How a single German sergeant captured a massive French fortress without firing a shot
In short: Fort Douaumont was the keystone of Verdun's defenses, a sprawling concrete behemoth designed to be impregnable. Yet, in February 1916, it fell to a small German raiding party that simply walked through an open window. The capture was so effortless that the official hero was chosen for political reasons, not merit.
By 1915, the French General Staff had largely abandoned the Verdun fort system. Influenced by the rapid destruction of Belgian fortifications by German 420 mm Gamma howitzers in 1914, French planners erroneously concluded that their own forts were obsolete. General Joseph Joffre ordered the garrisons reduced and the heavy weaponry removed, leaving Fort Douaumont, the largest and highest of the defensive ring, manned by only a skeleton maintenance crew.
On February 25, 1916, Pioneer-Sergeant Kunze of the German 24th Brandenburg Regiment approached the fort alone. Finding the defensive casemates unoccupied, he entered through a window, navigated the tunnels, and captured the remaining artillery team without a single shot being fired. While Lieutenant Radtke and his men secured the fort, the credit was later claimed by Oberleutnant von Brandis, who arrived last but successfully lobbied the German High Command for the honor. Von Brandis was awarded the Pour le Mérite, while the actual captors were largely ignored until historical reviews in the 1930s.
Once in German hands, the fort became a vital supply hub and shelter, dubbed 'Old Uncle Douaumont.' Its strategic value was so high that its loss was estimated to cost the French army 100,000 lives. The site eventually became a death trap; in May 1916, a fire caused by soldiers using flamethrower fuel to heat coffee detonated an ammunition cache, killing 679 German soldiers. The fort was finally recaptured by French colonial infantry on October 24, 1916, after being pounded by massive 400 mm railway guns.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: Fort Douaumont
- Also: Wikidata — Fort Douaumont · CC0
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