During my short vacation in
Verdun i also visited the famous
Fort Vaux in the north-east of the city. The whole area is still rippled due to the extreme artillery bombardment. It is not easy to walk there.
I really like the fact that visitors are allowed to walk around basically everywhere on the roof of the fort with all the artillery craters and turrets. The museum inside the fort is very interesting and i recommend to take a look at it aswell.
Fort Vaux, located in Vaux-Devant-Damloup,
Meuse, France, was built in 1881–1884 at a cost of 1,
500,
000 Francs, built to house
150 men. it became the second
Fort to fall in the
Battle of Verdun. The first fort to fall had been
Fort Douaumont which was virtually undefended and had been captured by a small
German raiding party in
February 1916. Fort de
Vaux, on the other hand, was fully garrisoned when it was attacked on June 2 by German assault troops. The fort had been modernized before
1914 with additional reinforced concrete top protection, like at Fort Douaumont and thus did resist a German heavy artillery preparation which had included shelling by 16 inch howitzers. The superstructure of the fort had been heavily damaged but the deep interior corridors and stations remained intact and can still be seen in their original condition today. One of the fort's side bunkers ("Casemate de
Bourges") is still equipped with its
75mm cannon.
The defense of Fort Vaux was marked by the heroism and endurance of the garrison, including
Major Sylvain-Eugene Raynal. Under his command, the besieged
French garrison fended off repeated German assaults, including fighting underground from barricades inside the invaded corridors of the fort, which was the first major engagement to happen completely inside a fort during
World War I. What was left of the French garrison finally gave up after it had run out of drinkable water (some of which was poisoned), ammunition, medical supplies and food.
Raynal sent several messages to his commanding officers via homing pigeons (including the famous
Vaillant), requesting relief for his soldiers. During his last communications, Major Raynal penned the phrase "This is my last pigeon."
After the capture of Fort Vaux on June 7, the
Crown Prince of the German ruling family, the
Hohenzollerns, presented Major Raynal with a French officer's sword as a
sign of respect. Raynal and his soldiers remained in captivity in
Germany until the
Armistice of November 11, 1918. The fort was recaptured by French infantry on
November 2,
1916 after an intense artillery preparation involving two long range 400-millimetre (16 in) railway guns. After its recapture, Fort Vaux was thoroughly repaired and fully reactivated. However some original damage from the fight on June 2 can still be seen today. Several underground galleries to reach the far outside, one of them being a mile long, were dug and equipped. The water reserves were quadrupled.
Light was provided now by two electric generators.
The underground installations of Fort Vaux are in a remarkably good state of preservation. They are currently open to the public for guided visits.
(
Wikipedia)
I don´t own the rights for the music in this video.
Music: "
Death of
Prince Albert" from the game "
Victoria II"
- published: 08 Aug 2014
- views: 2565