Amazing history of WW1
The fall of the strongest fortress in the world
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On 21 February 1916, the German 5th Army began an offensive which started the Battle of Verdun. Douaumont was the largest protecting the city and thus the keystone to the city defenses. The German offensive was already four days old and progressing rapidly from the north when, on 24 February, it came within reach of Fort Douaumont. Fort Douaumont was still only manned by a maintenance crew of only 56 troops and a few gunners.
On 25 February, elements of the German 24th Brandenburg Regiment (6 Infanterie-Division, III Armeekorps) approached Fort Douaumont from the north, as a reconnaissance or raiding party. Most of the French garrison had already gone to the lower levels of the fort to escape the incessant German shelling with large-calibre guns.
About 10 combat engineers from the Brandenburg regiment, led by Pioneer-Sergeant Kunze, managed to approach the fort unopposed. Visibility was poor due to bad weather, and French machine gunners thought the Germans were French colonial troops returning from a patrol.
Kunze managed to climb inside the whole to open a door. Kunze's men refused to go inside the fortification as they feared an ambush. Armed only with a rifle, the Pioneer-Sergeant entered alone. He wandered around the empty tunnels until he found the artillery team, captured them and locked them up.
By now, another group from the Brandenburg regiment, led by reserve-officer Lieutenant Radtke, was also entering the fort through its unoccupied defences. Radtke then made contact with Kunze's troops and organised them before they spread out, capturing a few more French defenders and securing the fort. Later, more columns of German troops under Hauptman Haupt and Oberleutnant von Brandis arrived. No shots were ever fired in the capture of Fort Douaumont.
Despite being the last officer to enter the fort, von Brandis was the one who dispatched the report on the capture of Douaumont to the German High Command. A few days later, the Prussian officer was telling Crown Prince Wilhelm about its heroic seizure. No mention was made of the efforts of Lieutenant Radtke or Sergeant Kunze. Instead von Brandis became the "Hero of Douaumont" and was awarded the Pour le Mérite. Kunze, who broke in and locked up the garrison and Radtke, who took command during the fort's capture, received no award. It was not until the 1930s, after historians from the German Great War committee had time to review the capture of Fort Douaumont that credit was belatedly given. Kunze, now a member of the Ordnungspolizei, received a promotion and Lieutenant Radtke got an autographed portrait of Wilhelm, the former Crown Prince and Kunze received the order of Pour le Mérite.
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