Metz, France

Situated on the property that formed the estate of Chateau Mercy les Metz, home of the Canadian Air Division Headquarters, was a string of bunkers started by the Germans after the Franco-German war in 1870.

Their purpose was to defend Metz against French attack. An assault did not materialize and the fortifications were used as storehouses during the First World War by the Germans. At the end of the 1914-1918 war they were in perfect condition.

During the Second World War they were once again utilized as storehouses by the Germans.

Two American ground attack planes were cruising overhead late in the war (September 1944) and spotted activity on the ground. Investigating they found war-heads being transferred from a truck into the bunker. Pulling up for a strafing attack, they touched off one of the bombs at the entrance of L'Ouvrage de Mercy which set off a chain reaction down to the heart of the cavern. One-ton blocks of concrete were scattered over a mile area, and some smaller debris peppered the Chateau Mercy les Metz, and actually the city of Metz itself.

Its sisters were untouched in this explosion. L'Ouvrage de Jury, was used by the American Army during the last war for demolition experiments. In three attempts to penetrate the walls, they only succeeded in cracking the wall and shifting it out about two feet.

Extract from "The Unknown Battle: Metz, 1944" by Anthony Kemp

The Fortified Groupe "Marne", the last of the major fort groups to be built, was used by the Germans to store torpedo warheads. A P-47 pilot returning empty-handed from a sweep noticed a line of German trucks on the road leading to the central barracks, and as he had a spare bomb, swooped down. The bomb hit one of the trucks, causing it to explode; and in a chain reaction, the others ignited like a powder train leadings into the fort. What followed must have been one of the mightiest explosions heard during the Second World War. The huge concrete barracks simply disappeared from the face of the earth, leaving a crater large enough to swallow a cathedral. All that can be seen today is a few lumps of concrete littered around a peaceful pool of deep blue water much favored by the local anglers. What was left of the fort became the headquarters of the 17th SS Panzer Grenadier Division during the coming battles.

See the photos from 1961 offered below.