On our way to Luxembourg, we stopped in Metz to inquire about any Maginot Line museums in the area available for a visit. Allister is interested in these types of things and was told there was a guided tour due to start at 2:30 pm (about 90 minutes hence) that we thought we could just make if we hurried. We hurried, and we just made it.
Here is the entry into the Opening 19 of the Maginot Line at Hackenberg (France).
The underground installations that made up the Line were huge. These tunnels and the tours through them were maintained by a corps of volunteers from local communities. There was electric power throughout these tunnels that was used not only for lighting but to power the narrow gauge railway that was used to ferry visitors to the far reaches of the tunnels and provide a very realistic glimpse of how these installations operated.
There was room after room of exhibits like these.
One of the highlights of the two hour tour was a trip, via train, to a distant part of the Hackenberg part of the Maginot Line to see the operation of one of the heavy gun emplacements. The dome at the left still operates and rises almost a meter from its base through controls we saw the volunteer tour guides operate.
The crucial flaw of the Maginot Line – its inability to aim its guns a full 360 degrees was told along with the Germany strategy that was used to circumvent the Line’s defenses and capture these fortifications for their use.
