| The junction of Blocks B3, B2 and B5 at Ouvrage (Literally “Works” or Fortress) Michelsberg (A22), one of the Maginot Line fortifications, part of Secteur Fortifiée de Boulay (“Fortified Sector of Boulay”) in the Moselle Département, between Dalstein and Chémery-les-Deux, France; about fourteen miles (twenty-three kilometers) from Thionville, and seven miles (twelve kilometers) behind the German border. Ouvrage Michelsberg was approved for construction by the Commission d’Organisation des Régions Fortifiées (CORF), the agency responsible for the design and construction of the Maginot Line. The contractor was Gianotti of Nice. Construction commenced in April 1930 and continued until 1935. The French Army activated Ouvrage Michelsberg in 1937. The water supply is the only well outside the fort in the Maginot Line system; the well dug inside the fort came up dry. Five blocks, with interlocking fields of fire, make Ouvrage Michelsberg one of the smallest forts of the Maginot Line. Infantry Block B1 had a Guetteur et Fusil-Mitrailleur (GFM – “lookout and rifle-machine gunner”) cloche (non-retractable firing position) and a Jumelage de Mitrailleuses (JM – twin Mitrailleuse modèle 1931 Reibel 7.5 millimeter (.309 caliber) machine guns) cloche and a retractable JM turret. Infantry Block B2 had two GFM cloches and a JM cloche with a Canon de Quarante-Sept Millimètres Anti-Char Modèle 1934 (“Model 1934 Forty-seven millimeter (1.85 inch) Anti-Tank Cannon”). Artillery Block B3 had a retractable eighty-one millimeter mortar turret and two GFM cloches. Block B4 was never built. Artillery Block B5 had one GFM cloche with a seventy-five millimeter Canon de Soixante-Quinze Millimètres Modèle 1897 Modifié 1933 (“Seventy-Five Millimeter Gun Model 1897 Modified 1933”) gun turret. Artillery Block B6 with one Lance Bombes de 135 Millimètres Modèle 1932 (“135 millimeter (5.31 inch) Howitzer Model 1932”) dual gun turret, one GFM cloche, one JM cloche, one Lance-Grenade (“Grenade Launcher”) cloche, and an emergency exit. Some individual cloches were built around the fort. Between August and the winter of 1939, as reservists mobilized to bring the garrison up to full strength, the troops moved from the surface caserne (“barracks”) at Camp Ising into the ouvrage. In peacetime, part of the crew maintained security from a light caserne with two barracks located near the ouvrage’s entrance. During this time, troops excavated anti-tank ditches on both flanks. Nearby the French Army created field positions for 120 millimeter and 105 millimeter guns to support the sector. The garrison consisted of about 525 men from the 164th Regiment d’Infanterie de Forteresse, the 153rd Regiment d’Artillerie de Position and specialists from the Second, Fifteenth and Eighteenth Engineer Regiments. On June 22, 1940, Generalleutnant Hans-Heinrich Sixt von Armin (November 6, 1890 – April 1, 1952), Kommandant, 95.Infanterie-Division, attempted to force Fortress Michelsberg to surrender. The fortress was well within artillery range of Fortresses Hackenberg, Mont-des-Welches and Anzeling. On the afternoon of 22 June, as 95.Infanterie-Division’s field artillery fired suppressive fire on Michelsberg, Mont-des-Welches and Anzeling, a battery of four eighty-eight millimeter (3.46 inch) Flak guns from Höheres Kommando XXXXV (“High Command Forty-Five”) moved into firing position about twenty-five hundred meters (8,202 feet) behind Fortress Michelsberg. The eighty-eight millimeter flak guns fired two hundred and sixty rounds at Blocks B2 and B3, the only two combat blocks readily seen from the rear of the fortress. However, because the guns fired at long range, the fire caused only superficial damage to the façade of Block 2 and scored a couple hits on the cloches. That evening, a German officer approached Michelsberg and tried to convince the crew to surrender; however, the French Commander, Commandant Jules Pelletier (???? – ????), refused. Seeing that the damage done by the Flak was minimal, Generalleutnant von Armin postponed further shelling until closer firing positions could be found. However, the next day all Flak batteries assigned to Höheres Kommando XXXXV were reassigned to other missions, leaving the 95.Infanterie-Division without the means to continue the attack. Further combat action in the Boulay sector slowed to occasional artillery duels between the 95.Infanterie-Division and the French fortresses. Seeing that they were getting nowhere, the Germans redirected their attention toward other fortresses in the area — with similar minimal results. It was only the announcement of the armistice that brought the fighting to an end. On July 4, 1940, the undefeated defenders of Fortress Michelsberg, having been convinced by their superiors to surrender, marched out of their battered but unbroken Ouvrage and into captivity. Of the fifty-eight major Maginot fortified works, the Wehrmacht captured ten (La Ferté, Bersillies, La Salmagne, Boussois, Sarts, Eth, Bambesch, Kerfent, Haut-Poirier and Welschhof). Another two fortresses (Chesnois and Vélosnes) and one fort (Thonnelle) in the Montmédy sector were abandoned by their crews to the Germans without a fight. The loss of these fortifications was due more to the absence of supporting interval infantry and artillery than to German tactical prowess. Otherwise, Maginot fortress troops withstood the test of battle, repulsing ground attacks against one fortress (Fermont) and two forts (Ferme-Chappy and Einseling). A further eight fortresses (Mont-des-Welches, Michelsberg, Four-à-Chaux, Hochwald, Schoenenbourg, Laudrefang, Teting and Lembach) withstood intense aerial and artillery bombardment until the armistice. Ouvrage Michelsberg was garrisoned by the French Army after World War II as a provision against the Soviets during the Cold War until the 1960s. In the 1970s, it was a mushroom farm. Today, it is a museum available for public visitation. | |
| Image Filename | wwii0752.jpg |
| Image Size | 2.25 MB |
| Image Dimensions | 3241 x 2100 |
| Photographer | Bob Glod |
| Photographer Title | |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | January 19, 2019 |
| Location | Ouvrage Michelsberg, Secteur Fortifiée de Boulay |
| City | Metz |
| State or Province | Grand Est |
| Country | France |
| Archive | |
| Record Number | |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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