Artillery plant Pré-Giroud
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The artillery plant Pré-Giroud (army designation A 577) of the Swiss Army is located southeast above the municipality of Vallorbe in the Vaud Jura at around 1000 m . It was built from 1937 to 1941, used for training from 1975 and closed in the mid-1980s.
Artillery plant Pré-Giroud
The Vallorbe Fort is a typical example of a fortress built before the Second World War . Recognition work was carried out in 1935 and 1936 with a view to defending the Mont d'Or tunnel . The work was planned by the office for fortifications (BBB), which was reactivated in 1935, and in autumn 1937 construction work on the rock could begin on the Jura slope above Vallorbe. The entire facility is built into the mountain and only three free-standing buildings are visible outside.
The facility was outdated shortly after the war due to the development of weapons. Since it was on the front slope, it was an easy target for rockets or direct-firing hollow charge projectiles .
Order and troops
The fortress had the order to close the border valley towards Pontarlier and the Col de Jougne to foreign armies and to support the defense of the Franco-Swiss border .
In August 1939, 30 men from the 214 Border Battalion under Captain Edouard Lambelet moved into the factory. They were replaced in April 1942 by a contingent of the fortress guard corps . In 1945 the system was operated by the fortress artillery detachment 214 with 217 men. Due to a lack of space, some of the crew had to be accommodated outside the facility. From 1951 the fortress company 91 and the border brigade 1 were responsible.
Armament
The three fighting positions in the artillery bunkers are each equipped with a semi-automatic 7.5 cm cannon, model 1939. The middle combat station has a 7.5 cm cannon, a semi-automatic 4.7 cm anti-tank cannon and an observation post as a fire control center. The left and right combat positions each have a 7.5 cm cannon, an observation post and a machine gun. The first shot from a 7.5 cm cannon was fired on December 4, 1939.
Gun stand 1, 7.5 cm
Gun stand 2, 7.5 and 9 cm
Gun stand 3, 7.5 cm
On its flanks, moved forward, there are two infantry works for machine guns, which were camouflaged as a fir tree and a house. They are each provided with a machine gun model 1911 with water cooling, an observation post and an emergency exit. All weapons, cannons and machine guns are fortress models, ie with minimal notch opening, panorama and special mount.
Infantry plant M1 disguised as a fir tree and bunker east A 579 for external defense as a house
M1 infantry plant
Infantry plant M4 and Bunker West A 578 disguised as houses
M4 infantry plant with observer
To strengthen the external defense, the three infantry bunkers east (A 579) ⊙ , west (A 578) ⊙ , south (A 5xx) ⊙ with 6 machine guns 7.5 mm, model , were built in 1941 under the direction of the Bern office for fortifications and border brigade 1 Built in 1911 with water cooling. The bunkers, which are independent of the fortress (without an underground passage), are camouflaged as houses. From 1943 these were reinforced with a 24 mm tank rifle for anti-tank defense, two 8.1 cm mortars, one 4.7 cm anti-tank cannon, four 7.5 mm light machine guns and 8 9 mm submachine guns.
Infantry bunker West A 578
Infantry bunker east A 579
Infantry bunker south A 5xx
Infrastructure
The plant consists of three artillery bunkers (G1 – G3), the entrance bunker (M1) and two infantry units (M2, M3) with casemates and ancillary facilities that are connected underground with tunnels. These were surrounded by a double barbed wire fence, mine fields and anti-tank barriers.
From the entrance bunker, disguised as a chalet (entrance casemate with 2 machine guns), a stairwell with a freight elevator leads about 30 meters down, where the machine room is straight ahead. To the left it goes through a gas lock into the accommodation area 50 meters deep in the mountain with kitchen, fire control station, telephone switchboard, dining rooms and the hospital equipped with an operating room. To the right it goes to the five casemates (three fighting stalls with cannons, two infantry factories with machine guns).
The barracks with the command post, office, dining rooms and accommodation were protected by a special ventilation system and a lock chamber.
- three bedrooms for 27 officers and senior NCOs,
- three bedrooms for 103 soldiers
- Fire control center with switchboard
- Operating theater and hospital room
- Kitchen and two canteens for 60 and 40 people respectively
- Officers mess
- two ammunition dumps
- Engine room with two diesel generators, power generators, heating, ventilation, air filtration, workshop
- three infantry bunkers for close defense (without tunnel access)
The construction costs at the time, including furnishings, amounted to four million Swiss francs.
museum
The entire facility, which was bought by a foundation in 1988, can be viewed. Using show mannequins, weapons and documents from the Second World War, the living conditions of the soldiers and their weapons are illustrated. The footpath to the fortress is signposted with brown signposts from Place du Pont in the center of Vallorbe.
Lock point Le Day
The "Le Day" barrier is the barrier defended by infantry below the Pré-Giroud artillery and above the municipality of Vallorbe and the hamlet of Le Day . This blocking point consists of the external defense of the Pré-Giroud artillery plant and the defense of the intersection of the traffic axes (road and rail) in Le Day. In the Swiss weekly film show of the time , soldiers were shown climbing the plug-in elements of the tank barricade on the street of Le Day. The lock point is considered a military historical monument of national importance.
Ten bunkers as well as 15 tank barriers and tank obstacles are still preserved from the dispositive:
- Infantry bunker Grange Neuve A 581 ⊙
- GPH Le Day ⊙
- Côtette ⊙ shelter
- Le Day infantry bunker ⊙
- Infantry bunker GPH ⊙
- Infantry bunker Le Day South ⊙
- Le Day North Infantry Bunker ⊙
- Chives à Barbet ⊙ infantry bunker
- Infantry cannons (Ik) shield Grand Crêt
- Gaudine infantry bunker
- Gun position in GPH Le Day 1 ⊙
- Gun position in GPH Le Day 2 ⊙
- Gun position in GPH Le Day 3 ⊙
- Gun position Le Day 1 ⊙
- Gun position Le Day 2 ⊙
GPH Grange Neuve, Vallorbe
SBB bunker, Le Day
GPH Le Day with artillery plant
GPH with Le Day infantry bunker
literature
- JE Kaufmann, HW Kaufmann: The Forts and Fortifications of Europe 1815-1945: The Neutral States. The Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland. Pen and Sword Books, Barnsley 2014, ISBN 978-1-78346-392-3 .
Web links
- Official website of the Fort Pré-Giroud Museum
- Oberland Fortress: A 577 Artillery Plant Pré-Giroud VD
- Report 2000: Entry prohibited - the Swiss Army and its secret fortresses
- Pictures of a visitor
- Blocking points Switzerland: Le Day
Individual evidence
- ↑ Fort de Pré-Giroud: Armament
- ^ Fort de Pré-Giroud: location and history
- ↑ Silvio Keller, Maurice Lovisa: Military monuments in the cantons of Vaud and Geneva, DDPS 2006 ( Memento of the original of July 26, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
Coordinates: 46 ° 42 ′ 31.3 " N , 6 ° 24 ′ 38.5" E ; CH1903: 521 396 / 173,570