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DouaumontDouaumont The Village Douaumont is a village in the dpartement of the Meuse in France, near Verdun. The village was destroyed during WWI. Nowadays there stands the Douaumont ossuary where lay the remains of thousands of soldiers killed in the Battle of Verdun. Douaumont Fort Construction The construction work for Fort de Douaumont started in 1885 and the fort was continually reinforced until 1913. The fort is situated on some of the highest ground in the area. It has a total surface area of 3 hectares and is approximately 400 metres long, with two subterranean levels protected by a roof 12 metres thick. The fort was equipped with numerous armed posts, a 155mm-gun turret, a 75mm gun turret, several other 75mm guns and numerous machinegun turrets. Fort Douaumont had the reputation of being the strongest fort it Europe and was considered all but impregnable. Capture The German invasion of Belgium in 1914 forced military planners to radically rethink the utility of fortification in war. Belgium's comparable forts had been smashed in short order by German artillery, and easily overrun. The decision was made in August 1915 to reduce the garrison at Douaumont and to strip the fort of much of its weaponry. Unfortunately this would prove unwise, for in February of 1916, Germany launched the Verdun offensive; Douaumont was a key objective; even with a reduced garrison and weaponry, Douaumont presented a formidable obstacle to the German attack. In the event, Douaumont fell with barely a shot being fired. As the German 24th Brandenburg Division approached, many of the garrison were attending a training lecture deep underground. A squad of about 10 combat engineers led by Pioneer-Sergeant Kunze were investigating the fort. It is unclear how exactly Kunze managed to get inside the fort; either he was lifted into an access tunnel by his comrades, or was aided by an explosion that fortuitously lifted him over the first fortifications. In any case, Kunze found himself inside Douaumont, and single-handedly captured the artillery teams and locked the main garrison in their lecture room! Douaumont had been given up without a fight. This constituted a terrible blow to French pride, and furthermore proved costly in military terms also: Douaumont proved to be a near invulnerable shelter to German forces just behind the front line. The Germans came to refer to the place as "Old Uncle Douaumont". German Occupation The French made attempts to recapture the fort from May 1916, suffering heavy losses. Possibly 100,000 casualties were incurred in these efforts. On the 8th May, an accidental ammunition explosion killed over 800 German soldiers when a fireball swept through parts of the fort. Nearly 700 bodies remain where they died, and this part of the fort is now rightly considered an official German cemetery. Recapture Douaumont was recaptured on the 24th October 1916 by Moroccan French Colonial troops after the Germans withdrew. Millions of shells had been fired at the fort since its capture by the Germans to little avail, and thousands of men had died in attempts to recapture it. External links * Douaumont ossuary
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