Fort Saint-Privat

The Feste Prinz August von Württemberg, renamed fort Saint-Privat by the French in 1919 is a fortification near Metz. It is part of the first fortified belt forts of Metz and had its baptism of fire in late 1944, during the Battle of Metz.

Historical context
Fort Saint-Privat belongs to the first fortified belt of Metz designed during Second Empire by Napoléon III. The first fortified belt of Metz consists of forts Saint-Privat (1870) of Queuleu (1867), des Bordes (1870) Saint-Julien (1867), Gambetta, Déroulède, Decaen, Plappeville (1867) and St. Quentin (1867), most of them unfinished in 1870, when the Franco-Prussian War burst out. During The Annexation, Metz, which oscillates between a German garrison of 15,000 and 20,000 men at the beginning of the period (and which exceeds 25,000 men before the First World War) gradually became the first stronghold of the German Reich.

Construction and facilities
The Feste Prince August von Württemberg was built by German engineers between 1872 and 1875. The fort was designed in the spirit of "detached forts" concept developed by Hans Alexis von Biehler in Germany. The goal was to form a discontinuous enclosure around Metz, made of spaced out forts of artillery with a range of guns. The Feste Prince August von Württemberg completed the first fortified belt Metz begun by the French before 1870.

Successive assignments
From 1890 the forts are stationed by the troops of Corps XVI stationed at Metz and Thionville. The 145is  King Infantry Regiment (6th Lorrain) garrisoned the fort before 1914. Invested by the French army in 1919, the fort Prince August von Württemberg was renamed the fort Saint-Privat. It soon encompassed in the perimeter of the Airbase Metz-Frescaty which was developed after World War I. It was taken in 1940 by the Germans. The German army occupied the fort during 1940–1944. Fort Saint-Privat is now disused.

Second World War
On September 2, 1944, Metz was declared "Reich fortress" by Hitler. The fortress was to be defended to the last by German troops, whose leaders were all sworn to the Führer. Faced with the 5th American division, the men of the 462 Volks-Grenadier-Division defended the ancient of the Reich with combativeness. As fighting started happening by early September, the fort was held by men of Colonel SS Ernst Kemper. During the Battle of Metz several units succeeded each other in the fort, between shifts.

On November 9, 1944, as a prelude to the assault on Metz, the US Air Force sends no less than 1,299 heavy bombers, both B-17 and B-24, and dumps 3,753 tons of bombs,  and 1,000 to 2,000  "livres" on the fortifications and strategic points in the combat zone of III army. Most bombers dropped bombs without visibility, at over 20 000 feet, so the military targets were often missed. In Metz, 689 loads of bombs hit the seven forts of Metz, identified as priority targets, and caused merely collateral damage, proving once again the inadequacy of the massive bombing of military targets.

The final attack arrives November 16, 1944 from the south and west. Facing 11th Regiment 5th American division, the men of 462e Volks-Grenadier-Division who defend the ancient fortress of the Reich, fiercely resisted. The men of 11 Infantry regiment think they have fallen into a hornet's nest when German machine guns, MG 34 s and MG 42 s, deployed on the ground, started up. The troops of Lieutenant General Kittel defend with tenacity each hanger  and every air-raid shelter of the airfield. Under pressure from US troops, the men of Matzdorff however eventually fall back towards Fort Saint-Privat ( Prince August von Württemberg ) and the last hangars. In November 16, 1944, while a cold, wet night falls on the airbase, the 11th Infantry regiment lost no less than 4 officers and 118 men on the ground. But the German losses were also heavy. The next day, November 17, 1944, fighting resumes northeast of the base, where a German section clings to the last buildings, but the shots now come mainly from Fort Saint-Privat.

The commander of the fort Prince August von Württemberg is then Werner Matzdorff (1912–2010), a Sturmbannführer of the Waffen-SS, a Major of the Schutzpolizei. He commands his troops with an iron fist, knowing that he can not hold out long. Entrenched in the fort, Sturmbannführer yet refuses to disarm. On November 20, 1944, von Matzdorff comes out of Fort Saint-Privat with a white flag. Shell Commander 11th RI, who thinks that the officer is surrendering, responds that he and his men are ready to fight to the death "if necessary". The Sturmbannführer only wishes to evacuate twenty of his most severely injured patients. On November 21, 1944 General Kittel, injured in the Riberpray barrack, is captured. Metz is taken the next day at 14 h 35. That evening the men of Fort Saint-Privat start to desert and surrender to the Americans. Exhausted and haggard, they state that the morale in the fort is at its lowest. Yet, like other forts west of Metz, Fort Frescaty resists, despite the circumstances.

After a week, however, the situation becomes critical, food and ammunition sorely lacking. On November 29, 1944, Werner Matzdorff agreed to surrender unconditionally with 22 officers and 488 men, with 80 wounded, the injured have been waiting for care for more than one week. The swastika flag no longer flies over the airbase, giving the lie to the monumental inscription "The man may fall, the flag never" painted on one of the walls of the base. The objective of the German General Staff, which was to save time by stalling US trooops the longest possible time ahead of the Siegfried Line, is largely achieved.

Related articles

 * Forts of Metz
 * Fortifications of Metz
 * Battle of Metz