The Fort de Condé controlled the high ground along the Chemin des Dames, which linked Reims, Laon and Soissons, and could bombard the Aisne and Vesle valleys.

Unfortunately, technological progress in explosives had overtaken fortress design and construction, and the fort was obsolete, insufficiently resistant to high-explosive artillery shells.

The site was used as a German hospital until it was returned to France without opposition in the Chemin des Dames offensive on 16 April 1917.

Generals Pershing and Franchet d’Espérey observed fighting along the Chemin des Dames from the post in October 1917.

[1] The fort served as a center for the disassembly of explosive shells[1] until it was purchased by the commune of Chivres-Val for use as a quarry in 1959.

Since 2001 the Fort de Condé has been recorded on the French Inventaire Supplémentaire des Monuments Historiques.