Maginot Line and Luxembourg American cemetary

Our church group has a program we call Summer Outings. We meet together as a group once a week and find activities to do around the area we live. We also take turns being in charge of an activity. I was in charge of this activity to the Maginot Line. I had wanted to take my family there for a long time but just hadn't gotten around to it. So, this is what I picked and I'm so glad I did. It was so interesting.
The Maginot Line is basically the stronghold that France built before WWII to protect them from any enemies. At the time they were worried about Germany since they didn't end WWI on good terms. The fortress is huge, stretching from the north near Belgium and going all the way to the south past the German border. All along the line there are bunkers that are similar to the Schoenenbourg Fortress, the bunker we toured. Some of the fortresses you can still tour, some have not been re-built. I am not talented enough to explain all the details of the tour so I highly suggest going here to read more about it.

I will tell you that it was a 2 hour tour and we had about 17 children ages 6-18 and none of them were bored, it was so interesting. This is a picture of the tunnel ways that you walk through:
This particular fortress housed a little over 600 men and during the entire war it was never breached. This is a picture of the communication room. Scouts would send info to this room, then phone calls were placed to a different section of the fortress to calculate coordinates for gun fire, then through another phone call to the actual gun bunker, the coordinates would be passed. All of this took place within a 2 minute time period. It looked so rudimentary to me, chalkboards were placed all around the rooms for communication. The only way to communicate where through phone lines and the only machinery was a typewriter.
Here is a picture of our tour guide, showing us the map of the Maginot Line:
This is a picture of warheads that were shot at the French from the Germans:
This is one of 2 diesel engines that provided power to the fortress:
This was the operating room, no modern equipment whatsoever. In the entire time the fortress was inhabited, only 2 men were killed!
This was a photo of the pantry that leads to the kitchen. 1800 meals were served daily!
After the tour we stopped in Betschdorf to do some pottery shopping. Unfortunately it was Bastille's Day (Frances version of Independence Day) and so everything was closed. BUT we did find one pottery store open and I had to take a picture of her red WC doors (WC= toilets)
I plan to blog about our trip to Dinant Belgium later, but on the way home we stopped in Luxembourg to see the American Military Cemetery. There are 5076 American soldiers buried here from WWII who fought in the Ardennes region. Of those buried here, 371 were missing in action and 101 are graves of unknown soldiers. This is the 3rd American military cemetery we have seen since moving here and I have been so impressed and moved every time.
When you enter you see the building that contains a small chapel.
In front are two large monuments, each contains maps of the war and the other side is the list of soldiers.
This is also the cemetery where General Patton is buried. It is interesting to note that he did not die in battle. He died as a result of a neck fracture from a car accident in December of 1945.
This is a photo of a grave of an unknown soldier:

Here are a couple of shots that Bailey took with my camera. I am finding that she has a really great eye when it comes to photography. The headstones with the star signify soldiers of the Jewish faith.