TeeJF
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Hi there... my wife and I are new to this site so I hope we are posting the right kind ofcomments and not breaching any etiquettes. We're looking forward to doing some urbex though I have to be honest and say we haven't a clue how to go about it yet. A few years back we went across to Verdun in France and managed to get into two of the underground WW1 forts there, Tavannes and Souville. We also managed to get into a smaller fortification known as the Froideterre. Although all these forts are blocked against entry by some fairly serious steel work it appears the locals have little regard for authority and go around breaking in via a number of routes. We were able to get from the entrances of both forts all the way through to the "moat" at the front underground all the way, although in many places the roof had caved in and we had to traverse around the falls by back tracking and using another tunnel. Fortunately the lay out of the forts is very linear with parallel tunnels joined at intervals by crossing tunnels.We found one oddity in the moat of one of the forts... a serious amount of well painted steel barrier work had been welded into place over the entrance to a gun emplacement or the like in the forward wall of the moat - way to heavy duty to be removed, and from within we could hear a motor humming away and feel warm air rising out. So it appears that for some reason part of this fort is still preserved. Very odd. A major attraction is that in some of the gun turrets the artillery pieces were still in place.
This is a shot of the main entrance to Fort Souville. There are several rather deep pits dotted about to catch you out so it does require some serious care.
One of the interior tunnels within Souville.
This was inside an outlying gun emplacement with huge 155 mm artillery pieces.
Part of the turret mechanism.
An ammunition lift.
We got the impression that these could well have been part of the boiler system which drove the ammunition lifts and powered the turrets.
Daylight at the end of a tunnel, literally. This rising tunnel led us up into the moat at the front of the fort.
This appeared to be some form of guard post for a bridge spanning the moat though the bridge was gone.
Gun embrasure within the gate house.
One of the vast 155 mm double gun turrets though I think if my memory serves me correctly this was NOT Fort Souville but one of the other forts, however the turrets were the same. These turrets would rise up to fire then sink back down for reload. Here you can clearly see the imprint of an artillery round that has struck the armour, denting it in the shape of the projectile.
This is a view of a preserved turret of the same kind in the up for firing position. The same approach was used many years later in the turrets of the nearby WW2 Maginot Line.
The view through an observation cupola slit.
This was the access route for soldiers up into the gun turret on the Froideterre fort which is much smaller than the main forts at Verdun.
Within the turret itself.
The forrest has grown up since the war and it obscures much there is to see until you are right on top of it. But the ground is literally riven with trenches and shell holes. Here is an outlying gun emplacement close to Fort Tavannes.
This is a shot of the main entrance to Fort Souville. There are several rather deep pits dotted about to catch you out so it does require some serious care.
One of the interior tunnels within Souville.
This was inside an outlying gun emplacement with huge 155 mm artillery pieces.
Part of the turret mechanism.
An ammunition lift.
We got the impression that these could well have been part of the boiler system which drove the ammunition lifts and powered the turrets.
Daylight at the end of a tunnel, literally. This rising tunnel led us up into the moat at the front of the fort.
This appeared to be some form of guard post for a bridge spanning the moat though the bridge was gone.
Gun embrasure within the gate house.
One of the vast 155 mm double gun turrets though I think if my memory serves me correctly this was NOT Fort Souville but one of the other forts, however the turrets were the same. These turrets would rise up to fire then sink back down for reload. Here you can clearly see the imprint of an artillery round that has struck the armour, denting it in the shape of the projectile.
This is a view of a preserved turret of the same kind in the up for firing position. The same approach was used many years later in the turrets of the nearby WW2 Maginot Line.
The view through an observation cupola slit.
This was the access route for soldiers up into the gun turret on the Froideterre fort which is much smaller than the main forts at Verdun.
Within the turret itself.
The forrest has grown up since the war and it obscures much there is to see until you are right on top of it. But the ground is literally riven with trenches and shell holes. Here is an outlying gun emplacement close to Fort Tavannes.
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