Fixed Crown Prince
The celebrations Crown Prince ( French Groupe de Fortifié Driant ) is built after 1899 fortification near the time belonged to the German Reich Metz in Lorraine , today Moselle department , northeastern France .
task
As part of the large fortress Metz , the complex was part of the Moselle position that was important for the implementation of the Schlieffen Plan . The Kronprinz Fortress itself, together with the Haesler Fortress 6 km to the east, blocked the course of the Moselle in the direction of Nancy , secured the deep valley of the Mance Bach and provided the southernmost flank protection of the outer ring of fortifications on the left bank of the Moselle .
Planning and construction
A "Highest Cabinet Ordre" of May 13, 1897 determined the height 364 in the forest of Gorgimont for the construction of a strong fortification. It is a high plateau in the southwest of Metz, which is bordered to the north and west by steep slopes towards the Mance and the Moselle. On April 4, 1899, a design was finally approved by Kaiser Wilhelm II. Construction began on April 24. The work was completed in the spring of 1905. The cost of the 48 hectare facility was later estimated by the French to be around FF 17 million .
Structure of the plant
As a fortress , the Crown Prince represents a very special type of fortress developed in Germany. The centerpiece of the complex is the approximately 150 m long two-storey main or war barracks. In addition to the crew quarters, it also housed the command center, a power station for generating electrical energy, a kitchen, bakery, cisterns and an infirmary. In front of it is a 700 m long trench covered by four strokes . Five more concrete infantry rooms are distributed in the area. Four armored batteries are arranged approximately symmetrically on the central axis of the overall system . Two batteries each are equipped with three 15 cm howitzers and three 10 cm cannons. The range of the weapons was 7,200 and 10,800 m respectively. In order to be able to better control the Moselle valley with the railway connection to Nancy with flat fire , the Moselle battery with two more 10 cm cannons was built under armor protection about 40 m below the fortress. All individual plants except for the Moselle battery and the infantry room above are connected to one another underground at a depth of 8 to 11 m. The length of the corridor system is about 870 m. The entire facility was surrounded by an approximately 30 m wide wire obstacle with a 3 m high mesh fence.
Occupation and war effort
The fortress was originally intended for a war garrison of around 1,800 infantry and foot artillery . It was the only one of the Metz fortresses to fire a few grenades during World War I when an advance group of American soldiers were in the valley of the Rupt de Mad in November 1918 . Only a little later, the facility was taken over by the French army and renamed after the writer Émile Auguste Cyprien Driant (1855-1916), who fell at Verdun .
There were no fighting during the western campaign in 1940 either. However, in the further course of the Second World War , the German Wehrmacht had guns and armored parts removed from the fortresses of Metz and transported to the Atlantic Wall . In autumn 1944, however, the Kronprinz festival was one of the focal points of the battles for Metz .
Three companies of enslavers from the Metz Officer's School under the command of Colonel Joachim von Siegroth were stationed in the fortress when units of the 3rd US Army under the command of General Patton had been trying unsuccessfully for about a month to take the city. The only functional artillery weapons were the two guns of the Moselle battery. This has prevented American troops from crossing the Moselle. The factory crew also ruled the valley of the Mance brook with their infantry weapons. The American side was now concentrating on eliminating this southernmost of the Metz fortresses on the left bank of the Moselle. On September 27, the US Air Force flew its first attack on the fortress with high explosive and napalm bombs. Then two companies of the 2nd Battalion of the 11th US Infantry Regiment, 5th Infantry Division tried to approach the facility, but could not get over the extensive wire obstacle. A second infantry attack on October 3, which was carried out simultaneously in two places with the use of heavy engineering equipment and the support of tanks, was unsuccessful due to the strong German defensive fire. On October 7th, two infantry and one engineer battalion attempted to penetrate the underground passage system. However, all efforts failed because of the clever arrangement of the chicanes and armored steel doors that secured the entrances. Even a 25 kg explosive charge caused only minor damage. By this time the Americans had already lost over 500 men on the factory surface alone. General Patton therefore ordered two days later to limit the further procedure to the underground passage system. However, the Germans also drove the enemy from there with counter-explosions. On the night of 12./13. The Americans finally gave up in October. The 3rd US Army suffered its first defeat here. Practically half of the forces deployed were lost. All attacks were stopped as a result and Metz had to be circumvented over a wide area and, above all, time-consuming. At the beginning of October, the OKH withdrew all replacement officers and non-commissioned officers from Metz. The city was completely enclosed by American troops on November 19, 1944. A remaining crew of the Feste Kronprinz surrendered on December 8, 1944.
The fortress today
After the war, the French army occasionally used the fortress for exercises. The facility is part of a restricted area, it is not open to the public.
literature
- Edgar Christoffel: War on the Siegfried Line 1944/45 . Trier 1989, ISBN 3-88915-033-0 .
- Hugh M. Cole: The Lorraine campaign . Washington 1950.
- Alain Hohnadel: La bataille des Fort Verdun face à Metz . 1995, ISBN 2-84048-087-5 .
- Antony Kemp: The role of the permanent fortification in the Lorraine campaign, 1944 . In: series of fortress research . No. 8 , 1989, ISSN 0723-2039 , pp. 181-192 .
- Rudi Rolf: The German tank fortification . Osnabrück 1991, ISBN 3-7648-1784-4 .
Web links
- Aerial photo from 1944
- Documentation and current photographs of the Kronprinz festival www.festungen.info
Individual evidence
Coordinates: 49 ° 4 ′ 23 ″ N , 6 ° 3 ′ 19 ″ E