Ouvrage Rochonvillers

Rochonvillers was considered an early priority for construction, and as such went through several concepts in early design while the overall concept of the Maginot Line was being investigated. It was initially proposed in 1926 as a single massive fort shielding two artillery turrets in the rear. The next concept envisioned a closely grouped arrangement of works, four peripheral units around a turreted artillery block, located somewhat to the south of the present installation. A third iteration was termed the "village", a very large and expensive concept that was opposed by the residents of Rochonvillers.[1] The fourth version was described as a fort palmé (or palmate), based on the ideas of Colonel Tricaud, first published in the Revue du Génie in 1917. The fort palmé proposed a dispersed set of fortifications fanning out from a central subterranean trunk which would contain barracks, utilities and ammunition magazines. This concept was adopted for the entire Line, with the strong support of Marshal Philippe Pétain, in late 1927.[2]

The Rochonvillers site was surveyed by CORF (Commission d'Organisation des Régions Fortifiées), the Maginot Line's design and construction agency, in 1929. Work by the contractor, Campernon-Bernard, began the next year,[3] and the position became operational in 1935,[4] at a cost of 123 million francs, the third most expensive ouvrage in the North-east.[5][6]

Rochonvillers is located on the heights of the Aumetz plateau, giving it a command of the surrounding countryside.[1] As a powerful position in the Line, Rochonvillers' role was to control the open country between the Moselle and the Meuse, in concert with its neighbours. The ouvrage[nb 1] formed part of the "principal line of resistance", an element of defence in depth that was preceded by a line of advance posts close to the border, and backed by a line of shelters for infantry. The gros ouvrages like Rochonvillers were so large that their fighting elements were in the line of resistance while their entrances, and hence their supply lines, were in the third line, surrounded by infantry, as much as a kilometre to the rear. The entrances were in turn served by narrow gauge (60 cm) railways that branched from a line paralleling the front and in turn connecting to supply depots. The rail lines ran straight into the munitions entry of the ouvrage and all the way out to the combat blocks, a distance of 2,250 metres (7,380 ft).[9][10]

Rochonvillers covers an unusually large area. The combat blocks are connected to each other and to the subterranean barracks, magazines and entries at the rear by underground galleries at an average depth of 30 metres (98 ft). The locations of the entrances in a ravine allowed a relatively short inclined descent to the gallery complex. Stairs, ammunition hoists and chutes for spent casings rise to the surface at each block.[11] The central utility plant or usine is just inside the personnel entry. Rochonvillers, as one of the largest ouvrages, was given a large "M1" magazine some distance from the munitions entrance, an arrangement would be useful for a command post in later years. A large barracks is located at the junction of the personnel and munitions galleries.[12]

Rochonvillers munitions entry, with 60 cm rail tracks visible

• Ammunition entry: inclined plan, with the automatic rifle cloches (GFM), one machine gun/47 mm anti-tank gun embrasure (JM/AC47), modified during the 1980s.[13]
• Personnel entry: shaft, two GFM cloches, one JM/AC47 embrasure.[14]
• Block 1: Infantry block with one machine gun turret, one GFM cloche and one machine gun cloche (JM).[15]
• Block 2: Artillery block with one 75 mm gun turret.[16]
• Block 3: Artillery block with one 75 mm gun turret and two GFM cloches.[17]
• Block 4: Observation block with one GFM cloche and one observation cloche (VDP).[18]
• Block 5: Artillery block with three 75 mm gun embrasures, one 135 mm gun embrasure, one GFM cloche and one grenade launcher cloche (LG).[19]
• Block 6: Artillery block with one 135 mm gun turret, one GFM cloche and one grenade launcher cloche.[20]
• Block 7: Artillery block with one 135 mm gun turret and two GFM cloches.[21]
• Block 8: Infantry block with one JM/AC37 embrasure, one JM machine gun embrasure, one machine gun turret and two GFM cloches.[22]
• Block 9: Infantry block with one machine gun turret and one GFM cloche.[23]

An emergency exit was proposed via an access gallery to the nearby Rochonvillers iron ore mine in 1934, but was not pursued.[3] An abortive plan of 1939 proposed a connection between the Abri du Grand Lot, the Abri du Bois d'Escherange and on to gros ouvrage Molvange.[24]

Casemate du Grand Lot in 2004

Casemates and shelters

In addition, the rear portion of the complex, near the underground barracks, is connected via a gallery to the Abri du Grand Lot[nb 2]49°24′10.9″N 06°03′55.05″E. The two-block infantry shelter (or abri) provided flanking cover to the Rochonvillers entrances, located in a wooded ravine out of sight from the main ouvrage, and covered the space between Rochonvillers and Molvange. It was armed with two GFM cloches. The Casemate du Grand Lot is nearby on higher ground 49°24′28.13″N 06°03′45.65″E, but not connected to the gallery system. The casemate was armed with two JM/AC47 embrasures, two heavy twin machine gun embrasures, and two GFM cloches. Both were built by CORF.[3]

A series of casemates and infantry shelters extend in an arc in the direction of Molvange, including

• Casemate d'Escherange Ouest: Single block with one JM/AC47 embrasure, one JM embrasure, and two GFM cloches.
• Casemate d'Escherange Est: Single block with one JM/AC47 embrasure, one JM embrasure, and one GFM cloche.
• Casemate du Petersberg Ouest: Single block with one JM/AC47 embrasure, one JM embrasure, and two GFM cloches.
• Casemate du Petersberg Est: One mortar cloche, one GFM cloche.
• Abri Bois d'Escherange: Shelter for two infantry sections, two GFM cloches.

None of these are connected to the ouvrage or to each other.[3]

The Observatiore du Réservoir, located near Ouvrage Bréhain, reported to Rochonvillers.[26]

Camp d'Angevillers

The 1940 manning of the ouvrage under the command of Commandant Guillemain comprised 756 men and 26 officers of the 169th Fortress Infantry Regiment and the 151st Position Artillery Regiment. The units were under the umbrella of the 42nd Fortress Corps of the Third Army, Army Group 2.[27]

Peacetime quarters for the garrisons of Rochonvillers and Molvange were at the Camp d'Angevillers, just to the south of the Rochonvillers entries, near the town of Angevillers. With the establishment of the CENTAG wartime headquarters at Rochonvillers, the French 125th Régiment d'Instruction des Transmissions and the 2nd Régiment du Génie occupied the camp, along with the 175th Signal Company and the 208th Signal Support Company of the US Army. US Air Force units occupied portions of Molvange, which housed the Fourth Allied Tactical Air Force wartime headquarters. The camp was later occupied by the 40th Régiment de Transmissions stationed at the Jeanne d'Arc barracks in Thionville and the Guyon-Gellin barracks in Hettange-Grande, near the Ouvrage Immerhof.[28]

See Fortified Sector of Thionville for a broader discussion of the events of 1940 in the Thionville sector of the Maginot Line.

Rochonvillers did not see significant action in the Battle of France in 1940, nor in the Lorraine Campaign of 1944. The Germans in 1940 largely bypassed the area, advancing along the valley of the Meuse and Saar rivers, threatening the rear of the Thionville sector. An order to fortress troops by sector commander Colonel Jean-Patrice O'Sullivan to prepare for withdrawal on 17 June was reversed by O'Sullivan.[29] On 21 June a 75 mm gun in Block 5 exploded, killing one gunner and seriously wounding another. The gun position has never been repaired.[30] Rochonvillers was bombarded by heavy artillery on 22 June, with a projectile penetrating and exploding in Block 5.[31] On June 30, 1940, the troops of the 169th RIF were ordered to evacuate their positions by the French command, seven days after the 22 June 1940 armistice.[32]

The occupying Germans used Rochonvillers' barracks and magazine areas as troop quarters. After its occupation by the Americans in 1944, the Americans used some of the turrets and cloches in blocks 5, 6 and 7 for experiments with armour-piercing weapons, in preparation for their assault on the Siegfried Line.[33]

NATO command centre

Munitions entry and perimeter fence in 2011

With France's acquisition of nuclear weapons in 1960, the Maginot fortifications began to be viewed as an expensive anachronism. Funding was provided for maintenance, but for little more. The Maginot Line, while obsolete in terms of its armament, was viewed as a series of useful deeply buried and self-sufficient shelters in an era of air power and nuclear weapons. In 1960 the French Army initiated inquiries among the other French forces and among NATO members concerning the use of Maginot fortifications as storage depots or as command centres. In 1961, after discussions with the Americans and West Germans, Rochonvillers, Molvange and Soetrich were placed at the disposal of NATO. Rochonviller's main magazine, with its two entries and circulation loop crossed by five galleries, was made into a wartime command centre for the NATO Central Army Group (CENTAG) (normally located at Fontainebleau)[38] at a cost of 380 million francs.[39] Rochonvillers functioned in this role until 1967,[37] when France withdrew from NATO's integrated command structure. The command centre is located close to and between the personnel entry and the munitions entry, with connections to each. It is more than a kilometre from the command centre to the main combat blocks via the main underground gallery.[40]

CENTAG's headquarters were moved to Brunssum, the Netherlands, where the deactivated Hendrik coal mine was available for use.[41] In 1971 the names of the Maginot ouvrages were declassified by the French military. At the same time, Rochonvillers was demoted from a fortified position of the first rank to a lower status, foreshadowing a general divestment of the Maginot Line's function as a fortification.[42]

The ouvrage remains under the control of the French Army, but is no longer occupied. The combat blocks are sealed from the command centre and abandoned.[10] Access to the site is forbidden.[13] The Casemate du Grand Lot is not within the security zone and is occasionally open for visits, with all of its equipment on display.[44][45]

• List of all works on Maginot Line
• Siegfried Line
• Atlantic Wall
• Czechoslovak border fortifications

• Allcorn, William. The Maginot Line 1928-45. Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 2003. ISBN 1-84176-646-1
• Kaufmann, J.E. and Kaufmann, H.W. Fortress France: The Maginot Line and French Defenses in World War II, Stackpole Books, 2006. ISBN 0-275-98345-5
• Kaufmann, J.E., Kaufmann, H.W., Jancovič-Potočnik, A. and Lang, P. The Maginot Line: History and Guide, Pen and Sword, 2011. ISBN 978-1-84884-068-3
• Mary, Jean-Yves; Hohnadel, Alain; Sicard, Jacques. Hommes et Ouvrages de la Ligne Maginot, Tome 1. Paris, Histoire & Collections, 2001. ISBN 2-908182-88-2 (in French)
• Mary, Jean-Yves; Hohnadel, Alain; Sicard, Jacques. Hommes et Ouvrages de la Ligne Maginot, Tome 2. Paris, Histoire & Collections, 2003. ISBN 2-908182-97-1 (in French)
• Mary, Jean-Yves; Hohnadel, Alain; Sicard, Jacques. Hommes et Ouvrages de la Ligne Maginot, Tome 3. Paris, Histoire & Collections, 2003. ISBN 2-913903-88-6 (in French)
• Mary, Jean-Yves; Hohnadel, Alain; Sicard, Jacques. Hommes et Ouvrages de la Ligne Maginot, Tome 5. Paris, Histoire & Collections, 2009. ISBN 978-2-35250-127-5 (in French)

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ouvrage de Rochonvillers.

• Rochonvillers (gros ouvrage A8 de) at fortiff.be (in French)
• Rochonvillers at Subterranea Britannica
• Base Mérimée: Ouvrage Rochonvillers, Ministère français de la Culture. (in French)
• Ouvrage de Rochonvillers at wikimaginot.eu (in French)
• Ouvrage de Rochonvillers at lignemaginot.com (in French)
• L'ouvrage du Rochonvillers at alsacemaginot.com (in French)
• Gros Ouvrage de Rochonvillers (A8) at .mablehome.com (refactored)
• Ouvrage de Rochonvilliers at vergesseneprojekte.de (in German)