Fort Souville - France 2017
Info taken from http://www.jarrelook.co.uk/Urbex/Verdun/Fort%20Souville/Souville.htm
Following the Franco-Prussian war immediate work began on a ring of fortresses to protect Verdun and the road to Paris from future attacks by the Germans. The annexation of large parts of Alsace and Lorraine following the war meant that the border was now only a few tens of miles away instead of in excess of a hundred.
One of the first forts to be built was Souville and it's design is markedly different to those built far closer to the turn of the 19th. and 20th. centuries. The initial artillery armament of the fort consisted of field guns placed there together with heavy mortars. The ditches were protected by "revolver canons", a kind of fast firing, small calibre artillery piece, and riflemen completed the defence.
Following the development of much higher explosive by the Germans together with shells fired from breech loading guns which could penetrate far deeper, the original concrete of all the existing Verdun forts was found to be severely lacking and a program of upgrading the concrete with special reinforced concrete was undertaken. On Souville however there does not appear to have been much of this reinforcement carried out other than to the magazine.
Finally it was decided that Souville should be strengthened further still by the building of a self contained, armoured 155mm artillery turret emplacement, and by the addition of four pre-cast reinforced steel Cloche Pamart machinegun emplacements. Most forts have their artillery turrets built inside the fort complex itself however Souville's 155 turret is some distance away in a complex of it's own not far from the Pamart emplacement. Unlike the double 75 mm turrets seen elsewhere around Verdun the 155 mm turret was of a somewhat different design being powered by steam.
Following the Franco-Prussian war immediate work began on a ring of fortresses to protect Verdun and the road to Paris from future attacks by the Germans. The annexation of large parts of Alsace and Lorraine following the war meant that the border was now only a few tens of miles away instead of in excess of a hundred.
One of the first forts to be built was Souville and it's design is markedly different to those built far closer to the turn of the 19th. and 20th. centuries. The initial artillery armament of the fort consisted of field guns placed there together with heavy mortars. The ditches were protected by "revolver canons", a kind of fast firing, small calibre artillery piece, and riflemen completed the defence.
Following the development of much higher explosive by the Germans together with shells fired from breech loading guns which could penetrate far deeper, the original concrete of all the existing Verdun forts was found to be severely lacking and a program of upgrading the concrete with special reinforced concrete was undertaken. On Souville however there does not appear to have been much of this reinforcement carried out other than to the magazine.
Finally it was decided that Souville should be strengthened further still by the building of a self contained, armoured 155mm artillery turret emplacement, and by the addition of four pre-cast reinforced steel Cloche Pamart machinegun emplacements. Most forts have their artillery turrets built inside the fort complex itself however Souville's 155 turret is some distance away in a complex of it's own not far from the Pamart emplacement. Unlike the double 75 mm turrets seen elsewhere around Verdun the 155 mm turret was of a somewhat different design being powered by steam.