French troops on the line
The Maginot Line was a line of fortifications which was built along the France-Germany border from 1929 to 1938. The line ended in Switzerland to the south and Belgium in the north, as the French government did not want to offend Belgian neutrality by extending the line to the English Channel. France prepared for a defensive war in World War II, but the German Wehrmacht would instead advance through the Netherlands and Belgium during their invasion of France, bypassing the line.