In the east of France, along the frontier where France, Switzerland and Germany meet, there are the first-class fortresses of Belfort, Epinal, Toul and Verdun in the first line, reinforced by Besancon, Dijon, Langres, Rheims, La Fere and Maubeuge in the second line, with smaller fortifications close to the German frontier at Remirement, Luneville, Nancy and other points. Along the Italian frontier the fortresses are situated at Grenoble, Briancon and Nice, with Lyons in the rear. There are strong forts at all naval harbors, the defense of Paris consisting of 97 bastions, 17 old forts and 38 forts of an advanced type, the whole forming entrenched camps at Versailles and St. Denis.
On that line of the German frontier which faces France there are the fortresses of Neu-Breisach, Strassburg, Metz and Diedenhofen, in the first line, with Rastatt, Bitsch and Saarlouis in the second line, and Germershein in the rear. Situated opposite Luxemburg is Mainz, with Coblentz and Cologne opposite Belgium and Wesel opposite Holland.
All along the northern coast, from Wilhelmshafen to Memmel, the German coast is strongly fortified. Memmel is the pivot point of the northern and eastern frontier, the latter frontier being protected by Konigsberg and Allenstein, of the first line, and Danzig, Dirschau, Graudenz, Thorn and the Vistula Passages, of the second line. South of this point are Posen, Glogau and Breslau, which face Poland, while beginning at Neisse the strong defense against Austria consists of fortifications at Glatz, Ingolstadt and Ulm, the approaches to Berlin being guarded by Magdeburg, Spandau and Kustrin.
POLISH QUADRILATERAL.
Along the line of the Russian frontier which guard that country from attacks by the Germans are the fortresses of Libau, on the Baltic; Kovna, Ossovets and Ust-Dvinsk, in the Vilna district, and in Poland there are situated Novo-Georgievsk, Warsaw and Ivangorod, on the Vistula, and Brest-Litovsk, on the Bug—four strongholds known as the Polish Quadrilateral. Guarding Petrograd are the smaller fortifications of Kronstadt and Viborg, with Sweaborg midway down the Gulf of Finland near Helsingfors. Sebastopol and Kertch, in the Crimea, and Otchokov, near Odessa, are the fortifications which guard the Black Sea.
Along the Austrian frontier are the strong embattlements of Cracow and Przemysl, on the road to Lemberg in Galicia. These forts face Poland. In Hungary there are Gyula-Fehervar and Arad, on the Maros River, and which guard the approach from the angle of Roumania. On her frontier facing Servia there are Alt-Orsova and Peterwardein, on the Danube, and Sarajevo, in Bosnia, with Temesvar and Komorn blocking the approach to Vienna from the southeast. On the Adriatic are Cattaro, on the edge of Montenegro, and the naval arsenals of Pola and Trieste. All the Alpine passes of the Tyrol are fortified, but neither Vienna nor Budapest has any defenses.
The fortifications of Italy, aside from those on her coasts, extend in a line from Venice, through Verona, Mantua and Piacenza to Alessandria and Casale, which face the French frontier.