Fortified Sector of Thionville

Despite the withdrawal of the mobile forces that supported the fixed fortifications, the sector successfully fended off German assaults before the Second Armistice at Compiègne.

The Thionville sector was part of the larger Fortified Region of Metz, a strongly defended area between the Ardennes to the west and the Sarre Valley to the east.

A reinforcing line was planned to back up the Cattenom salient, which protruded to the north between Bois-Karre and Galgenberg, with Kobenbusch forming the point of the northward projection.

[3][4] The reinforcing role was partially assumed by three ex-German fortifications, the Forts de Guentrange, Illange and Koenigsmacker, which encircled Thionville and possessed long-range artillery.

Colonel Planet, command post at the Fort de Koenigsmacker Peacetime barracks and support: During the early part of the Battle of France, the SF Thionville was relatively quiet.

[11] By mid-June, faced with the progressive collapse of the French First Army to the west, the interval troops began to pull back to avoid being encircled behind the Maginot Line.

Measure A, issued by 3rd Army headquarters, called for the withdrawal of the interval troops on 15 June, protected by the casemates and ouvrages.

[13] On 21 June General Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb ordered all attacks against Maginot fortifications to stop, as a waste of resources.

Action between the 21st and the date of the June 25 armistice was limited to sporadic shelling and, on the French side, to firing off ammunition at the Germans before it could be captured.

[13][14] Following the armistice, brief negotiations undertaken by the commandant of Kobenbusch settled on a formal surrender for the garrisons west of the Moselle on 30 June.

No such negotiations took place to the east until French officers received confirmation directly from General Huntziger that they were to surrender their fortifications.

[16][17] Following World War II, the French military reclaimed the Maginot Line with the aim of renovating and improving it against a possible attack by Warsaw Pact forces.

After the establishment of the French nuclear strike force, the importance of the Line declined, and maintenance ceased in the 1970s, with most of the casemates and petit ouvrages sold to the public.