VERDUN - Fleury - Pamart Bunkers - Fort de Souville - Batterie de l'Hôpital

duda-wsm • 23 March 2019

Years of visit: 1994, 2005, 2009

From Côte de Froideterre we continue our trip to the destroyed village of Fleury-devant Douaumont, the Mémorial de Verdun, some interesting memorials, Fort de Souville, and the Batterie de l'Hôpital.

Fleury-devant Douaumont
From Côte de Froideterre we follow the D 913 southward to the wood, scattered with shell holes.

Under this wood lie the ruins of the destroyed village of Fleury devant Douaumont.

Fleury devant Douaumont

Before the First World War, Fleury devant Douaumont was a village with 422 inhabitants in 1913. After 1870 a railway was constructed between Verdun and Douaumont, which runned along Fleury.
Due to the presence of a number of defence constructions like the fortresses of Douaumont, Froideterre, Vaux, and Souville many soldiers and workers passed the village.
In August 1914 the regiments of Verdun pass Fleury to get to the plain of Woëvre. With the battle of the Marne in September 1914 the front was fixed a few kilometres north-east of the village. During 1915, it is part of the fortress of Verdun and it forms the quarters of many soldiers.

On 21 February 1916 the village was awakened by the huge artillery preparation for the German infantry assault. The order is given to evacuate the village.
After the conquest of Fort de Douaumont, and after the surrender of Fort de Vaux on 7 June 1916, the front line from Froideterre passes through Fleury to the front of Fort de Souville. Fleury becomes a key position that can allow the Germans to break through to Verdun. From June to August, the German command launched several offensives in this part of the front.

On 23 June the Germans launched a bombardment of several thousands of shells on the village, many gas shells. The bombardment is followed by an attack of the best Bavarian light infantry troops, Garde-Jäger. The 121me Bataillon Chasseurs à Pied had to hold the position. The French were also trying to maintain their counterattacks involving airplanes gunning the troops on the ground. The 260th Brigade took over from the 121me and for several days a bitter fighting broke out on a few acres. The Germans conquered the village on 23 June, but the following day the French returned, and again two days later the Germans took the village in ruins again.
In two months, the village was taken and retaken 16 times by the French and the Germans.
From 13 July to 5 August intense fighting took place around the village in ruins. On the night of 17 to 18 August, the RICM (Colonial Infantry Regiment of Morocco) launched a final assault and reconquered the village. With the Zouaves and the skirmishers of the 38th Infantry Division, they fought for the territory of the village for 10 days.

In 1918, the village was declared "Died for France".  ("Mort pour la France") This is one of nine villages destroyed during the Battle of Verdun. The relief of the communal ground still reflects the huge amount of shells that it had received.

Many craters under the trees have a small marker, indicating for instance the former location of the bakery.

This is the after war built Memorial Chapel, "Notre-Dame de l'Europe", which stands on the former location of the village church. The chapel forms also a mark of honour, dedicated to the 1.796 soldiers of the 39e R.I., who died here.

Anywhere you look, you will see shell holes.

The location of the Café annex Grocery.

A memorial for the former inhabitants of Fleury.

"1914-1918 FLEURY DEVANT DOUAUMONT TO IT'S CHILDREN DEAD FOR FRANCE
HEROIC COMMUNITY OF WHICH THE NAME MUST BE SAVED IN THE MEMORY OF THE GENERATIONS TO COME. VANISHED UNTIL THE LAST STONE IN A HORRIBLE TORMENT, FORMING ALSO FOR THE DEFENDERS OF THE SOIL THE THREATENED CENTREPOINT OF THE BATTLEFIELD.
BY THE REVENGEFUL MAGIC OF IT'S RUINS, IT HAS ADDED TEN TIMES MORE TO THE ENERGY AND THE BRAVERY OF THE SOLDIER OF VERDUN DURING THE FIERCE COMBATS, OF WHICH IT HAS BEEN THE WITNESS AND WITH DEDICATION IT HAS ACQUIRED OF THE FATHERLAND TITLES OF ETERNAL RECONNAISANCE."

The memorial is located next to the former location of the community hall.

With some period photo's of the battlefield around Fleury in our mind, we continue a few hundred metres southward.

Mémorial de Verdun
The Mémorial de Verdun has been constructed on the location ...

... of the former railway station of Fleury.

A tele view from the Douaumont Cemetery at the Museum.

In front of the 1967 Museum there is an exhibition of artillery guns and shells, ...

... examples of the bombs, which ravaged this region.

Two French 75 mm guns transported from a fort.

French Grenades.

A German 420 mm shell.

A German 17 cm trench mortar.

We continue southward, to the former location of the Chapelle Sainte Fine .

This memorial, on the junction of the D 913 and the D 112, stands on the most advanced point of penetration of the Germans. It was also the jump off line for their attacks at Fort de Souville of 23 June 1916.

"HERE, BEFORE 1914, EXISTED YET THE RUINS OF AN ANCIENT LITTLE CHAPEL, CALLED "CHAPELLE STE. FINE".
THIS IS THE POINT FROM WHERE THE LAST GERMAN ATTACK WAVES CAME TO ANNIHILATE ON 23 JUNE 1916. IN A MASSIVE AND SURPREME EFFORT THE GERMANS HAD DEPLOYED 50.000 MEN ALONG 6 KILOMETRES OF THE FRONT AFTER AN ENORMOUS INTRODUCING ARTILLERY BOMBARDMENT.
IN THE MEANTIME, YET RISKING A DESPERATE ATTEMPT ON 12 JULY, THEY LAUNCHED AN OFFENSIVE, DIRECTED AT THE FORT DE SOUVILLE.
THERE THEY WERE DEFINITELY OVERPOWERED.
ON THE NEXT 24 OCTOBER A GREAT FRENCH COUNTER OFFENSIVE ALLOWED TO RETAKE IN ONE DAY THE LOST AREA INCLUDING THE FORT DE DOUAUMONT, WHICH WAS CONQUERED BY THE GERMANS ON 25 FEBRUARY."

At the other side of the road, at north of Fort de Souville rests the wounded Lion. We will return here later on our route.

Before we visit the fort we go left, to the D 112, southward for some interesting memorials.

At the east side of the road, the memorial for the French 30th Army Corps.

Next the memorial to commemorate the events around the Fort de Souville on 12 July 1916, and the heroic actions of Lieutenant Kléber Dupuy of the 7e R.I.

Second Lieutenant Dupuy and Captain Décap took important decisions, like deploying machine guns and artillery fire on the attacking Germans, which prevented the German conquest of the fortress.
( Source: JMO, 7me R.I. -12 Juillet 1916)

Next to it stands the impressive memorial, designed by Gaston Broquet, for war hero, Sergeant André Maginot.

André Maginot

André Maginot (17 February 1877 – 7 January 1932) was a French civil servant, soldier, and Member of Parliament.
In 1897 he received a Doctorate of Law degree. After taking the civil service exam in the same year Maginot began his career in the French bureaucracy, where he would serve for the rest of his life. He worked as the assistant of the Governor-General in Algeria until 1910, when he resigned and began his political career. He was elected to the Chamber of Deputies that year and served for six months as Under-Secretary of State of the Ministry of War just prior to the outbreak of World War I in 1914.

The inscriptions on the memorial tell us:

"UNDER-SECRETARY OF STATE OF THE MINISTRY OF WAR, DETACHED BY HIS MOBILISATION CALL, AS A SIMPLE SOLDIER OF THE 44e REGIMENT D'INFANTERIE TERRITORIALE. - HAS ORGANISED AROUND VERDUN A SECTION OF VOLUNTEER SCOUTS, OF WHICH HE TOOK THE DIRECTION, AND OF WHICH HE HAS BEEN THE SOUL. - DURING MORE THAN FIFTY PATROLS ON TERRAIN, OCCUPIED BY THE ENEMY, HE HAS GIVEN AN ADMIRABLE EXAMPLE OF COURAGE AND HAS BEEN DECORATED ON 6 NOVEMBER 1914. - HEAVILY INJURED ON 9 NOVEMBER, HE HAS HOLD HIS POSITION ALL DAY LONG, WITH A HANDFULL OF MEN AND IN SPITE OF HIS INJURIES, AGAINST AN ENEMY, WHO WAS VERY SUPERIOR IN NUMBERS. TO WHOM HE HAS INFLICTED GREAT LOSSES. - FOUR CITATIONS- MEDAILLE MILITAIRE FOR FACTS OF WAR = TWO INJURIES - CITATION AWARDED TO SERGEANT MAGINOT WITH THE CROSS OF KNIGHT IN THE LEGION OF HONOUR. PETAIN."

"ONE DAY THEY FOSTER THE CONCEPT THAT THEY FORCE A FUTURE WAR. IT IS A NECESSITY WHO STAYS IMPERIOUS. IT IS TO PREVENT AN INVASION OF THE TERRITORY. WE KNOW WHICH DISASTERS THEY CAN ACCUMULATE. DISASTERS BIGGER THAN VICTORY ITSELF. DON'T BE SATISFIED WITH COMPENSATING FOR THE IRREPAIRABLE DAMAGES. WE WOULD PREFER THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE ORGANISATIONS OF THE DEFENSIVE POSITIONS OF THE FRONTIERS. THEY HAVE NO OTHER GOAL THAN TO BLOCK THE ROAD TO THE ALWAYS POSSIBLE INVASION.
THE CONCRETE WILL BE BETTER AND WITH REGARD TO THIS IT COSTS LESS EXPENSIVE THAN THE WALL OF PARAPETS... - ANDRE MAGINOT, MINISTER OF WAR, DEMANDING FROM THE PARLIAMENT THE CREATION OF THE LINE OF FORTIFICATIONS, TO WHICH HIS NAME STAYS CONNECTED. -" - (The Maginot Line or Ligne de Maginot.)

When the war began, Maginot answered his mobilisation call to serve in the army. At first he was posted along the Lorraine front. In the autumn of 1914 Maginot was active gathering intelligence in the area around Verdun. In September 1914, he was promoted to Sergeant for his "coolness and courage." In November 1914, as Verdun was being invested, General Serrail showed Maginot a written authorization to evacuate Verdun. He asked Maginot, the Under-Secretary of War, not the Sergeant, what he would do. Maginot tore the authorization to pieces. On 9 November 1914, his knee was shattered in the battle. He was invalided out. Maginot would walk with a limp for the rest of his life.
In 1922 he was appointed War Minister under Raymond Poincaré. Maginot worked out a defensive plan, a combination of field positions and permanent concrete forts:
the later called Maginot Line.
( Source: Paul F. Wilson: " Find a Grave ".)

Broquet's sculpture catches the moment, when soldier Jolas helped the wounded Maginot to a dressing station.

We return to the wounded Lion of Souville, at the northern tip of the defensive works around Fort de Souville.
It is facing the Wood of Vaux Chapitre.

We follow the D 913 southward. In the battle sector of Fort de Souville, some 300 meters to the east of fortress, lies ...

... one of the three double machine gun bunkers, named after it's designer, Colonel Le Pamart .
(Sometimes also mentioned as Le Pamard)

The double machine gun bunker possesses a wide angle of 160 degrees.

This bunker is located on an eastern slope in front of Fort de Souville.

In 2005, to my regret, the bunker lost it's typical air shaft. Compare this with my older photo of the bunker of 1994.

Behind the bunker we follow the path southward to the second Le Pamart bunker.

The Le Pamart bunkers were connected to the fort by 220 m. long tunnels of sometimes 20 m. deep. Halfway the tunnels was an emergency shaft.

This time I detected something of interest inside.

The rusty remains of a machine gun!

We continue southward passing relics of trenches.

These trenches are near the war entrance of the fort.

South of the Le Pamart bunkers and the trenches , we arrive at the entrance of Fort Souville during the war years, officially called "Abri-Caverne de Souville" (Shelter-Cavern).

Fort de Souville, July 1916

Fort de Souville has been an important point of communication between the fortresses more forward on the front, like Douaumont, Tavannes, and Vaux, and also the Citadel of Verdun and the general headquarters at Souilly, south of Verdun.

Although General von Falkenhayn did not have the ambition to conquer the city at all ("Let the French bleed themselves to death at Verdun"), a well kept secret for the rest of the German Army, the loss of Fort de Souville would offer the Germans the final breach to attack the city itself. For the French, who had also the impression that the city itself was at stake, the fall of Fort de Souville meant the inevitable capture of Verdun.

Before 23 June 1916 German bombardments with 380 mm and 420 mm shells devastated the gun turrets of the fortress. In the early morning of 23 June the 103rd Division crossed the junction of the wounded Lion and attacked the top construction of the fortress. 150 men of them reached the roof but were chased away by Chasseurs Alpins.

On 10 July 1916, the German artillery launched 63.000 gas grenades at Fort Souville, in a territory of only 600 meters wide.
In this period of the war the French troops were rather prepared to gas attacks. With much effort the French resisted the follow-up of the infantry attack.

The second German and last attack at Fort de Souville was on 12 July 1916. The attack waves went on for 10 hours. The French deployed intense machine gunfire and artillery support to throw back German infantry attack. This time the French army resisted succesfully this German attack.

Right at the entrance of the fort: a sentry post, a latrine, and a wash stand.

The interior.

A 2005 picture of the entrance of Abri-Caverne de Souville.

The right corner.

On the same spot in July 1916:

The wall on the right side.

For safety reasons it is forbidden to enter the fort.

Inside the fort there is a dark, underground labyrinth of 990 rooms, narrow corridors, and low tunnels.

One could easily get lost in this labyrinth of several floors.

Some walls and ceilings look unstable.

In the floors there are "unexpected", square manholes, ...

... shafts leading to underground tunnels, sometimes more than 20 m. deep! There are about 50 of these deep shafts!

Warning

On 12 July 2009, a 25 year old Swiss tourist was not cautious enough, and fell down one of these shafts of Fort de Souville near a Pamart bunker for about 20 m.! It took a special rescue team almost 3 hours to rescue this tourist! (Source: L'Est Républicain, 12-07-2009.)
 So, it is quite dangerous to enter the fort!

Before I got lost myself, I decide to return to an exit.

We leave Fort de Souville, ...

... and continue eastward to the artillery position of ...

... the Batterie de l'Hôpital .

We pass some remains of trenches, and ...

... masonry bunkers.

In this area used to be a wartime cemetery. The corpses, exhumated here in the late twenties, are buried at the Nécropole Nationale de Douaumont .

Five large artillery bunkers of the battery, in a line next to each other, are hidden under the vegetation.

South of this bunker complex, Batterie de l'Hôpital, lays the front sector of Fort de Tavannes.

In the arched masonry bunkers lie piles of debris.

Sometimes with a hole in the roof, caused by a shell impact, ...

... leaving a pile of rubble.

Though the position came frequently under artillery fire, it was never captured.
With a last view we leave the Batterie de l'Hôpital ...

... to continue with a jump backward in time, to the first week of June 1916, and the siege of Major Raynal's Fort de Vaux.

AISNE - Chemin des Dames

by duda-wsm • 29 November 2019

De Vanceboro Bridge Bomaanslag

by duda-wsm • 14 November 2019
Inleiding: Franz Von Papen & Werner Horn; schaker en pion Onlangs stuitte ik in een oud boek (1) van 1919 op een opmerkelijk verhaal over een Duitse Luitenant, die in begin februari 1915 een half geslaagde bomaanslag pleegt op een spoorbrug over een grensrivier tussen de Verenigde Staten en Canada. Ook al staat de bekentenis van de dader, Werner Horn, deels in het boek te lezen, de naam van zijn opdrachtgever zal Horn blijven verzwijgen. Na wat verder zoeken vond ik ook de naam van Horn’s opdrachtgever, Franz von Papen, een van de aangeklaagden van het latere Neurenberg Proces in 1946. In een Grote Oorlog als de Eerste Wereldoorlog is Horn’s aanslag op de brug uiteraard slechts een bescheiden wapenfeit. Toch vermoed ik dat dit relatief onbekende verhaal, dat de geschiedenis is ingegaan als de “ Vanceboro International Bridge Bombing ”, nog interessante kanten kent. Het is onder andere een spionageverhaal over hoe in een groter plan een sluwe schaker zijn naïeve pion offert. Beknopte situatieschets Canada en de Verenigde Staten in 1915

ALSACE-LORRAINE - The Gap of Charmes - La Trouée de Charmes

by duda-wsm • 1 October 2019
This trip we start at the Léomont near Vitrimont and we will with some exceptions concentrate on the Battle of Lorraine of August-September 1914 in the area, called, the “Trouée de Charmes”, the Gap of Charmes. After the Léomont battlefield we continue our explorations to Friscati hill and its Nécropole Nationale. Next we pay a visit to the battlefield of la Tombe to go on to the Château de Lunéville. There we cross the Vezouze to move on southward to the Bayon Nécropole Nationale. At Bayon we cross the Moselle to pass Charmes for the panorama over the battlefield from the Haut du Mont. North-west of Charmes we will visit the British Military Cemetery containing 1918 war victims. From Charmes we go northward to the battlefield of the First French Victory of the Great War, the Battle of Rozelieures of 25 August 1914. North of Rozelieures we will visit the village of Gerbéviller. From there we make a jump northward to visit the ruins of Fort de Manonviller to finish with an interesting French Dressing Station bunker, west of Domjevin.

LORRAINE - Avricourt - Leintrey - Reillon - Domèvre - Parux

by duda-wsm • 18 September 2019
Though we depart from Badonviller in the Northern Vosges , we make a jump northward to the east of Lunéville and Manonviller . We start at Avricourt on the border of Alsace and Lorraine. From the Avricourt Deutscher Soldatenfriedhof we explore the southern Lorraine battlefields ; the mine craters of Leintrey , the Franco- German war cemetery and Côte 303 at Reillon , and some German bunkers near Gondrexon , Montreux , and Parux .

LORRAINE - Montreux - German Front Walk 

by duda-wsm • 13 September 2019
We depart from Raon-l’Etape to drive northward via Badonviller to Montreux to visit the " Circuit du Front Allemand 14-18", the Montreux German Front Walk 14-18, with its trenches , breastworks , and at least twenty bunkers.

LORRAINE - The Battle of Morhange - 1914

by duda-wsm • 8 September 2019
North-east of Nancy, east of Pont-à-Mousson, and south-east of Metz we visit the battlefields of the Battle of Morhange of 14 until 20 August 1914. We follow mainly topographically the route of the French advance eastward over the Franco-German border of 1871-1918. During this visit, we try to focus on the day that the momentum of the battle switched from the French side to the advantage of the Bavarian side: the day of 20 August 1914, when the Bavarians rapidly re-conquered the territory around Morhange , being also the day of the start of their rather successful “Schlacht in Lothringen”. We will visit beautiful landscapes of the "Parc Naturel Régional de Lorraine", memorials, ossuaries, and cemeteries. Sometimes we will divert to other periods of the Great War, honouring Russian and Romanian soldiers, who died in this sector. We start our route at the border village of Manhoué, and via Frémery, Oron, Chicourt, Morhange, Riche, Conthil, Lidrezing, Dieuze, Vergaville, Bidestroff, Cutting, Bisping we will finish in Nomeny and Mailly-sur-Seille, where the Germans halted their advance on 20 August 1914, and where they constructed from 1915 some interesting bunkers.

LORRAINE - Lanfroicourt – Nomeny - Monument du Grand Couronné 

by duda-wsm • 5 September 2019
South of Manhoué we start this trip at Lanfroicourt along the French side of the Franco-German 1871-1918 border, marked by the meandering Seille river. We visit some French bunkers in Lanfroicourt, near Array-et-Han and in Moivrons. From there we go northward to the outskirts of Nomeny and the hamlet of Brionne to visit the ( second ) memorial, commemorating the events in Nomeny of 20 August 1914. We continue westward to finish at the Monument du Grand Couronné at the Côte de Géneviève, a former French artillery base, which offers several panoramic views over the battlefield.

LORRAINE - Bouxières-sous-Froidmont - Verny - Feste Wagner

by duda-wsm • 28 August 2019
North of Pont-à-Mousson and south of Metz, we explore the relics of German bunkers and fortifications along the Franco-German 1871-1918 border. We start at Bouxières-sous-Froidmont to visit the nearby height of the Froidmont on the front line. This time we will show only a part of the Froidmont, focusing on its military significance. From the Froidmont we continue via Longeville-lès-Cheminot and Sillegny to the “Forêt Domaniale de Sillegny” to explore some artillery ammunition bunkers. Next we continue to Marieulles for its three interesting bunkers and to Vezon for its line of ammunition depot bunkers. From Vezon we continue to the “Deutscher Kriegsgräberstätte Fey – Buch”. From Fey we go eastward, passing 6 bunkers near Coin-lès-Cuvry to finish our trip at the top construction of the “Feste Wagner” or “Fort Verny”, north of Verny.

VOSGES - Mutzig - Fort de Mutzig - Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II

by duda-wsm • 25 August 2019
From Badonviller or the Col du Donon we continue north-eastward for a visit to an extraordinarily well restored sample of German fortifications: the Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II, or Fort de Mutzig, lying on a height, some 8 km. away from the 1871-1918 Franco-German Border.

VOSGES - Ste. Marie-aux-Mines - Tête du Violu / Bernhardstein

by duda-wsm • 23 August 2019
We concentrate on the German side of the front around "Markirch", Sainte Marie-aux-Mines, the so-called "Leber" front sector . We first pay a visit to the Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines Deutscher Soldatenfriedhof, and next to the southern side of the Col de Ste. Marie for the many interesting bunkers of the German positions at the Bernhardstein, at the north-eastern slopes of the Tête du Violu. On the next photo page about the Haut de Faîte we will continue with a visit to the northern side of the pass and the "Leber" sector.