During the Cold War, Molvange's underground barracks and former ammunition magazine became a hardened military command centre.

The Molvange site was surveyed by CORF (Commission d'Organisation des Régions Fortifiées), the Maginot Line's design and construction agency, in 1930.

Work by the contractor, Quintin & Lesprit, began the same year,[1] and the position became operational in 1935,[2] at a cost of 106 million francs.

[3][4] Molvange occupies the lip of a wooded height that runs roughly perpendicular to the fortified front, sloping steeply on the east side.

They were, however, linked to the rear via a 60 cm narrow-gauge railway, which continued through the ouvrage[nb 1] to the combat blocks.

The Germans largely bypassed the area, advancing along the valley of the Meuse and Saar rivers, threatening the rear of the Thionville sector.

The Maginot Line, while obsolete in terms of its armament, was viewed as a series of useful deeply buried and self-sufficient shelters in an era of air power and nuclear weapons.

A number of the larger ouvrages were selected to form defensive ensembles or môles around which a defence might be organised and controlled.

[29][30][31] With France's acquisition of nuclear weapons in 1960, the Maginot fortifications began to be viewed as an expensive anachronism.

Rochonviller's main M1 magazine, with its two entries and circulation loop crossed by five galleries,[32] was made into a wartime command centre for the 4th Allied Tactical Air Forces at a cost of 320 million francs.