Ouvrage Villy La Ferte

Continuing our trip along the Maginot Line, today we visited the massive Ouvrage Fermont with its underground railway but also the two block "petit ouvrage" of Villy La Ferte on the border between France and Belgium. Villy La Ferte was weakly armed and isolated at the western end of the Maginot Line but fighting here was the heaviest of any position. Under continuous artillery fire - more than 20,000 artillery rounds landed on the fort during four days and nights (15th to 19th May) - from overwhelming German forces. Lieutenant Bourguignon, commanding the garrison was refused permission to evacuate even when the retractable mixed arms turret became stuck in the opened position, facing to the rear and unable to aim and with block 2 on fire.

The entire French garrison of 106 men were killed, most of them died in the underground gallery connecting the two combat blocks. They were asphyxiated by carbon monoxide.

The photograph is taken from inside the retractable steel turret of block 2 which was blown off its mountings looking towards the heavily damaged observation cloche. The cemetry is beyond the cloche, in the middle of the image, surrounded by trees.

The German troops who finally entered La Ferte described conditions inside as "the most difficult imaginable".