THE PARIS FORTS

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2247, 5 September 1914, Page 8

THE PARIS FORTS

'■ 'A TRIPLE LINE

iiREAf£ST; STIioNGfiOLD IN THE WORLD

Paris, which;.thoughts' are JO.OW. turned by tie nearapproach'of , the invading German- armjes, • lias been recently described %' the Germane themselves'(according to the "Enyclopaedia, Britarmiea-'O, as tho greatest fortress in the worjd- ■ It has three perfectly distiiict l .rings~.;.of;<lei.enc.es; :The two inner ■rings, the-.enceinte, and,the inner circlo of. deta'checL'forts, are of "tho bastioned type, "and were "built' in the time cf ■Louis Philippe. "With very few additions they sustained the siege of 187071. The'outer works, of more modern type, 'forming ait' entrenched • camp, which, in area, is rivalled only by the Antwerp system'of defences, were built after the Franco-German war. . The enceinte has a deep , dry ditch in front, and isjicarly twenty-two jr.iles in circumference, with 97 bastions, 67 gates, and 9 railway passages. . ~ -r- -The Old Defences. ; Tho greater part of the.enceinte has; nowever, .been :given, up, and a larger one projected—as at .Antwerp—by con- • neeting up ; tho :old detached forte. These forts; ..which sustainedthe siege in 187071, nave ■ a■-.-perimeter of about thirty-four-mile's. .Bach is 'designed as' a , miniature'fortress.; On the, north side there" are three forts around St. Denis, one of tlieso being arranged to control . an inundation. On the eastward side is Fort Aubervilliers.' All these four forts lie in- relatively low ground. The eastern works -are situated on higher ground (300-350 ft.), and consistf of four forte ""and various small redoubts. In low ground again there are two redoubts connected by a parapet, and between the Seine and the- Marne, in advance of their...confluence, Fort Charenton. On the'south side of the city, hardly more than a inilo from the enceinte ,is a row of forts—lvry, Bicetre, Montrougo, iVanves ; and Issy—solidly constructed works in themselves, , but,- as shown in 1870/ nearly' useless for the defence of the city against rifled guns, ae they are ' overlooked by the plateau of Chatillon. On the west side of Paris is thefamouß fortress : of Mont. Velerien, standing about, 450 feet, abovo the river. Two groups of works have strengthened the inner line —permanent forts at Hautos Brnyeres, on iihe plateau of Villejuif, one mile south of Fort Bicotre and the Chatillon fort and' batteries, which prevent- access to. the celebrated plateau which overlooks Paris from a height of 600 feet, and of which the rear batteries sweep almost the whole of the ground between Bicotre and Mont iValerien. ' A seventy-fiva Mile Circle. The'new works are eleven miles from the Louvre and eight miles from the enceinte. They form a circlo of seventyfive miles in circumference, and an army which attempted to invest Paris to-day would have to bo at least 500,000 strong, irrespective of all field and covering forces. .The actual defence of tho .works, ".apart from, troops temporarily collected in the fortified area, would necd :: sonie 170,000 mon only. The entrenched "canip falls into" three sections -—th6 r North," the East,- and tho Southwest." '?T:h'o !l iorU.--Jia>», from 1 - 24 to .60.

heavy guns and 600 to 1200 men each, tiio redoubts, .batteries, : aud annexo batteries generally. 200 meii and 6 guns each.. •■■'•■. The Forts Described. In the northern section a. ridgo crosses the northern extremities of tho St. German-Afgbnteuil loop of tho Seine after th'o fashion of a horseshoe; on this ridgo (about 560 ft.) is a group of works, named after the village of Cormeillcs, corninaiidiiig the lower Seine, the Argeutouil peninsula and lower ground towards the Oise. At an avorago distance; of iivo miles from St. Denis Kβ tho works of tho Montlig-noin-flomont position (about 600-700 ftet), which sweep all ground to the north, cross their fire with tho C'orin'eilles works, and deny tho plateau of Montmorency-llcry-sur-Oiso to an ..enemy.- At Ecouen, on an isolated" hill, aro a fort and a redoubt, and to tho right near l''ort Stains, aud two batteries on the ceiuturo railway. The important, eastern section consists of the Vaujours iwsition, the salient of the whole fortress, which commands the countryside as tar 'as Danimartin and Claye, crosses its firo with Stains on tho one hand aud Villiors on tho other, and itself lies on a steep hill at the outer edge of the forest or' Bondy, which allows free and concealed communication between the fort and tho inner lino of-works. Tho Vaujours works are armoured. Three miles to the right of Vaujours is Fort Chellas, wbich bars the roads and railways of the Marae Valley. On the other side of the Marno, on. ground made historic by tho events of 1870, are Forts Villiers and Champigny, designed as a bridge-head to enable the defenders to assemble in front of tho Mai-ne. To the, right of these is a. fort near Boissy St. Leger, and on the right of .the'whole section are the armoured, works of .the Villeneuve-St: Georges position, which command tho Seme and Teres country as far as Bue and Corbeil. The left of the southwestern section is formed by tho powerful Fort Palaiseau and its annexe batteries, which command the Yvette Valley. Behind' Fort Palaiseau, midway between it and Fort Chatillon, is the Verrienes group, overlooking the valley of the Vievre. To the right of Palaiseau on the high ground towards Versailles ere other works, and around Vorsailles itself is a semi-circle of batteries right and left of the armoured Fort St. Cyr. In various positions around Marly there aro some seven or eight batteries. Since 1870 Paris has grown exceedingly fast beyond the second ring of forts described, and sometimes in suburbs about the outer ring. In some cases it has been found that buildings' mask the fire of tho guns'of the forte'or-otherwise' afford protection to a, possible besieger, and these are accordingly being demolished as rapidly, as possible.-