Forgotten History: A German Bunker at Montfaucon
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- Опубліковано 28 сер 2024
- / forgottenweapons
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When one visits the Montfaucon American Memorial (to the soldiers in the Meuse-Argonne offensive), one finds the road in flanked by a pair of (mostly) surviving German bunkers. These standing artifacts of 20th-century warfare are something that we simply don't have in North America, and I find them fascinating and poignant to experience. Today's video is not a detailed history, but simply a look in and around one of these bunkers.
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You can tell it’s October, even the forgotten weapons videos get a little spooky.
I’m impressed by the lack of graffiti.
I notice that too, no surfaces tagged with spray paint. The French must have more respect for history than other people.
That bat keeps a tight watch.
Perhaps, France is notorious for having a bunch of graffiti though.
You know what, so am I.
Granger nope, we like to trash stuff as much as everyone else, it's just the country. Local entertainment probably involves more easily accesible materials like beer, weed, beat-up scooters and 4Ls and sheep
Spooky bat jumpscare.
I love October. :p
And we’re just two days in too.
Lol
SPOOKTOBER!!!!
Near my home there is an entire defensive line on the coast, really impressive. Also when I was a teenager I lived in Toledo and a tractor was sunk into a trench of the Spanish Civil War, I explored it with a friend, there was blankets, beer bottles, cans, ammunition and even graffities: "Sin Dios, ni amo" (no god, no master) there was really , really awesome, the trench was connected
between the main town and a near house.
You're not refering to the Santa Catalina's bunkers right?
No, just in a trench of the town of Orgaz.
That's cool
I already visited 9 pillboxes from the Spanish Civil War, around Oviedo. Thre of them are well known, as they are on public land right next to the old road. Other 3 are in private land, but can be seen from a nearby path. The other is protecting the railroad so its now in the city (as they city grew) and the last 2 of them... a group of friends and I found them. I bet we are not the first ones to find them (one had modern grafiiti) but it is a shock to wander off the path and find a bunker/ pillbox in the middle of nowere
Very nice. "Forgotten bunkers" are wicked cool. Thanks for bringing us along.
Forgotten Bunkers should visit Albania
Hey Ian! My parents have a house in France, and live next to one of the most interesting bunker complexes I have ever seen. They stretch along the French coast line and are accessible. If you happened to be there in northern France, or Holland/Germany, I can give you a tour.
3:29 - Forgotten Weapons' first jump scare!
The silence although for a reason not intended gives me a really eerie feeling.
Phone disturbed the camera: You can hear the weird noise phones cause to electronics when you increase the volume.
Thanks Ian , i learn more with you than in my own french school about our history !
Just a century later and nature can transform these places of pure horror into something so peaceful. Awesome.
Indeed. But still kind of spooky.
That bat tho.
There's a flower growing out of that shell hole. That's visual metaphor that would be ridiculously heavy handed in fiction.
I recently discovered that my great grandfather was with the 316 Infantry Regiment of the 79th division which was tasked with taking this village. My family luckily passed down a pair of decorated mortar shells with the names Verdun and Argonne engraved on them and I just discovered the other day a letter from Pershings to the troops of the American Expeditionary Forces congratulating and thanking them for their efforts in allied victory. So cool to realize you've made a video showcasing a bunker at the very village. Keep up the amazing work as always Ian
Batpeople....
We’re bat people now
max thorell exactly, not people people....bat people.
Goddamned squatting furries.
The lost battalion was 100 years ago today! Bless their memory, love this.
One of my favorite Sabaton songs as well.
ZACHARY HAYNES that was my point what whatever dude
Thanks for posting this. My grandfather was a member of the 313th Infantry, the regiment assigned to take Montfaucon from the Germans. It is entirely possible that someone in that bunker shot at my grandfather during the battle. It is a very sobering sight.
You found the *Batcave* :-O
Man oh man, these bunker tours have become some of my favorite videos on the channel. Thanks Ian.
Awesome video. It’s incredible to see these places from the perspective of the men who fought and died there. My Great-Grandfather was a doughboy and took part in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, can’t help but wonder if he’d seen this bunker way back then.
I really wonder, did some of these old WW1 bunkers again see action in WW2? As a retreating German I certainly wouldnt say no to a pre built strongpoint like this?
Yes a lot of Great War fortificarions did end up being re used when the German's retreated back after D-Day. Hill 60 at Yepere is a prime example.
In every war old, even oldest fortifications are often reused.
Kind of sad that they just rot, they should somehow be preserved but thats propably also expensive..
Its interesting but everything has its price i guess, thanks for the info buddy
Well, the bunkers on Montfaucon are just a very small fraction of all the WWI-era German concrete fortification in the Meuse-Argonne-St.Mihiel sector of the Western Front. And if you factor in the sectors that goes from the St.Mihiel Salient all the way to the Swiss border to the east, and from Argonne through Champagne, Marne, Picardie, Flanders all the way to the North Sea coast there are literally thousands and thousands of German WWI-era concrete fortifications. I've spent the last 30 years photo documenting these remains just in the Argonne-Meuse-St.Mihiel area and I still haven't seen it all. It's simply impossible to perserve, let alone restore them all. You really have to visit these places well off the tourist paths yourself to really understand the magnitude of it. Then you have to factor in all the entente fortifications aswell, even if they used far less concrete fortifications than the Germans.
Anyone else having sound issues around 2:09???
As a child, in Fife, Scotland, bunkers and pill boxes were everywhere, and a great place to play. They’ve all been demolished or simply buried now, as they’re deemed to dangerous. It’s a crying shame, but no different to the number of planes that we bulldozed in to pits at the end of WWII.
It blew my mind at first that these sorts of Bunkers are special to people.
Growing up on the former inner-german border and very close to big ammunition plants from WW2, bunkers were part of our play-routines as kids, climbing and exploring them, even tho our parents of course forbade it.
Rebuilt or repurposed museum sites like the Tirpitz and Hanstholm on the other hand are completely awesome.
You have the best damn job of anybody I've ever known. Awesome all the way. We need more, much more. Thank you.
Looks better than Natural geograpics camera work 😂
our friend the bat
Looks like Batman has it rough these days.
Jussi Leppänen I mean if he wanted to he could be an excellent mugger.
Jussi Leppänen he already lives in a cave
Your Tours are awesome especialy for me cause i'm from germany and life close to the french border (Alsace/ Lorraine) its really nice to learn about de WW1 and german/french history. Your videos are easy to understand (all of the forgotten weapons and In Range videos) even non-american don't need subtitles. Nice work!
To everyone who got intrestet, if you can visit the citadel of Bitche, its a nice tour and contains history of WW1 and WW2. Its really impressive! Sorry I do not want to advertise :-) its just e recomment to de History intrestet people around that area^^
Please excuse my bad english writing skills.
Greatings from germany
Really enjoy watching the videos on the old bunkers, forts and emplacements!
Please please please do more of these videos. Of course you don’t have to be there but holy crap you know so much about this stuff.
My wife's Great Uncle fought at Montfaucon with Co "L", 313th Inf Reg, 157th Inf Bde, 79th Inf Div. He suffered from severe PTSD until he died in 1977.
It won't be too much longer before that becomes a pile of old concrete. A good thing you did a video for us.
In Paland, next to my granparents place, thay had 2 german bunkers in the park. but they bury them in late 90s. My father told me they where going deep underground and where amazing to play around when he was a kid :)shame I never saw them inside.
It’s a shame the next generation of kids will never know the joys of Toys’r’us either.
That bat was the First jumpscare in a forgotten weapons video
I enjoy your weapon reviews, especially the prototype stuff that never really caught on, but I would love to see more of these "tours".
Ian, I half expected Karl to pop up and say "I'm so-o scared...."at the end of the video.
Had I lived near this thing, all of my childhood would have been spent there.
ha ha, The bat even scared me a little! I love this videos though. I hope you do more.
When you turned off the sound it was very eerie. Reminds me of scuba diving at night on the Japanese Ghost Fleet of Truk (Chuuk) Lagoon.
There should be some artifacts in Calumet Colorado for in 1984 there were some fierce fighting ...
Very cool, makes you wonder about what happened there. Thanks again Ian.
Very cool Ian! Lot of history in that place:) thumbs up 👍🏻
Congrats on the nine hundred thousand subs, Ian! Getting very close to that million mark.
I love the greenery, my bunker has no greenery, & it makes me sad😂
"My camera doesn't do to well in the pitch darkness." Imagine LIVING there!
You really have to wonder. Just how much of a nightmare it has to be to build any form of above ground structure in an environment where if you go above ground you get shot or shelled.
Like these historic video tours! Thanks for sharing them :)
Was expecting commentary of some obscure battle fought there. The reverent silence was equally riveting...
This is the best mordern day horror short movie I have seen in awhile.
2:18 Someone must have bagged one of Ripley’s bad guys here.
To know that places like this will be lost and forgotten and all of their history. "Only if the walls could talk" imagine the stories they would tell.
I was about to say: "beware of the vampires !" when you entered the place. ;)
Awesome! The sound (or lack thereof) problem sounded like it was du to your phone recieving a massage etc. Same sound a guitar amp makes if you leave your phone on it. Keep the phone way clear of the mic and it should not happen again.
Isn't it wonderful that a site of so much violence a century ago is now filled with the sound of nature and birdsong.
"Not Human People" sounds like a possible movie title.
Loving these forgotten history videos!
Having been in the exact bunker, it’s very interesting to see how the Germans set up their fortifications. My guess is that Ian went up the monument just on the otherside of the parking lot there and getting a birdeyes view of the battlefield.
One thing I love about your vids is this... You don't go all... "Gung Ho" ..Sorry I am from Scotland and It was the term by how I kew it. You and your friend on InRange are so damn awesome. I love the actual mechanics of this channel. I love seeing the results in the other. You are not this.. I Don't want to use the term as it is so far reaching and wide shot. I LOVE your channel for the history any seeing your love for that history. Would I shoot a gun featured here? Damn right I would. But you and I are on the different sides of this stupid world. I believe that if you are sane, you can say that that shopping mall is not a target, just the last... If you just like this regardless of where you are from then your channel is a top one with me. I utterly love the vids you did on UK WWII rations. From a guy over the pond who is not in favour of everyone owning a gun, I say this. I love your channel and InRange. Just call me a whiffy Scots dudette that is... Well I do follow you and I know stuff but will never get to try it out due to stupid UK gun laws.
Excellent. A long way from Tucson.
There were war tunnels near us. Sadly it was covered up by the amount of building and infrastructures
3:34 Bats are people too!!
Well bats can fly up the walls or trees
Not to walk on the ground
Do you think, you could get Dugan Ashley to sit down and review a gun with you Larry Vickers style or potentially just do like an interview on his background and what got him into making his videos?
3:30 It's the batcave!
I’ve been watching a lot of these pod casts and I’d like to know how they built all these forts, bunkers, trenches ( all the armies ) without getting shot. What did they do build them all 1st then start the war ? WW1 was strange in this manner at least to me
I wonder if those fortifications were made with captured allied rails, they're so badly decayed its hard to tell, but does look like simple I beams.
Nearly shat myself from that jumpscare
It's cool to see a relatively modern structure turning into a ruin like this. Reminds me of something from The Last of Us.
Very different from the WW2 bunkers we have in the Netherlands.
Did not even know they made bunkers in WW1 at all.
Did they have certain models during that war too?, i know they had different models for different purposes in the second war.
Pretty neat stuff, Ian! Thanks for bringing us along on your many journeys.
Montfaucon was ultimately taken by the famed 1st Infantry Division, (1st Division at the time) AKA the Big Red One.
The 79th Div had already taken Montfaucon on Sep 27th before the 1st Div even joined the fight. The 1st Div relieved the 79th on Oct 4th.
very quiet there, hard to picture it as a battle scene...
Man that bat was pissed
It's so deteriorated that it's hard to tell the function of each room. I'm guessing that the big room with the hole in the ceiling is where a stove pipe might have gone.
I find standing in battlefields a little jarring. I have not had the opportunity to go to Europe yet but I have done a fair number of the East Coast US Civil War battle fields. Something about the peace and quiet while knowing thousands of people died. It's hard to say what one was the most surreal, I think I am going to have to go with The Little Big Horn. It was late March and cold, there wasn't another soul to be seen. I love the battlefield tours BTW.
The Bunker Witch Project! Thank god the camera didn't find Ian facing a corner and then fell off... I would crap an piss my pants at the same time...
Is the area still plagued by undetonated artillery shells? If not, then this seems like a place I'd want to live in.
Just finished reading betrayal at little Gibraltar. Good timing.
People living in here but not human people is why I love this channel
I'll be honest, the bat spooked me.
I'm reading a book about American's assault on Mountfaucon called "With Their Bare Hands". It's a really good read.
*Montfaucon
Did anyone else lose audio between 1:50 and 3:00?
Thanks dude!
It's sobering to see all of this. Thank you.
Great video
There was something quietly sad about that place. Oh and Ian you need to do some cardio🤔
I would like to see the fortifications and earthworks that are in the red zone.
Thank you.
I hope you didn't miss the German OP-bunker in the middle of the church ruin behind the monument. It was built there to fool the French, and later the US troops thinking it was part of the church and it still manages to fool most tourists that it is just that, part of the churche ruin to this day.
Imagine having to build fortifications like this now because your country was raided. That'd be CRAZY.
Have you been to fort warden in port townsend Washington?
Beautiful how nature is reclaiming it
it's good that this place is peaceful now. i hope it stays that way forever.
Which side was facing attack? I'm guessing the side by the road?
A place built in war slowly being reclaimed by nature slightly poetic I think.
3:13 A staircase?
Mountfaucon, a place with a sad past
hello I love your videos but I do not understand English to mark my comment I use the translator google, I see you were in France, do you speak french? in any case I love your video and even if I do not understand English, the rare translated video explains you very well, thank you
Je répondrai également dans google traduction, non, Ian ne parle pas très bien le français, mais il le lit assez bien pour lui permettre de lire des livres écrits en français sur les vieux fusils français. etc.
kirbysbestfan hello thanks m avoire answered ok i asked the question thank you for m answering
If this were damaged by gunfire how would they repair it? Maybe with more cement or possibly just sandbags?
Starting to think you should be wearing a safety helmet while exploring these old bunkers, Ian. We wouldn’t want anything to happen to our favorite gun channel(s) creator.
we had an pine line radar tower installation and military base around here. eventually converted to low cost housing and cement plant but all that went bust with age and is now a pidgeon and swallow nesting ground. fox dens have taken over the coverts along the roads. and natures taking the place over nicely. and of course the wild illusive spotted yellow belly graffiti artist.
If the metal is that rusted, I wouldn't go under a roof of stone blocks.