The Casemate de Wittring is a component of the Maginot Line

Maginot Line

The Maginot Line , named after the French Minister of War André Maginot, was a line of concrete fortifications, tank obstacles, artillery casemates, machine gun posts, and other defences, which France constructed along its borders with Germany and Italy, in light of its experience in World War I,...

 fortifications in northeastern France. It is located in the Fortified Sector of the Sarre

Fortified Sector of the Sarre

The Fortified Sector of the Sarre was the French military organization that in 1940 controlled the section of the Maginot Line on either side of the Sarre river. The sector's defenses relied primarily on a system of inundations that could be created by fortified dikes and regulating weirs, backed...

 section of the line and was associated with Ouvrage Haut-Poirier

Ouvrage Haut-Poirier

Ouvrage Haut-Poirier is a lesser work of the Maginot Line. The ouvrage consists of one entry and three infantry blocks, and is located between the Saare valley and petit ouvrage Welschhof, facing Germany. It is the only ouvrage in the Fortified Sector of the Sarre, the remainder of the area being...

, a petit ouvrage of the main Line. Wittring has been restored and is operated as a museum.

The casemate

Casemate

A casemate, sometimes rendered casement, is a fortified gun emplacement or armored structure from which guns are fired. originally a vaulted chamber in a fortress.-Origin of the term:...

 was armed with a machine gun/anti-tank gun embrasure (JM/AC47)

AC 47 anti-tank gun

The AC 47 was a French anti-tank gun of 47mm caliber. It was principally used in the ouvrages and casemates of the Maginot Line in the late 1930s; another version was created for naval use....

, one twin machine gun embrasure, two mixed-arms cloches (AM)

JM cloche

The JM cloche is an element of the Maginot Line. It is a non-retractable non-rotating cupola of steel alloy like GFM cloches, but are armed with twin heavy machine guns, as opposed to the lighter automatic rifles associated with the GFM. There are 179 JM cloches on the Maginot Line.JM is an acronym...

 and two automatic rifle (GFM-B) cloches

GFM cloche

The GFM cloche was one of the most common defensive armaments on the Maginot Line. A cloche was a fixed and non-retractable firing position made of a thick iron casting which shielded its occupant...

. Wittring controlled access to dikes and floodgates in the area that were intended to inundate portions of the Sarre valley to block an invasion from Germany.The commander of the casemate in 1940 was Adjutant-Chef Hillaire, in charge of an element of the 133rd Fortress Infantry Regiment (RIF). The Casernement d'Achen provided peacetime above-ground barracks and support services to Wittring and other positions in the area.

History

See Fortified Sector of the Sarre

Fortified Sector of the Sarre

The Fortified Sector of the Sarre was the French military organization that in 1940 controlled the section of the Maginot Line on either side of the Sarre river. The sector's defenses relied primarily on a system of inundations that could be created by fortified dikes and regulating weirs, backed...

for a broader discussion of the Sarre sector of the Maginot Line.

Wittring was attacked by units of the German 262nd Infantry Division on 21 June 1940 during the Battle of France, surrendering the same day after heavy bombardment.

Wittring was sold to private owners in 1987, with restoration starting in 1992. The association L'Amicale de la Casemate de Wittring restored the destroyed entry with 14 cubic meters of concrete, among other less complex work.

External links

• Casemate de Wittring
• Casemate de Wittring/Casemate von Wittringen (in German)
• Casemate de Wittring at fortiff.be