Louis Maurin

Louis Flix Thomas Maurin was a French army general who was twice Minister of War in the 1930s. Before and during World War I he was a strong advocate of motorization. In the interwar period from 1919 to 1939 he advocated a policy of passive defense against the growing German threat. He thought that with all the money that had been spent on the Maginot Line fortifications it would be madness to go on the offensive. He saw little value in tanks as a weapon. He advised against a limited military reaction when Germany reoccupied the Rhineland in March 1936, calling for general mobilization or nothing. He did not consider that the 1936 pact with Russia would help France militarily.

Louis Flix Thomas Maurin was born in Cherbourg onJanuary 1869. He graduated from the cole Polytechnique and joined the army, where he made his career in the artillery. In 1899 Maurin and Maurice Gamelin were fellow students at the cole de Guerre. Maurin married AnneMarie Bigault. Their son, Philippe Maurin , would become an Air Force general.

Source: Wikipedia