VERDUN - Tunnel de Tavannes - Fort de Tavannes

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

Year of visit: 2005, 2006

South of Fort Vaux, we searched the region around Fort de Tavannes for the location of the Tunnel of Tavannes, and in 2006 we visited the relics of Fort de Tavannes itself.
On the right side of the D 913A we find this artillery bunker of the "Batterie de Tunnel".
On the left side of the road, I descended in a ravine to find this fortified entrance to a French dug-out and tunnel system.
We climbed again the hill to find these relics of a French dressing station bunker.
A trench at 200 m. north of the east exit of the Tunnel de Tavannes and 200 m. from the Germans.
With compass and map we entered a dense wood in search for the eastern entrance of the Tunnel of Tavannes.
Just as we got on the moment to give up our search, we detected through the dense vegetation the entrance
to the tunnel.
Nowadays there are two tunnel tubes, but we are interested in the original left tube.

(Be aware! The right rail track is of 1936 and it is still in use!).
During the war years the entrance to the left tunnel looked like this.
On the left side before the entrance, we find relics of the guard rooms.
The entrance to the guard room.
From the guard room a narrow corridor runs inside the tunnel. 
The tunnel's length is 1,2 km, and it was in the French second line on the front. It has been used as a huge bunker for 3.000 French troops during the Battle of Verdun.
The men were sleeping in high bunk beds along the walls. Deeper in the tunnel, niches has been made for dressing stations, bakeries, kitchens,  storage rooms and ammunition depots.
4 September 1916 - Fire Disaster in the Tunnel de Tavannes - More than 500 Dead
Begin September 1916 the east exit of the tunnel was less than 500 m. away from the 1st German line. The area of Tavannes was again heavily bombarded for days.
Fragment from the Journal des Marches et Opérations of the 369e R.I., d.d. 01-09-1016
On Monday, 4 September 1916,  there were soldiers and officers of the 18th, 24th, 346th, 367th, 368, and the 369th Regiments d'Infanterie and the 4th, 22nd 24th, 98th R.I.Territoriale in the tunnel.
Fragment from the JMO of the 98e R.I.T. , d.d. 04-09-1916
Around 21.30 hrs. officers and soldiers heared a series of explosions. Three bigger explosions, some moments later, caused a rapidly spreading fire.
The fire increased immensely, caused by the air current in the tunnel and turned, westward, into an inferno. Everybody panicked, and over 500 soldiers were killed. It took the French a week, until 11 September, before they could enter again the west side of the tunnel. Nevertheless, the confusion caused by this explosion remained unnoticed by the Germans.

Secret report of the General Staff of the II Army 
About the causes of this disastrous accident, the secret report of the General Staff of the II Army, dated 23 September 1916, tells us:
"III. -- Causes.
The investigation into the fire in the tunnel shows that this is not due, as was first assumed, to a short circuit, but most likely to an explosion of flares and grenades, which were carried by a work team on the backs of mules, which has passed the entrance of the tunnel only a few minutes before the explosion.
Two men have seen how these flares at the backs of donkeys ignite, without being able to tell the first causes, that could have provoked their explosion. Without doubt, this first explosion set fire to a depot with flammable liquids, and the fire, activated by an air current of the central ventilation shaft, has increased rapidly nearer and nearer the ammunition depots.
IV. --Losses”

(It is followed by a list of numbers of "disappeared" officers and soldiers.)
The noise of shellfire and the foul smell of all these men, under battle conditions, must have been almost unbearable.
Though many French soldiers prefered staying in the tunnel, considering it a safe shelter, over being in the first line of
the Battle of Verdun.

Spring 2006

In the dense woods around and before Fort de Tavannes ...

.. we find many relics of trenches and ammunition niches.
A "Pamart" machine gun bunker, Model 1918, stands about 100 m.  before the entrance of the Fort de Tavannes.
Fort de Tavannes
Left: the fort during the war. Right the fort after the war
Relics of the former outside main gate.
Dressing station at Fort de Tavannes, first week of June 1916: wounded men, escaped from Fort de Vaux.
Fort de Tavannes on a French trench map in 1916, and on a satellite photo of 2008.
The inside main gate and the "Grand Court" of the fort. 
For understandable reasons it is not allowed to enter the fort.
The deplorable state of the fort is too dangerous to enter. Piles of scattered debris, unstable corridors, and the presence of not cleared explosives, make wandering around in the fort very dangerous!
A last panorama view at the Grand Court of Fort de Tavannes.
Continue to the next chapter: "La Voie Sacrée".

AISNE - Chemin des Dames

by Pierre Grande Guerre • 29 Nov, 2019

De Vanceboro Bridge Bomaanslag

by Pierre Grande Guerre • 14 Nov, 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 • 01 Oct, 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 Sept, 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 Sept, 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 • 08 Sept, 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 • 05 Sept, 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 Aug, 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 Aug, 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 Aug, 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.
More posts
Share by: