Hackenberg - The Giant of the Maginot Line

Built between 1929 and 1935 straddling the eponymous hill, the Hackenberg (A19) is the largest 
structure on the Maginot line. In this formidable fortress
buried in places at 96 meters deep, everything is disproportionate: two entrances, 17 combat blocks, divided into two western and
eastern half-works, 25 guns including 7 anti-tank, 33 light mortars, 30 machine guns and 60 rifles - machine gunners, a storage 
capacity of nearly 80,000 shells and 1.5 million 7.5 mm cartridges, a thickness of 3.50 meters of concrete for the 
walls of the blocks exposed to the blows, 10 kilometers of underground galleries.
In 1940, 43 officers and 
1,040 crew members lived inside the structure; they belonged to the 164th RIF, the 163rd RAP, the 2nd, 15th and 18th engineer regiments.
Triggering the precise and 
deadly fires of its artillery in June 1940 but spared from a direct attack, the structure was reoccupied by the 
Germans and then partially reused, in particular to slow down the advance of the Allies. Its block 8 was then attacked and neutralized by American troops of the 90th Infantry Division 
in November 1944.
Maintained by the French army until the 1970s,
it was sold in 1975 to the Amifort-Veckring association. Since then, it has been partially open to the public 
and receives nearly 50,000 visitors per year.
For the first time, Michel Truttmann, an eminent recognized specialist in fortification, explores all the fields 
related to the design, construction and history of this giant of the Maginot line, thanks to unpublished testimonies 
and to the basics modern data. This innovative work, the result of 
45 years of research, is illustrated with nearly 400 photos, plans and diagrams.