Editing Maginot Line (section)

=== German invasion in World War II ===
{{Campaignbox Battle of France}}

[[File:Ligne Maginot - Four à Chaux (Alsace) bloc 1.jpg|thumb|upright=1.38|Combat block 1 at the fortress Limeiln ([[ouvrage Four-à-Chaux]], Alsace), showing signs of German testing of explosives inside some fortresses between 1942 and 1944]]
The World War II [[Battle of France|German invasion]] plan of 1940 (''Sichelschnitt'') was designed to deal with the line. A decoy force sat opposite the line while a second Army Group cut through the [[Low Countries]] of Belgium and the Netherlands, as well as through the [[Ardennes]] Forest, which lay north of the main French defences. Thus the Germans were able to avoid a direct assault on the Maginot Line by violating the neutrality of Belgium, [[Luxembourg]] and [[Netherlands|the Netherlands]]. Attacking on 10 May, German forces were well into France within five days and they continued to advance until 24 May, when they stopped near [[Dunkirk, France|Dunkirk]].

During the advance to the [[English Channel]], the Germans overran France's border defence with Belgium and several Maginot Forts in the [[Maubeuge]] area whilst the [[Luftwaffe]] simply flew over it. On 19 May, the [[16th Army (Wehrmacht)|German 16th Army]] captured the isolated [[Ouvrage La Ferté|petit ouvrage La Ferté]] (south-east of [[Sedan, Ardennes|Sedan]]) after conducting a deliberate assault by [[combat engineer]]s backed up by [[heavy artillery]], taking the fortifications in only four days.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Maginot Line|url=https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/maginot-line|access-date=2020-07-08|website=HISTORY|language=en}}</ref> The entire French crew of 107 soldiers was killed during the action. On 14 June 1940, the day Paris fell, the [[1st Army (Wehrmacht)|German 1st Army]] went over to the offensive in "Operation Tiger" and attacked the Maginot Line between [[St. Avold|St Avold]] and [[Saarbrücken]]. The Germans then broke through the fortification line as defending French forces retreated southward. In the following days, infantry divisions of the 1st Army attacked fortifications on each side of the penetration, capturing four petits ouvrages. The 1st Army also conducted two attacks against the Maginot Line further to the east in northern Alsace. One attack broke through a weak section of the line in the [[Vosges Mountains]], but the French defenders stopped a second attack near [[Wissembourg]]. On 15 June, infantry divisions of the [[7th Army (Wehrmacht)|German 7th Army]] attacked across the Rhine River in Operation "Small Bear", deeply penetrating the defences and capturing the cities of [[Colmar]] and [[Strasbourg]].

By early June, the German forces had cut off the line from the rest of France, and the [[Government of France|French government]] was making overtures for an [[Armistice of 22 June 1940|armistice]], which was signed on 22 June in [[Compiègne]]. As the line was surrounded, the German Army attacked a few ouvrages from the rear but was unsuccessful in capturing any significant fortifications. The main fortifications of the line were still mostly intact, many commanders were prepared to hold out, and the [[Italian invasion of France|Italian advance]] had been contained. Nevertheless, [[Maxime Weygand]] signed the surrender instrument and the army was ordered out of their fortifications to be taken to [[French prisoners of war in World War II|POW camps]].

When the [[Allies of World War II|Allied]] forces invaded in June 1944, the line, now held by German defenders, was again largely bypassed; fighting touched only portions of the fortifications near Metz and in northern Alsace towards the end of 1944. During the German offensive [[Operation Nordwind]] in January 1945, Maginot Line casemates and fortifications were utilised by Allied forces, especially in the [[Bas-Rhin département|Bas-Rhin department]] in [[Grand Est]], and some German units had been supplemented with [[Flame tank#German Army|flamethrower tanks]] in anticipation of this possibility.{{sfn|Zaloga|2010|p=??}} In January 1945 von Luck with 21 Panzerdivision was tasked with cutting through the old Maginot Line defences and severing Allied links with Strasbourg as part of Operation Nordwind. He was told there were no plans available of the Line but that it was “barely manned and constituted no obstacle”. However they came up against fierce resistance and concentrated American artillery fire. They had to withdraw on 6  January 1945 and again after another attack on 8 January, although they drove a "tiny wedge" into the Line.{{sfn| Trigg |2020 |pp=178,179}} [[Stephen Ambrose]] wrote that in January 1945, "a part of the line was used for the purpose it had been designed for and showed what a superb fortification it was." Here the Line ran east-west, around the villages of [[Rittershoffen]] and [[Hatten, Bas-Rhin|Hatten]], south of [[Wissembourg]].{{sfn|Ambrose|2016|p=386}}