# Fort Rozelier - Verdun ***IMAGE INTENSIVE***



## TeeJF (Jul 4, 2012)

So here we go with another Verdun fort report from our last visit. Some of you may be glad to know we are rapidly running out of forts now but we do still have a couple of dozens ouvrages left yet! 

*L' histoire...*​
*Fort Rozelier sits on the top of Hill 39 covering the road from Verdun to Metz running away directly to the east. As such it was a very important fort strategically and this fact can be seen clearly in many different aspects of the fort, not least the fact that it has quite the best Travaux 17 tunnel network we have found in any of the Verdun forts to date. The fort is very heavily armoured including one of the few Gallopin 155R heavy artillery turrets, installed in 1908, which are really quite rare around Verdun.
The initial construction phase began on this fort in 1877 and took only two years to complete at a cost 4.5 million Francs, however almost continuous programs of improvement meant that some form of construction work was continually on the go there right up until a year before the outbreak of the Great War. The first fort at Verdun, Tavannes, had been started just three years before Rozelier so you would expect to find the forts to be broadly similar in style. That is not the case, they differ dramatically. Shortly after the construction of Tavannes began a dramatic political crisis occurred and it looked like Germany and France might be at war again within only a matter of months. As a result a series of six so called "Panic Forts" was built in great haste in a ring some 2 and a half kilometres out from the centre of Verdun. The panic forts were little more than fortified artillery emplacements where field artillery could be corralled and protected by infantry, themselves protected with bombardment proof shelters. There were no fixed defensive installations on these forts such as the turrets which would begin to appear on the larger examples that were to follow very soon. Eventually the political panic subsided into a grumbling resumption of the fragile peace and work resumed on the original plan which included forts Souville, Marre, Haudainville, Rozelier, and Bois Reunis. By 1879 they had all been completed and armed. At this point then there were a total of twelve forts protecting Verdun with the much earlier citadel sitting in the centre of the city. 

Dramatic improvements in German ordnance, both in the shape and calibre of shells and the performance of the explosive filling them, resulted in the need for far better armour on these forts and a program of improvements was soon undertaken. Unlike the poorly armoured panic forts which employed masonry built blocks covered by a second masonry skin sandwiching an air gap to disperse blast from penetrating artillery shells, Rozelier appears to have embraced instead the new build techniques employed on the later forts which had been designed from the outset with a completely different approach. It appears that reliance was placed instead upon special reinforced concrete laid in a continuous pour to prevent delaminating layers, over which were poured deep layers of sand to absorb blast, and finally an earth shield several meters thick was dug in over the top. This technique proved so successful at Fort Douamont in 1916 that the first heavy shell to penetrate the fort was fired literally months after an almost continual bombardment had begun. In effect the entire shielding layer of the fort had been progressively blasted away until with just sufficient penetration, a high velocity French 320 mm shell broke through and decimated the by now occupying German forces, the fort having fallen without a shot being fired several weeks earlier. We did not witness much damage from German heavy artillery fire at all at Rozelier with the obvious exception of the few large shell holes in the gate wall area, though in truth we did not walk a great area of the fort's top side. Internally we saw very little damage anywhere so what ever protection Rozelier employed it was effective in the extreme. 

There were three machine gun turrets built at the fort and then later TWO Bourges Casemates were added to up the firepower of the fort out to the flanks. These completely self-contained reinforced concrete gun emplacements were named after the French artillery proving site at Bourges where they had been developed and were a fast, cheap and highly cost effective emplacement, each carrying two fast firing 75mm canons on semi-circular rail tracks behind their embrasures.

The entrance to the fort was protected by the ubiquitous gorge caponniere, a structure with jutted out into the moat. Initially the fort will have used the same design of defensive emplacement to protect the rest of the moat. The trouble with caponnieres is that they require ever thicker roofs to remain proof against ever growing calibres of plunging artillery fire, and there comes a limit as to how thick the roofs can be made when the ordnance being fired at them approaches 300mm and more. The photograph BELOW shows TJ standing next to a 320mm artillery round for size comparison! *





*The biggest guns ranged on the Verdun forts however were larger still - the 420mm Krupps "Big Bertha" siege howitzers. As a result an improvement was made to the moat protection in 1900 by the conversion of the now inadequate caponnieres to counterscarp galleries. Being built into the outer wall of the moat, these galleries have an enormous depth of earth above them and do no protrude into the moat. Suitably armed with appropriate weapons then these galleries rendered the moat a veritable killing ground. The cost of the conversion and armament of the new counterscarp galleries was FF 1,275,000. 

Around the same period it appears from certain documentation that two 75mm artillery turrets were installed either on the fort itself or just outside, however what happened to these turrets is very unclear. What IS for certain is that there are no 75mm installations anywhere in the fort now, so our best guess is that they were abandoned or possibly built over, or that they never moved beyond the planning phase at all. In 1903 three double machine gun turrets were installed, and then finally in 1906 work began on the installation of the 155mm artillery turret. It can be seen then that this fort had truly formidable fire power in excess of that even of "the mighty Douamont" construction of which begin somewhat later in 1885.

Following the battle of Verdun in 1916 a need was identified for the interconnection of all fighting compartments within all of the forts by the excavation of secondary communication tunnels running back into the heart of the fort, and for an emergency personnel exit to be provided in order to allow the garrison to evacuate secretly if needed. the same tunnels serving to re-supply under fire. The work commenced in 1917 and was named "Travaux 17" - literally "17 work". Many of the Travaux 17 tunnels in the forts we have visited are crude and very fragile indeed never having been fully completed. The roofs are held up with pit props which have rotted to leave little more than black, mouldy shadows:

*


*Indeed in many places the tunnel roofs are down comprehensively barring further progress. Not so in Fort Rozellier. So important was the fort's position judged to be, covering the approach from the east which might outflank Verdun, that the tunnels in Rozelier are the best made and most extensive we have ever seen in a Verdun fort, bar none.*

_L'photographie..._​


*The impressive main gate, about the only part of the fort we found to have been damaged by German heavy siege artillery... *








*Who's that dodgy character and what's that she's carrying?  *








*Inside the gorge caponnier...*









*This is the first time we have seen painted signage on firing ports in any of te Verdun forts.*








*Many of the forts relied on water piped or carried in from outside. Rozelier has it's own well in this room.*








*...and here it is.*








*This is part of the mechanism which retracted a sliding bridge over the moat.*








*The route up from the moat floor level of the gorge caponnier to the main thoroughfare level. It is blocked and required a "portable frig" to get past  *








*Succesfully past the block wall barrier now. *








*Despite the damage the artillery wrought this looks quite picturesque  *








*The purpose of the formidable moat is readily apparent at this height within the fort. *







*Moving further into the fort now along the main thoroughfare, ahead is the first of the masonry built peace time barrack blocks lining the fort's Rue du Rempart. *








*We initially thought this said something about the fort being built on the remains of another fort but it literally translates as: 
 'rather be buried beneath the ruins of the fort than surrender'
It is apparently inscribed in many of the Verdun forts however this is the first time we have seen it. *








*This is part of the peace time kitchen/bakery area. *








*...and this is the interior of a peace time barrack dormitory designed for roughly a platoon of soldiers who would sleep in three level bunk beds *








*Off we go down into the business areas of the fort now. 
The red line denotes we are entering a bombardment poroof area. *








*This is the war time personnel entrance at a much deeper level than the main thoroughfare.
If the fort were entered by the enemy it could compartmentalise itself to resist attack. Here we see a machine gum crenel allowing fire back into the fort. *








*A hole cut apparently randomly into the wall gives away the fact that this is part of the Travaux 17 tunnel system.
"Betonne" translates as: "concrete" but we take it to mean that it is an area of reinforced and armoured concrete from what we have seen in documentation. *








*Concrete lined and well made. Compare this shot with the earlier shot from a different fort *








*An access shaft within the Travaux 17 going up to a fighting compartment. *








*We are entering the first of the twin machine gun armoured turet installations here. *








*The turret counterbalance weight system allows the turret to rise and fall with no more than man power and a few gears. 
The chains connecting the turret to the weights pass over pulley wheels on the turret base. *








*Hand-cranked fume extraction. *








*On the cupola dome can just about be made out the "art work" for the turret. Each turret contained a painted representation of the horizon around it's inner rim so that the crew could swing to the correct position on fire control orders before actually raisng the turret up. They remained bombardment proof that way for much longer. *









*Travaux 17 shaft access to the turret...this is why a good torch is essential  *








* The long, weary trek back up to the air  *








*Each peace time barrack block had a communicating corridor running along the back. *








* Proper latrines were not installed until after the Battle of Verdun so even these squatting plates were preferable and a definite improvement on buckets  *








* A route out to the Rue du Rempart from the barrack block. *








* On the top of the fort now, it is extremely over grown. *








* Back off into the dark once again, this time en-route for the "Galopin" 155 mm turret. *








* The bottom level of the turret compartment. *








* By employing a see-saw beam with huge steel weights this enormous turret could also be wound up or down by man power alone. *









*The huge counter balance weights. *









* Part of the turret traverse system, again man-draulic. *









* The turret magazine chambers. The purpose of the opening was to allow the interior of the magazine to be lit by acetelyne lamps which were 
placed in the openings and a glass window seperated the lamp from the magazine interior. No glass is present today sadly. *









* Diving under the moat on the way to a counterscarp gallery. *









* In the fighting gallery. The large opening would have been for a heavy weapon. *









* The moat is incredibly overgrown despite the fact that photographs in the late "noughties" showed it as having been de-forested. The woods around Verdun grow at a prodigious rate. *









*Time to head off towards the light again. *








* ...and time to leave behind yet another Verdun fort. Mission accomplished...    *







*
...and that's your lot for now, thanks for looking... *​


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## Priority 7 (Jul 4, 2012)

Lovely TJ and T lots of info to read and great photos to go with it. The long trek back up is a pure win shot you are getting the hang of the DSLR pretty quick my man...


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## flyboys90 (Jul 4, 2012)

Superb report & photos a big thanks for sharing them.


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## UE-OMJ (Jul 4, 2012)

Cracking report. I know the rules say 15 photos, but I much prefer reports with lots, you get a better feel for a place this way.
(plus 15 is impossible to stick to  )


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## RichCooper (Jul 4, 2012)

Cracking stuff mate thanks


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## TeeJF (Jul 4, 2012)

Thank you all for your usual positive response. It makes it all worthwhile.

As regards the low number of pix thing, when I first started posting I didn't even see that guide line and so I just looked at how others did it and as a result always put a starred warning in the report title saying Image Intensive. 

To be honest the past two explores (this and the Madge) gave so many shots we loved it was murder getting down the number for the DerP report! The page on our Verdun forts website has in excess of 70 for this fort!



Priority 7 said:


> The long trek back up is a pure win shot you are getting the hang of the DSLR pretty quick my man...



Long trek up is one of 'er indoors shots. She doesn't get many into the final cut but when she does she has a habit of pulling out a cracker! Having said that it was with her Lumix handy-snappy not the DSLR The only problem with that particular camera is it is very noisy in low lights and tends to produce maroon blacks a bit. Bring on Lite Room!

Cheers...


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## sennelager66 (Jul 4, 2012)

Again - just fantastic. Looking at the hole to the shaft would make me feel queasy - then let a penny drop to see what a close shave that was. Love the report as always.


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## Dcp1967 (Jul 4, 2012)

Really good insite to the fort,cracking pictures .


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## sonyes (Jul 4, 2012)

Fantastic stuff as always guys!!! Some truly great shots in there.


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## maxmix (Jul 4, 2012)

Fantastic report, really like the shot of the underneath of the turret (with the artwork), by any chance did you get a shot of the turret from above ground???


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## night crawler (Jul 4, 2012)

Stumped for words again, what a stunning report you give of places I hear about but never have seen till you bring the place to life.


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## rectory-rat (Jul 5, 2012)

Awesome work  Didn't even know these forts existed before seeing the stuff from you guys, and really getting a taste for them now. Shall have to pay a visit out there some day soon 

~RR


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## TeeJF (Jul 5, 2012)

maxmix said:


> by any chance did you get a shot of the turret from above ground???



In this fort I'm afraid we didn't for the simple reason it's so big and we were so exhausted we couldn't face fighting through the dense undergrowth for half a dozen shots of something we had seen elsewhere several times. Doesn't satisfy your curiosity though sadly but if you go look at our full urbex website and click Verdun there's defo pix a plenty of turrets including a 155R there... www.jarrelook.co.uk/Urbex.htm

You may also see an article with pix on the double MG turret you were interested in here: 






http://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourelle_de_mitrailleuses_modèle_1899



rectory-rat said:


> Shall have to pay a visit out there some day soon



William, PM us if you do... ;-)





Thanks for your kind comments guys.


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## Maddie220790 (Jul 5, 2012)

This place is beautiful! I'm going through France to Croatia in the next few days so was looking to see if there were any derelictions en route! Sadly this one is a bit out of our route but hoping to find others on the way!


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## chris (Jul 5, 2012)

Another really impressive report


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## maxmix (Jul 5, 2012)

TeeJF said:


> go look at our full urbex website and click Verdun there's defo pix a plenty of turrets including a 155R there... www.jarrelook.co.uk/Urbex.htm
> 
> You may also see an article with pix on the double MG turret you were interested in here:
> 
> ...



Many thanks for the links, I dunno why, I just Love these turret's, thanks again for all your reports, they are superb


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## TeeJF (Jul 6, 2012)

Maddie220790 said:


> I'm going through France to Croatia in the next few days *** Sadly this one is a bit out of our route



Just a thought...

I dunno what route you are using through France but the sheer number of tolls from Calais onwards means we always travel slightly further north on a roughly parallel course through Belgium. You pass the most awesome chateau close to that route. We are normally headed either for Verdun or for Austria via southern Germany. We save a bomb on tolls and it takes about an extra half hour. 

Verdun is only about an hour south of the Belgian/French border.



maxmix said:


> I just Love these turret's, thanks again for all your reports, they are superb



You are most welcome. I tried to get a photo of one of the MG turrets you were asking about to upload yesterday but in the car using my iPhone I failed... here it is though please note, it is not one of ours: 






You can clearly see that the turret had slots for two Hotchkiss machine guns which were fired solo rather than at the same time. That allowed cooling of the barrels as they were air cooled, not water jacketed. When the turret was dropped they had to remove the guns or they would be bent. That explains why there still appears to be a gun in place in one of the turrets in Fort du Regret.






If you read our Froideterre report I mention that the turret there still swings completely freely after almost 100 years!






Thanks again - fill yer boots!


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## Derelict-UK (Jul 6, 2012)

That is ridiculous!! I was looking at the first set of pics and thinking 'oh, it's like an overgrown fort in Antwerp' and then you start to see the tunnels and gun turrets!! 

An amazing place!


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## TeeJF (Jul 6, 2012)

Derelict-UK said:


> That is ridiculous!! I was looking at the first set of pics and thinking 'oh, it's like an overgrown fort in Antwerp' and then you start to see the tunnels and gun turrets!!
> 
> An amazing place!



Oh yeah, they certainly are amazing. Some are riddled with Travaux 17 tunnels. Npot all have turrets but when they do invariably the artillery turrets still have their guns in situ. Pretty awesome set of forts.


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## shane.c (Jul 6, 2012)

As always a excellant thread and info,


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## Sshhhh... (Jul 6, 2012)

Ive always thought of forts as something that has never really interested me but after seeing your report and i must say fantastic pics youve changed my mind, im intrigued! Another fab report you two


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## nelly (Jul 6, 2012)

That is really fantastic mate, like Sshhh said, I've never really given forts a massive chance but your report kept me hooked from start to finish.

Thank you mate


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## TeeJF (Jul 8, 2012)

nelly said:


> That is really fantastic mate, like Sshhh said, I've never really given forts a massive chance but your report kept me hooked from start to finish.
> 
> Thank you mate



How kind of you both to say. Thank you and you are very welcome.

To be fair most forts are either plain walls and no roofs, or boringly bland corridors. These Verdun forts are all different to each other, have a mix of Napoleonic and modern warfare going on, and even have their painted annotations left in some instances. They're often pristine, seldom chavved and so different to each other no two are the same.

We can't get enough!

If any of you ever fancy a trip over give us a shout.

Thanks again... M and TJ


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## chubs (Jul 10, 2012)

real good report, i enjoyed it lots.
its like Dovers dettached bastion, but ten times better!
thanks for sharing!


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## Ninja Kitten (Jul 10, 2012)

top report there..


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## TeeJF (Jul 10, 2012)

chubs said:


> its like Dovers dettached bastion, but ten times better!
> thanks for sharing!



And do you know the best bit? There's not just the one of 'em either, there's loads all in a dirty great big ring around the one small town! 

Thanks for your kind comments.


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