Fort Douaumont
By 1915, the French General Staff had concluded that even the best-protected forts of Verdun could not withstand bombardments from the German 420 mm (16.5 in) Gamma guns.
The easy fall of Fort Douaumont, only three days after the beginning of the Battle of Verdun, shocked the French Army.
[2] Entry into the moat around the fort was interdicted by Hotchkiss anti-personnel revolving cannons located in wall casemates or "Coffres" present at each corner.
[2] With hindsight, Douaumont was much better prepared to withstand the heaviest bombardments than the Belgian forts that had been crushed by German 420 mm Gamma howitzers in 1914.
The German invasion of Belgium in 1914 had forced military planners to radically rethink the utility of fortification in war.
On 25 February, elements of the German 24th Brandenburg Regiment (6 Infanterie-Division, III Armeekorps) approached Fort Douaumont from the north, as a reconnaissance or raiding party.
Radtke then made contact with Kunze's troops and organised them before they spread out, capturing a few more French defenders and securing the fort.
Despite being the last officer to enter the fort, von Brandis was the one who dispatched the report on the capture of Douaumont to the German High Command.
It was not until the 1930s, after historians from the German Great War committee had time to review the capture of Fort Douaumont that credit was belatedly given.
Kunze, now a member of the Ordnungspolizei, received a promotion and the order of Pour le Mérite, while Lieutenant Radtke got an autographed portrait of former Crown Prince Wilhelm.
They occupied the western end of the fort for 36 hours but were dislodged after suffering heavy losses, mostly from German artillery and trench mortars nearby.
The Germans stubbornly held onto the fort, as it provided shelter for troops and served as first aid station and supply dump.
Apparently some of the soldiers tried to heat coffee using flamethrower fuel, which proved to be too flammable and spread to shells which were without caution placed right next to such environments.
Douaumont had been pounded for days by two super heavy 400 mm (16 in) long-range French railway guns named "Alsace" and "Lorraine", emplaced at Baleycourt, 8.1 miles (13km) south-west of Verdun.
[2] Millions of smaller shells had been fired at the fort since its capture by the Germans to little avail and tens of thousands of men had died in attempts to recapture it.
