Why did maginot line fail?

Answer 1

This is one of those questions that has no definitive answer. It really depends on what you count as a success. When war broke out on mainland Europe, and the Germans made a major thrust to the west, the Maginot Line was not completed by France to the whole length to which they had originally designed it. As a consequence, the Germans were forced to take a more difficult but evidently not impossible route to try and outflank it. So, in that sense, it was a success. It forced the Axis forces onto another possibly quite risky route. If the whole line had been completed to the original plans, who can say what the outcome might have been? At the least it may have held up the advance into France by several months. Who knows what outcome that may have had. If the Russians had noticed that the Germans were becoming enmired in another WW1 scenario, would they have kept up their non-aggression pact for as long as they did? On the other hand, it may be argued that if France had not literally sunk so much of their materiel in the ground, and instead built up mobile anti-tank, and anti-aircraft capabilities then they might have halted the German advances more effectively? As with so much of what we know of past military blunders, the French strategic planners were surely guilty of the sin of 'preparing for the last war'. They assumed that any major outbreak of conflict on mainland Europe would be similar to WW1 where huge static battles would be fought over a quite limited, static front. What they had not noticed was that the enhanced mobility of fighting forces would render that model obsolete.

Answer 2

World War II was not destined to be a trench war. The airplanes and explosives made trenchs inefficant and no system of them could stand against the Blitz.