| 释义 |
Hindenburg line, n. Now Hist.|ˈhɪndənbɜːg ˌlaɪn|
[f. the name of the First World War German statesman and field marshal Paul von Hindenburg (1847–1934).]
The line of fortifications in north-eastern France constructed by the German forces in 1916–17 to withstand an Allied advance, and known in Germany as the Siegfried Line n. Also transf.
1917Punch 18 Apr. 251 (caption) Little Willie (of Prussia). ‘As one Crown Prince to another, isn't your Hindenburg line getting a bit shaky?’ Rupprecht (of Bavaria). ‘Well, as one Crown Prince to another, what about your Hohenzollern line?’ 1918Lit. Digest 7 Sept. 15/1 There are two Hindenburg lines. One is a great system of trenches and dugouts and gun-emplacements and observation-posts... The other is a spiritual line. 1938Ann. Reg. 1937 269 A breach was made in the Chinese ‘Hindenburg’ line from Kiangyin on the Yangtse to beyond Hangchow on the coast. 1957Encycl. Brit. IX. 533/2 The French under Gen. Robert Nivelle struck the Hindenburg line with 500,000 men.., but the German line of elastic defenses proved too much for the French. 1989Ibid. XXIX. 998/1 The Siegfriedstellung, or ‘Hindenburg Line’, was rapidly constructed across the base of the great salient formed by the German lines between Arras and Reims. |