Robert Kirchubel, Ph.D., is the operations officer and outreach director of the FORCES initiative (Purdue University/forces). He is a retired Cold War-era US Army lieutenant colonel who served as an armor officer across eighteen time zones. Kirchubel is the author of numerous books and articles on World War II.
Rows of rails for anti-tank protection follow the Maginot Line in France. Walter Sanders/The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images
World War I absolutely devastated France. Of the roughly 8.5 million French soldiers mobilized in 1914 to fight Germany and the other Central Powers, more than 6 million became casualties, either killed, wounded or declared missing during four years of grueling trench warfare.
In the wake of that catastrophic war, the French government vowed to protect its vulnerable northeast border with Germany from any future attacks. With fresh memories of fighting and living in squalid, open-air trenches, the French spent a decade building a 300-mile (482-kilometer) series of underground fortifications that would be both impenetrable and comfortable to live in. Behind an imposing line of pop-up gun turrets, tank traps and 12-foot (3.6-meter) concrete walls were fully equipped subterranean military bases complete with mess halls, hospitals, recreation
Published 14 December 2020
Researchers have developed battlefield simulation technology that they used to produce a virtual reality tour of the D-Day beaches in Normandy, France. Their work is part of the FORCES (4S) – Strategy, Security and Social Systems Initiative at Purdue University. The initiative supports the use of social scientific research in strategy and security activities to shape long-range and global military, political and organizational decision-making.
A new and modern approach to understanding battlefield history may soon help prepare future military leaders in the U.S.
Purdue University says that the university’s innovators have developed battlefield simulation technology that they used to produce a virtual reality tour of the D-Day beaches in Normandy, France (YouTube video here).