five-eighths of * mile) all along the frontier. ; In the south-east more military engineers are digging a similar fortified line along the Franco-Italian frontier. On tha French side of the Alps they are constructing "pillboxes" on precarious mountain perches, fixing gun emplacements for large, and.mud 1 ordinance, and tunnelling dug-outs and shelters. One of the most interesting studies in this scheme are the iron links in the chain stretching along the Rhine. Some of tha forts are small, capable of harbouring only 12 or 15 men; others are larger and more powerfully armed; while the biggest of all are the catacomb arsenals such as that at Hackenburg, before Metz, which is more redoubtable than Verdun. The system is so planned that cross-fire from the forts, large and small, should make the chain unbreakable. The link between the 300 new forts on ■the northern frontier is subterranean. Tunnels connect every concrete emplacement and then lead back to steel and cement barracks, where reserves are concentrated. Thus, reserve forces, unfatigued by the rigours of life in support trenches, are always ready to hand.