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That's the Explorers Podcast. Hello everyone and welcome to History of the Second World War.

Episode 61, the Third Republic, Part 1, the Maginot Line.

Over the course of the next 10 episodes, we will track the development of French politics

and military thinking during the 1930s.

But with this first episode, we're going to devote it all to the Maginot Line.

There are a few things more criticized in Second World War history than the Maginot Line.

To just pull a few quotes here, here is Martin S. Alexander from French Foreign and Defense

Policy, 1918 to 1940, the decline and fall of a great power.

Quote, the Maginot line long ago ceased to be merely a matter of historical fact.

It acquired the status of an explanatory myth.

It became, too, for many, a metaphor for military incompetence.

And here's William Alcorn from the Maginot Line 1928 to 1945.

Quote, perhaps the most malign collection of fortifications ever built, commonly viewed as an

abject failure, a disaster for France, a total waste of money and manpower, and a monument

to the folly of static defense, end quote.

Within popular culture, the typical portrayal of the Maginot Line is one of folly and

...