Hohenzollern Redoubt (fortification)

Hohenzollern Redoubt
Part of First World War
France Near Auchy-les-Mines, France
Map of the Hohenzollern Redoubt, October 1915
Hohenzollern Redoubt
Coordinates	50°29′54.29″N 02°46′29.71″E / 50.4984139°N 2.7749194°E / 50.4984139; 2.7749194Coordinates: 50°29′54.29″N 02°46′29.71″E / 50.4984139°N 2.7749194°E / 50.4984139; 2.7749194
Site information
Controlled by	German 6th Army
Site history
Built by	Westheer
In use	1915–1918
Battles/wars	Loos, 1915

Hohenzollern Redoubt Memorial
United Kingdom
Hohenzollern Redoubt Memorial
For The officers and men of the 46th (North Midland) Division who became casualties at the Hohenzollern Redoubt on 13 October 1915.
Designed by	Michael Credland
"Their Country Found Them Ready"

The Hohenzollern Redoubt (Hohenzollernwerk) was a defensive strongpoint of the German 6th Army on the Western Front during World War I, at Auchy-les-Mines near Loos-en-Gohelle in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France. Named after the House of Hohenzollern, the redoubt was fought over by German and British forces. Engagements took place from the Battle of Loos (25 September – 14 October 1915) to the beginning of the Battle of the Somme on 1 July 1916, including the Action of the Hohenzollern Redoubt in 1915 and the British Attack at the Hohenzollern Redoubt from 2–18 March 1916.

In the summer of 1915 the German armies continued the strengthening of front trenches, communication trenches and strong-points ordered by Chief of the General Staff General Erich von Falkenhayn, who on 25 January had also ordered the building of more defensive lines behind the front trench. Crown Prince Rupprecht the Sixth Army commander and some Western Front generals had objected to this policy, as an invitation to German troops to retreat rather than fight. After the experience of the Battle of Festubert, where Allied artillery had proved capable of destroying a great width of front trench, opposition had been abandoned and the work carried on as quickly as possible. In early May Falkenhayn had also ordered that a second defensive position be built 2,000–3,000 yards (1,800–2,700 m) behind the whole of the Western Front, to force an attacker to pause to move artillery forward into range.