Ligne Maginot - Gros Ouvrage Simserhof

[woodsman]

Here are some pictures from my latest visit at the Gros Ouvrage Simserhof at the Maginot Line in France. The Simserhof is a 10 bloc artillery fort with some kilometers of underground galleries. Its one of the largest forts at the Maginot Line. Nowadays it is preserved as a musem and open for public visit.

 

Ouvrage Simserhof is a gros ouvrage of the Maginot Line, located near the community of Sierstal in the French département of Moselle. Simserhof is adjoined by petit ouvrage Rohrbach and gros ouvrage Schiesseck, and faces the German frontier. Located 4 km to the west of Bitche, the ouvrage derived its name from a nearby farm. It was a part of the Fortified Sector of Rohrbach. During the Battle of France in 1940, Simserhof supported its neighboring fortifications with covering artillery fire, with partial success. After the surrender of France, it was occupied by the Germans as a storage depot for torpedoes, and later resisted the American advances of late 1944. Taken by the Americans, it was briefly re-occupied by the Germans during Operation Nordwind. Following the war it was repaired for use by the French Army, but was proposed as a museum of the Maginot Line as early as the 1960s. Retained by the Ministry of Defense, Simserhof now functions as a museum, and has the most extensive visitor infrastructure of any of the preserved Maginot fortifications.

 

source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ouvrage_Simserhof

 

1944 History :

 

At the end of November 1944 the U.S. Seventh Army under General Alexander Patch pursued the Germans. Simserhof was occupied by elements of the German 25th Panzer Grenadier Division. From 15 November the U.S. 44th Infantry Division assaulted Simserhof, using tank destroyers to fire at firing apertures in block 5. Combat engineers were assigned to attack individual blocks. The Germans abandoned Simserhof by an emergency exit after booby-trapping the installations during the night of 19–20 November. The 44th Infantry yielded to the U.S. 100th Infantry Division, which occupied the ouvrage during the first days of 1945, but the German counter-offensive Operation Nordwind caused the occupiers to leave the fort. It was re-occupied on 15 March without resistance from the Germans. Bitche was finally liberated on 16 March.

 

source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ouvrage_Simserhof

 

Personal Entrance of the Fort Simserhof

 

view from the top with the surveilance gloche in the background

 

47mm Anti-Tank Gun, Model Mlc 1934

 

US troops arrival at the fort in 1944

 

69 years later

 

The whole set of pictures from simserhof is available in my FB account :

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.656392054386507.1073741838.100000471546104&type=1

 

Simserhof is located in the Alsace region of France.

Rue André Maginot, 57410 Legeret, Communtiy of Siersthal

http://www.simserhof.fr/site/