Maginot Line Still White Elephant

Northern Advocate, 14 September 1944, Page 3

Maginot Line Still White Elephant

(Rec. 11 a.m.) LONDON, Sept. 13. A complete stretch of the Maginot Line which the Americans captured without a shot being fired on Monday is much as the French left it in 1940 says a correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph” with the American 3rd Army outside Thionville.

He adds that the Germans have not demolished or mined the vast network of tunnels in the underground fortifications. Even guns are still oiled and in working condition, with breeches intact. The correspondent says he stood beside a French boy 100 feet below level ground in an electrical powerhouse and watched him press the starter button of huge Diesel engines, huge transformers, a complete air conditioning plant, heavy lifts and an electric railway. Only one German occupied this fort, which was one of 100 dotting the countryside. All. complicated machinery was cared for during the war by three Frenchmen and a boy whom the Germans paid 6d. and hour. The correspondent journeyed in an electric train through tunnels connecting the fort with observation points, gun emplacements, magazines, powerhouses and stores. As he left the fort the boy turned off the electricity but did not bother to close the gates of the fort.