End of a Line

In the reign of Ch'in Shih Huang Ti (246-210 B.C.) the Wan-li-chang-cheng (Myriad Li Wall) was built along 2,300 miles of China's northern frontier against Mongol marauders. Constructed of cut stone and brick with a core of tamped earth, it was 25 feet thick at the base, 15 at the top, and between 20 and 30 feet high. Some 40,000 watchtowers rose 13 feet above the top of the wall; a foreground defense system with trenches, artificial obstacles and entanglements extended to a depth of 200 yards (the maximum distance an arrow could be shot). Over one million Chinese worked 15 years on the wall and the material used exceeded 46 million tons. It was the world's greatest defensive position of its time, but it was not worth a hoot. Time & again Mongol and Manchu armies crossed it and moved south to conquer China.

The 20th Century's greatest defensive position, the 125-mile Maginot Line, last year proved equally worthless in spite of its supply of 1,600,000 cubic yards of concrete, 50,000 tons of steel plate, its cost of $500,000,000. But behind it Frenchmen had felt secure.

Last week Berlin announced the dismantling of the Maginot Line. Some of its heavy guns have already been set up along the English Channel. Eight thousand of its coal stoves are now heating Berlin air-raid shelters, which are also equipped with its bunks and mattresses. Its supplies of food and ammunition (enough to last 250,000 men for a year) also proved useful. Tinned goods, oil, electric-light bulbs, machinery, steel plate and copper cables have found uses in the Reich or have gone into smelting furnaces. Once the tank traps, entanglements and other defensive devices have been removed, the terrain in front of the line will be turned into fruit and vegetable farms. Like the Great Wall of China, its labyrinthine corridors and concrete chambers will remain, anachronisms to awe tourists and recall outdated military conceptions.

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