Artillery Commeire

The artillery plant Commeire (army designation A 27) is a former artillery plant in the fortress area of Saint-Maurice , which is located below the village of Commeire in the municipality of Orsières in the Swiss canton of Valais .

history

That at 1300 m above sea level. M. Commeire artillery plant blocked off the Val de Bagnes to the east to protect the Great Saint Bernard . In 1930 the plans for the three plants Champex , Commeire and the one for Roc Cornet (northwest of Liddes) were drawn up, the latter never being built. The fortress was designed by the Mountain Brigade 10 with four gun positions for 7.5 cm cannons. The work was created from August 1940 to September 1943 and then handed over to the troops. The cannons were installed in May 1944, the camouflage completed in 1947.

The armament initially consisted of four 7.5 cm Krupp field cannons model 1903. The four 7.5 cm cannons had a range of 6.5 to 11.5 km. The two cannons disguised as alpine huts were aimed in the direction of the Great Saint Bernard with a range of what is now the tunnel entrance. The two cannons disguised as rocks covered the Champex artillery plant, the lower part of the Val Ferret and the Orsières basin. The four cannons formed two batteries, each of which had a fire control center.

The infrastructure includes widely ramified tunnels, four gun positions, three observation posts, a machine room (motors, generators, filters), an ammunition cavern, material rooms, four cantons (dormitories, kitchens, canteens, operating rooms) and a water reservoir. The various caverns were connected by a central gallery, had two entrances and six emergency exits. Gun and observation loops as well as emergency exits are camouflaged as rural utility buildings (alpine huts) in concrete and wood or rock formations. In the event of war, the plant could accommodate around 140 men.

The crew consisted of the fortress company II / 22, which belonged with the fortress company I / 22 (Champex) to the fortress department 22 and the fortress regiment 19 and was later responsible for the fortress mine thrower «Napoleon». The Champex plant had a fire control center and a command post for the department in order to be able to coordinate the fire of the artillery works in the Saint Bernard region (Champex, Commeire, Follatères, Dailly ).

The plant was continuously modernized during the Cold War . In 1950 filters were installed and the safety of the ammunition magazines improved. In addition, the plant was made suitable for nuclear war in 1957.

In the early 1970s it was disarmed and used as mountain shelter. The firepower of Commeire was compensated for by a newly built monobloc plant with the 12 cm twin fortress mine launcher «Napoleon».

The plant was released from secrecy in 1999, decommissioned and became the property of the Pro Forteresse association . It is in original condition with the exception of the cannons. Another cannon could be installed in gun stand 2. The association has been waiting for the fortress mine thrower "Napoleon" to be taken out of service since 2010 so that it can be acquired as a military cultural heritage. The decommissioning of the 12 cm fortress mine throwers was stopped by the DDPS in 2014, they are still subject to confidentiality.

literature

Jean-Christophe Moret: Les Fortifications du Grand-Saint-Bernard / Le dispositif fortifié des Dranses . Pro Forteresse Publishing House, Martigny, 1999.
Christian Schwager: Wrong chalets . 134 color pictures, Edition Patrick Frey c / o Scalo, Zurich 2004, ISBN 3-905509-49-0
Leo Fabrizio: Bunkers . 75 color pictures, Infolio éditions, Gollion 2004, ISBN 2-88474-008-2

Web links

Individual evidence

46.0211 7.1609361111111Coordinates: 46 ° 1 '16 " N , 7 ° 9' 39.4" E ; CH1903: 578493 / 96655

[1] Association Pro Forteresse: Artillery Works Commeire

[2] Parlament.ch: Answer of the Federal Council of September 15, 2014

[3] Moret: The fortifications of the Great Saint Bernard