Fortifications During the Interwar Period

Fortifications during the 19th and 20th centuries were not seen as impenetrable bastions that could hold out against enemy attacks indefinitely. They were placed in design to prevent an enemy army from moving through certain pieces of territory so that their movements could be predicted and then met by the appropriate response. This was essentially the French plan, just as it had been several generations earlier; fortresses like Verdun had been constructed to funnel a German invasion in specific directions.