GFM cloche

A cloche (bell) was a fixed and non-retractable firing position made of a thick iron casting which shielded its occupant.

[1] Most of the bunkers or blocks in a Maginot Line ouvrage were fitted with several fixed armoured cupolas or cloches.

The cupolas were designed to allow the soldiers to perform reconnaissance or repel an attack with an absolute maximum of cover, from inside the bunker.

The interior contained a platform arranged so that one occupant could fire from one of several openings in the 20-centimetre (7.9 in) thick bell.

[1] Some GFM cloches possessed a shuttered fitting at the top of the bell through which a periscope could be raised.

GFM Type A cloche at Ouvrage Molvange
Interior of a GFM cloche, looking upward at the Abri de Hatten
GFM Type B cloche at Ouvrage Schoenenbourg