page_title: Fort de Giromagny
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Fort de Giromagny / History
caption_attribution_description: Emplacement d'une des 2 tourelles du fort. Giromagny fortifications.
context_page_description: Fort de Giromagny, also known as Fort Dorsner, was built near Belfort in northeastern France between 1875 and 1879. The fort forms the southern end of the defensive curtain of the Haute Moselle Region, abutting the Fortified region of Belfort, which lies to its south. The Haute Moselle defenses form a link between the fortified encampments of Épinal and Belfort. The fort overlooks the main roads to the northeast of Belfort, which form a crossroads at Giromagny.
  The fort was built as part of France's Séré de Rivières system of fortifications to defend France against a recurrence of the Prussian invasion of the 1870-71 Franco-Prussian War. The fort was among the most strongly armed forts in the northeast in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It received the first revolving armored turrets to be installed in a land fortification in France.
  The fort's official name, Fort Dorsner, commemorates General Jean Philippe Raymond Dorsner, who fought in the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars.
context_section_description: In 1940 the fort was manned by the 7th Battery of the 159th Position Artillery Regiment (RAP), part of the fortified region of Belfort under the French 8th Army, Army Group 3.  From 16 March 1940 the RF Belfort became the 44th Fortress Corps (CAF). During the Battle of France the Mougin turrets fired on German forces. After the armistice the Germans used Giromagny to make propaganda films purporting to show the capture of a Maginot Line fortification using flamethrowers on a turret before blowing it up with dynamite. The Germans reinforced the fort during the war, but blew up the entry on retreating in 1944.
  Fort de Giromagny has been in the care of a preservation association since 1988.  Visits may be arranged upon request.
caption: Hole for a Mougin gun turret
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