On June 13, 1940, a month after the breakthrough at Sedan and the violent fighting in the North, the Battle of France was very badly engaged. On the orders of General Weygand, the interval troops abruptly abandoned the crews of the Maginot Line's fortifications and casemates to their fate.
To the east of Bitche, a German division crossed the string of small casemates defending the ridges and valleys at two points. On the other hand, from Lembach to the Rhine, in the fortified sector of Haguenau, the artillery of the large fortifications, the Four-à-Chaux, the Hochwald and the Schœnenbourg, prevented any progress. Despite the heavy bombardments suffered by the large concrete blocks, it caused significant losses to the attackers. The CORF interval casemates, for their part, resisted heroically. After the armistice, the guns fell silent on June 25 at 00:35. At the beginning of July, the works that had remained intact were handed over to the victors and the crews, undefeated, left for the prisoner-of-war camps.
Further south, on June 15, Operation Kleiner Bär began in Alsace: the crossing of the Rhine by the German 7th Army. From the river bank to the Rhone-Rhine Canal, the defenders of three lines of infantry casemates fought desperately. But the damage and losses were considerable. After violent fighting, the enemy reached the Rhone-Rhine Canal on the evening of June 16 and was able to begin its advance towards the Vosges.
This third volume, starting in Bitche, brings to life the glorious battles of the fortress troops as far south as Alsace and also presents some support units (heavy artillery) or support (Army Health Service) that participated in the border battles in 1939-1940 or that protected the installations and communication routes (regional protection regiment).
A text of great rigor, unique original documents redrawn on the computer and nearly 500 photos, most of them unpublished, attribute to this work an exceptional memorial vocation.
This final volume of a trilogy comprising more than 500 families of defenders and those of a few courageous attackers completes the evocation of the battles of the fortified positions in the North-East. In an opus in preparation, the battles of the crews of the fortresses of the Army of the Alps, which remained undefeated, will be presented later.
