“NOT IMPREGNABLE”

Greymouth Evening Star, 3 November 1939, Page 5

“NOT IMPREGNABLE”

■ SIEGFRIED LINE WEAKNESSES. I LONDON, September 15. i The Siegfried Line is not. an “imi pregnable barrier." but merely a. “very powerful network of concrete fortifications,” according to a writer in the Nation’ Beige (quoted by Reuter from Brussels). Pointing out that the line had to be constructed on mass-production lines at great speed, he continues: In consequence, there have been innumerable mistakes and faults —con- ■ structiQii of fortifications along the I Rhine in areas liable to floods, use of ‘inferior concrete, which compelled the Germans to make repairs this Spring under the eyes of the French, ami so on. The groat majority of the works hire necessarily relatively light. Pho propaganda films designed to show it,ho “colossal” character of the fortifications reveal that they consist, mainliy of casemates sticking well out ol • the ground, incapable of resisting I heavy artillery shells for long, and ■ with guns capable of shooting in only • one direction. J In many places, to save time, they [ have not. bothered to place the cascJ meats at patiently studied and chosen .‘sites, but have constructed them in a ■ 'series at fixed intervals (three fo 1 ’ I 'every 300 metres, for example) with- . out. considering their field of fire.I 'Phus instances are quoted of casements with hillocks in front of them iwhich block half the view. J Really buried “forts,’' as in the 1 Maginot Line, are not only infrequent; ’ bait for tlu. most par) very remote 1 I from the frontiers. .i The zone comprising the Saar t.crt j'itory and the Luxemburg frontier is (notoriously fortified in a very super-' Ifir-isl manlier. I: follows that the Sieg|fried Lino, as far as one can toll, is jless a real “line" than a network of .'fortifications and strategic points, fhapidly laid down, often at excessive . ’distances from one another in a depth r of six miles. t Such a system necessarily has its 3 weak points—works which it is not j impossible to destroy by bombardment ■ and the collapse of which, would. In- 1

I I jvolve that of the whole line., <Got- ( 'manv seems, as a. matter 01. fact, to ( 'have anticipated this by constructing j ;as maitv successive lines as possible). | i Ii Ilins in no way constitutes an im- | preonnhle barrier. but only a very : 'powerful network of concrete ioiuili-., cations. Fortifications of the same; tvpe have just been carried by tne| Germans in Poland—at Graudenz lor

example— by “infiltrations” in the words of the communique. The writer concludes that this system leaves fhe field open for manoeuvring for superiority of artillfiij and for night lighting.' and it has not vet been demonstrated that shattering "losses need he suffered in assaulting it. as would be tho case, for example, with the Maginot Line.