MEN AND WORKS OF THE MAGINOT LINE VOLUME 4

In the first part of this long-awaited Volume 4, the authors study in minute detail the fortifications built to counter the Italian threat in the Alps. No element is left in the shadows: the genesis of the fortified line in the South-East, the construction of high-altitude works, their specific technical means and armament. The second part of Volume 4 provides an exhaustive review of the infantry (DBAF and BAF, demi-brigades and alpine fortress battalions, machine-gun battalions) and the specific artillery (RAP, artillery position regiments) which, from 1935 to 1940, held the fortified barrier of the South-East without faltering. The treatment given to the whole is strictly consistent with that of the previous volumes, so that the work retains its perfect homogeneity. The importance of the subject led the authors and publisher to create a Volume 5, to be published very shortly, in order to complete the saga without removing any element from it. Jacques Sicard, the foremost specialist in French Army corps of troops (he had already made a major contribution to the chapters on the RIF and RAP in the previous volumes), co-authors this Volume 4 where, as a native of Briançon, he returns to his beloved alpine troops. He thus joins on the cover the two concrete specialists, Jean-Yves Mary and Alain Hohnadel who, in this Volume 4, push the limits of detail and precision so dear to readers of the collection.