VERDUN - Tunnel de Tavannes - Fort de Tavannes

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