Lille Before and During the War

Lying between the rivers Lys, Escaut and Scarpe, in the plain before the hills of Artois, Lille forms an isolated advance-post between Maubeuge (which guards the Pass of the Oise), and Dunkirk (which commands the region of the Dunes). Vauban had fortified the place, but the treaties of 1815 and 1871 deprived France of her essential points of support, and rendered these defences valueless. In 1873, General Séré de Rivières, Director of the Engineering Section at the Ministry of War, commenced a comprehensive scheme which aimed at the reorganization of the entire northern frontier, whereof Lille was one of the pivots.Situated in the centre of France's richest coalfields and allied industries, Lille has justly been called "the Key to France's Treasure-House" (see "Le secret de la frontière," by M. Fernand Engerand, 1918).