The fort is surrounded by a system of dry moats, evoking the fortifications of Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban.

On 2 September 1944, Metz was declared a Hitler Reich fortress, to be defended to the last by German troops whose leaders were all sworn to the Führer.

The same day, the troops of General Krause took position on a line from Pagny-sur-Moselle to Mondelange, passing to the west of Metz by Chambley-Bussières, Mars-la-Tour, Jarny and Briey.

American troops, stopped at the Moselle, despite taking two bridgeheads south of Metz, better defended than expected, were now low on supplies and figuratively out of breath.

[5] When hostilities resumed after a rainy month, the soldiers of the 462 Volks-Grenadier-Division [fr] still held firm to the forts of Metz, though supplies lines were more difficult under artillery fire and frequent bombings.

[6] As a prelude to the assault on Metz, on 9 November 1944, the Air Force sent some 1,300 heavy bombers, both Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses and Consolidated B-24 Liberators, and dumped hundreds of bombs on fortifications and strategic points in the combat zone of the Third Army.

[8] In the morning fog of 18 November 1944, Colonel Donald Bacon gave the signal for the attack by the 2nd Battalion 378 Infantry Regiment on the Fort Saint-Julien.

The road down to Metz was then held by a company of the 462 Volks-Grenadier-Division that the US artillery campaign finally dislodged from the houses below, completing the encirclement of the fort around noon.

[10] The objective of the German staff, which was to gain the most possible time in keeping the US troops from arriving at the front of the Siegfried Line, was largely achieved.