Ouvrage Bois-du-Four
| Ouvrage Bois-du-Four | |
|---|---|
| Part of Maginot Line | |
| Northeast France | |
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|
 Ouvrage Bois-du-Four
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| Coordinates | 49°27′27″N 5°50′37″E / 49.4575°N 5.84361°E |
| Site information | |
| Controlled by | France |
| Open to the public |
Yes |
| Site history | |
| Built by | CORF |
| In use | Preserved |
| Materials | Concrete, steel, deep excavation |
| Battles/wars | Battle of France, Lorraine Campaign |
| Ouvrage Bois-du-Four | |
|---|---|
| Type of work: | Small artillery work (Petit ouvrage) |
|
sector └─sub-sector |
Fortified Sector of the Crusnes └─Sub-sector of Morfortaine |
| Work number: | A5 |
| Regiment: | 139th Fortress Infantry Regiment (RIF) |
| Strength: | 2 officers, 135 men |
Ouvrage Bois-du-Four is a lesser work (petit ouvrage) in the Fortified Sector of the Crusnes of the Maginot Line. The ouvrage consists of a single large combat block without an underground gallery system, and is located between petit ouvrage Mauvais-Bois and gros ouvrage Bréhain, facing Luxembourg. A planned expansion, never carried out, was intended to enlarge Bois-du-Four into a fully equipped gros ouvrage. Bois-du-Four saw little action in either the Battle of France in 1940 or the Lorraine Campaign of 1944. It is preserved by the community of Villers-la-Montagne and may be visited.
Bois-du-Four was approved for construction in May 1931. It was completed at a cost of 9 million francs by the contractor Monod of Paris. It was designed as a unitary double casemate, occupying a prominent rise in a cleared area. In a second phase, Bois-du-Four was to be expanded to a plan that would result in a close resemblance to its neighbor Bréhain, with five additional blocks mounting artillery, as well as remote entrances for munitions and personnel, and an extensive network of deep underground galleries. The rise in tensions between France and Germany in the late 1930s prevented this second phase from being pursued.
Only Block 1 of the proposed gros ouvrage was actually built, with five more combat blocks and two entry blocks deferred to a second phase that was never pursued. The large single block was arranged on two levels with a remarkably heavy armament. The proposed gros ouvrage would have been one of the most heavily armed artillery positions in the Line.
The single existing block was armed as follows:
The planned additional blocks were:
If built as intended, Bois-du-Four would have resembled its neighbor Bréhain, apart from Bois-du-Four's unusual initial block. A compact arrangement of combat blocks would have been connected to separate munitions and personnel entrances via a long, deeply buried underground gallery of more than 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) in length, with a utility area, barracks and an "M1" magazine located near the entries. The entries were to be located in a small ravine, giving shelter and allowing for simpler access to the level of the galleries.
A series of detached casemates and infantry shelters surround Bois-du-Four, including
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