The Fort de Saint-Julien, renamed ' in German, is a military installation near

Metz Metz ( , , lat, Divodurum Mediomatricorum, then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers. Metz is the prefecture of the Moselle department and the seat of the parliament of the Grand E ...

. It is part of the first fortified belt forts of Metz and had its baptism of fire in late 1944 in the

Battle of Metz The Battle of Metz was a battle fought during World War II at the city of Metz, France, from late September 1944 through mid-December as part of the Lorraine Campaign between the U.S. Third Army commanded by Lieutenant General George Patton and ...

Historical context

The first fortified belt consisted of Fort Saint-Privat (1870)

Fort de Queuleu The Fort de Queuleu is a fortification to the southeast of Metz, near Queuleu, France. Construction began while part of Lorraine was under French rule in 1868. After the interruption of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, the fort was improved b ...

(1867), Fort des Bordes (1870), Saint-Julien (1867), Fort Gambetta, Fort Déroulède, Fort Decaen,

Fort de Plappeville The Fort de Plappeville, or Feste Alvensleben, is a military fortification located to the northwest of Metz in the commune of Plappeville. As part of the first ring of the fortifications of Metz, it is an early example of a Séré de Rivières ...

(1867) and Group Fortifications of Saint-Quentin (1867); most of them were unfinished or still in the planning stages in 1870, when the Franco-Prussian War broke out. During the period of German control following this war, Metz had a German garrison of 15,000 and 20,000 men at the beginning of this period, and housed more than 25,000 men before the First World War,. gradually becoming the most important stronghold of the German Reich.

Construction and facilities

Fort Saint-Julien is located in the hills above Saint-Julien-lès-Metz and overlooks the city of

and the

Moselle The Moselle ( , ; german: Mosel ; lb, Musel ) is a river that rises in the Vosges mountains and flows through north-eastern France and Luxembourg to western Germany. It is a bank (geography), left bank tributary of the Rhine, which it jo ...

valley. The fort follows the spirit of the "detached forts" concept developed by Raymond Adolphe Séré de Rivières in France and

Hans Alexis von Biehler Hans Alexis von Biehler (16 June 1818 – 30 December 1886) was a Prussian general. He designed fortifications in many famous locations. Beginning in 1873, he saw fort construction in Cologne, Strasbourg, Poznań, Toruń, Königsberg, Ingolstadt, ...

in Germany. The goal was to form a discontinuous enclosure around Metz of artillery forts spaced a cannon shot apart. Work began in 1867. The fort was not complete in 1870, when war broke out between France and Germany. The defensive system was completed and perfected by German engineers between 1871 and 1891. The fort, pentagonal, is a bastion. Half buried behind a defensive system on a slope, the main

casern A casern, also spelled cazern or caserne, is a military barracks in a garrison town.Les gens de guerre à Saint-Julien-du-Sault, J Crédé, Imprimerie Fostier, 1976 In French-speaking countries, a ''caserne de pompier'' is a fire station. In fort ...

is designed to withstand artillery fire. The fort is surrounded by a system of dry

moat A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that is dug and surrounds a castle, fortification, building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive ...

s, evoking the fortifications of

Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban, Seigneur de Vauban, later Marquis de Vauban (baptised 15 May 163330 March 1707), commonly referred to as ''Vauban'' (), was a French military engineer who worked under Louis XIV. He is generally considered the ...

Successive assignments

While Alsace-Lorraine was under German control after the Franco-Prussian War, the fort became a training camp for German imperial troops. From 1890 the troops in the fort were provided by the XVI Army Corps stationed at Metz and Thionville. From 1914 to 1918, the fort served as a relay for German soldiers at the front line. Surrendered to the French army in 1919, the fort was re-taken twenty years later by the Germans during World War II. Beginning in September 1944, German troops reorganized its defense, and integrated the fort with the defensive system set up around Metz. After World War II, the fort was abandoned. Part of the fort now houses a restaurant specializing in dishes from Alsace and Lorraine.

Second World War

In late August 1944, at the beginning of the

, the German command integrated the defensive system set up around Metz. On 2 September 1944, Metz was declared a Hitler Reich fortress, to be defended to the last by German troops whose leaders were all sworn to the Führer. The next day General Walther Krause, then commander of the fortress of Metz, established his High Command, the main command post in the barracks was

, then known as Feste Alvensleben. The same day, the troops of General Krause took position on a line from

Pagny-sur-Moselle Pagny-sur-Moselle (, literally ''Pagny on Moselle'') is a commune in the Meurthe-et-Moselle department in north-eastern France. See also * Communes of the Meurthe-et-Moselle department * Parc naturel régional de Lorraine Lorraine Regional Na ...

Mondelange Mondelange (; ) is a commune in the Moselle department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. Population See also * Communes of the Moselle department The following is a list of the 725 communes of the Moselle department of France. The c ...

, passing to the west of Metz by

Chambley-Bussières Chambley-Bussières () is a commune in the Meurthe-et-Moselle department in north-eastern France.Mars-la-Tour, Jarny and Briey. After an initial withdrawal, starting 6 September 1944, the German lines rested firmly on the forts of Metz. The US offensive, launched 7 September 1944 on the west line of the forts of Metz was cut short. American troops, stopped at the Moselle, despite taking two bridgeheads south of Metz, better defended than expected, were now low on supplies and figuratively out of breath. General

Raymond McLain Lieutenant General Raymond Stallings McLain (April 4, 1890 – December 14, 1954) was a senior United States Army officer. In the words of General George C. Marshall, Raymond S. McLain "gave great distinction to the term 'citizen soldier. His serv ...

, in agreement with General

Edwin Walker Edwin Anderson Walker (November 10, 1909 – October 31, 1993) was the only U.S. Army general officer to resign his commission amid his tour of duty in the 20th century. After serving in World War II and the Korean War Walker became better know ...

, decided to suspend the attack, pending new plans from the General Staff of the 90th Infantry Division.. When hostilities resumed after a rainy month, the soldiers of the still held firm to the forts of Metz, though supplies lines were more difficult under artillery fire and frequent bombings.. As a prelude to the assault on Metz, on 9 November 1944, the Air Force sent some 1,300 heavy bombers, both

Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engined heavy bomber developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). Relatively fast and high-flying for a bomber of its era, the B-17 was used primarily in the European Theater ...

es and

Consolidated B-24 Liberator The Consolidated B-24 Liberator is an American heavy bomber, designed by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego, California. It was known within the company as the Model 32, and some initial production aircraft were laid down as export models des ...

s, and dumped hundreds of bombs on fortifications and strategic points in the combat zone of the Third Army. As most bombers had no visibility and dropped their bombs from over 20,000 feet, the military targets were often missed. In Metz, 689 loads of bombs hit the seven forts identified as priority targets, but merely caused collateral damage.. In the morning fog of 18 November 1944, Colonel Donald Bacon gave the signal for the attack by the 2nd Battalion ''378 Infantry Regiment'' on the Fort Saint-Julien. The fort's strong position on the main road from Metz was in fact an essential goal. The assault battalion silently encircled the fort and attacked at 7:00 am precisely. The road down to Metz was then held by a company of the 462 Volks-Grenadier-Division that the US artillery campaign finally dislodged from the houses below, completing the encirclement of the fort around noon. American tanks and self-propelled guns then took position around the fort. For an hour, the 240-mm howitzers of ''Task force'' fired tirelessly preparing for the infantry attack. The soldiers of the 378th Infantry Regiment then rushed through a gap at the back of the fort, under fire from machine guns. Two light tanks provide covering fire, while a tank destroyer took position near the entrance and shot at the fort, which nevertheless resisted. Finally, a self-propelled 155mm gun managed to break the door. In the absence of heavy weaponry, the 200 German soldiers of the 462nd Volks-Grenadier-Division were trapped in the fort and could do nothing against American firepower. The next morning, in the mist of 19 November 1944, the small detachment of 462 Volks-Grenadier-Division finally agreed to surrender to US troops.. The fort Jeanne-d’Arc was the last of the forts of Metz to disarm. Determined German resistance, bad weather, floods, inopportunity, and a general tendency to underestimate the firepower of the fortifications of Metz, have helped slow the US offensive, giving the opportunity to the German Army to withdraw in good order to the

Saar Saar or SAAR has several meanings: People Given name *Saar Boubacar (born 1951), Senegalese professional football player * Saar Ganor, Israeli archaeologist *Saar Klein (born 1967), American film editor Surname * Ain Saar (born 1968), Est ...

.. The objective of the German staff, which was to gain the most possible time in keeping the US troops from arriving at the front of the

Siegfried Line The Siegfried Line, known in German as the ''Westwall'', was a German defensive line built during the 1930s (started 1936) opposite the French Maginot Line. It stretched more than ; from Kleve on the border with the Netherlands, along the west ...

, was largely achieved.

References

See as well

Bibliography

* Forts of Metz * Fortifications of Metz *

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint-Julien, Fort de Fortifications of Metz Séré de Rivières system World War II defensive lines