Lying 8 km west of Bitche on the edge of the village of Siersthal in the département of Moselle (Lorraine), Simserhof, with its 5 kilometres of subterranean galleries (including 1,700 metres of rail), 2 entrances (one for soldiers, one for munitions) and 8 blockhouses, is one of the most significant and well-preserved artillery forts on the Maginot Line. Built between 1929 and 1935, Simserhof, which was built in the fortified sector of Bitche, possessed great firepower. It was manned by 876 soldiers and gunners from the 150th and 155th Infantry Regiments, as well as troops from the 152nd Fortress Infantry Regiment, sappers and miners, electrical engineers, railway sappers and transmissions engineers were permanently stationed at the giant underground fortress. From the 10th of May 1940, the start of the Blitzkrieg, these soldiers, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel BONLARRON heroically withstood numerous offensives by the German army. Undefeated, they put down their weapons on the orders of the French High Command on the 30th of June 1940, 5 days after the cease-fire, and then returned to the camp at Bitche, the first step on the way to captivity in Germany. Following fierce fighting 4 years later, between the 3rd and 19th of December 1944, two American divisions took back the fort from the Germans.

The property of the Defence Department, the whole of the site has been entrusted to the Moselle département and the Bitche regional council and has been the subject of large-scale improvements to promote its cultural and tourism appeal. Reopened to the public on the 14th of July 2002, the tour is in two parts. First of all there is an 18-minute film on a giant screen. Made by Gabriel LEBOMIN and the Communication and Audiovisual Production Company for the Department of Defence (ECPA-D), it tells the history of the Maginot line from 1918 to 1940.
Then, on board automatic vehicles equipped with sound systems, the tour takes you through the munitions entrance right into the heart of the building. Here begins a 30-minute journey through the galleries of Simserhof, with commentary by the actor Bruno PUTZULU who plays a fictional soldier from 1940, bringing the daily life of the company, the military architecture and the fort's firepower to life for the public. His story ends, in the middle of a racket of cannons and shells, with Fort Simserhof 's 50 days of fighting. Other parts of the fort will shortly be restored. The public will then be able to visit the barracks, a real underground town, comprising most notably of the infirmary -ultra-modern at the time - equipped with a pharmacy, operating theatres and a decontamination room for gas victims, the soldiers' bar area, in which the gunner Romain Simon, a set designer at the Opéra in Paris, painted frescoes inspired by the Walt Disney cartoon, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, electric operated kitchens and officers' and troops' accommodation. You will also be able to take a look at the electricity production plant and its machinery room, comprising 4 impressive Sulzer diesel generators (6 cylinders, 265 CV) whose fuel consumption is 66 litres/hour.
Opening hours: From 15/03/2011 to 15/11/2011: 10 am to 5 pm (6 pm in July and August), closed Mondays except holidays and July and August Free parking Reservation is strongly recommended and compulsory for groups (personalised service is provided for groups). - Due to the low temperatures in the galleries of the fort (+/-10°C), bring warm clothing - Access for visitors with restricted mobility - A schedule of reconstructions, exhibitions and events is available on request - A fast-food cafeteria - Shop selling souvenirs, artisan products and local products Prices Individuals: Adults 12 € / Children (6 to 16 years): 8 € Adult groups (minimum of 20 paying adults): 10 € Children's groups (minimum of 10 paying children): 7 € Free for children under 6 Reduced entry fee upon presentation of student, job-seeker or war veterans card Information and reservations: Simserhof - Rue André Maginot - " Le Légeret " - 57410 Siersthal Telephone: +33 (0)3 8796 3940 Fax: +33 (0)3 8796 2995 E-mail : resa@simserhof.fr

The Ouvrage Rohrbach comprises 2 combat blocks, both of which can be visited, an entrance and a veritable small town dug in under 25 metres of limestone. The crew’s 173 men under the command of Captain de Saint Ferjeux enjoyed the comforts provided by modern kitchens, an electric generator, an effective ventilation system and the barracks. Its weaponry comprised an infantry casemate a 2 AM turret, and an infantry casemate with an AM turret.

Ouvrage Rohrbach is located between Sarreguemines and Bitche (N62) at Rohrbach-les-Bitche, heading toward Guising

The structure can be visited on Saturdays, Sundays and bank holidays at 3 pm.

Fortweb website on European fortifications

Website dedicated to the Maginot Line

Quizz : Forts and citadels

Located close to the Metz-Saint Avold-Sarrebruck road, the Ouvrage Bambesch is made of three blocks connected by underground galleries.

The fort was built in 1932 to the east of the Bois de Bambesch and was part of the fortified sector of Faulquemont. Following the French army’s retreat in June 1940, the isolated structure was surrounded and attacked on 20 June 1940 by German troops in the 167th infantry division. Demolished by an 88mm anti-aircraft and anti-tank cannon, block 2 (south) was evacuated and the men took refuge in the gallery 30 metres underground. The enemy finally attacked block 3 which risked trapping the crew at any moment under the building. After the war, the building was maintained by military engineer specialists until the fort was bought by the town of Bambiderstroff.

The site opened to the public on 31 August 1973. All the installations are in good condition, Including machines, soldiers’ barracks, infirmary, electrical installation and firing chambers. The remains of the former barracks built just next to the outpost have been cleared to improve the view.

Guide association

M. Deguglielmo Tel: +33 (0)3 87 90 31 95

Bambiderstroff Town Hall

Tel: +33 (0)3 87 90 30 11

Fax: +33 (0)3 87 90 41 74

The building is open every second and fourth Sunday from April to September and Easter Monday, Whit Monday and 15 August. Group tours even on weekdays available on request.

Site Fortweb sur les fortifications européennes

Site consacré à la ligne Maginot

Quizz : Forts et citadelles

The Fort of Michelsberg is a major artillery structure on the Maginot Line. Its construction began in 1930 and was completed four years later. The structure is made up of an entrance block and five combat blocks; it could thus align 6 cannons (from 47 mm to 135 mm), two 81-mm mortars and several dozen rifles and machine guns. It had a fire capacity of one metric tonne of shells a minute with a range of up to 13 km. This small subterranean town, located 30 m under ground, was operational thanks to its 515-man crew. In 1939-40, the Fort of Michelsberg was put to the test and had to push back an attack by the German 95th Infantry Division.
Weaponry Block 1: machine gun turret, Block 2: infantry casemate, Block 3: 81-mm turret, Block 5: 75-mm turret, Block 6: 135-mm turret.

Designed to house 495 men, operating with four 120-horse SGCM engines.

 

The structure is located between Thionville and Bouzonville just outside the village of Dalstein, heading toward Ebersviller.

Association Ouvrage du Michelsberg "22 Juin 1940"

6, rue du Docteur Schweitzer 57100 Thionville

Tél. 03 82 34 66 67

Email: o.michelsberg@wanadoo.fr

Open every Sunday from April to September, from 2 pm to 6 pm, and year round by appointment.

Fortweb website on European fortifications

Website dedicated to the Maginot Line

Quizz : Forts and citadels

The Galgenberg artillery structure was built starting in 1931. Its mission was to control the Moselle Valley, and it was from its command centre that the surrounding artillery structures received their orders, which is why it was called “the Guardian of the Moselle”. Due to the firepower of the artillery at Galgenberg and the surrounding structures, the Wehrmacht did not launch any massive attacks against the sector.

Its weaponry comprises an infantry casemate (Blocks 1 and 2), a machine gun turret (Block 3) and an 81-mm turret (Block 4). Block 5 houses an observatory and Block 6 has a 135-mm turret. It could house 445 men. Four 125-horse SGCM engines ensured operations.

 

LM SFBC – Maginot Line of the Fortified Sector of the Forest of Cattenom
Allée des Platanes 57570 Cattenom

E-mail : contact@forticat.com

Find opening dates and times and practical information in the “visits” section of the website: www.forticat.com

Website dedicated to the Maginot Line

LM SFBC website

Fortweb website on European fortifications

Quizz : Forts and citadels

Constructed between 1930 and 1935, the Immerhof is situated within the limits of the town of Hettange-Grande, 7 km to the north of Thionville. The only completely open-air fort to have been constructed on the Line, it forms part of the fortified Thionville sector, in the Fortified Region of Metz, the most powerful part of the Maginot system. It was named A10, "the Tiburce", in reference to Saint Tiburtius and also Immerhof after the name of a nearby farm. In addition to its purpose of providing fire cover with its two neighbours, Molvange and Soetrich, its role was to protect the Hettange to Grande Dudelange road and the Thionville to Luxembourg railway line. It is a fort built in four blocks, including two machine gun towers, a mixed block with infantry casemate and an 81 mm mortar tower and entrance block. At the fort's core are the living quarters required for the 198 strong company to resist a siege of up to three months: kitchen, infirmary and bedrooms etc. Its armaments consisted of two machine gun towers, Blocks 2 and 3, and an 81 mm tower, as well as an infantry casemate. It could accommodate 200 men.

Ouvrage A10 Immerhof Association "Le Tiburce" 5, rue des Sorbiers 57330 Hettange-Grande Contacts Chairman of the association sapeur@neuf.fr Webmaster of the site and member of the association richardjm@neuf.fr The fort can be visited from April to November with groups welcome all year round. Charges Individuals Adults 3.50 € Children (up to 14 years old) 1.50 € Groups (more than 10 people) Adults 3 € School groups 1.50 € Free for ex-servicemen

The Fort of Guentrange is located 4 km north-west of Thionville, at the top of a wooded hill overlooking the city and the left bank of the Moselle at a height of 318 m.

The Feste (or fortified group) of Guentrange was part of the Moselle fortification programme drawn up under the Schliffen-Moltke plan, between the Luxembourg border and the strategic fortifications built around Metz. It was designed to protect the rail hub at Thionville, a crucial troop transit point between Germany and France. Festen are a group of units dispersed over a large area and connected by underground galleries. Unlike the compact fort surrounded by a polygonal ditch typical of the works inspired by Séré de Rivières, a Feste often covers several dozen hectares. The whole is defended by a large garrison, armoured artillery and a network of barbed wire and defensive grating protected by trenches surrounding the work.


Construction on the Feste Obergentringen (the fortified group of Guentrange) began in 1899 and was first completed in 1905. The fortified group then included three barracks and two armoured batteries each equipped with four rotating turrets with the Schuman system, armed with short 150-mm cannons with a range of 9,700 m. Reinforced with gratings, armoured doors, mine systems and underground galleries connecting the different concrete units, while a blockhaus in the rear controlled access to the Feste with a network of barbed wire. Starting in 1912, major consolidation work was undertaken on the slopes due to land sliding down the west glacis, then a line of flanking casemates were added to reinforce protection against attackers.


The Feste Obergentringen did not come under fire during the First World War, and it became French after the Armistice of 1918. In the 1930s, France integrated it into the Maginot Line as a second-line logistic support unit in the fortified sector of Thionville. At this time, the short 105-mm cannons were replaced with long cannons, increasing the artillery’s range to 12,700 m. In 1940, the fort was used as a munitions depot for the German army before it was taken back by the Americans in 1944.


Nowadays, several levels of the work and the central barracks are accessible. Along with an exhibition presenting the history of the fortified group, visitors can see the north battery’s fully restored artillery turret. They can also observe how the site was supplied by huge water reserves, machinery equipped with a diesel engine providing electricity to the entire group, and a complete central heating and ventilation system. The barrack rooms, kitchens and bakery, the infirmary and the operating theatre: the different spaces and equipment highlight the extraordinary comfort that the fort provided its troops with.

Like the French soldiers who took over the site in 1918, visitors will appreciate the luxury of this unit, unimaginable in France’s fortifications at the end of the 19th century.

Fort of Guentrange

Thionville Tourism Office

16 rue du Vieux Collège 57100 Thionville

Tél. 03.82.53.33.18

Fax 03.82.53.15.55

e-mail : tourisme@thionville.net

Access to the Fort of Guentrange:
24 km from the Ouvrage Hackenberg via Buding on the D 60 highway, then Stuckange on the D 918, then take the A 31 motorway toward Thionville (exit No. 40 "Linkling, zones commerciales et artisanales, hôpital Bel-Air, Cattenom"), then the D 14.
30 km from Metz on the A 31 motorway (exit No. 40 " Linkling, zones commerciales et artisanales, hôpital Bel-Air, Cattenom ), then the D 14 highway. 85 km from Nancy via Metz.
30 km from Luxembourg on the E 25 (exit No. 43 "Longwy, Algrange, Nilvange" ), then take the D 14.

Visits: the 1st and 3rd Sundays of the month starting at 3.00 pm. Group visits by appointment.

Quiz : Forts and citadels

Despite the many restoration projects, the former Château of the Counts Deux-Ponts was in ruins when Louis XIV took Bitche in 1680. Aware of the strategic importance of the rocky crag overlooking the city and the region, Louis XIV decided to have a first citadel built, entrusting the work to Vauban, who completed it in 1683.

The citadel was razed by French troops in 1697, when the Treaty of Ryswick handed Lorraine over to Leopold I, Duke of Lorraine. Louis XV took possession of Lorraine on 21 March 1737 and ordered the reconstruction of the citadel using plans by the engineer Cormontaigne based on Vauban’s construction. The end of the work was marked by the installation of a marble plaque above the main entrance that we can still see today: “Louis XV, Roy de France, auguste, victorieux et pacifique, en réédifiant cette forteresse de fond en comble, a voulu qu'elle fermât les Vosges et la Lorraine à ses ennemis, qu'elle défendit la frontière de l'Alsace et qu'au pied de ses murs les camps des armées françaises trouvassent une puissante protection. Année 1754” (Louis XV, King of France, august, victorious and pacific, by fully rebuilding this fortress, desired that it should close off the Vosges and Lorraine from their enemies, that is should defend the Alsace border and that at the foot of its walls the French army camps might find powerful protection. Year 1754). From 1846 to 1852, the citadel was reinforced with the construction of a fortified perimeter wall, defended to the north by Fort St Sébastien.


During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, German troops laid siege to Bitche and carried out deadly bombardments targeting first the citadel, and then the city. The Bitche garrison resisted gloriously for six long months before opening the doors of the fortress on 27 March 1871, not before receiving Battle Honours. Now German, the citadel was once again refurbished to house a garrison: the perimeter walls were destroyed, the chapel was used to house troops and two barracks were built. When Alsace and Lorraine were returned to France, the city received the Legion of Honour from the hands of President Poincaré in testimonial to the suffering endured during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871.
During the Second World War, Bitche was the theatre of fighting starting in the winter of 1944, during which the population took refuge in the underground galleries of the citadel. Liberated by American troops, the city received the War Cross in 1949, and was commended in the Army Order.


The citadel still bears the scars of its close ties to the history of France. Some buildings of the bastioned central plateau central have miraculously escaped the many bombardments that have tried to conquer the legendarily invulnerable fortress. The chapel can still be admired – it is only vestige of the château built under Vauban – as well as the former bakery and the arsenal. Visitors to the site can notably admire the two bastions placed at the ends of the citadel, protecting the long south curtain wall, the “Grosse Tête” and “Petite Tête” walls, which defend the short curtain walls, and the wealth of the fortress’s underground network built by Louis XV’s engineers. A first museum is located on two levels in the chapel and presents a collection of weapons as well as a relief map of the citadel in the 18th century. In the former bakery, the second permanent exhibition houses a museographical area dedicated to Bitche during the Second Empire.

Visitors to the citadel can enjoy a unique feature: infrared transmitters placed along the itinerary provide commentaries in several languages through audio headphones, while olfactory effects give visitors a realistic perception of life at the citadel over the centuries.


Citadel of Bitche
Tel.: +33 (0)3 87 96 18 82
Fax: +33 (0)3 87 06 11 78

Opens the last Saturday of the month of March and closes the first Sunday of November. Every day from 10 am to 5 pm. Sundays, bank holidays and the months of July and August: 10 am – 6 pm.

Visits take 2 hours. Group visits by appointment

Access: From Strasbourg (65 km): Take the A4 motorway in the Strasbourg-Paris direction, and take the Haguenau Nord exit. Before reaching Haguenau, take the Sarreguemines exit and continue on toward Bitche. From Metz (110 km): Take the A4 motorway in the Paris-Strasbourg direction, take the Sarreguemines exit and continue on toward Bitche.

http://www.siegebitche.com

Website of the Pays de Bitche Tourism Office

Quizz : Forts and citadels