Anyone traveling through Alsace will definitely visit Strasbourg, take a ride along the wine route, admire the half-timbered architecture and, perhaps, drop into some local castle. But not everyone will remember that the bloody events of many wars unfolded in this province. Alsace remembers the months-long confrontation between the fronts of the German and French armies during the First World War. Very interesting events unfolded here and during World War II. There are a huge number of places in one way or another connected with these historical events in this region. The most grandiose monument to past wars can be called the Maginot Line - a gigantic system of fortifications on the border with Germany.
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What the French built here at one time can be safely called a real miracle of military-defensive engineering. By the way, Maginot is the surname of the French Minister of War. One has only to think about these numbers - 39 long-term fortifications, 70 bunkers, 500 artillery blocks, 500 casemates, and an uncountable number of dugouts and observation posts. There were an average of 14 pillboxes per square kilometer of line. What is hidden under the ground and a 4-meter layer of concrete is also amazing - multi-level forts, power plants, warehouses, headquarters, powerful ventilation systems, narrow-gauge railways, hospitals, elevators and telephone exchanges. Many fortifications went underground to a depth of 50 meters. In addition, a special network of dams was organized on the surface to flood the surrounding area. Many pillboxes were built with the latest technology with artillery armored caps that could be raised for shelling and lowered back into the ground. The number of troops deployed along the entire line of defense reached 300 thousand people.
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The French invested a monstrous sum of 3 billion francs in this event and were, for the time being, confident that they had created a unique and absolutely impregnable fortification. It is also surprising that construction of the Maginot Line began back in 1929. That is, when there could be no talk of any aggression from a weakened and fragmented Germany. Truly the spirit of war was flying over Europe!
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But the French were preparing for a new war, drawing on the experience of the old one, with protracted positional battles. More precisely, they were confident that no one would even think about attacking such a perfect defense system. The goal of the entire Maginot Line is to force Germany to fight only in an easterly direction. But the French did not underestimate the Germans. They were not at all going to fight according to the rules imposed on them.
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After the Nazis captured Poland, England and France began the so-called “Phantom War” against Germany. That is, war was declared, but the artillerymen of both sides did not fire, the planes did not bomb, in a word, the main task was not to disturb the enemy. This is where the main mistake of the French was. The German army chose a short blitzkrieg strategy and successfully broke through the Maginot Line from Belgium in two places and captured Paris with a short and quick maneuver. A few days later, France declared capitulation and the garrison of the Maginot Line surrendered to the mercy of the winner without a fight. Isn't it a cautionary tale?
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We visited only two Maginot Line sites out of a large number of well-preserved parts of the fortifications. Almost everywhere these days there are museums in these disparate parts of the once unified system. For lovers of military history, this is a great opportunity to wander through the dungeons and feel the spirit and life of those times. But that’s not the problem! Most of these museums are open only in the summer, and sometimes on weekends. So we couldn't get inside. First we stopped at a place called Schonenburg.
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Here, in a small pine forest, there was a large stronghold of the Maginot Line. At the entrance we were greeted by an abandoned checkpoint building. A little further we saw the powerful walls of bunkers. The Schonenburg tunnels are located at a depth of up to 30 meters and stretch up to three kilometers in length. A working narrow-gauge railway leads inside the fort. A small train, which we saw through a locked grate, carries tourists through the dungeons of the fort.
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The fort is in excellent condition, although it came under heavy diversionary fire from German artillery in 1940. The Schonenburg Museum is probably very interesting, but we have to be content with only its external inspection. The same disappointment awaited us at the Hatten bunker. Its powerful armored doors were locked.
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This fortification is especially interesting because it managed to take part in a major battle. And not on the side of the French, but of the Germans. In 1945, the Hatten bunker proved to be a tough nut to crack for the advancing American army. Its walls, streaked with traces of bullets and shells, testify to a two-week bloody battle.
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Huge torn craters with shreds of reinforcement serve as evidence of powerful air bombs hitting the bunker. The Germans in Hatten were able to do what the French could not and forced the Americans to retreat on this section of the front and look for other opportunities for an offensive. In this place, without even going inside, we felt the elusive spirit of war, which years cannot erase.
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At the top of the bunker there is now an American Sherman tank, which serves as a good landmark for visitors passing by. It’s also surprisingly calm here. Even the highway passing nearby does not disturb this special silence. It’s as if the terrible battle ended only yesterday... I would like to believe that this silence will last forever!
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I really regret that this time I did not have enough time and opportunity for a more detailed excursion along the Maginot Line. Who knows when it will be possible to return here. But a piece of the history of these places remains in my memory. So it’s not in vain that we came here...
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The Second World War, which began 70 years ago, became another confirmation of the well-known thesis about generals who are preparing for the last war. The memory of the positional meat grinders of the previous global conflict forced the authorities of a number of countries to begin constructing defensive lines of colossal scale and equipment. Despite the efforts and resources spent, none of these “Chinese walls” could significantly influence the outcome of the fighting. It was already another war
Armored artillery tower of the large fort Zimserhof, which was part of the fortified Rohrbak sector
In World War I, Germany suffered a complete defeat, and the Versailles Peace Treaty of 1919 deprived it of its army, leaving only 100,000 soldiers, divided into several divisions without heavy weapons. However, the French government and military experts understood that the current situation could not persist for long. Sooner or later, Germany's military power will be revived. Consequently, to prevent the Germans from having a desire to reconsider the results of the war and recapture what they had lost, weighty arguments were required.
About the tastes of generals and politicians
It is in the eastern part of France that the ten richest provinces are located, which at that time produced 60% of steel and steel products, 94% of copper, 76.5% of zinc. In any possible development of events in a potential war, the army was obliged to prevent the Germans from entering these important economic areas. First of all, from the northern and northeastern directions.
Military science distinguishes between two types of defense - rigid (positional) and maneuverable. In the first case, troops stubbornly defend a certain line and do not allow the enemy to cross the front line. Maneuverable defense is based on the fact that positions are not held particularly firmly and can be surrendered after some time, and when the enemy inevitably exhausts his resources and offensive capabilities, the previous position is restored by counterattacks. Thus, maneuver defense allows for the temporary loss of certain territories.
This type of defense is loved by the military and absolutely abhorred by politicians and government leaders. The military loves it because, unlike positional defense, maneuverable defense does not make the defending troops passive, does not allow the enemy to impose its will on the defenders, and allows it to seize the initiative at the right moment and move from defense to offense. The positional one puts the defenders in an obviously losing position. The enemy will sooner or later find a gap in the defense line, and this is fraught with encirclement.
But maneuverable defense makes politicians nervous. It is very difficult for them to explain to the population the loss of territories, the abandonment of fellow citizens under the rule of the enemy, and material losses. The population views all this as an unsuccessful course of the war. The political and moral state of the people is falling, which is fraught with general defeat in the war.
So, in the event of war, allowing the German army into the richest provinces meant putting France in a difficult situation and depriving the army of the opportunity to replenish resources. Paris saw the only way to prevent this - to organize an impenetrable positional defense along the border with Germany. And this type of defense requires powerful fortifications, linked into a single system and capable of withstanding fire from large-caliber siege weapons and repelling attacks of large masses of infantry for a long time. To these long-standing demands were added two new ones. First, the structures must provide protection from toxic substances, since it was believed that a new war would definitely be chemical. The second requirement is that the defense must be anti-tank.
Wehrmacht tank trump card
The system of rigid border defense based on fortresses, which existed for several centuries, proved to be untenable already in the great war of 1914–1918. None of the fortresses survived for more than two weeks. The only exception was the Verdun fortress, and only because it was included in the general system of field fortifications and became part of the Verdun fortified area. French military experts decided to rely on the experience of positional defense of the past war and create a line of long-term field fortifications along the border from Switzerland to Luxembourg, including individual fortifications (mainly forts) of old fortresses.
Many historians believe that the creation of the Maginot Line was a major mistake and that by definition it could not fulfill its purpose, turning out to be the new Great Wall of China. However, they do not take into account that, based on the terrain conditions, the Wehrmacht did not have much choice: after numerous discussions of various options, German generals generally returned to the so-called Schlieffen plan, according to which Germany began the war in 1914. The French military knew this very well. They assumed that the Wehrmacht would try to break into France through Belgium, as happened in World War I, and the Maginot Line would prevent German troops from striking elsewhere.
The French believed that by tightly holding most of the northern and northeastern border and thereby retaining the most important industrial areas, they would impose field battles on the Germans in the north of the country with the transfer of fighting to Belgium. At the same time, they will have the opportunity, at a convenient moment, to strike the enemy from behind the Maginot Line in the direction of the north and cut off the entire German army, intercepting its supply lines.
All these arguments were not without logic, and the tragic mistake of Paris turned out to be completely different. The French were unable to predict the new German tactics - rapid attacks by mechanized formations based on tanks. The French field defense could not withstand the rapid onslaught of tank forces, and the Wehrmacht went to the rear of the Maginot Line.
Shut off from Hitler
The history of the Maginot Line began in 1920, when Minister of War Andre Lefebvre headed the Supreme Military Council to study the problems of defense of the eastern borders. Cardinal contradictions then arose between Marshals Joseph Joffre and Henri Philippe Pétain regarding the organization of the country's positional defense. The latter proposed the construction of light field fortifications, to which, in his opinion, it was necessary to add a fleet of mobile fortification equipment and materials (mobile armored vehicles, sets of structures and materials for the rapid construction of barriers and firing points). Joffre insisted on the creation of two or three huge, powerful fortified areas with barriers between them.
In 1926, the Commission on Border Fortifications was organized, which decided to build two fortified areas and several smaller fortified sectors. However, work progressed slowly until 1929, when Andre Maginot headed the War Ministry. He gave this construction such a powerful impetus that over time, the fortifications on the eastern border were named after him.
The Maginot Line was originally designed and built with the intention of keeping the enemy on the border line only for the two to three weeks required to mobilize and deploy the French army to wartime states.
Minister Maginot changed the objectives of this defensive system. Since 1930, it was built with the goal of completely stopping the enemy’s advance and depriving him of the opportunity to conduct active combat operations on the northern and northeastern fronts. Maginot pegged the completion date for 1935, when, under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, the French army had to leave the Rhineland.
Due to the fact that the government decided to withdraw occupation troops from this area not in 1935, but in 1930, the minister was able to achieve a manifold increase in funding for the work. Although Maginot died in 1932, funding was increased again in 1933, when Hitler came to power in Germany and the shadow of a new conflict loomed on the horizon. In 1936, almost simultaneously, the Maginot Line came into operation, and Hitler sent his troops into the Rhineland, thereby putting a final end to the Treaty of Versailles. The French-German war was only a matter of time.
Shots of desperation
In September 1939, after France declared war on Germany, the personnel took up their combat posts, but until the end of the “phoney war” in May 1940, they had to deal mainly with the development of auxiliary positions, strengthening barriers and carrying out patrol duty. It is widely believed that the Maginot Line fell without firing a single shot. However, it is not.
In the early days of Hitler's invasion, the artillery of Forts Schonenburg and Hochwald opened fire on German positions across the border. They were joined by some of the UR Lauter forts, whose guns could reach German territory.
When the Germans, moving in the Ardennes between the old fortifications of Montmédy, Douaumont and Vaux, began to bypass the Maginot Line in the direction of the southeast, one of their infantry divisions turned to the most extreme fortification of the continuation of the Maginot Line - the small fort of La Ferte. The first shelling from divisional guns did not cause serious damage to the fort, but on May 17 the Germans brought up two 280-mm siege mortars, which destroyed two artillery caponiers. The fort stubbornly resisted, but the concerted actions of German artillerymen and sappers, who blew up the structures one after another, forced the garrison to surrender. On June 12-14, the garrisons of three other forts of the continuation of the Maginot Line blew up their structures and retreated. As we see, the continuation of the Maginot Line fought, drawing off part of the German forces.
On the fourth day of the war, May 14, the Germans shelled Fort Schonenburg, the main part of the Maginot Line, first with 280 mm and then 420 mm guns. However, these attacks were of a demonstrative, distracting nature. At this time, the Germans crossed the Meuse River between Sedan and Dinan and had no intention of attacking the French forts.
The Wehrmacht's breakthrough in the direction of Dunkirk and Paris marked a bypass of the Maginot Line, and the French field troops began to roll back in a southwestern direction, since it no longer made sense to remain near the fortifications.
In June, the Germans felt that Fort Fermont near Longillon was creating some difficulties for them and subjected it to brutal fire from 88-mm anti-aircraft guns. Although the anti-aircraft guns did an excellent job of destroying the artillery armored caps of the fort, on June 21 Fermont successfully repelled a serious attack by German infantry.
At the same time (June 14), the Wehrmacht launched Operation Tiger, during which German troops broke through the Saar fortified sector and by June 21 deployed in the rear of the UR Metz, capturing most of the small forts of this fortified area.
In UR Lauter, the Germans broke through between Bietsch and Lembak. Their heavy 420 mm siege mortars began shelling the large forts of Hochwald and Schonenberg on June 20, but were unable to cause significant damage to them.
In addition, on June 15, the Germans began crossing the Rhine. The Rhine fortifications tried to repel the attackers, but the old weak caponiers were unable to withstand the fire of 88-mm anti-aircraft guns. Wehrmacht troops captured the first line of fortifications and reached the second. The French field units were ordered to retreat. The Rhine fortifications fell.
Although most of the Maginot Line forts remained fully operational and could fight, the general surrender of France put an end to the short history of this line of fortifications.
The myth of the “Stalin Line”
Concluding the story about the Maginot Line, it is worth noting that it was the most powerful and well-equipped defensive line in the world. Its structures are the pinnacle of fortification art. The miniscule size of the bunkers of the rare Soviet border fortifications, stretching for 1,835 km from Leningrad to the Black Sea, cannot be compared with the powerful Maginot forts. Suffice it to recall that the French had 7.7 structures per kilometer of front and nowhere did the gaps between bunkers exceed 8 km. On the Soviet western border there was an average of 0.7 structures per kilometer of front, and the gaps between individual fortified areas ranged from 15 to 250 km.
The Maginot Line garrisons (in addition to the field troops) had a total strength of 264,000 people, and this is actually 200 km. Consequently, with the same density of troops, the garrisons of Soviet fortified areas would have to range from 1,320,000 to 2,376,000 people, which is simply unrealistic. The term “Stalin’s line” was born in the post-war period and pursued political and ideological goals - to present the Soviet military leadership as a bunch of mediocrities. In reality, the “Stalin line” never existed and could not exist. No state can build a stable line of fortifications of such a length. Even the strongest and richest.
The sad example of expensive French fortifications, which, despite all their power, could not play the role assigned to them, clearly proved that the times of positional defense with the help of long-term fortifications had sunk into oblivion. And if the mythical “Stalin Line” were ten times stronger, it would have suffered the same fate as the real Maginot Line.
MAGINO LINE - system of French long-time uk-re-p-le-nies and za-gra-zh-de-ny on the border with Germany her, Luke-sem-bur-gom and an hour with Bel-gi-ey.
It arose since 1926 (according to other sources, since 1928) at the suggestion of the Commission on Border Uk-re-p-le-ni- pits under the leadership of the Minister of War of France (vna-cha-le P. Pen-le-ve, and since 1929 A. Ma-zhi-no, in honor of someone's name ). It went into operation in 1936 and was completed until 1940.
The main lo-sa defense, the pro-ho-div-shay from Lon-guy-o-na to Belle-forta, had a length along the front of about 400 km and a depth of 10-22 km (including provision of a depth of 4-14 km). The “Maginot Line” consisted of 3 Ukrainian districts: Mets-ko-go (Lo-ta-ring-sko-go), Lau-ter-sko-go (El -zas-sko-go) and Bel-for-sko-go, as well as 2 uk-re-p-len-nyh sec-to-ditch with sis-te-ma-mi behind-p-le - places of location. The defensive line from Stras-bourg to Belle-forte was based on natural obstacles (the Rhine River and the Rhine-Rhine canal ) and did not have powerful uk-re-p-le-nies. Construction of defense co-ordination along the border with Belgian to the north of the Maginot Line on the began only in 1936 and by the beginning of the 2nd World War, in 1939-1941, it was not over.
In total, about 5.6 thousand long-term fire-fighting structures were built (including 520 artillery and 3.2 thousand guns -nyh). At the most dangerous places on the right, 22 large groups (en-samble) of long-term defenses were created -normative constructions. They united between each other under-the-earth gal-le-rays and had gun towers retracting inside with 135-mm cannons, as well as artillery and gun-throwing ka-ze-ma-ty, premises for personal units, warehouses with a 3-month supply of pro-vol-st-via and bo-e-pri-pa-sov, us-ta-nov-ki for filtering carts -du-ha, auto-power-stations, water-pro-water, ka-na-li-za-tion and so on. Concrete re-covering (up to 3 m) supports two 420 mm shells in a straight line.
The gar-ni-zone of the largest s-or-or-niums counted up to 1.2 thousand people. To serve the Maginot Line, special military forces were created (by May 1940 - 224 thousand people). At the beginning of the 2nd World War, 2 army groups (50 divisions) were stationed on the Maginot Line.
You didn't show up to the Maginot Line even before the war began. Li-niya had an insufficiently-accurate deep-bi-well, a weak pro-ti-tan-co-voy and a pro-ti-air-spirited back-ro-ro -well, there wouldn’t have been any preparation for pro-ve-de-niya in her pre-de-la ma-nev-ra po-le-you howl-ska-mi.
In May - June 1940, German troops bypassed the Maginot Line from the north through the Ardennes and went to the rear of the French army, which was before the decision -the outcome of the entire French campaign of 1940. At the position of the German army group "C", in advance of the Maginot Line from the front in the middle of Saint-Avol. -house and Sa-ar-bruk-ken-nom, us-pe-ha had no. Only after moving to the left of the troops from the Maginot Line did the Germans manage to overcome the lo-su on a narrow train station. Many gar-ni-zones of long-term defensive co-ordination pro-long the co-op-tion and complexion Weapons were only available after the ka-pi-tu-la-tion of France.
In the last period, the large-scale construction of the Maginot Line was converted into military warehouses property and for other purposes.
The Maginot Line is a system of French fortifications on the border with Germany from Belfort to Longillon. It was built in 1929-1934 (then improved until 1940). The length is about 400 km. Named after the Minister of War Andre Maginot. It included 39 long-term defensive fortifications, 70 bunkers, 500 artillery and infantry units, 500 casemates, as well as dugouts and observation posts.
The French assumed that the Germans would act in the same way as in 1914 - they would try to bypass the French troops through Belgium from the northeast. Therefore, their defense plan involved repelling a German attack on the Dyle River and passive defense on the fortified Maginot Line.
About 3 billion francs ($1 billion in prices of those years) were spent on the construction of the Maginot Line. The total number of troops on the line reached 300 thousand people. The underground multi-level forts were equipped with living quarters for personnel, power plants, powerful ventilation units, narrow-gauge railways, telephone exchanges, hospitals, rest rooms, inaccessible to shells and bombs.
On September 1, 1939, Germany attacks Poland and on September 3, France declares war on Germany, from this day mobilization takes place and the fort is filled with soldiers who will leave it only in June 1940 after the surrender of France. Until May 10, 1940, the period of the “Phantom War” lasted, during which both sides: Germany and France sat behind their lines of fortifications and large-scale hostilities were not conducted. After the Germans broke through the Maginot Line in the Saar region, fighting began in this region, but despite powerful attacks by the Germans with artillery support, the fort was never captured and remained undefeated. After the surrender of France on June 25, 1940, the soldiers of the fort were forced to surrender on honorable terms by order of the French High Command. A few days later, the fort PO Rohrbach was handed over to the Germans and its defenders were sent to one of the prisoner of war camps.
04. German soldiers near the second block in 1940.
photo: http://www.fortcasso-maginot.com
05. Second block in our time. The hole with a grille in the foreground is the air intake of the ventilation system, iron fittings with wire stretched between them are radio communication antennas. Near the entrance there is a machine gun embrasure, which was supposed to prevent the enemy from approaching close to the block. In front of the walls of the block there is a so-called diamond ditch, the main purpose of which was to receive fragments of concrete from the walls and roof in the event of an air bombardment of the fort. In this way, blocking the exit from the fort with concrete debris was avoided. The bridge spanning the diamond ditch was removed inside when the fort was closed. This door is the only entrance to the fort, apart from the emergency exit tunnel.
The German army did not use the fort either in 1940 or in the fight against Allied forces in 1944-45. Thanks to this, the fort was not damaged and was perfectly preserved in almost its original condition. In 1951, many forts of the Maginot Line, including Fort Rohrbach, were modernized and put on combat readiness due to the emergence of a new potential enemy - the Warsaw Bloc. But after the French created their nuclear weapons, the defensive structures of the Maginot Line finally lost their relevance and in 1970 Fort Rohrbach was withdrawn from the army. In 1987, activists from local residents, with the support of the city of Rohrbach-les-Bitche, began to restore the fort, and in 1989 the association "Fort Casso" was created, the goal of which was to restore the fort to its pre-war condition and open it to the public.
06. American troops near the second block in 1944. 
photo: http://www.fortcasso-maginot.com
That's all about the history of the fort. Now a few words about the structure of the fort. All Maginot Line forts have the same structure and consist of a certain number of combat blocks (3-4 blocks for small forts and up to two dozen blocks for the largest forts of the defensive line), connected by underground tunnels (poterns). In addition, underground there are barracks for accommodating personnel, a kitchen, a power plant, a hospital, a command post, signalmen's quarters, warehouses for provisions, fuel and ammunition. In essence, the fort was a small underground city, capable of holding its defense for two months, remaining completely autonomous. The depth of the underground part of Fort Rohrbach is 25 meters. This is a safe depth to which it was impossible to penetrate by explosive means, even if bombed in the same place. The fact is that the most powerful bomb of the time when the Maginot Line was built left a crater six meters deep. The second bomb, dropped into the crater from the first, penetrated not six meters, but much less. Thus, it was impossible to break through to a depth of 25 meters using weapons of that time.
The picture below, although not related to this fort, gives an excellent idea of what the combat block of the Maginot Line fort and its underground system look like.
source: www.lignemaginot.com
The diagram of the small fort PO Rohrbach is shown in the figure below. As can be seen from the diagram, the fort consists of three combat blocks connected by turns, several hundred meters long. The fort has one main entrance located in the second block. In addition to the main one, there is also an emergency exit, which is located at the end of the adit, which originates near the third block. The length of this adit can be several hundred meters, or maybe a kilometer or even more. The entire underground part of the fort (barracks, kitchen, warehouses, power plant) is concentrated near the second entrance block. In total, 182 people served at Fort PO Rohrbach: 6 officers and 176 ordinary soldiers.
07. Well, let's now go inside and see what it all really looks like.
08. Machine gunner’s position with a MAS 24/29 machine gun built into the embrasure, guarding the entrance to the fort. If the entrance armored door is blown up and the enemy begins to storm the fort, the first thing he will stumble upon is the barrel of a machine gun.
09. In the next room there is a filter and ventilation unit. On the filters you can see the year they were installed in the fort - 1939.
10. The second block is equipped with two armored domes: the first is a GFM dome, I wrote about this type of dome in previous posts dedicated to the structures of the Maginot Line. The second dome is AM type (Arme Mixte). This is how they look from the outside (AM in the foreground, GFM in the background):
11. An observation armored cap of the GFM type, familiar to us from previous posts. It could be equipped with optics for observation; if necessary, a MAS 24/29 light machine gun or a 50-mm caponier mortar was built into the embrasure. The thickness of the cap armor is 300 mm, the weight of the GFM armored cap is 26 tons.
12. And this is the AM type armored cap shaft. Here the equipment looks more impressive.
13. The AM type armored cap was equipped with a combined weapon consisting of a machine gun and a 25-mm anti-tank gun. This is the most impressive type of armored cap used at Maginot Line facilities. The weight of the armored cap reached up to 50 tons.
14. The combined weapon from this armored cap is displayed nearby for clarity.
15. Behind the next armored door there is an elevator shaft and a spiral staircase going around it downwards. Only officers or other high-ranking visitors to the fort had the right to use the elevator; soldiers walked. In addition to the officers, the elevator transported food and ammunition to the lower level. This is the fort's only elevator. The elevator cabin could accommodate eight people or a ton of cargo and was equipped with a stopper in case of a break in the supporting cable.
16. We go down underground along the stairs that go around the elevator shaft fenced with bars. There are 145 steps leading underground.
17. The underground level of Fort PO Rohrbach lies at a depth of 25 meters in limestone soil - this is approximately the height of a nine-story building.
18. Numerous communications between the underground part of the fort and the surface.
19. So we reached a depth of 25 meters, from this place my acquaintance with the fascinating underground world begins.
20. Immediately opposite the elevator there is a small storage room with various small household items. This room served as an intermediate warehouse, where the elevator could be quickly unloaded and sent for a new batch of cargo. During hostilities, the premises also served as a morgue. But in the entire history of the fort, only one soldier died here, patrolling the area around the fort and stumbling upon a German reconnaissance detachment.
21. To get shots without people, I walked at the very end of the tour, so some of the photos turned out looking back. Behind the door in the photo is the elevator lifting mechanism.
Let's return once again to the fort diagram. I have drawn a red oval around the part of the fort that I will show in this post. Immediately next to the stairs and the elevator there is a kitchen; opposite it is an energy center, which includes transformers for converting high-voltage current received from the outside via a power cable, as well as an autonomous power plant consisting of two diesel generators. Next are the soldiers' barracks and officers' quarters, the infirmary, the command center and the warehouse part of the fort, which houses a small museum with various weapons and equipment of the fort. The diagram also shows the appendix of an unfinished postern, which was supposed to lead to another combat block, but due to funding cuts, this block was never built, and the postern was filled in before the war.
Now let’s examine the entire underground part of the fort in the listed sequence.
22. The closest room to the elevator shaft is the kitchen. Where people are visible in the photo is the exit from where we started the underground walk. That is, the photo was taken with the back to the turn leading further into the fort.
23. Living for months in a confined space in a bunker is psychologically very difficult. Therefore, in order to maintain the morale and vigor of personnel, the nutrition of soldiers was given a special role. The food in the bunkers of the Maginot Line was much better than on the surface. The best chefs were brought into the bunkers and the kitchen was equipped with the latest technology of the time. Much of the kitchen equipment installed in the Maginot Line forts did not appear in ordinary apartments until decades later.
24. All the equipment in the kitchen, including the ovens, was electric. The large silver box on the right side of the photo is a coffee maker.
25. And this amazing device peeled potatoes. Thus, the soldiers were freed from their potato peeling duties. Everything in this fort was designed to make life underground as easy as possible.
26. This is the high-tech kitchen of the mid-30s.
27. Behind the kitchen there are several closets, in one of them there are hooks for meat carcasses.
28. In another there is equipment, the purpose of which could not be determined. Possibly some kind of refrigeration unit.
29. Window for issuing food to soldiers.
30. A characteristic feature of the Maginot Line forts was the absence of dining rooms. Each soldier received his own food and ate it either on his bed or at these tables displayed right in the fort's walls. In the photo below, the tables are located right next to the kitchen.
31. And this is the turna, going to the other two combat blocks. Here we also see tables with benches along the underground passage.
32. Immediately opposite the kitchen there is a power station with backup diesel generators. Let's take a look there.
33. Stylish diesel punk is everywhere here. The door in the center of the frame leads into a room with huge fuel tanks.
34 In case of damage to the power cable feeding the fort, a local power station consisting of two SMIM (Paris) engines was built in one of the premises.
35. Both engines are four-cylinder, developing 100 hp. at 600 rpm. Thanks to low speed operation, the engines were very reliable.
36. Electrical panel.
37. In this corner of the power station, under the floor, there is a well, 250 meters deep, from which the entire fort is supplied with water using an electric pump located under the floor. The photo on the right shows part of the pumping equipment for transporting water from the well to the fort's reservoirs.
38. This is what the entire power plant room looks like.
39. The engines are quite impressive in their appearance and size.
40. In the corner of the power plant hall there is a small workshop, which had everything needed to fix minor malfunctions in the operation of equipment.
41. Tool.
42. Workshop.
43. Each of the engines was connected to an alternating electric current generator. The huge engines were started using compressed air, which was supplied to two of the four cylinders in order to drive a driveshaft with a huge and heavy flywheel. After the engine accelerated, the stationary operating mode with fuel injection was switched on. Tanks with compressed air necessary for starting diesel engines are visible in the photo on the left.
44. At the output there is another single-cylinder engine with a small generator, possibly a backup one. The inspection of the power plant is over and we return to the main area.
45. The room next to the power plant is the transformer room. Let's take a look there too.
46. As I already mentioned, the fort was powered through a power cable from outside. In the transformer, the current received from the outside was converted into 110 volts of the fort's internal network. This is what transformers and related electrical equipment look like. All this still works.
47. Behind the transformer room there is a room with huge tanks. They contain water for cooling power plant equipment.
48. It is very difficult to photograph them, since they occupy most of the volume of the room.
49. There are safety instructions on one of the tanks. The one on the left seems to be original from the 30s, and the one on the right looks like a replica or from a later time.
I found an excellent plan on the Internet for the part of the fort we examined. Everything is shown very clearly here. And we go further to the barracks part of the fort.
50. At the end of the technical zone, the postern makes a slight bend, which can be seen in the picture above.
51. The armored doors on the left side of the photograph lead to the barracks part of the fort, and the walls on the right side of the fort lead to two other combat blocks.
52. The scale of the underground labyrinths is very impressive.
53. Bathroom. All the lighting of the fort was duplicated with ordinary candles or gas lamps in case of electricity failure. You can see a candle on the left of the photo. The closed door in the photo is a toilet for officers and command, toilets with half-open doors are for ordinary soldiers.
54. Sewage was collected in special tanks with chemical solvents - prototypes of modern dry closets. The tanks were located under the toilets; there was no classical sewage system in the fort.
55. Next to the toilets there is a small room with washbasins.
56. There are shower rooms nearby. Of the three shower stalls, one was intended for disinfection of victims of toxic gases, the other two were ordinary showers. Every soldier had the right to take a shower once a week.
57. Filter and ventilation unit designed to disinfect victims of a gas attack.
58. Twenty meters from the showers and toilets are the barracks themselves.
59. One of the two rooms with iron beds for ten places was intended for professional workers of the fort: mechanics, orderlies, cooks, electrical engineers.
60.
61. Ordinary soldiers slept in hammocks, which were hung in two levels. This room could accommodate 26 hammocks. The peculiarity of such a room was that the metal structures were easily dismountable, which made it possible to turn the room into a festive hall in a very short time. In 1939, the soldiers of the fort celebrated Christmas here with songs, fun, and wine.
62. Nearby is another room with hammocks, but smaller.
63. Double room for non-commissioned officers.
64. Fort commander's room, the only single room in the fort.
65. The room where the lieutenants lived.
66. The fort also had a small medical unit, consisting of a dressing room...
67. ...and wards for two patients.
68. At this point, the inspection of the barracks is completed, we move to the next location, located next to the barracks - the command center, from where the fort was controlled.
69. The command center is located around the next bend (pictured on the left).
70. Main hall of the command center. Pay attention to the radiator. The fort was heated by air heaters, which supplied warm air to all rooms of the fort. The installation of central water heating was in the process of installation but the work was interrupted by the outbreak of war. Therefore, in different rooms of the fort you can find heating radiators that have never worked.
71. The command center received information about the situation outside and inside the fort. An analysis of the situation was immediately carried out and from here orders were given to various combat units and communication was carried out with neighboring forts.
72. The main sources of information were the fort’s five armored observation towers, information from which was reported to the command center by telephone. Also, thanks to telephone communications with neighboring forts, the fort command was well informed about the situation tens of kilometers around.
73. Appeal of General de Gaulle to the French nation.
74. Telephone cables between the forts were laid at a depth of three meters in the vicinity of the fort and at a depth of two meters in the fields. In addition to direct telephone communication between the forts, each of the forts was connected into a single telephone network, laid a kilometer from the potential front line. In case the telephone line failed, there was a backup option for communication between the forts using signal flares.
75. Telephone exchange. The officers and telephone operators were located closest to the command center in the fort. Thus, when an alarm was declared, the command center began to function almost immediately. Telephone operators recorded all information received from outside in special documents, which were immediately studied by officers, maps of the area were analyzed and decisions were made on firing, which were then transmitted from here to the fort’s combat casemates. The disadvantage of the Maginot Line forts was that they became blind at nightfall or in heavy fog. After all, the aiming of all guns at that time was exclusively visual.
76. At this point we leave the command center and move to the last underground location of the fort - the warehouse.
77. On the territory of the warehouse, in order to fill the empty warehouse spaces, a small museum has been organized with a good collection of various equipment used in the Maginot Line forts, ranging from weapons to periscopes of observation armored domes and various electrical devices.
78. Machine telegraph, similar to ship telegraph. With the help of these devices, commands were sent from the command center of the fort to the combat units and confirmation of their execution was sent back.
79
80. A twin caponier machine gun mount, which was usually installed in the embrasures of the combat blocks of the fort. If necessary, this machine gun mount was removed to the side and a 47-mm anti-tank gun was installed in its place. More about this in the second part of the story.
81. And this is a installation with a combined weapon, which was located inside an AM-type armored dome, which was discussed above (photo 10, 12, 13). The combined weapon was two weapons in one: a machine gun and a 25-mm anti-tank gun. The AM type armored cap was equipped with a system for removing powder gases and ventilation, and a system for supplying ammunition and water to the cap for cooling the weapon.
82. Despite the fact that the armored dome itself was not rotatable, with the help of supporting brackets the heavy weapon could be quickly reinstalled in one of the two embrasures of the armored dome. All adjustments and settings of the gun were carried out by rotating the handles, which greatly simplified its operation.
83. On the way to the first combat block, there is such an appendix of a forgotten postern (see map at the beginning of the post). During the construction of the fort, a much larger number of combat blocks was planned, but after funding cuts, construction had to be limited to three blocks. By that time, they had already completed the turn to the supposed fourth block, which was soon abandoned. It is still unknown how far the forgotten terna travels. The workers of the museum fort here erected a monument to Andre Maginot, the French Minister of War, who initiated the construction of a line of armed fortifications on the border with Germany.
84. Another small room next to the forgotten rubble. Initially, this room was a vertical shaft through which soil was excavated when digging underground tunnels. When the construction work was completed, the trunk was filled in from above, and thus another additional room was formed in the fort. Without thinking twice, they made another barracks room for soldiers.
Having examined all the underground locations of the fort, we find ourselves through a narrow and long passage into block 1. A visit to the third block was not included in the excursion, since it is completely identical to the first block. Both combat units differ only in the mounted guns inside the rotating turret and the design of the turret. These two combat units constitute the main striking force of the fort.
01. Combat block 1 is connected to the fort's underground system by a spiral staircase. Its height is 30 meters and in the event that the underground part of the fort was captured by the enemy, there was a possibility of blowing up this staircase.
The whole thing looks something like this: 
02. Having overcome 145 steps, we find ourselves in the casemate of the second block. The first thing that greets us at the entrance is a filter and ventilation unit. Each combat unit is equipped with its own FVU. To avoid the penetration of gases inside during combat operations, excess air pressure was pumped inside the block.
03. To the right of the FVU are the soldiers' sleeping places. Let's go a little deeper...
04. In the right corner you can see the niche of the GFM-type armored cap; in addition to standard equipment, it was also equipped with an observation periscope with eight-fold zoom. In addition to the connection between the armored observation towers and the command post of the fort, there was also a direct connection from the observation towers of all blocks with the large artillery fort Gros Ouvrage Simserhof, located eight kilometers from PO Rohrbach, which during the hostilities very strongly supported the small fort with fire, not giving the Germans the opportunity come closer. On the left side of the photo, under the embrasure, you can see a chute for discharging spent cartridges into the diamond ditch.
05. In the lower left part you can see an electric heating radiator. As I already mentioned in the first part, the heating system of the fort began to be converted to central water heating, but did not have time to complete the process due to the war.
06. The room of the officer in command of the combat unit is also located here.
07. The photo shows one of the two twin machine gun installations of the combat unit. Above it you can see a blue rail, under which a 47-mm anti-tank gun was suspended.
08. If necessary, the coaxial machine gun mount was moved to the side.
09. And an anti-tank gun, suspended under the rail and moving along the rail, advanced into the opened embrasure.
10. After an hour and a half spent underground, it was very nice to breathe in fresh air and see the outside world, albeit through an embrasure. I can imagine what it was like for the soldiers forced to live underground for months.
11. Traces of fighting.
I found an excellent drawing online showing the combat unit of the PO Rohrbach fort in section. The combat block is a two-level casemate with thick concrete walls up to 2.75 meters thick in places facing the enemy and 1.5 meters on the sides, the thickness of the reinforced concrete roof is 2.5 m. As can be seen from the figure, the casemate was equipped with two embrasures with twin machine guns installations, which were supplemented by 47-mm anti-tank guns and the main weapon of the casemate was a rotating turret, which will be discussed in more detail below. In addition, the combat unit had two armored caps of the GFM type supplemented with observation periscopes with the possibility of 8x magnification for monitoring the terrain.
Taken from: http://www.fortiff.be/casso/
This is what the first block looks like from a bird's eye view:
photo taken from here.
12. Well, now let’s move on to examining the main weapon of the fort: a rotating armored turret with a firing installation located in it, consisting of two combined guns.
13. This armored turret is a system for placing weapons designed to fire in all directions and suppress both infantry and armored enemy targets. The armored turret of this model was developed back in 1905 and produced in 1915 to equip French battleships. Twelve of these installations never reached the fleet and were kept in reserve until they migrated to the forts of the Maginot Line, where, after minor modernization and the installation of new weapons in 1934, they continued their service on land.
14. The total weight of the turret with guns is 135 tons, but thanks to the counterweight system, two people lifted the turret a meter without much physical effort, bringing it into a firing position. In the closed position, the tower was invulnerable to enemy weapons. The thickness of the armor on the turret roof is 285 mm, the side walls of the turret are protected by 185 mm armor.
15. To control and maintain all turret systems, a team of 18 people was required: one officer, three non-commissioned officers and 14 soldiers. Four of them were inside the turret, controlling the firing and loading of weapons, the remaining ten soldiers served the guidance, communications, ammunition supply systems, etc.
16. In the center of the frame, a machine telegraph for transmitting commands to the shooters inside the tower, copied from ship analogues. On the left you can see the backup light, in case of electrical failure.
17. Old technology is very picturesque: dozens of gears, levers and other incomprehensible pieces of hardware create a beautiful techno-abstraction, from which it is difficult to tear the camera lens away.
18. Another machine telegraph located on the wall. All communication between the command and the soldiers servicing the tower systems was carried out with such devices because, due to the very high noise level during combat operations, transmitting commands by voice was problematic.
19. The photo shows the place of the commander of the battle tower. The black pipe in the center of the frame is a periscope for external surveillance and aiming. Below it are acoustic pipes to communicate with the shooters in the turret before the shooting begins. On the left in the photo you can see a pipe in which there is an elevator for supplying cartridges with cartridges for the turret machine guns. In the same pipe on the opposite side of the rotating mechanism there is a device for supplying cartridges with ammunition for the anti-tank guns of the turret: in the photo, five such cartridges are visible on the table.
20. Another photo of the commander’s seat and we climb inside the tower through the hatch located on the side opposite the commander’s seat.
21. The inside is quite spacious, especially compared to the cramped armored domes.
22. The turret's guns are two anti-tank guns, model SA-L, manufactured in 1934, 25 mm caliber and two twin MAC 31 machine gun mounts, 7.5 mm caliber and rate of fire 1200 rounds per minute. The firing range of machine guns is 1200 m, cannons - 1800 meters. Thus, the turret's armament consisted of four machine guns and two cannons.
23. There were four people inside the tower during the battle: two shooters and two loaders. Special places under the guns were equipped for shooters. In the photo you can see a machine telegraph for receiving commands from below.
24. Fire control and gun aiming were completely mechanized. Aiming was carried out by rotating the handles, which are visible in the photo below. The machine guns were controlled by the same handles. To control the firing of cannons, pedals are provided in the floor.
25. To cool the guns, water cooling was provided, for which purpose a water tank with a capacity of 20 liters was located in the turret. Cooling was carried out by spraying water onto the hot surfaces of the guns using a "Vermorel" type sprayer.
26. The armored turret was equipped with a ventilation and removal system for powder gases. On the lower tier of the combat unit there was an electric fan that pumped clean air into the tower. In the frame you can also see the elevator shaft for supplying ammunition and electric heating resistors above the lamp.
27. Shooters' places.
28. Let's go down to the lower tier of the armored tower. There was an ammunition depot, a turret lifting mechanism and a ventilation unit (on the left in the photo). In case of power surges, the tower could be ventilated manually.
29. Device for raising/lowering the armored turret. These operations were carried out by two soldiers who turned the handles, thereby driving the gear mechanism, which, thanks to the counterweight, raised the 135-ton turret into a firing position or lowered it into a secure shelter. As part of the excursion, everyone was given the opportunity to twirl handles. The tower lowers so easily that even one person can handle it. In other forts, equipped with more modern towers, this function is performed by an electric motor.
Here is a very clear animation that shows how this mechanism works.
source: Association des Amis de la Ligne Maginot
For an even more visual representation, a cross-section of the entire turret mechanism of the first combat unit.
"Inside the citadel of static (static?) war.
One of the bastions of the mighty Maginot Line"
From publications in the English (American?) press for December 1939.
In principle, English signatures should not confuse people who are familiar with military affairs, but do not speak English - everything is obvious.
From Wikipedia:
Maginot Line(fr. la Ligne Maginot) - a system of French fortifications on the border with Germany from Belfort to Longuyon. It was built in 1929-1934 (then improved until 1940). The length is about 400 km. Named after the Minister of War Andre Maginot.
It included 39 long-term defensive fortifications, 75 bunkers, 500 artillery and infantry units, 500 casemates, as well as dugouts and observation posts.
The Maginot Line was built to serve several purposes:
- In order to avoid a surprise attack and give a signal for the start of defensive measures.
- To protect Alsace and Lorraine (these territories were given to France in 1919) and their industrial potential.
- To be used as a strategic springboard for a counteroffensive.
- In order to hold back the enemy's advance while mobilization was carried out and until the main part of the army could be brought to the line.
The French assumed that the Germans would act in the same way as in 1914 - they would bypass the French troops through Belgium from the northeast. Therefore, their defense plan involved repelling a German attack on the Dyle River and passive defense on the fortified Maginot Line.
About 3 billion francs ($1 billion in prices of those years) were spent on the construction of the Maginot Line. The total number of troops on the line reached 300 thousand people. The underground multi-level forts were equipped with living quarters for personnel, power plants, powerful ventilation units, narrow-gauge railways, telephone exchanges, hospitals, rest rooms, inaccessible to shells and aerial bombs. In the upper ground floors there were gun casemates equipped with elevators. They were concrete “boxes” dug into the ground with walls and ceilings 3.5–4 meters thick. An armored turret protruded upward.
In front of the first line of defense, anti-tank ditches were dug and barriers made of anti-tank hedgehogs were erected. Behind the first line of defense there was a network of strong points - concrete platforms for infantry, artillery, searchlights, etc. At these points, at a depth of about 50 meters underground, there were ammunition and equipment warehouses, equipped with elevators. Even further away were positions of long-range, large-caliber guns on railway tracks. The old one was also modernized defensive line, consisting of forts Belfort, Epinal, Verdun, etc. The depth of defense of the Maginot Line was 90-100 km.
French military strategists considered the Maginot Line impregnable. After the entry of Wehrmacht troops into Poland in 1939, France and Great Britain decided that they could not quickly help Poland and instead began planning a long war. In early September, France hesitantly moved its troops into the Saar region, but on October 4, after the defeat of Poland, it again withdrew them beyond the Maginot Line (the so-called Strange War). In 1940, German troops quickly bypassed the Maginot Line from the north through the Ardennes. After the French capitulation, the Maginot Line garrison surrendered.
On June 14, 1940, the 1st and 7th Infantry Armies of Army Group C under Colonel General Wilhelm von Leeb (promoted to Field Marshal on July 19, 1940) attacked the Maginot Line and broke through it. The defenses of the Maginot Line were broken through in a few hours as a result of the infantry advance, even without tank support. The German infantry advanced with powerful air and artillery support, and smoke shells were widely used. It soon became clear that many of the French pillboxes could not withstand direct hits from artillery shells and aerial bombs. In addition, a large number of structures were not suitable for all-round defense, and they could easily be attacked from the rear and flank with grenades and flamethrowers.
Many historians believe that in modern warfare such high-cost fortifications are quite vulnerable and do not provide effective protection. However, it is fair to say that for the most part, the Maginot Line, as conceived by its creators in the 1920s, fulfilled its main purpose, which was to limit the scale of attacks on the positions protected by the line. The main and high-quality part of the line was built before 1936, when Belgium abandoned the allied pact with France, declaring neutrality, which forced the latter to hastily complete the line along the Belgian border to the Atlantic Ocean. This new part of the line was built in haste and was not brought to the proper level of protection. Therefore, when we talk about breaking through the Maginot Line, we mean breaking through new sections of the line built in swampy areas, where the construction of underground structures was very difficult. The defeat of France in 1940 was not the result of shortcomings in the central part of the line (which, despite numerous attempts by the German army, was broken through in only two places, which happened after the fall of Paris and the retreat of most of the French army), but was the result of numerous strategic miscalculations the government of the French Republic, which failed to take advantage of the advantages created by the existence of this powerful defensive line.
After the war, part of the Maginot Line structures was transferred to warehouses for military equipment. The 2004 French film “Crimson Rivers 2: Angels of the Apocalypse” can serve as a kind of video excursion along the Maginot Line in the 21st century.
