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The Germans found an imposing, double belt of forts and fortified groups ringing the city that
nature already had fortified. Positions were so cleverly selected and so cleverly emplaced that full
defensive advantage could be taken of the terrain. In all there were 43 forts and fortified groups, with
128 artillery pieces of large caliber emplaced around Metz proper. These were exclusive of Maginot
Line fortifications, the forts around Thionville and the Siegfried Line.
The Germans were not content with the 15 old forts and groups in the outer defenses of Metz,
namely, those started by Vauban in the 18th century as well as those condemned by the French
commander in 1939 as of no great military importance. They immediately put their Todt organization to
work.
Although worked lagged as the German army went from victory to victory, old Fort Saint-
Quentin on the west bank of the Moselle was improved and modernized and a radio signal center was
installed. Two supporting forts, Girardin and Diou, built on adjacent hills, were linked with Fort Saint-
Quentin by a series of supporting bunkers, pillboxes, armored outposts, heavily reinforced casemates,
minefields, and a trench system that completely extended around the military crest of the hill.
Two 210mm guns were installed in a revolving steel observation post in Fort Saint-Quentin.
Self-propelled 105mm guns and anti-tank guns were also emplaced. Concrete reinforced caves were
dug to protect the roving artillery pieces when not in use. Extensive field fortification work was done on
the rest of the 12 Forts.
When fast moving columns of the XX Corps of the American Third Army swarmed across the
Seine River, in August, 1944, in the power drive to Reims, the Wehrmacht made the careful reappraisal
of the Metz fortifications and their possibilities as a defense line. They had been left in good condition
by the Germans when they withdrew in 1918 and they had been kept in excellent repair by the French.
Tactical experts reported to the First German Army Headquarters that the defensive effort of the
Germans should be concentrated east of the Moselle river line, and the forts west of the river should be
used chiefly for delaying purposes. Metz, itself, as interrogation of German officers later revealed, was
to be used as an administrative center and later as a concentration point for ammunition and weapons to
arm the counteroffensive which was to be organized behind the Moselle River line.
Despite general Army concurrence in this plan, Adolf Hitler personally ordered all the forts,
including those west of the Moselle, to be manned, improved, and held at all costs.
Work began anew on the forts and as many artillery pieces as possible were emplaced.
A second complete outer belt of 28 forts and fortified groups, located on the rim of a wheel of
hills approximately six miles from the hub of the city of Metz, was composed of permanent
fortifications built by the Germans after 1871 and completed in 1912. The forts of this group were
essentially fortified artillery positions in contra-distinction to those of the inner belt which were
primarily infantry strong points.
There were no definitely designed fields for direct fire of automatic weapons from the forts
proper. Instead, an inter-defensive system of fire was devised whereby the deep moats that surround
each fort or fortified system were covered by interlocking fields of automatic fire to bar infantry
crossing. The German infantry positions some distance out from the fortified artillery positions
furnished all-round security.
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