The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1914-11-02
FORTIEICATIONS
OF FRANCE ARE
NOT So STRONG
GERMANS SAY THEY ARE NOT
MODERN AND MANY HAVE
BEEN cARELEssLY CONSTRUCT
ED.
BY ASSOCIATED PRESS.


The Hague, Nov. 1.--According to
recent reports in the German pres:
not all the French Notifications are
so strong as has been believed. Sew
| eral OF those which have been taker
! by Germans are said to have been an
tiquated, little effort to modernIze
| them having been spent on them. A
/ noteworthy example Of this, and one
which is rather typical OF what the
! Germans assert they have found, is
| the case Of Fort Lee Ayvelles, which
| located almost due south Of Mezieres-
| Charleville, guarded the bridges and
fords Of the Mouse in that locality.
Describing what he saw in the fort
after it had been occupied by the
| Germans, Henry Binder, war cores
| pondent Of the Berliner Tageblatt, says
in the issue of that paper OF October
| 8 among other things:
"All French forts along the Belgian
border have been constructed with
such carelessness that one can easily
determine the degree to which the
French depended upon their Belgian
neighbor. Generally the forts were
left in the state they had when built,
and since the plan of their construc-
ton dates back to fifty years ago the
strategicaI weakness of several or
most Of them is plain enough.
"A typical example Of this is Fort
Lee Ayvelles which guarded the
bridges and fords of the Meuse south
Of Mezieres- Charleville, and which was
shot out Of the ground with 800 shots
from our 21-centineter nortars. The
fort was built in 1873 and was armed
with 40 pieces. It's main armament
were two batteries Of six guns each
Of 9-centimeter calibre dating from
the years of 1873 and 1880 and which
had a range of only four kilometers
(note: the range of even the smallest
German siege pieces is never less than
eight kilometers).
GUNS MADE IN 1884.
TN addition there were found in the
fort several 12-centineyer bronze guns
which had been cast in 1884, while IN
the classmates we found several MI
trailleuses and five barrelled revolver
guns which had been intended TO
sweep the meats. In the fort were
also found several old mortars from
the year 1842-old muzzleloaders with
the typical pyramids Of round canon
balls beside then-guns of type we
use in our villages to fire salutes.
THE fort showed neglect every
where. Not alone was it's armament
antiquated and primitive, but the
before and during the at
tack must have been defective. The
road to the fort had been blocked !
merely by feIIed trees and an occa-
sional barbed-wire ENHANCEMENT, and |
trees before one Of the batteries Of the |
forts made 1t necessary to replace IL !
after our troops had arrived. To do |
this a winch had to be used. But |
they succeeded only in getting one Of |
the pieces into position. This gun
was intended to serve against aircraft |
about the fort, and an effort had beeI.
made to give it the necessary hi gh-
angle elevation by digging a trench
around it in which the timber rested.
Even at that the elevation secured
was INSULT cient.
Our artillery bonabarded the fort
from northwesterly direction and \
worked with precision that would II
be hard to equal One Of the batteries
n the fort had been put out OF acti op
~ a bulPs-eye shot for each piece,
md in other cases the barrel of the
gun had been torn from the carriage,
eaving a scrap heap Of barrel, wheels,
imber parts and masonry. One Of
he barrels had dents four centime-
ers deep where fragments of our
bursting shells had hit 1t.
'In this helpless cage a garrison
# about 900 men had been stationed.
t is understood, that the men fled
Is soon as fire was opened by our
rtillery. Instead of placing this force
n trenches they depended upon t1is !
,oor position with the result that their
Iefeat was complete morally and ply
ically.
There is the grave Of the poor COM
nandant who witnessed the futile
truggle and then saw his men utter
Y routed by a numerically superior
nemy. The poor man ended his life.
simple German soldiers nave honored
his deed by a massive cross Of wood
pom which they painted in good let
ering the words:
Here rests the brave conmandant
lie found 1T impossible TO survive the
all of the fort in his charge. r. I. p.
With this simple cross OF wood the
Terman soldier honors In you the hero
mo did his duty-Second Landwef1r-
'ioneer Company, VIII. AK"