Fort Saint Michel...

 

LOCATION:

  49°10'35.87"N -  5°24'52.86"E

FIND ME:

Click to view this location in Google Earth...

BUILT: 1875
MODIFIED: n/a
ACCESS:

Prohibited - but actually finding it is the real problem! Once you walk into the area in front of the barrack blocks access to the fort interior is extremely easy.

GARRISON:

160 men

ARMAMENTS:

n/a

NOTES:

This is not a very interesting fort in all honesty but worth a look if only for the underground shelter and it's collection of old "tags".

 

 

Fort Saint Michel was one of the six "Forts de la Panique" - literally Panic Forts - built in great haste around 1874 when diplomatic relations between Germany and France again deteriorated to the point where it was expected that another war was imminent. Its location is high up on a densely wooded hill quite close to the city, and only a very short distance east of Fort Belleville. At the time of it's construction it was not actually designated a fort, rather it was a large gun battery with parapets for infantry to defend the guns, and masonry shelters to protect the infantry during heavy bombardments. Unlike many of the later Verdun forts Saint Michel did not have any artillery, machine gun or observation armoured turrets.

The fort today is fairly intact, unlike it's close neighbour Belleville, but there are some oddities on the ground which we could not quite reconcile with what we expected to find. Penetration of the fort is very easy but paradoxically it is not easy to get a particularly good idea of the fort layout, so printing off an appropriate plan beforehand is a good idea. The most interesting area of the fort is a large subterranean chamber with a narrow access "well". In the bottom of the hemi-spherical chamber many people have "tagged" their names on the walls and some of the dates are well over half a century old!

As with all the Verdun forts great care should be taken when wandering around within the fort as there is little to prevent a serious fall in certain areas.


Here is a selection taken from the photos we took at Fort Saint Michel in May 2012.

 
 
 


 


To view any of the photographs in a  larger format click the small photo and a large version will open in another window.
 

 

The photographs on this website MAY NOT BE USED WITHOUT THE EXPRESS PERMISSION of the website author...

 

We gained access straight through a barrack room window.

 

Off down tunnels that have long since flooded and become mud caked.
 

A Travaux 17 excavation at the foot of a half bricked exit on to the Rue du Rempart.
 

This Travaux 17 tunnel doesn't go very far.
 
Outside the barrack block now via a caponniere.
 
A shelter for an artillery crew and their ammunition.
 
Inside the shelter looking out at the artillery emplacement.

 
Here's TJ...

 

Dead end! There were seldom any tunnels between these shelters even after the Travaux 17 program of works.
 

The firing ports of a caponniere.
 
This entrance is half buried now.
 
Back inside and in the caponniere.
 
The same caponniere firing ports from the inside.
 
A rifleman could shoot out at the enemy from here.
 
Moving on...
 
In places the tunnels come to an abrupt dead end.
 
Back outside now and this looks like another artillery shelter...
 
...except for this ladder dropping down a narrow shaft.
 

At the bottom the shaft opens up in to a large chamber. This was probably an infantry shelter dug much later than when the fort was built.
 

Some very old "tagging". here we have some 1959s.

 
A couple of 1936s.

 
There's a 1938 and a 1948 in that lot.

 
A 1951.

 

I'd say this busty belle was Mademoiselle from Armentieres but she would have had to be on her holidays at the time!
 

Moving back into the main fort again now.
 
One of the better preserved corridors.
 
The masonry work is lovely in places.
 
On the way upward and out now.
 
A pause to check the floor plan!
 
Where we've just been!
 
   
 

Click above to navigate back to the

Verdun forts main page once more...