Fort Landrecourt - France 2017
Info taken from http://www.jarrelook.co.uk/Urbex/Verdun/Fort%20de%20Landrecourt/Landrecourt.htm
Fort de Landrecourt was designed and built during the "crisis l'obus torpille" in the 1880s. During that time German siege artillery advanced considerably in a very short period with the advent of ground penetrating artillery rounds which would collapse subterranean shelter etc. This rendered many of the forts built prior to 1883 obsolete at a stroke. These long, torpedo shaped, artillery rounds, filled with a much more powerful explosive, meant that the design used for the earlier forts had to be radically reconsidered. The problem was that underground installations on the earlier forts were protected with a blast dispersing cavity sandwiched between two walls, and then covered over with a relatively shallow depth of ordinary concrete and top soil, and this was woefully inadequate against the new rounds.
Built at an altitude of 330 metres on the left bank of the River Meuse, Landrecourt filled the gap between forts Dugny and du Regret. After it's initial completion, it underwent several periods of improvement works which included the installation of a 75mm artillery turret and two Hotchkiss MG turrets in 1904 together with their associated armoured observation cupolas. In 1907 a Bourge Casemate armed with two 75mm quick firing artillery pieces was constructed and the two moat caponieres towards the front of the fort were converted into the much more effective "coffres de contre escarpe" or counterscarp galleries.
Fort de Landrecourt was designed and built during the "crisis l'obus torpille" in the 1880s. During that time German siege artillery advanced considerably in a very short period with the advent of ground penetrating artillery rounds which would collapse subterranean shelter etc. This rendered many of the forts built prior to 1883 obsolete at a stroke. These long, torpedo shaped, artillery rounds, filled with a much more powerful explosive, meant that the design used for the earlier forts had to be radically reconsidered. The problem was that underground installations on the earlier forts were protected with a blast dispersing cavity sandwiched between two walls, and then covered over with a relatively shallow depth of ordinary concrete and top soil, and this was woefully inadequate against the new rounds.
Built at an altitude of 330 metres on the left bank of the River Meuse, Landrecourt filled the gap between forts Dugny and du Regret. After it's initial completion, it underwent several periods of improvement works which included the installation of a 75mm artillery turret and two Hotchkiss MG turrets in 1904 together with their associated armoured observation cupolas. In 1907 a Bourge Casemate armed with two 75mm quick firing artillery pieces was constructed and the two moat caponieres towards the front of the fort were converted into the much more effective "coffres de contre escarpe" or counterscarp galleries.