The Need for Organisational Resilience - Chapter 2

This line included massive armoured enclosure such as infantry casemates and

fortresses, equipped with a range of machine guns, anti-tank guns and artillery-turrets to

accommodate up to 1,000 infantry soldiers, specialised fortress soldiers and engineers. It

also incorporated a range of anti-tank barriers and anti-personnel obstacles (e.g. mines,

barbed wire).

An infantry casemate 1 . This picture was taken after hostilities ceased. (Kutsch, n.d.)

Belgian allies enhanced their fortifications by upgrading their forts around Liège –

positioned in a corridor the Allies believed the Germans would use for further attacks – and

by constructing a range of new modern forts. One of them − Fort d'Ében-Émael covering the

Albert Canal which the Germans had to cross in order to ‘pass through’ Belgium – was

deemed impregnable.

The French, exhausted by four years of unprecedented slaughter and ongoing internal

instability, were tired of militarism. Their desire was to build up a protective shield strong

enough to repulse any further attempt by Germany. The years up to 1940 saw a

strengthening of border fortifications, and the build-up of one of the most powerful armies in

the world, a juggernaut that was not prepared to lose, but with the desire to avoid the en-

masse casualties seen in World War I. Nevertheless, the French stance was not entirely

statically defensive. Mobile reserves were stationed behind the lines of concrete and

1 A combat block in which the principal armament fires through embrasures in the block’s walls. Casemates are classified as either artillery casemates or infantry casemates depending on their primary armament. Interval casemates are stand-alone, self-contained infantry casemates defending the line of anti-tank obstacles and barbed-wire entanglements between ouvrages.

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