Gros Ouvrage Billig - France - October 2012

[saul_son]

The Gros Ouvrage Billig became operational in 1935, it consisted of 7 fighting blocks and a mixed entry for munitions and hommes. Billig came under little direct attack but did fire 2030 75mm rounds, in one day, in support of another fort at Hackenberg. After the armistice with the Germans parts of the fort were used for explosives testing, a role that the US Army would also use it for after it was captured in 1944.

More history.

It's not the best Maginot fort I've visited but, there's some interesting things left. Visited with Rookinella.

 

[chris]

Some very nice features there. 7 fighting blocks - a real monster

 

[flyboys90]

Great photos.

 

[TeeJF]

was the fire out then? We couldn't penetrate beyond the usine because of toxic smoke.

 

[saul_son]

was the fire out then? We couldn't penetrate beyond the usine because of toxic smoke.

It must have been. We could still smell it pretty badly though.

 

[TeeJF]

I crushed the blacks in this photo to get something out of it worth looking at so the actual smoke was even worse than it looks here...

 

[chris]

I crushed the blacks in this photo to get something out of it worth looking at so the actual smoke was even worse than it looks here...

Just reread your post about the arson attack - did you find the Army surplus respirators helped?

Some really great pictures in both reports by the way

 

[night crawler]

Dam good report and I do like the shadow board

 

[saul_son]

I crushed the blacks in this photo to get something out of it worth looking at so the actual smoke was even worse than it looks here...

Bloody hell, when did you visit?

 

[TeeJF]

Visited in the summer mate, it would be June or early July.

We didn't get to use the respirators in there Chris because we had conflicting info about which ouvrage the fire was in and thought it was Welschof, not Billig. Entry to Billig is quite an ordeal (to say the least!) and so once we were inside we couldn't face going back out again to get the rezzys and the O2 meter so we called it a do after we reached the usine and found the smoke cascading like a waterfall down from an area a few feet away. The area beneath the entry route was smoke free and really interesting so we figured we hadn't missed too much otherwise. Having seen Saul's pix though I think we need to do it again if only for the kitchens which are pretty cool.

 

[chris]

Entry to Billig is quite an ordeal (to say the least!) and so once we were inside we couldn't face going back out again

I've been in a few sites like that

Horrible when you find you've left the tripod or spare camera memory card back in the car

 

[ObliqueStrategy]

Great report, thanks for sharing

 

[maxmix]

Loving all the maginot line stuff, thanks for the pics