The combat block of EINSELING
The Petit Ouvrage (PO) de l’Einseling is one of the 53 Maginot Line works in north-eastern France and one of the 5 in the Faulquemont Fortified Sector.
It is a one-piece structure. In 1940, it had a crew of 68 men under the command of Lieutenant Albéric Vaillant, a future army general.
On 3 September 1939, Great Britain and France declared war on Germany, which had launched an offensive in Poland 2 days earlier. This marked the start of the Second World War. The Maginot Line was immediately occupied by fortress troops to cover mobilisation and ward off any surprise attack from Germany.
However, despite a few skirmishes, no fighting took place on the border until 10 May 1940, the date of the German offensive on Western Europe. Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and France were attacked and gradually invaded.
The French and Allied armies were quickly routed. The defence of the border with Germany finally became useless, and on 13 June 1940, the interval troops behind the Maginot Line were ordered to evacuate to the Vosges.
The crews of the works had to hold out until 17 June to cover this withdrawal, followed on 15 June by the withdrawal of the troops occupying the interval casemates.
Well aware of his isolation following the evacuation of the Einseling’s northern and southern casemates, Albéric Vaillant decided to send a few soldiers to reoccupy them every night from 15 June. Their objective? To make as much noise as possible by firing at random, then return to the safety of the works in the morning.
This diversionary strategy was designed to make German troops believe that the casemates were still occupied. The bold maneuver proved highly successful, with German artillerymen pounding the positions for days on end. Real lightning rods!
At around 7:00 a.m. on June 21, a major bombardment began on the casemates and the combat block itself.
The situation was closely monitored from the Quatre-Vents northern casemate, also evacuated by its crew on June 15, but since reoccupied by a handful of soldiers from the Laudrefang combat block.
At around 7:30 a.m., the soldiers in this casemate observed an infantry assault taking place. They immediately called the Einseling to warn them, despite the fact that the casemate, built against the slope, had no view of its rear.
Laudrefang was also alerted.
While the German troops were in full assault, uncovered on the slope, the guns of the Quatre-Vents northern casemate and the 2 81 mm mortars of block 1 of the Laudrefang OP opened fire.
The precision of the fire quickly caused the German infantrymen to hesitate, then to retreat in general confusion, leaving dead and wounded on the ground, along with their guns.
Eventually, they began waving white flags, asking the French soldiers to cease fire so that the bodies and wounded could be recovered.
Now aware of the firepower of the Laudrefang and the north and south casemates of the Quatre-Vents, the German officers decided to concentrate most of their efforts on this resisting mole.
The crew of the Einseling held out until 0.35 a.m. on June 25, when the armistice came into effect.
On the morning of June 25, Albéric Vaillant and his second-in-command, René Vion, left the dock, where they met a German emissary at the edge of the anti-personnel network.
The emissary demanded that the commander lay down his arms and hand over his crew. Firm and sure of his mission, Albéric Vaillant replies that the armistice is in force and that he is only responding to orders from the French High Command.
As the situation escalated, René Vion rushed back into the fort and ordered the machine-gun turret into action.
Surprised by this maneuver, and realizing that he would get nothing out of the French, the German envoy returned to his lines.
The Einseling soldiers, undefeated, are now waiting to find out when they will be able to return home.
On June 30, 1940, however, it was a cold shower. They learned that they had been made prisoners of war. This was one of the conditions demanded by the German General Staff when the armistice was signed.
The following day, July 2, the crew of the Einseling left for Germany, where they were distributed among the prison camps. Most did not return to France until 1945, after the Liberation.
