Línea P
Spanish army fortified line of defense along the Spanish/French border / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Línea P (P line), officially the Pyrenees Defense Organisation (Organización Defensiva de los Pirineos), was a fortified line of defense built in the Pyrenees between 1944 and 1948 to prevent an invasion into Spanish territory.
Line P | |
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Línea P | |
Spanish/French border in the Pyrenees in Spain | |
Coordinates | 42°38′43.65″N 0°46′14.38″E |
Type | Defensive line |
Length | about 500 km (310 miles) |
Site information | |
Owner | Spanish army |
Open to the public | Only some sites |
Condition | Abandoned |
Site history | |
Built | 1944-1948 |
Built by | Spanish army (conscripts and forced labor) |
In use | never (last inspection in 1986) |
Materials | Reinforced concrete, steel, iron |
Events | Spanish Question Spanish Maquis |
After the end of the Spanish Civil War, the government of General Franco decided to build a defensive line in the Pyrenees, that would go from the Mediterranean to the Cantabrian Sea, approximately 500 kilometres (310 mi) of fortified defensive points, stretching up to a depth of 60 km (37 miles) from the border. Some 8,000 – 10,000 bunkers were planned, of which approximately half were completed. Their garrison would have theoretically consisted of about 75,000 men. There is no evidence that the line was ever fully armed and operational.
The defensive points of the Línea P and its access roads were built by war prisoners and jailed political opponents of the Francoist regime grouped in Batallones de Trabajadores (Workers’ Battalions) immediately after the Spanish Civil War and from 1940 to December 1942, in Batallones Disciplinarios de Soldados Trabajadores (Disciplinary Battalions of Workers-Soldiers)
In a broader sense, Línea P also refers to the successive Pyrenean fortifications built after the Spanish Civil War that would previous fortifications (1939–1940), the counter-tank defense (1950–1954) and other fortifications, such as those at Cape Higuer in Fuenterrabía, Guipúzcoa finished in 1957.
The Línea P was definitively abandoned after the Spanish army performed its last inspection in the 1980s.