The Political Maginot Line

One of the curiosities of World War Two was the renowned Maginot Line that would have helped France if Germany had decided launch the initial attack against it. Unfortunately for the French, Germany had other ideas.

For many on the French side, Germany was always going to attack through Belgium and therefore as soon as possible France sent its best troops to the Belgian border, trusting the Maginot Line that did not cover the entire border with Belgium and Germany and protecting ‘the impenetrable Ardennes’ with its less able combatants.

Germany had learnt the lessons of 1914 and was not going to be driven to the trenches all over again. Germany had a new concept: Blitzkrieg. The fundamentals of Blitzkrieg were that it was going to be a very fast and focused attack carried out by well armed, well trained and very well commanded troops supported by Panzer units. The element of surprise was an essential component and the idea was to advance so fast that the enemy would not have the time to regroup and counter-attack.

The message given by Commander Heinz Guderian was very straightforward: attack swiftly and don’t disperse your troops.

Politics is the peacetime version of War. If you are constantly signposting what you are going to do next, you are constantly giving away the element of surprise. While Guderian’s enemies were thinking according to the logic of 1914, Guderian was thinking according to the logic of 1940.

The importance of reading about history has little to with remembering dates and events. Learning history is supposed to teach you how to deal with the challenges of the present.

We have quite a few 1914 French generals in the British Nationalist Movement. The way political wars were won in the past has nothing to do with the way political wars will be won in the future. They read about Charles Darwin and the Theory of Evolution, but they pitifully fail to grasp the concept that Survival is very much due to Evolution.

In Politics as in Word War Two, Maginot Lines are pretty useless. Even the majestic Wall of China was breached and China was conquered by the Mongols. You can win a War in many ways and use different strategies, but in the end the only thing that matters is winning the War.

More than thirty years have passed since the first modern Nationalist Movement was born in Britain and many are still trying to face Panzers with Cavalry and strategies of 1914.

Change is difficult and understanding change is even more difficult. You can change the colour of the car and the way it looks, but the engine underneath is very much the same engine. Our aim is to achieve the objectives that we set out to achieve. The means to achieve such objectives will change because the political environment has changed but we remain as resolute as ever before in our efforts to build a Nationalist Britain.

Carlos Cortiglia