Luxembourg And The Great Fortress

The Pope's recent visit drew global attention to Luxembourg. So let's have a look at it. This small European country actually began with a great fortress.

This is a story that we do not hear very much about nowadays, but I think has guided the course of history more than is generally realized.

There used to be a great fortress, probably the greatest fortress that the world has ever seen. It started as a Roman fort. In the Middle Ages, it was rebuilt as a castle. The fortress was in a very strategic location, and was an important strategic point for nearly a thousand years.

Every major power in continental Europe held the fortress, at one time or another. All of them improved the fortress and added onto it. The world had never seen anything like this fortress before. In military terms, it was like the crown of northern Europe.

A city grew up around the fortress. Usually, a fortress is built to protect a city. But with this great fortress, the opposite was the case. It was the fortress that came first, and the supporting city grew up beside it.

In the days before modern mobile warfare, whichever power controlled this incredible fortress effectively controlled northwestern Europe. The powers of Europe decided that the way to have peace was by a balance of power. But that was not possible because whoever held this fortress was inevitably in the dominant position.

Finally, in 1867, the powers of Europe decided that the best thing to do, to bring about lasting peace, would be to demolish the fortress. It took a long time to take the fortress apart, so much of it being underground in endless tunnels, and it was nowhere near completely demolished. The area all around the fortress was to be designated as neutral territory.

Unfortunately, the destruction of the fortress did not bring about lasting peace. But it did bring a city into being, the city that grew up around it, and it did effectively bring a nation into being, the surrounding area that was designated as neutral territory.

That nation today is known as Luxembourg, and the city has the same name, Luxembourg City. It is a highly-rated place to live.

There are no good photographs of the fortress before it was demolished, since much of it was endless kilometers of underground bunkers and passageways. But enough of it remains today to be a tourist attraction in Luxembourg.

The following scenes, which include portions of the former fortress on the side of a cliff, begin inside Luxembourg's Notre Dame Cathedral. The first five scenes of Notre Dame Cathedral are from Google Earth and Street View. 

There are multiple scenes following. To see the scenes, after the first one, you must first click the up arrow, ^, before you can move on to the next scene by clicking the right or forward arrow, >. After clicking the up arrow, you can then hide the previews of successive scenes, if you wish.

https://www.google.com/maps/@49.6096119,6.1316004,3a,75y,100h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipPFSGnFSnr6u5mMjNS6vfk9xOb-lcIGJDpBdU6K!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipPFSGnFSnr6u5mMjNS6vfk9xOb-lcIGJDpBdU6K%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi0-ya287.2247-ro-0-fo100!7i8704!8i4352

Here are some more scenes of the central part of Luxembourg City. The first three images are from Google Earth.

https://www.google.com/maps/@49.6029674,6.1289549,3a,75y,164.3h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1soXNNIZ8H0ehG2tx3ts2E6Q!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo0.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DoXNNIZ8H0ehG2tx3ts2E6Q%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D169.67668%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

This is an area further from the city center. The first three images are from Google Street View.

https://www.google.com/maps/@49.5944131,6.1456803,3a,75y,187h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sbj213bUvNcsh6aUwQUWI_Q!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo1.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3Dbj213bUvNcsh6aUwQUWI_Q%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D187.5%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

This is a residential and business area, toward the outside of the city. The first four images are from Google Street View.

https://www.google.com/maps/@49.6078289,6.1044804,3a,75y,316h,87t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sstn_jJjeRt2R_CdOKovc9g!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo0.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3Dstn_jJjeRt2R_CdOKovc9g%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D316.5%26pitch%3D-3%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

The following scenes are of a town just outside Luxembourg City. The first three images are from Google Street View. 

https://www.google.com/maps/@49.6486204,5.9946328,3a,75y,136h,88t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipNY-FpH7lg2e2137dVz2TUvqQKQreJjihqzNmU!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipNY-FpH7lg2e2137dVz2TUvqQKQreJjihqzNmU%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-2.9999962-ya78.50001-ro-0-fo100!7i8704!8i4352

I have never seen anything written about the long-term impact on history that this fortress must have had. It was the most vital strategic point in northern Europe for nearly a thousand years. Every major power in continental Europe held the fortress, at one time or another, and made continuous additions and improvements. It must have had a powerful historical impact.

An entire generation of young Europeans is said to have never come home from the horrific trench warfare on the Western Front, in the First World War. Both sides dug into their trenches. Neither side was able to break the stalemate. Thousands of soldiers might die trying to capture a hundred meters of ground.

Horrific new weapons were developed in an effort to break the deadly stalemate in the trenches on the Western Front. These new weapons included poison gas and flamethrowers. Poison gas, such as mustard and chlorine gas, was slightly heavier than air. The idea is that, if an artillery shell containing gas could land near an enemy trench, the poison gas would seep down into the trench, which was below ground level.

But here is the question about the tactics on the Western Front. There was also a parallel Eastern Front, of the First World War, going on at the same time. Why is it that the combat on the Eastern Front, the Central Powers against Russia, was much more fluid and mobile and never bogged down into the trench warfare of the Western Front? The Allied battles against the Ottoman Empire, for the most part except for Gallipoli, never got into trench warfare as much either.

Could it be that the historical influence of this great fortress in Luxembourg had trapped western Europe in a "fortress mentality" that brought about the notorious trench warfare on the Western Front, where the fortress had been located, while the tactics on the other fronts of the war were much more fluid and mobile? Even though the fortress had been decommissioned, and partly dismantled, fifty years before, it had been the greatest fortress in Europe, and maybe in the world, for nearly a thousand years.

What about the Second World War? As the war became nearly inevitable, seventy years after the end of the great fortress, it's history was still very much present. It is very difficult to move on from a thousand years of history, even if we think we have.

The defensive tactics of the western Allies have baffled historians. If there was another war, surely tanks would rule the day. Tanks had been introduced by Britain, in the First World War as one of the new weapons developed in an effort to break the trench stalemate, and it had been France's own Charles De Gaulle who literally "wrote the book" on future tank warfare. The Wikipedia article on De Gaulle describes him as the "prophet of armored warfare".

But, as it turns out, it was the Nazis who realized that the world was now in the era of tanks. Belgium, the neighbor of Luxembourg, built a fantastic fortress of it's own, Eben Emael. It was as if the country was trying to bring back the unbeatable fortress that had dominated northwestern Europe for nearly a thousand years. The French Government, ignoring De Gaulle's efforts to focus on tanks, and built an impregnable fortress of it's own, the Maginot Line all along the border between France and Germany.

The Nazis built a copy of Eben Emael, in order to practice an attack on it. When war came, Nazi paratroopers landed on the roof of the fort, where they were out of reach of the fort's guns, in gliders. They had a relatively easy time disabling the fort. It was almost like the Twentieth Century against the Sixteenth Century.

As for the Maginot Line, Nazi tanks simply ignored it and went around it, across Belgium now that Eben Emael had been captured.

My explanation of these ineffective static fortress tactics is the historical influence of the great fortress at Luxembourg. It was the French who most greatly valued the fortress, prior to it's decommissioning and partial dismantling in 1867, and the Maginot line was an attempt to bring it back. 

Such was the historical importance of this great fortress that it's influence spread to the other side of the world, and adversely affected the British and Americans who had never held the fort. 

In the Second World War, Britain heavily fortified Singapore as an attack by sea was anticipated. In a repetition of the Maginot Line the forces of Imperial Japan simply ignored the fortifications and attacked from the other direction, through the dense jungle, which the British had considered as impossible. 

Also in the Second World War the U.S. had it's own massive fortress, that proved to be obsolete, at Corregidor. 

The Vietnam War was actually three separate wars. The second was the one that America was involved in. The First Vietnam War was France's war. The influence of the great fortress was still there and France built a great fortress in Vietnam, at Dien Bien Phu. When it was America's turn the great fortress was built at Khe Sanh.