Fort Schoenenbourg, Maginotline
	Vauquois and Forest of Argonne
	Verdun Part 2

Sounded pretty good all in all - so I researched a bit the Maginotline to prepare my visit. The Fort would be my first stop on the way to Verdun. Equipped with some printed maps of the area and a few notes on how to find it, I was on my way to eastern france. The ride went well, except that close to the french border there was a detour due to a construction site. I kind of lost my track there and it took me a while to find a way to the border in the end. But I managed to get there, despite the obvious lack of road signs, which were supposed to be all over the place - but just weren't. I arrived a bit after lunch time, so thism eant I would be in Verdun a bit later then planned. My visit to Vauquois and all of Verun thus would have to wait for the second day. 

Fort Schoenenbourg

Arriving at the Fort I had lunch quickly. After eating some bread and stuff I went to check out the Fort. The artillery fort Schoenenbourg is one of the few remaining forts of the Maginotline that can be toured. It is placed 18 km northeast of Haguenau, eight kilometers south of Wissembourg and four kilometers northeast of Soultz-sous-Foret. It was the right conner-stone of the Maginot-Line, the "ouvrage" Schoenenbourg is a typical artillery bunkergroup of middle strength (size class 2). Its construction took three years, from 1930 to 33, 1935 it was fully armed and the internal equipment was in its place. A few modifications were done until 1940, when war heated up between France and Germany.  

Most of it is located 17 to 30 m underground. Only the two entrances and the battle blocks are at the surface. The two entrances, one of which is only for personnel, the other for material, are facing to the opposite of the enemy, in the slope of a hill. There are shafts leading down from the entrances to a tunnel system, including stairs and elevators. The tunnels conncet the battleblocks with the subterranean barracks, work shops, power station and hospital as well as ammo depots and the commando block. Ini the main tunnel is an electric train traveling on iron tracks, that transports all material from the material entrance to the battle blocks via a one kilometer long tunnel. The battleblocks are facing towards the enemy, they are compromised of two flanking infantry casemats (Block 1 and 6), a machinegun turret that can be lowered and two artillery turrets, each using a double 75mm turret gun. Additionally a battle block with a duoble 81mm grenade thrower was installed. 

Entering the Fort... 

(Entrance to the fort is now through the old material entrance.)

Arriving in the bunker, I made my way down to the main tunnel. I had to take a rather steep but decently sized staircase since the elevator is not working anymore. About 15 to 20m down, I arrived at the main tunnel section. 

(Map of the entire bunkersystem - easy to see, how large the system was. It takes quite a while underground to reach the battleblocks from the underground barracks etc.)

It didn't take long to walk down the stairs and arrive in the tunnel - and there was my first surprise...

(Electrical train for transporting soldiers and material from the barracks to the battlestations.)

I had heard before that the Maginotline was much better equipped then the german bunkers of its time, but this was quite a surprise. Technologically far advanced, and even up to standard in modern times in some ways. Unfortunately the train is not operational anymore, so you have to walk the whole way underground. Not a very fast way to travel...

(This is how the tunnels look like. Pictured here is the tunnel from the main tunnel to the barrcks and work shops.)

First I decided to check out the barracks sections and the work shops and technical installations of the Fort. The way there was already quite a walk. In contrast to most other bunkers, this one is in perfect condition, mostly dry and pretty well conserved. It might have to do with the frnech army stillusing these systems until the end of the 60ies and being used touristically since 1982...

(A fully equipped work shop, capable of repairing most installations in the Fort. Includes a functional lathe among other items. Incredible!)

Astonishing what equipment was used here. For its time the most modern (and unfortunately also accident-prone) technology was used, so to keep things repaired and maintained, the architects of the Fort included a full work shop so in ccase of an emergency, the Fort could repair itself. This was based on their experience from the first world war, where the Forts (after being cut off for weeks from supplies) had no way to be kept running after a while, and desperately needed to do repairs on them. This lead to many improvisations and so the decision was made to include work shops in future bunker systems. 

(Panorama of the barracks.)

Decidedly less luxury was given to the soldiers manning the Fort. In comaprison to the Forts of the first world war, these were actually pretty comfortable. Here they had real beds and no simple folding bunks and there is even room to hang up the gear and clothing in niches. However the beds were not sufficient for all, sleeping was done in shifts and so dozens of soldiers were forced to live in really cramped places. 

(Hightech of the 30ies - the commando bunker.)

This is the bridge of the bunker, so to say. The commander fo the Fort was giving here his instructions. Using the phones the observers in their miniature bunkers in front of the Fort (or in the observation cloches on top of the battle blocks) could report, what went on outside of the Fort. Teh comander could then direct the fire outside of the Fort using the pictures on the walls. Here were exact pcutres of the outside represented, complete with degrees and ranges. So if an observer reported where the enemy was, the commander could tell the appropriate block to fire at the preplanned coordinates. The blocks had no direct view outside and had to rely on the instructions they were given by the commander. This protected them on one side, however if communications were to be disrupted due to lack of power or something else, this effectively disabled the Fort completely. 

(Generator room - to the left you can see a single cylinder.)

The necessary power for phones, light, ventialtion etc. was usually fed by thick cables running fromthe bunker to the normal power lines outside. However if power was shut down externally, the diesel engines and generators down here would kick in and provide power to the system. To have sufficient water, three weels were drilled within the Fort, ensuring that the Fort would not run ot of water even if was besieged. 

When I was done checking out the rooms of the barracks and the workshops, I went back the long way to the main tunnel and then the even longer way to the battle blocks. In the middle of the way there is a bend in the tunnel. This was used to secure the Fort in case it was partially occupied. In the bend was a small machinegun emplacement as a bunker inside of the bunker. It could control the whole tunnel to both sides. 

I went on to the battle blocks. Unfortunately this area was very confusing and there was again a lack of signs pointing the right way. It looked as if only one blcok is accessibl, the others were blocked off. So I went over to the block that was accessible, one of the artillery blocks. 

(Shell chamber below the artillery block)

the french army included a chamber for the spent shells in the Fort under the artiellery blocks. This makes actually a lot of sense - this way the spent shells can be transported back through the tunnel and ne refilled, either outside of hte fort or in the workshops. It also took away quite some heat from the turret, if the hot shells were immediately put in this chamber, that way also saving room in the turrets, where price was a premium. A pretty good idea in my opinion.

A steep, narrow staircase lead up into the turret. There was a guided tour getting explained how the turret and the gun works, so I just joided them to hear the explanations of the guide. The intersting part is, that the technology how the turret operates is basically the same as in the Forts around Verdun. What I had seen there before in rusty and destroyed condition was here perfectly preserved and operational. This helped explaining how they work a lot to me. 

(View of the turret from the bottom. We were not allowed to climb into the top though. )

Because the guided tour was there, the tour guide also demonstrated how the turret gets lifted up and down, a very cool sight to see. They couldn't fire the gun of course (what a surprise...) but it was quite interesting nevertheless. 

(The twin 75mm turret guns.)

To the right side of the gun you can see the funnels, where the spent shells would be put in. The tubes under the funnels bring the shells into the collection chamber I saw just before that. I checked again now, if I could see other blocks here, but it seemed to be not the case. So I started to walk back to the entrance through the main tunnel. 

The ride to Verdun would take quite a bit of time and because of the size of the Fort, it would take a few minutes to get to the outside anyways. Arriving there after about 20 minutes, I took a long look on the entrance fortifications, which I didn't check out when I arrived here earlier. When I was done with that, I went back to the car, had a snack there and called Tia to tell her, that i'm all good and healthy. Lacking again of decent road signs, I couldn't find the battleblocks outside of the Fort, so I wen t on to drive to Verdun. It would have been interesting to see them, but it just didn't work out this time.

En route to Verdun I crossed the border and went on. Like last year I intended to stay at the Hotel Formula One in Verdun, but this time arriving there, I had bad luck: It was sold out. Damn! So I had to look for other hotels and found one - next door. Twice the price of the Forumla One, but also of a bit better quality. Oh well. I rented my room, went briefly shopping in the Hypermarche and then ate bit, had a beer, called Tia and watched a documentary onthe laptop. Charged my cameras battery and then went to sleep early. The next day would mean to get up very early and would have a tight schedule for me..

Vauquois

Early next morning things started to get busy. Washed myself quickly, packed my stuff, went downstairs for a quick breakfast (of sufficient quality), threw my bag in the car and checked out. I was on my way to the hill of Vauquois. Unfortunately I did not acquire any new maps, but reused the ones from the year before. And of course the detailed map of Verdun was nowhere to be found - damn! Of course I got lost in Verdun and it took me a while to figure out, where I had to go. In the end I managed to leave Verdun in the correct direction and luckily plaaned some extra time for the ride. Proved to be a good idea, I arrived at   8:20AM on an early sunday morning just in time for the visit. I pared next to the visiotrs centre at the bottom of the hill and had a look at the small, but interesting exhibition that they put up there. Slowly the parkign lot filled with cars and we were enough people for a tour group underground. 10 minutes later we went up the hill to start the tour.

Unfortunately I was the only german to take part in the tour, so the guide did it in french. Which i mostly understood, but not entirely. Not so bad, I pretty much knew most details about Vauquois already from my research before the trip. There are still always those interesting tidbits and details, that you only learn in a local tour and those were sad to miss this time. Anyways...

There is of course a second less then great part of such a tour then. Whenever it was about cruelties (or also alleged cruelties) that germans committed back then, the whole group took a very good look at me. Hooray. What to do in such a situation? I stuck with shrugging it off, keeping a smile . 

On we went. When we arrived on top of the hill at Vauquois, the guide told us a lot about the history of this region, even back to roman days. Very interesting. It didn't take too long though, until we were talking about the first world war and how it changed this region forever. He detailed the history of the village and of its capture and then the long battel, that was fought where the village used to be. Also he told about the stalemate and the trench war in the fortified positioons on both sides. Thats when we went over to the french side to enter the tunnel system there. 

(Fren tunnel entrance. Notice, how small and low it is built. This entrance is less then 100meteres away from thecraters at the top of the hill.)

We climebd into the tunnels, well equipped with flashlights and much needed helmets. The french tunnels are very low, so we kept banging our heads at rocks etc. Our french tour guide explained in the meantime, how the tunnels were constructed.  

(A small guard room in the french tunnels.)

As you can see from the bend heads, the tunnels were really small. Also the lack of any pillars can be seen, the geology permitted stable tunnels without much reinforcement. Nevertheless, a lot of the tunnel system is rapidly decaying and starts to crumble. Climbing into it without a guide is extremely dangerous. In guradrooms like we saw first, the sldiers took take breaks. They were always listening, if the other side was digging as well - if the digging stopped, that meant that the other side might explode a charge to collapse tunnels etc. 

(Subterranean restrooms)

Even such a strange sight was part of the tour: Subterranean toilets. Next to it a water bassin, used as a sink. In the foreground you can still see original plumbage. If this was a sewage pipe from the toilets I don't know. Regardless: Being in here in total darkness couldn't have been fun at all. The smell was rpbably horrible and fresh air was a premium. This as well as the use of poison gases was the reason why we saw so many gasmasks in the small museum at the beginning of the tour as well as some full fledged oxygen-respirators.

(Descending tunnel with reinforcing pillars made from wood. The wooden hooks on the dide were used to run cables over them and to hook up lamps.)

Our tour went further through the tunnels on the french side. Unfortunately we could not see the lower levels, snice they are fully under water nowadays or so unstable, that the ceiling comes down to often. Pity - but the upper levels are large eniugh and interesting enough to see as it is. The tracks were used to carry material and rocks out using lorrys and to bring food and ammunition inside the tunnels. Easy to see: The technology here was very basic, almost everything was done manually. 

(Exit on the french side.)

Quite a while later we left the french tunnels, having had to put our heads neatly between our shoulders due to the low hanging ceiling. The exit we took was even closer to the old frontline then the entrance - it was hard to imagine, how fighting could have lasted for four years on such a cramped, small area. We climbed back up to the top of the hill and to the german side of the hill. A very strange feeling, its about 100 metres, but it took the french four years (!) to manage to get this far. In the middle between the french and the german side is a small stone as a memorial on how far the french came for years: Until the middle.

(German side with the front trench. Directly behind is the better constructed main trench, the two lines were extremely close together.)

Arriving at the other side of the hilltop, our guide explained to us that the german side was more massivley and stably constructed. The background was that th germans were understanding the trenches as a more permanent position while the french favored them to be only temporary and thinnk about the war as a shorter timeperiod.It turend out that this was easy to differentiate.

(View back to the french side of the with the french memorial. Once upon a time - here stood an entire village!)

(Thick barbed wire in front of the  german main trench.)

Arriving at the german trneches, we realized, that everything was poured in concrete. This was not done after the war, but rather while the fights were still going on. The reason behind doing this, was to make the trenches more stable and ressiting to the constant shelling. The impression of a rather permamentn fortress continued, when we went into the tunnels here. We went into the trench and a short while later into the tunnels on the german side. 

(View of the g erman trench and tunnel entrance under the steel cuppola. Notice the fire step and the steel armor plate for the sniper position.)

It strcuk me, that the trench was way deeper built then the french trenches. By using concrete, the trench was also build in two levels, including the fire step to allow the upper level to be used for firing and observation and the lower level for transport and communication. Thus it was impossible to see from the french side, where soldiers would go if they used the lower level. The trench was not much wider then the french one, but due to the used concrete, it did not tend to cave in like the french trenches did. We went into the hill now, following the tunnel. I noticed the cold and wet environment and was happy to wear my rainjacket, keeping me from getting wet and too cold. The tunnel was much wider and higher in comparison to the french one. Also I bumped way less my head into the rock, since the tunnel was so much bigger.  

(Counterpart to the french guard room: A german guard position. Todays serving: Coffee and beer?)

There was much to see in those well-built rooms: The ceiling was reinforced with stell plates, there were much more steel pilars used to reinforce the walls, the walls were also much smoother. In the french tunnels, there were wooden pilars, if at all. In total it was much drier on this side. It was incredible to see, how ell some things were preserved like bottles and some of the wooden interior like benches and tables. Everything not metallic was in pretty good shape, only metal was completely covered in rust. 

(One of the many side tunnels branching off from the main tunnel. Notice how much room we had over our heads. )

I found it to be really fascinating, that the original electirc wiring was still used. The lamps and sockets were replaced but the wirings and insulators are still the ones from 1915/1916! In some places new wires were used parallel to the old ones, but for the most part they used the same stuff for 90 years here. Without a guide you really get lost in this labyrinth though, everything looks really the same. This is why I did not take too many pictures of the small tunnels, since they all look a like and it gets quite repetitious.  

(Field kitchen in the tunnels, complete with rusty oven. One of the few rooms that had no metal ceiling.)

Luckily I brought a flashlogth with me. Tze pictures with flash turned out well, but in fact light was sparse down here and orientation not easy. It was easy to stumble and fall. On our way we saw several dorms, a subterranean hospital, two kitchens, an officers lounge, and lots of storage roooms. It was astonishing, how big this system was. For the standard soldier sleeping quarters were simple niches in the walls, horribly unconfortable and unhealthy. The conditions must have been pretty horrific. 

(A collection of objects, that were found in the tunnels. Besides steelhelmets there are steel "hedgehogs", used as simple booby traps.)

We came to the conclusion of the tour in the underground parts of the hill, spending more then an hour in the tunnels. In total the tunnels run for more then 17km, of which we saw a bit more then 1km that day. Despite that, it gave a good overview on how the system worked and what those tunnels all look like. Also it gave a good idea on how it must have been in the tunnels and what happened here. It would have been nice to see, what else is there, but this is due to the water and the dangers of the lower levels difficult to accomplish. We went towrds the exit, close to the "Westfalenturm", a small concrete fortified position at the edge of the german trench system.

(Exit from the Tunnel to the trench, closeby the Westfalenturm.)

After a short trip to the less spectacularTower (basically two half round concrete slabs at the end of a trench), we went abck to the museum and parking lot. I returned my helmet and thanked the tourguide for the well done tour. Could have lived without some of his comments, but so be it. Then I had a look at the books on sale (some rare ones among them) and almost bought some stuff. But in order to not run out of funds, I kept myself from doing that. So I went to the next piece of my intended trip, the argonne forest and the installations o Verdun, which I had no chance to see before or comepletely: Froideterre (using a better lamp and camera) and the Quatre Chemins.

And just before leaving I noticed, tha a second tour group was about to enter the hill now - doing a tour in german. Crap. I was unhappy to hear that this is quite regularly happening, that a second tour is done in german. Just not always. Oh well. It was 1AM now, I had to go on with my tour...

I continued my travel to the Argonne Forest. Before my trip I had researched a bit the history and what could be still seen in the Argonne forest. The "Kaisertunnel" as well as the huge mine craters there sounded interesting. On the way from Vauquois to the forest is the "Kronprinz Unterstand", a small german fortified position. Well, yh not check it out? A short detour later, which looked small on the map but turned out to be a rather lengthy walk on foot due to the parking lot being quite a bit further away then it seemed, I arrived at the former Regimentsgefechtsstand. There was not too much to see there, a few tiny concrete miniature bunkers, each looking like the other were located in the forest. Some impressive grenade craters close to them, of which I took pipctures, but all in all not really wortth checking out too much. Something to do when you saw everything else, or want to see something small, but not the most important piece of my trip.  

(Kronprinz-Unterstand from the backside. Judging by the rather thin concrete walls, it is easy to see, that this one was only splinterproof, but not a real bunker.)

(Inside the construction. There is a fireplace in the middle and two small rooms to the side. One was caved in.)

(Second, even smaller part of the position. Again rather thin walls, setup much simpler and more basic then the first building.)

Within a few minutes I had seen everything there was - so I made my way back to the car. This took actually longer then my intended visit to the site, but that sometimes just is the case when doing trips like this. Not everything is great or unique... 

My next target was "Hill 285", a nearby hill-top where a huge german mine was detonated in 1016 and left one of the biggest craters of the war. This is another case of the picture not doing justice to the size at all. What looks so tiny, is indeed rather big and huge. A very wide and deep crater within the forest looks like a shallow unimpressive ditch on camera. Too bad. I had to take three pictures (!) to fit this massive hole in the ground on film. Maybe this gives an idea on how huge this thing really is. Similarly sized craters are only to be found at the Somme and in Flanders, where I want to go sometime in the future. 

(The big mine crater, size can be sort of determined by the white sign in the background next to the tree. That sign is mansized!)

Once I'd seen this seemingly unspectacular, but in reality rather impressive picture, I followed a path through the forest, which was set up to educate visitors about the battle that took place here. Not in the best shape since some signs are missing or in bad shape, it was still interesting to see. It leads from the mine crater down the ridge thrrouogh the forest to the so called "Kaisertunnel", a tunnel constructed by the german army to safely reinforce and supply its troops in the front trenches. The path was set up in a quite interesting way and on its corners you could spot occasionally some remains of the war. 

(Path through the forest, along old trenches and craters. On the left next to the tree and its roots is a red marked fencepole for setting up barbwire.)

(Waterpipe or grenade shell? I didn't touch it.)

(Entrance to a mineshaft - probably sealed for security reasons.)

A short while later I arrived at the Kaisertunnel and learned, that I was about 30 early. Due to my rather short visit of the Kronprinzunterstand, the path through the wood also being of a rather short distance, in total I was an hour ahead of my plan. What to do? I decided to take an extended lunch, delete bad pictures from the digicam and to check out the memorial plates next to the road. Had a short conversation with a couple from Belgium about the area and then went back to the tunnel with them in tow. 

(The Kaisertunnel - still closed. Pity.)

At the tunnel, we took part in a guided tour through it. Unfortunately the tour was about the worst I had seen so far. The guide was the epitomy of disinterest. A few germans joined the guided tour (which was exclusivley in french, so the two Belgium folks were the only ones besides me to understand it more or less) so I played translator to the rest of the group. Thanks to my research beforehand and former visits to Verdun I had a pretty good idea, what was what here and how things went. I could also help to clear up some of the bullshit our guide told the group, since I knew a tad bit more about things then he did. A sobering experience. 

(Ammunition depot)

The tour began with one of the many ammo depots that were in the tunnel. Close to the entrance was also the water storage, formed by a cisterne. There were also some sleeping rooms as well as a guard room in that area. Even a subterranean hospital was around.

(Water storage of the tunnel, still filled with muddy water.)

(A very stable construction, built to last a while.)

The stairs in the tunnel were all poured with concrete, its construction reminded me of the tunnels of Vauquois, just larger. Of course the german side, the french tunnels were much smaller. Being pampered by the excellent tour there, the disappointing tour here was a stark contrast. The Kaisertunnel was also less spectacular in comparison to Vauquois. Still interesting to see. 

(The hospital in the tunnel system. This is not an ironing board, that's a folding surgeons table!)

This rather basic hospital in the mud made me really shiver. In times before anitbiotics, only using the light of gas lapms they did amputations, wound dressing and what have you here. Horrible thought. A rather catastrophic way to deal with injuries - still the best they could do. A very disheartening idea. Especially since the beds of the other patients were just two metres away from this place. 

(Foling beds for the other patients.)

(One of the beds folded out. The not working light in this room made taking pictures nearly impossible.)

We followed the tour further through the tunnel, which was a bit too well built - it reminds me more of a visitors cola mine then the original shape of the tunnel in wartime. The way they improved the tunnel is good for disabled persons, but it takes much of it away, how it originally was. 

(Renovated main tunnel.)

Our guide was then showing us the last few rooms in the system and then made us leave in a hurry. That guy was completely not interested inhis job nor in our attempt to visit this system properly. 

(Guard room like in Vauquois.)

Well, this was half an hour under the earth, which I would have found as interesting and informative, if I wouldn't have had to follow this tour guide around. Despite the sub-par tour, it was quite interesting to see, but only if you haven't had a chance to see Vauquois. Gives a good impression about warfare under ground and how those tunnels were built.

I went on with my tour then, since I still wanted to see Froideterre, take better pictures there this time and try to enter the part of the Fort, which I couldn't enter last time I was in Verdun due to my flashlight failing. The way there took me while, its not a really short ride by car. Arriving in Froideterre, I took a short break, had a little snack and had a caffeinated, cold beverage. The night was not as long as I had hoped, so this was quite welcome... In my last travel report I talked about Froideterre already, so I leave most pictures with just a short explanation.  

Not much more then an hour after leaving the Kaisertunnel I arrived at Froideterre. My visit would be shorter then last year, since I saw most of the system already and was here, to take better pictures only and see the part I missed last time. So I first went into the main tract of the fortress, where my flashlight failed last year and folled the tunnel to its end. I realized then that I was missing less then a 100 metres of the whole construction - not a lot. But I could limb up a ladder to ging ich zunächst in den Haupttrakt, wo damals meine Lampe ausgefallen war, folgte den Gang bis ans Ende und stellte fest: Mir fehlten damals nur ca. 100 Meter, um alles zu sehen, was es noch zu sehen gab. Immerhin konnte ich eine Leiter recht hoch klettern, die mich bis in eine der Maschinengewehrkuppeln führte. 

(Frontal view of Fort Froideterre, practically unchanged from last year.)

Again I was lucky, the doors were open so I could enter the fort. I first tried to take the pictures, That I couldn't properly do last time I was around. 

(My personal enemy in the fort - the low hanging sheet of steel which I hit head on last time.)

With the new camera, taking pictures was much easier and better, despite it being pitchblack in the fortress. The flash works surprisingly well in medium-sized rooms. This time its much easier to see what I hit with my head the first time I was in the fortress: A piece of the ceiling cover came dwon. To the right there are still the metal bed frame holders, left is a concrete table or something similar. 

(Caved in ceiling in the sleeping room.)

Much better then last years picture, its easy to see on this picture that in the background there is a small niche. There seemd to have been a door mounted to those hinges - maybe the escape tunnel? The shadows of the hinges can be seen, maybe I should check this out next time I'm around.

(And here I got stuck last time - the climb to the machinegun cupola.)

This time I was able to see the rest of the fortress, which admitteldy was not much more. Less then 100 metres of it I had not seen, and most of it was just two tunnels, that lead to an observation cloche as well as a machine gun turret. I climed the ladder to the MG turret, but the construction was very rusty and looked to fragile to hold my weight. 

(Here my lamp went out last time - at the end is the ladder to the observation turret.)

(Such cracks are all over the place, the fortress is seriously deteriorating. In some places the walls and ceiling are prone to come down. )

After seeing the unknwon parts of the fort and witnessed its deteriorating state, I went to see the other part of the fort, which is nowadays not directly connected anymore: The battle blocks. I got a little surprise there - I could actually see how the fortress falls apart now rapidly.

(In comparison to last year, two more steps in this ladder are missing now. Climbing it is completely out of question without additional help or tools!)

My advantage to last year was this time, that thanks to my visit in Schoenenbourg I had a good idea what the construction under the ladder was for. It was for lowering the turret on top of the bunker. Taking a closer look at it, I discovered that it was not only the same construction idea, in fact it was the very same construction as inSchonenbourg, just without machinery. But even in Schoenenbourg it was possible to raise and lower the turret manually with this construction. 

(Mechanic for the turret.)

(Hand crank for raising and lowering the turret, in the background the toothed axis on which the counterweight is connected. )

(View of the exterior.)

The outside of the fort was used for some art exhibition, which I took a short look at. Not entriely my taste, I decided to skip the rest of my visit and went on to see the tiny infantry bunker PC120, my optional goal for the day, located between Froideterre and Quatre Chemins. A short walk later into the forest, I sam this small, heavily demolished bunker.

(Bunker from the outside.)

So this is how those infantry bunkers looked undestroyed, that I checked out last year already at Fort Douaumont. The sign at the way explained, that this was an important fallback position for the french army and was used heavily by troops, carriers and couriers. It is surprisingly intact inside, despite the shelling it experienced. 

(View of the entrance.)

(Inside of the bunker, there is a fireplace in the middle of it.)

After that I went to the "Quatre Chemins", a rather large infantry bunker, which was used as a subterranean barrack. My last stop in Verdun for this trip, unfortunately there is little to see. Mainly its the four ventilation shaftas, that gave the name for this bunker. Also the armored doors, and a large tunnel in the earth, that was used as barracks, hospital and guard room. I had huge problems taking a good picture of it, since my flash was stronger then the old one, but not strong enough to illuminate the whole system and so everything is just black after a few metres. Oh - and there was no light in that thing at all.

(Two of the typical venting shafts.)

(Entrance to the barracks.)

(View of the inside, nothing to see except for trash and darkness.)

Due to my rather long ride howm; I left now and went back, starting at 4PM. A few hours later after a rather uneventful ride, I managed to be back home.

Last update 10/31/2009