https://en.wikipedia.

org/wiki/Fort_Vaux
https://www.wereldoorlog1418.nl/battleverdun/battleverdun44/index.htm
Price of Glory - Alistair Horne

On the 21st of February, after a 10 hour preliminary bombardment by 808 german guns firing
over a million shells, the German Army attacked the fortress city of Verdun along the River
Meuse. The French forces serving there, who were lethargic after years of inactivity on their
front, were rudely awakened by the German attack, and the German forces, led by elite
stormtroopers, made significant gains in the early portion of the battle. French command only
realised the seriousness of the offensive after a few days, and by that time the Germans were
close to reaching the city of Verdun itself. Protecting the city were a ring of fortresses, the
largest of which was Fort Douaumont. The fort was pentagon-shaped, and was the largest of
the 19 forts in the ring at Verdun. Unfortunately for the French defenders at Douaumont, most of
the fort’s defenses had been disarmed by order of Joseph Joffre. When the Germans began
bombarding the fort in preparation for their assault, the defenders, instead of manning the
remaining defensive positions and guns, retreated to the lower levels of the fort to avoid the
bombardment. German scouts infiltrated their way into the fort, to their complete surprise,
meeting no resistance in their attack. Soon, these forward elements began to walk out of the fort
with prisoners. Fort Douaumont, the largest fort at Verdun, had fallen to the Germans without a
shot fired. Fort Vaux, one of the smaller forts in the fortress ring at Verdun, also saw many of its
defenses disarmed in late 1915. Four 75mm guns were removed from their casemates, leaving
only two in the main turret, along with several other machine gun and observation turrets
remaining. The trapezoidal shaped fort was also surrounded by a dry moat, intended to slow
down potential attackers. When the Battle of Verdun began, Vaux was also bombed, and the 75
mm turret on the top of the fort was destroyed, when a German 420mm shell detonated a
charge laid in the turret by the French for demolition. The fort’s small garrison was strengthened
on February the 27th with a group of Territorials. The defenders, led by Colonel Sylvain Eugene
Raynal, who took command in May 1914, began preparing for a German attack. The German
preparation for the attack on Fort Vaux went unimpeded, as the main guns for Vaux had either
been disarmed or destroyed. Apart from the regular garrison of men, Fort Vaux was also filled
with stray stretcher-bearers, signallers and the scraps from other regiments that had gotten lost.
Raynal tried to get these stragglers out, but more and more ended up flooding in during the
chaotic opening of the battle. The fort, originally intended to hold 250 men, now had 600.
Further compounding upon Raynal’s problems was the fact that the water supply, which needed
to be fixed, had not, despite grave warnings.

On June 1st, the Germans began their attack on Fort Vaux. Troops from the Bavarian Corps, X
Reserve Corps and the XV Corps captured Cailette Wood and the village of Damloup after an
intense preliminary bombardment of the French lines. Raynal watched through his binoculars
helplessly as the fort was incapable of retaliating without any 75mm’s. Nevertheless, the French
machineguns, firing at long range still managed to cut through the ranks of the German attack.
The Germans had successfully eliminated French flanking fire supporting the fort by the
afternoon. The intense shellfire had churned the terrain into muck, preventing the defenders
outside the fort from retreating, meaning the fort’s garrison was on its own. The fort was subject
to constant bombardment as the Germans prepared to attack and encircle the fort. Shells were
falling at a rate of 1500 to 2000 an hour, meaning that Raynal’s men were incapable of escaping
the fort alive in the midst of such an intense bombardment. Raynal and his men soon realised
that they were on their own. The garrisoned troops began erecting barricades of sandbags
hurriedly in preparation for the German attack. Once reaching the inside of the moat, the
German attackers faced intense machinegun fire from the two flanking galleries. The Germans
immediately began focusing their attention on them, with German pioneers trying to lower
bundles of grenades into the viewports unsuccessfully. One of the machineguns jammed, and
the pioneers immediately hurled grenades inside, dispatching the crew. Captain Tabarout,
Raynal’s second in command, kept the Germans at bay hurling grenades until his stomach was
cut open by a German grenade. The attackers had successfully taken one of the fort’s two
major strongpoints, but the other still remained. German Pioneers, preparing an attack on the
double gallery to the northwest, used flamethrowers to try and smoke out the defenders. They
were initially successful, with French machineguns halting their fire, allowing Lieutenant Rackow
of the 158th Paderborn Regiment to sneak 30 men into the moat. The machineguns opened fire
again, leaving the men trapped. Determined German Pioneers tried lowering sacks of grenades
into the gallery, but did more damage to themselves than to the French. German forces also
made their way to the summit of the fort, discovered the sandbags Raynal had placed to plug a
gap in the north-west gallery, removed them and began hurling grenades inside. By 4pm,
Raynal had lost his two major defences, and realised that there was no choice but to retreat to
the fort’s interior. Raynal ordered his men to create hasty sandbag fortifications in the fort’s
corridors leading to the centre of Fort Vaux. With all his telephone lines cut, Raynal sent his first
pigeon reporting the situation.

On June 2nd, the Germans quickly destroyed those barricades with a combination of rifle and
machinegun fire along with grenades. Intense fighting continued throughout the day before the
French defenders were forced to retreat into the fort’s interior, and the Germans are able to
control some of the fort’s hallways and the fort’s exterior. French artillery began a bombardment
of the fort, causing the German attackers to remain in cover. That night on the 2nd, German
pioneer units are able to sneak flamethrowers to the fort’s summit.

Early on June 3rd, German forces begin working their way to the south of the fort, cutting it off
completely. The Germans had control of the entire exterior of the fort, including the summit.
Ferocious fighting continued in the two main tunnels leading to the heart of the fort. In each
tunnel, a brave French grenadier defended against German attacks. These tunnels were no
more than 3 feet wide and 5 feet tall. The cramped conditions also made the noise of battle
deafening. Bullets and grenade splinters ricocheted against the walls, often wounding soldiers
behind cover. Grenade explosions produced concussive shockwaves that echoed through the
entire fort, and were almost unbearable. Although the Germans had successfully controlled the
exterior of the fort, they had suffered heavily in the process. The battalion from the 53rd
Regiment, for example, only had one officer remaining who wasn’t wounded. Raynal’s pigeon
had finally reached Sector Headquarters, where General Lebrun, under heavy pressure by
Nivelle, organised a counter-attack to relieve the besieged defenders of Vaux.
At dawn on the 4th, the French counter-attacked at Vaux, attacking in 6 dense waves. Some
were able to reach the western extremity of the fort, but replacements from the Dusseldorf
Fusiliers drove the French attackers at bayonet point. June 4th would be the grimmest day for
Raynal and the defenders at Fort Vaux. German flamethrowers, their nozzles poking through
apertures in the fort’s exterior opened fire, filling the fort’s corridors with asphyxiating thick black
smoke, meanwhile other troops on top of the fort began lowering baskets of grenades through
the fort’s firing ports, detonating them, further terrorising the defenders. Raynal first became
aware of the attack when cries of “Gas!” echoed through the fort. Panic began to overcome the
French. Luckily for the French, Lieutenant Girard, with almost superhuman courage, darted
through the smoke-filled north-west corridor of the fort and manned an abandoned machinegun
post. Although wounded several times, Girard held out long enough until order was re-
established, before eventually fainting from the smoke. Although the smoke caused the French
to retreat, the attackers were also hindered by the flamethrower attack. The thick black smoke
made it difficult to see anything, thus the attackers often got lost trying to make their way deeper
into the fort. Despite choking on the gases from burning flamethrower fuel, the French
defenders stubbornly held on. Raynal tried desperately to get a message out of the fort via
pigeon, but no relief would arrive. The Germans tried rushing the north-east corridor, but were
repulsed by the French, and fighting in the south-west corner of the fort resulted in a French
victory, where all the German Pioneer crews were killed and their flamethrowers captured,
ensuring that the southern moat was clear. Before midday, Raynal dispatched his last pigeon
with the message: “We are still holding. But … relief is imperative. Communicate with us by
Morse-blinker from Souville, which does not reply to our calls. This is my last pigeon.” Raynal
attempted to release his final pigeon, but the noxious smoke prevented it from taking flight.
Eventually they were able to encourage the bird to fly carrying with it Raynal’s message.
Raynal’s pigeon successfully delivered its message, and died immediately after. Reacting to the
message, signallers at Fort Souville relayed to Fort Vaux’s defenders that another attack was
underway. Despite this, Raynal’s situation would get even worse. Raynal was approached by a
French sergeant, who told him that there was no water left in the cistern. Raynal was puzzled,
and the sergeant told him that he had only distributed what Raynal had ordered. Unfortunately
for the defenders, the water gauge was inaccurate, meaning that the fort’s defenders were
dangerously low on water. Raynal soon realised he needed to get the 300 supernumerary
troops out of the fort before they endangered the rest, and took a serious risk trying to scout a
way out. Captain Charles Delvert, commanding a concrete entrenchment known as R1, a few
hundred yards from Fort Vaux, had held out for several days against mounting German attacks,
but even he knew that at one point they would be overwhelmed.

Fortunately for Delvert and his men, rain came on the 5th, and groundsheets were held out to
capture it for drinking. The defenders inside the fort wouldn’t be so fortunate, and soon, neither
would Delvert. For the defenders at Vaux, the 5th of June began with a massive explosion at the
Casemate de Bourges on the south-west corner of the fort. A huge hole was blown in the wall,
and German flamethrowers opened fire. By some freak of nature however, a sudden air current
blew the flames right back in the faces of the attackers, and grenades thrown by Lieutenant
Girard restored the situation. Raynal saw the Germans begin work on the fort’s summit,
attempting to dig mineshafts in the fort’s exterior, and immediately wired to Fort Souville
requesting an artillery barrage on the top of the fort. Souville replied, and Raynal heard thuds
above him, and saw grey bodies fly into the moat. Unfortunately for Raynal however, that would
be the last message either to or from Souville, as a shell killed the blinker operator and three
other men, along with destroying the equipment. Disease also began to spread amongst the
men, with Raynal suffering from recurring malaria. Raynal, inspecting his destitute men, decided
to distribute the last reserves of water, amounting to less than a quarter of a pint per man.
Raynal cabled another message by blinder that night “Imperative be relieved and receive water
tonight. I am reaching the end of my tether.” No water would arrive. Suddenly, a brief glimmer of
hope appeared. Officer Cadet Buffet, who was tasked with escorting the 300 additional troops
out of the fort on the 4th, returned. Unfortunately, most of the escapees were killed or captured,
but Buffet and 8 others made it to Fort Tavannes. Buffet relayed to Raynal and the defenders
that an attack would soon be underway, yet again, to relieve the defenders. At 2am on the 6th,
Raynal heard the scream of French shells overhead, but no explosions, indicating that French
guns were overshooting the fort. By 3am, French soldiers at the Casemate de Bourges spotted
the French attackers under heavy machinegun fire, and soon after, the attackers emerged from
their shell holes with hands raised in surrender. Morale plummeted as a result. Raynal blinked
one last message; “Intervene before complete exhaustion … Vive le France!” Further
compounding on their problems, a German shell struck through the fort, collapsing a portion of
the central gallery. Soldiers now had to worry about being buried alive. The level of thirst was
also indescribable. Soldiers tried drinking foul and dirty water that had pooled in small puddles
on the fort’s floors, others tried drinking their own urine, making them sick and further adding to
the mounting casualties. Many soldiers tried licking the condensation that formed in the fort’s
walls. Some simply fainted from exhaustion. Seeing their fellow men choke and retch whilst they
fought on caused many soldiers to break down. The approximately 90 French wounded, some
horrifically burnt, had no water to assuage their thirst. The Germans similarly suffered from a
lack of water, but since the Germans controlled and surrounded the fort, their men could
eventually be resupplied with fresh drinking water, though it would take time. The defenders
could not.

Major Raynal decided on the 6th that he and his men had done their duty. Holding out for a
week, against overwhelming odds, against gas, grenades and fire had held off Crown Prince
Wilhelm’s army. The Germans had failed to penetrate more than 30-40 yards in the fort’s
interior, owing to the dogged defense by Raynal’s men. Reportedly, a deadly silence enveloped
the fort, and both the French and Germans sensed that the end was near. On the morning of
the 7th, a French officer and two soldiers approached a German machinegun position
commanded by Lieutenant Werner Muller bearing a white flag. Soon, the Raynal signed formal
terms of surrender, and handed the bronze key to Fort Vaux to the German commander
Lieutenant Rackow. Upon seeing the French garrison make their way out of the fort, the
Germans were appalled at the state of the men. Crazy with thirst, many of them crawled to the
nearest shell hole to drink the foul water that pooled inside. Raynal was informed by his captor
that he was awarded the Legion d’Honneur by General Joseph Joffre for his defense of the fort.
Raynal was also praised by Crown Prince Wilhelm, and was personally presented a French
sword by the Crown Prince, who described him and his men as ‘admirable.’ By the end of the
siege, 163 French soldiers were killed, 191 wounded and 246 captured, whilst the Germans
suffered a whopping 2,740 killed or wounded in the attack on the fort. The only other recipient of
the Legion d’Honneur from the battle was Raynal’s final pigeon, the only pigeon in the entirety of
the war to receive that honour. It’s body was stuffed and it sits in the Musee de la Colophilie in
Paris with the medal draped around its neck. On the 8th of June, the French attempted to retake
the fort, with savage man-to-man fighting taking place. French artillery barrages force the
German defenders to retreat into the fort, but the French attacks are successfully halted. Most
of the French colonial troops involved in the attack were annihilated by 210mm howitzers before
leaving their positions. Those that made their way to the fort were mown down at point blank
range by German machineguns. Petain, enraged by the news of repeated failed attacks,
ordered Nivelle to prevent any further attacks on Vaux.

Fort Vaux saw some of the bloodiest and worst fighting throughout the Battle of Verdun. After
taking Vaux, the Germans set their sights on Fort Souville, the last barrier before the city of
Verdun. Fortunately for the French, poor weather hindered the German advance. Vicious
fighting would continue across the Verdun sector, and casualties would continue to mount on
both sides. The German occupiers of Fort Vaux, being constantly bombarded by the French,
soon found life in the fort unbearable, and abandoned it in October. On the 2nd of November,
the French recapture the fort, surprised to find it completely empty. The Battle of Verdun would
end in December 1916 with a French victory, but much like the Siege at Fort Vaux, would
extract a heavy physical and mental toll on the men who fought in it. Thanks for watching.