| 翻訳と辞書 |
Mareth Line
The Mareth Line was a system of fortifications built by France in southern Tunisia, prior to World War II. It was to defend Tunisia against attacks from Libya, then a colony of Fascist Italy. Tunisia was occupied by Axis forces after Operation Torch in 1942, and the line was used by the Axis to defend against the British Eighth Army, which had re-occupied Libya during 1943.
==Plan and construction==
French plans for defence of Tunisia assumed that Italy would launch an overwhelming assault that France could not easily oppose. Italy was expected to launch attacks on Egypt and Tunisia as soon as war was declared, with the Italian Navy securing supply and interdicting any substantial Anglo-French relief. With a limited force of 6–9 divisions to defend all of French North Africa, the French army settled on the idea of a フランス語:''ligne Maginot du désert'' (a "Maginot Line in the desert"). The border with Libya was indefensible for an inferior force, so the French considered two positions inside Tunisia. The best prospect was the Wadi Akarit, which ran from the Chott El Fedjed, the eastern extension of the Chott el Djerid salt flats, to the Mediterranean Sea. The sea and the salt flats were impassable, so this position could not be flanked but the Wadi Akarit position did not protect the important town and harbor of Gabès. The French colonial government opposed the surrender of so much of Tunisia.
The French chose the next best prospect, along Wadi Zigzaou, between the Matmata Hills and the sea, south of Wadi Akarit. The banks of Wadi Zigzaou were up to high and surveys of the Matmata hills indicated they were impassable, with the western desert seeming equally foreboding. This position secured Gabès as a supply base but was easily outflanked to the west, if a mobile force went around the Matmata Hills, and Wadi Zigzaou put the French in front of a bottleneck, vulnerable to air and artillery fire. Construction began in 1936, with the Mareth line laid out in a similar manner to the Maginot line. The fortification stretched for of fixed defences, trenches and cleared firing blinds. Infantry were to be housed in trenches and forty concrete casements as well as 15 fortified command posts and 28 support posts. The ground did not suit underground artillery but eight large artillery positions were constructed, each capable of accommodating a battery.
The French Staff expected an extreme manpower shortage in France so reinforcement for Tunisia were much of an afterthought; units in Tunisia were not expected to be reinforced. Once mobilised, the French army in Tunisia was expected to hold out for up to two years against a superior Italian army attacking from Libya. The Mareth Line incorporated French experience of trench warfare and infantry–artillery attacks. The Line would preserve French manpower and provide a force multiplier to offset numerical inferiority. As in France, the French were confident that fixed fortifications would be only harassed by tactical air power and immensely improved field artillery. Eventually, the position might be used as a staging base to push into Libya, but any such operation would occur far into a new war and only after a successful British invasion from Egypt.
抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』
■ウィキペディアで「Mareth Line」の詳細全文を読む
スポンサード リンク
| 翻訳と辞書 : 翻訳のためのインターネットリソース |
Copyright(C) kotoba.ne.jp 1997-2016. All Rights Reserved.
|
|