Myself and Mike went on a 48 hour journey to investigate the tunnels and forts of the Maginot Line, in the area of Thionville, near Metz, France.
After getting the midnight eurotunnel, and a snooze in a layby somewhere, we were exploring by breakfast time on Saturday.
We started in the sector of Thionville.
Our research indicated that the forts in this sector were abandoned but accessable. What a surpise we had. It appears that in the last month ALL the forts in this sector have been blocked up very permanently by the military. Hundreds of tones of earth and rubble have been excavated and used to block the tunnel entrances. At a couple of sites where we could breach the soil, we were met by steel grilles and concrete block walls. Every munitions and personnel entrance, and every combat block emergency exit has been blocked.
The forts we saw were...
Gros Ouvrage de Soetrich
Gros Ouvrage du Metrich
Gros Ouvrage du Billig
Gros Ouvrage du Mort des Welche
All the above sites showed the same recency of this state sponsored vandalism . I can only presume the other forts in this sector are the same.
If there is ANY access to forts in this area, I need to know !
In the evening we went into the small town of THionville. Oh my God. This place is dead. At 9pm we were the only people out - no shit. We went back to the hotel and sacked it for the night.
The next day we set off to a different sector, to investigate Gros Ouvrage de Latiremont. Our theory was that it was in a another sector some distance away, and it may have escaped the fate of the others. I was almost right. The forts were locked, by locked I mean 'welded shut'. Running out of time now, and desparate to get underground, we paid for a trip of the fort 'FERMONT'.
This was absolutely great, I would recommend it to anyone interested in tunnels and / or military history. The tour lasted several hours and covered most aspects of these amazing underground structures.
During the weekend, we came across hospital blocks, gun emplacements, look out posts, barbed wire, and we had a good time just 'exploring'. Shame about the main event though.
If anyone knows any entrances to these forts, please let me know. Remember, this happened very recently - if your info is older than this post, the chances are that he fort is now blocked.
Some pictures of the thionville sector forts, now behind tonnes of earth.
After getting the midnight eurotunnel, and a snooze in a layby somewhere, we were exploring by breakfast time on Saturday.
We started in the sector of Thionville.
Our research indicated that the forts in this sector were abandoned but accessable. What a surpise we had. It appears that in the last month ALL the forts in this sector have been blocked up very permanently by the military. Hundreds of tones of earth and rubble have been excavated and used to block the tunnel entrances. At a couple of sites where we could breach the soil, we were met by steel grilles and concrete block walls. Every munitions and personnel entrance, and every combat block emergency exit has been blocked.
The forts we saw were...
Gros Ouvrage de Soetrich
Gros Ouvrage du Metrich
Gros Ouvrage du Billig
Gros Ouvrage du Mort des Welche
All the above sites showed the same recency of this state sponsored vandalism . I can only presume the other forts in this sector are the same.
If there is ANY access to forts in this area, I need to know !
In the evening we went into the small town of THionville. Oh my God. This place is dead. At 9pm we were the only people out - no shit. We went back to the hotel and sacked it for the night.
The next day we set off to a different sector, to investigate Gros Ouvrage de Latiremont. Our theory was that it was in a another sector some distance away, and it may have escaped the fate of the others. I was almost right. The forts were locked, by locked I mean 'welded shut'. Running out of time now, and desparate to get underground, we paid for a trip of the fort 'FERMONT'.
This was absolutely great, I would recommend it to anyone interested in tunnels and / or military history. The tour lasted several hours and covered most aspects of these amazing underground structures.
During the weekend, we came across hospital blocks, gun emplacements, look out posts, barbed wire, and we had a good time just 'exploring'. Shame about the main event though.
If anyone knows any entrances to these forts, please let me know. Remember, this happened very recently - if your info is older than this post, the chances are that he fort is now blocked.
Some pictures of the thionville sector forts, now behind tonnes of earth.
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