VERDUN - Fort de Douaumont

  • by Pierre Grande Guerre
  • •
  • 24 Mar, 2019
  • •

Years of visit: 1986, 1994, 2005, 2009

Verdun is surrounded by a line, in the shape of a horse shoe, strengthened with 12 forts and several strong points. We do now focus on the Fort de Douaumont. A visit to the superstructure and to the interior of the fort.
As we reached the main entrance of Fort Douaumont, the sight of destruction was overwhelming.
The wartime entrance to Fort de Douaumont.
The main entrance used to look like this.
The other side of the gate in the former dry moat.
We walk from the south-west corner to the east.
1916 - Fort de Douaumont before the Battle
Next and above the entrance to the fort, hangs a series of bronze panels, commemorating some important events.
"24 OCTOBER 1916, WHEN THE R.I.C.M. (Colonial Infantry Regiment of Maroc) DID SET FOOT ON THE FORT DE DOUAUMONT, THE 321ST REGIMENT ON IT'S RIGHT SIDE, ATTACKED THE EAST FRONT OF THE STRONGHOLD, AND THE 4TH REGIMENT MIXTE DE ZOUAVES AND TIRAILLEURS (mixed regiment of Zouaves and Riflemen) AT IT'S LEFT, PENETRATED IN THE WEST MOAT. THESE THREE REGIMENTS, TOGETHER IN THEIR STRUGGLE, SHARE NOW THE HONOUR TO SEE WRITTEN ON THEIR BANNERS THE GLORIOUS NAME: VERDUN- DOUAUMONT."
"ON 24 OCTOBER 1916, THE COLONIAL INFANTRY REGIMENT OF MAROC (R.I.C.M.), AUXILIATED BY THE 43RD SENEGALESE BATTALION AND TWO SOMALI COMPANIES,
HAS CONQUERED WITH AN ADMIRABLE COURAGE THE FIRST GERMAN LINES, NEXT IT HAS PROGRESSED UNDER THE ENERGETIC COMMAND OF LIEUTENANT COLONEL REGNIER, BREAKING THE FOLLOWING RESISTANCES OF THE ENEMY OVER A DEPTH OF TWO KILOMETRES, HAS WRITTEN A GLORIOUS PAGE IN IT'S HISTORY, OVERPOWERING IN AN IRRESISTABLE ATTACK ON FORT DE DOUAUMONT AND HOLDING IT'S CONQUEST IN SPITE OF THE REPETITIVE COUNTER ATTACKS FROM THE ENEMY."
"ON 24 OCTOBER 1916 THE 38TH INFANTRY DIVISION HAS HAD THE GLORY AND THE MERIT OF RETAKING THE FORT DE DOUAUMONT FROM THE ENEMY. THE R.I.C.M., THE 4TH REGIMENT MIXTE DE ZOUAVES AND TIRAILLEURS, THE 4TH MARCH REGIMENT DE ZOUAVES, THE 8TH MARCH REGIMENT OF TUNISIAN RIFLEMEN, AND THE 32ND FIELD ARTILLERY REGIMENT, TOGETHER FORMING THE 38TH DIVISION, THE 133RD AND 74TH INFANTRY DIVISIONS HAVE TAKEN PART IN THE BATTLE, IN PARTICULAR THE 11TH AND 321ST REGIMENTS."
Later I will return to these events in some more detail.
"IN THIS FORTRESS REST 679 GERMAN SOLDIERS WHO WERE KILLED IN THE NIGHT OF 7 TO 8 MAY 1916 BY AN EXPLOSION IN THE MUNITION DEPOT."
A view at the south-east front of the fort.
Before we explore more of the exterior of the fortress, and more of the impressive top of this construction ... 
... we first visit ...
 
the Interior of Fort de Douaumont.
We go from here to the left and follow the corridor on the ground floor, from east to west. We pass the bakery.
Life in Fort de Douaumont must have been dark, ...
... humidous, and deafening by the sound of the constant bombardments.
We pass the room of the Lazaret, the dressing station.
Dressing station of Fort de Douaumont in action
A dormitory for the soldiers.
Notice in the corridor these chicane-shaped walls with the square openings. Behind these walls, covered with sandbags, the defenders could operate rifles, machine guns, or throw hand grenades.
A Memorial for six Chasseurs of the 46e Bataillon Chasseurs à Pied, killed on this spot on 14 december 1916 by a 420 mm grenade.
Poilus eating soup in the corridors of the Fort.
A side tunnel to the 155 mm gun turret, from this corridor closed for the public.
On the other, southern side of the main corridor, a room where an explosion of a French 400 mm grenade killed 30 German soldiers at once.
We walk on through the corridor, where the light is much weaker, than my photo's do suggest.
The German Operation Gericht 21-25 February 1916
How Sgt. Kunze "captured" Fort de Douaumont
 
The French had decided to withdraw the main part of their cannons and 500 troops from the fort, to strengthen the forces on the Somme. The French kept only one Howitzer Gun working. 
When the German attack started on Fort de Douaumont itself, on 25 February, there were only 56 French, Territorial artillerists and officers in the fort, listening to a lecture.
The Germans attacked from the north, as always from the most difficult and steepest slope of the hills.
After capturing the trenches surrounding the fort, only a Sergeant Kunze and 9 Pioneers, and later followed by 3 German officers, Lt. Radtke, Capt. von Haupt, and Lt. Cordt von Brandis with about 90 men of the 24th Brandenburger Regiment overtook the fort.
The loss of Fort de Douaumont was a disaster for the French with a large psychological impact.
The Germans immediately took advantage of the possession of the Fort, and deployed many attacks from the fort in the period May-August 1916. The fort was the centre of many fightings until 24 October, but the Germans would first face an unexpected fate.
German soldiers in a dormitory in Fort de Douaumont
We continue our exploration of the fort.
The officers dormitory.
The interior of the small room of an officer.
Another soldiers dormitory. 
On the right in this room stands this stove.
The ceilings of the corridors and rooms are scattered with stalactites of chalk.
The kitchen of the fort.
Fort de Douaumont during the German occupation: a cook at work
In the south-west of the fortress we near the location of the explosion disaster.

The Explosion Disaster of 8 May 1916
"IN MEMORY OF 679 GERMAN SOLDIERS OF THE 4TH (Btn.) BRANDENBURGER LEIB REGIMENT NR. 8, OF THE 2ND BRANDENBURGER GRENADEER REGIMENT NR. 12, OF THE 4TH BRANDENBURGER INFANTRY REGIMENT NR. 24, OF THE 6TH BRANDENBURGER INFANTRY REGIMENT NR. 52. THEY WERE KILLED HERE ON 8 MAY 1916 BY THE EXPLOSION OF AN AMMUNITION DEPOT. DUE TO UNCEASING ARTILLERY FIRE ONLY A PART COULD HAVE BEEN BURIED OUTSIDE THE FORTRESS. MOST OF THEM FOUND THEIR GRAVE ON THIS LOCATION."
The Germans seemed to have settled themselves quite comfortably in the fort. But in reality life in the fort was harsh. They were also under constant, heavy, French artillery fire, including gas grenades.

On 8 May 1916, around four o'clock in the morning, panic broke out under the German occupiers. "The Blacks are coming!", some soldiers shouted in confusion. They wrongly supposed they were attacked by Maroccan fierceless forces of the R.I.C.M.. A direct artillery hit reached some ammunition in a corridor and some ready to use grenades.
On the same time soldiers were using flame-thrower oil for cooking near the oil depot. The oil caught fire. Everyone was covered with soot, and the corridors were filled with a thick smoke. These factors explain their fear for an attack of "the blacks". In this state of alarm some soldiers throwed in panic hand grenades at the alleged intruders.
These grenades caused the explosions of ammunition and grenades, some filled with poisonous gas. As a result finally the main gunpowder room exploded. The bodies could not be buried, due to the fires that broke out. The bodies are therefore piled up in this empty ammunition depot: a pile of 679 bodies.
Incidentally, before 24 October 1916 the French never found out about this catastrophe.
 
The ammunition depot is quickly sealed up and, to this day, remains as a mass grave within the fort. Nowadays there is a chapel to commemorate the more than 700 German deads, caused by this one explosion disaster. 679 Deceased of them are buried behind the wall in the back.

Source: the witness report of the German Stabarzt Dr. B. Hallauer
(Dutch readers,  read my more detailed reconstruction of this event, based on the witness report of the German Stabarzt Dr. B. Hallauer, else on this website in: "Explosiecatastrofe In Fort Douaumont".)
Trench map of 17 May 1916, during the German occupation of the fort.
We go down to the underground floor.
The climate in the cellars is cool but very soggy. We follow this corridor from west to east.
The wash room.
The workshop and room for the electricity generator.
The desinfection room.
A gun powder depot and ...
... a battle Command Post.
Some soldier's art: A head of Christ, carved out in the stones.
Nearby another piece of soldiers art: a ship with sails.
We leave the cellar and climb the stairs up again ...
... to find our way to the 155 m gun turret on the east side of the fort.
We pass these 1917 latrines, ...
... and in the next corridor  we detect  this object, a part of the ventilation system.
Here we enter the room at the base of the 155 mm gun turret.
A dumb-waiter or elevator for lifting the shells.
Machinery to lift the cupola, to rotate and direct the gun.
The gun turret of the 155 mm forms a good reason to leave the fort now, and examine the turret at the outside;
 
on the superstructure of the Fort de Douaumont.
The cupola of the 155 mm gun turret.
From the centre of the roof: the horizon from which the Germans attacked.
Back to the east side. A bell shaped, steel observation post, directed to the north.
View from the east side over the superstructure of the fort.
The north-eastern point of the dry moat.
A machine gun turret at the east.
Tele view from this machine gun turret at the north-east point of the moat. Notice the rifle holes of the inner gate,
meant to control invaders in the moat.
Same machine gun turret, closer up.
View over the "glacis" from east to west.
Observation post near the centre of the top.
View eastward.
The French counter-attacks
Pétain and Joffre on 25 February 1916, 4 days after the beginning of the battle.
General Joffre appointed General Pétain as the Commander of the defense of the sector of Verdun and to recapture the fort and it's surroundings.
Later, on 24 October, Pétain's successor, Général Nivelle, launched new offensives.
On 24 October, the Army Corps of Général Mangin succeeded to recapture the Fort de Douaumont. As we have been reading on the bronze panels above the entrance, thanks to a large and decisive contribution of colonial troops, from Marocco, Somalia, Senegal, Tunesia, and Algeria. The operation in the whole sector ended on 15 December 1916.
Some French period images made during and after the battle
The trenches in the vicinity of Fort de Douaumont, barbed wire, and water filled craters.
French soldiers take position.
"Poilu's" preparing their hand grenades.
Explosion of an obus; soldiers try to hide themselves for the explosion.
German gas attack with fosgen gas.
From 24 October French soldiers were defending the fort with a captured German MG 08/15 machine gun
View of south-east side of Fort de Douaumont after the battle.
The main entrance.
An aerial view of the bomb craters.
The centre of the fort and highest point on the superstructure of it: an observation post, added after the Great War.
View from the top northward to the former German lines.
The 75 mm gun turret at the centre of the roof.
Nowadays the grounds in the horizon are military terrain, still in use every Monday and Tuesday exercising with modern, also dangerous explosives!
View from the centre eastward.
View up southward.
Again a view northward from the central observation bell.
Machine gun turret at the west side.
View to the west.
Tele view from this machine gun turret to the west point of the moat. Again an inner gate, a "coffre de contrescarpe", to guard the dry moat. The coffre de contrescarpe was connected with the main building via underground tunnels.
My late wife, Chris (*07-03-1955 - +08-05-2018), co-founder of this website
We leave the superstructure at the west side to inspect the west side on ground level.
Opposite the west corner lies the "Casemate de Bourges". At the flanks of all forts, designed by General Séré de Rivières (1815-1895), the French army constructed a "Casemate de Bourges". The Casemate de Bourges is armed with two 75 mm canons mounted on rails to defend the fort at the flanks.
Again: the west corner of the fort.
These renovations are of a later period.
Now we have been around this tour around Fort de Douaumont.
Outside the fort we follow a foot path along former trenches and shell holes to ...
 
Batterie 3212
The artillery position, gun turret Batterie 3212, lies at the east of the fort.
On the location of the gun turret stands this Memorial for the French 3e Battalion of the 74e R.I.
This concise inscription tells a horrific event about the period of the German occupation of Fort de Douaumont and it's near surroundings from 25 February until 24 October 1916:
"THE 3rd BATALLION OF THE 74TH INFANTRY REGIMENT ATTACKED THIS POSITION ON 22 MAY 1916 AND THEY KNEW TO MAINTAIN IT DURING 25 HOURS, HAVING LOST 72.2% OF THEIR TOTAL FORCES. HONOUR TO OUR COMRADES! ERECTED ON 22 AUGUST 1929."
View from the Memorial at the base of the gun turret of Batterie 3212.
This is all that is left of the gun turret.
We continue to the Nécropole Nationale de Douaumont. In between you will find an explanation about the final results of the Battle.
 

AISNE - Chemin des Dames

by Pierre Grande Guerre • 29 November 2019

De Vanceboro Bridge Bomaanslag

by Pierre Grande Guerre • 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 Pierre Grande Guerre • 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 Pierre Grande Guerre • 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 Pierre Grande Guerre • 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 Pierre Grande Guerre • 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 Pierre Grande Guerre • 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 Pierre Grande Guerre • 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 Pierre Grande Guerre • 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 Pierre Grande Guerre • 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.
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