Fortified Sector of Rohrbach

Fortified Sector of Rohrbach
Secteur Fortifié de Rohrbach
Part of Maginot Line
Near Bitche, France
Mixed-arms cloche at Simserhof with artillery damage.
Site information
Owner	French Ministry of Defense, except Rohrbach, or "Fort Casso," Association Fort Casso since 1989. Simserhof, while remaining the property of the Ministry of Defense, is managed by the Moselle département and the city of Bitche.
Controlled by	France and  Nazi Germany in World War II.
Open to the public	Rohrbach and Simserhof
Condition	Preserved: Rohrbach and Simserhof
Site history
Built	Late 1930s
Battles/wars	World War II Cold War

The Fortified Sector of Rohrbach (Secteur Fortifié de Rohrbach) was the French military organization that in 1940 controlled the section of the Maginot Line in the vicinity of Bitche. The sector was bordered to the west by the Fortified Sector of the Sarre and to the east by the Fortified Sector of the Vosges. With lower priority than other sectors, the SF Rohrbach was built somewhat later than its neighbors to the east and west, and in company with positions on the extreme western end of the Maginot Line, became one of the "New Fronts." The sector contains several major ouvrages and was the scene of fighting in both 1940 and 1944. It was attacked in 1940 by German forces in the Battle of France. The sector was heavily engaged by German forces in mid-June 1940, with several casemates and the petit ouvrage Welschhof surrendering before the Second Armistice at Compiègne. The remaining positions and their garrisons finally surrendered on 27 June 1940. In 1944 German forces occupied several positions in the SF Rohrbach, forcing advancing American forces to attack them individually or to bypass them. The German Operation Nordwind offensive of early 1945 caused American forces to fall back, returning to complete the capture of the Rohrbach sector in March 1945. Following the war many positions were reactivated for use during the Cold War. Two locations are now preserved and open to the public.

The Rohrbach sector was part of the larger Fortified Region of the Lauter, a strongly defended area between the Ardennes to the west and the Sarre valley to the east. The Lauter region was more important during the planning and construction phase of the Maginot Line than it was in the operational phase of the Line, when the sectors assumed prominence. The Fortified Region of the Lauter was dissolved as a military organization on 18 March 1940.

The sector featured a strong line of ouvrages across the entire sector, with a concentration of positions on and in the vicinity of the major French army base, the Camp de Bitche. The sector was afforded a high priority, with planning work starting in 1929 as part of the first cycle of fortification work. One ouvrage, the petit ouvrage Seelberg, was not constructed; two casemates were built instead. Seelberg was to have had five combat blocks and two entries.