page_title: Fortifications of Metz
section_title: Forts of the second belt
hierarchical_section_title: Fortifications of Metz / Forts of the second belt
caption_attribution_description: Fort de l'Aisne à Verny
context_page_description: The fortifications of Metz, a city in northeastern France, are extensive, due to the city's strategic position near the border of France and Germany. After the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, the area was annexed by the newly created German Empire in 1871 by the Treaty of Frankfurt and became a Reichsland. The German Army decided to build a fortress line from Mulhouse to Luxembourg to protect their new territories. The centerpiece of this line was the Moselstellung between Metz and Thionville, in Lorraine.
context_section_description: The second, outer belt of fortifications were completed by the Germans prior to the First World War but saw little service. Prior to the Second World War they were incorporated by the French into the Maginot Line defenses, but again saw little action. In October 1944, while occupied by the Germans, the fortifications were assaulted and captured by the American 3rd Army in the Battle of Metz.
  The forts were in an offset ring from 8–10 km from the city, and were (anticlockwise from the south):
  Fort l’Aisne / Feste Wagner (1904–1912)
  Fort l’Yser / Feste Prinzregent Luitpold (1907–1914)
  Fort La Marne / Feste Generalfeldmarschall Freiherr von der Goltz (1907–1916)
  (anticlockwise from the north):
  Fort Lorraine / Feste Lothringen (1899–1905)
  Fort François de Guise / Feste Leipzig (1907–1912)
  Fort Jeanne d'Arc / Feste Kaiserin (1899–1905)
  Fort Driant / Feste Kronprinz  (1899–1905)
  Fort Verdun / Feste Haeseler (1899–1905), sometimes referred to as Feste Graf Haeseler
caption: Fort l’Aisne (Feste Wagner), 1904-1912
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