Blockhouse 318
BOIS de BEUVEILLE - C2 (Jacqueline)
Bruge mentions Blockhouse 318 firing on Casemate Bois de Beuville after the cease fire on 6/25/40. I can't find any reference to a Blockhouse 318. Does anyone know which blockhouse he is referencing? Is the account true?
Thanks
Perhaps it was 31B? Bois de Beuville Nord-Ouest?
Dernière modification par Pascal le 23/09/2016.
Hello
It is in fact reported by Roger Bruge in page 260 of the french edition of "On a livré la ligne Maginot".
The MOM built blockhouses numbering is somewhat difficult to follow as there has been, to the contrary of the CORF numbering, several different ones. Pre-war numbering for the older ones, post-war accountings for most significant, etc. To these ones, one has also to add the 1939-40 informal numbering used by the local units, which were using an ad-hoc codification (or even nicknames) in order to protect communications against ennemy understanding. One of these ad-hoc codification system was in fact using the altitude of the blockhouses. Funnily, the Beuveille casemate is at 319 m above sea-level...
"Bloc 318" was the exact wording used by a crew member of the Beuveille casemate in his communication with Fermont to explain that despite the cease fire, the casemate was fired at by the ennemy. Therefore I suspect that he was using the ad-hoc numbering referred to above. But this doesn't tell which blockhouse was firing at the casemate. Let's try to figure out by deduction:
Roger Bruge explains that it was the Beuveille's main firing chamber wich was machine gunned. Beuveille's main firing direction is towards east: this means that "blockhouse 318" is on the eastern side of the casemate, and at firing range. There are only two blocks in this direction : Beuveille Nord-Est (a small machine gun bunker) and Db31 (a big RFM-37 blockhouse for antitank gun and machine gun). However, Db31 can be excluded as this blockhouse was also firing towards east and therefore could not have fired towards Beuveille casemate. This leaves us with only "Bois de Beuveille Est",... which is more or less at 318 m high !
I personnally don't think that "318" was "Bois de Beuveille Nord-Ouest" for the firing direction reasons developed above. The other reason pushing me to not consider this option is the fact that "Bois de Beuveille Nord-Ouest" is just underneath the FERMONT fort blocks, between Fermont and Beuveille. In "On a livré la ligne Maginot" book, it is precised that blockhouse 318 was eventually neutralized by the 81mm mortar turret of the the fort, which would have been unnecessary with "Bois de Beuveille Nord-Ouest" due to it's close proximity with the fort.
Best regards
Jean-Michel
Hello
It is in fact reported by Roger Bruge in page 260 of the french edition of "On a livré la ligne Maginot".
The MOM built blockhouses numbering is somewhat difficult to follow as there has been, to the contrary of the CORF numbering, several different ones. Pre-war numbering for the older ones, post-war accountings for most significant, etc. To these ones, one has also to add the 1939-40 informal numbering used by the local units, which were using an ad-hoc codification (or even nicknames) in order to protect communications against ennemy understanding. One of these ad-hoc codification system was in fact using the altitude of the blockhouses. Funnily, the Beuveille casemate is at 319 m above sea-level...
"Bloc 318" was the exact wording used by a crew member of the Beuveille casemate in his communication with Fermont to explain that despite the cease fire, the casemate was fired at by the ennemy. Therefore I suspect that he was using the ad-hoc numbering referred to above. But this doesn't tell which blockhouse was firing at the casemate. Let's try to figure out by deduction:
Roger Bruge explains that it was the Beuveille's main firing chamber wich was machine gunned. Beuveille's main firing direction is towards east: this means that "blockhouse 318" is on the eastern side of the casemate, and at firing range. There are only two blocks in this direction : Beuveille Nord-Est (a small machine gun bunker) and Db31 (a big RFM-37 blockhouse for antitank gun and machine gun). However, Db31 can be excluded as this blockhouse was also firing towards east and therefore could not have fired towards Beuveille casemate. This leaves us with only "Bois de Beuveille Est",... which is more or less at 318 m high !
I personnally don't think that "318" was "Bois de Beuveille Nord-Ouest" for the firing direction reasons developed above. The other reason pushing me to not consider this option is the fact that "Bois de Beuveille Nord-Ouest" is just underneath the FERMONT fort blocks, between Fermont and Beuveille. In "On a livré la ligne Maginot" book, it is precised that blockhouse 318 was eventually neutralized by the 81mm mortar turret of the the fort, which would have been unnecessary with "Bois de Beuveille Nord-Ouest" due to it's close proximity with the fort.
Best regards
Jean-Michel
Thanks Jean-Michel. I didn't think about the firing direction. Excellent analysis.
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