Maginot, André (1877–1932)

French soldier. He was the originator of the fortifications which became known as the Maginot Line. He had been an infantryman at Verdun in World War I. In 1922, and in 1929, he was minister of war. The Maginot Line was completed after his death in 1934.

He was born in Paris. In 1917 he became minister of colonies.

The Maginot Line stretched from the Belgian frontier to the Swiss frontier. It cost more than £30 million to construct and was subsequently augmented in strength. The Maginot Line was outflanked by the Germans in 1940, and in June of that year they crossed the Rhine and broke through it. The overrating of the line and the passive strategy resulting from it are regarded as one of the contributory causes of the French collapse in World War II. As early as 1927, the Maginot Line was described by Major-General Fuller, the British mechanized war expert, as ‘the tombstone of France’.