Kanonenberg (Sargdeckel)

[Tom Oliviers]

A question, 

Was the huge tunnelcomplex under "kanonenberg" ever built?

Some months ago we visited and researched kanonenberg near Massiges, we entered a lot of concrete reïnforced tunnel-entrances and observationshafts (with ropes). All of them ends in the rocks. It feels like the tunnelcomplex was never built (not collapsed, just all dead ends in the rock).

On the net you find nice maps of the tunnels under that hill, but it feels for me it was never completed...

Any info more than welcome!

[mebu]

Tom, I suspect not many know the answer to that question.

Hopefully someone may come along who can provide some info.

Peter

[bierast]

Is this the location in question? Sadly the only text on the reverse is the word 'Kanonenberg' (a name which was not unique)

[Alexander McLean]

Hello, Tom -

The tunnel with the exposed concrete entrance was indeed completed and used extensively.  When the Germans evacuated the area in 1918, they dynamited the tunnel entrances all along that part of the front in order to seal the tunnels.  Local historians excavated the concrete entrance of the tunnel you mention and reopened a very short part of the tunnel itself but stopped because of the danger of collapse.

There was at least one more tunnel under Kanonenberg, located a short distance to the right of the tunnel mentioned above.  Exposed concrete portions of that entrance are visible, but the last time that I was there no part of that second tunnel had been excavated.

The area from Nauroy to Massiges contained a number of German tunnels, the most famous of which was the tunnel at Mt. Cornilliet, where approximately 400 German soldiers were asphyxiated when a French 400mm shell landed in an air shaft and exploded in the tunnel during the French offensive in April 1917.  The chalky soil of the Champagne region made the area ideal for tunneling, and both the Germans and French took advantage of that fact to construct numerous tunnels and large dugouts. 

From 2000 to 2015 I visited the Massiges area each year.  [It was my favorite part of the Western Front.]  When I walked the surface of Kanonenberg and other fields around Massiges, I frequently discovered large deep holes where portions of tunnels and deep dugouts had collapsed.

Needless to say, it would be very dangerous to enter any tunnels or dugouts.

I hope that this information is of some use.

Regards, Torrey

PS:  A friend who lives in Massiges has informed me that local historians are attempting to open a museum there.

 

 

 

 

[Howard]

Have I got the right place, as shown here?

That site shows a map, probably the one that Tom referred to.

If so, we have a good number of detailed 1:5,000 French maps georeferenced on TrenchMapper.

Right click, chose Lat/Lon Jump and enter 49.208,4.742.

Howard

Edited 29 March , 2023 by Howard

[Alexander McLean]

Hello, Howard -

Great photographs!

The top two photos (of the Herzberg Tunnel) are indeed the tunnel I referred to and the third photo (the one on the left, showing what appears to be the top of a concrete wall) shows what I referred to as the still-uncovered entrance to another tunnel.  [Perhaps it is a side entrance to the Herzberg Tunnel.]

More than half of the other photos show places that I never visited.  Impressive!

Regards, Torrey