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Origin and history

The Four-à-Chaux is a fortified structure of the Maginot line, located in Lembach, Lower Rhine (Great East). It is a large second-class artillery structure, built in 1931 to defend the border and protect the Alsatian oil wells of Merkwiller-Pechelbronn. It had eight blocks, six of which were fighting, and was equipped with artillery turrets, observation bells and machine guns.

The structure was damaged during the fighting in June 1940 and then used by the Germans for explosive tests, including an ethylene gas that destroyed Block 1. After the war, it was restored (except Block 1, deemed unrecoverable) and reopened to the public in 1983 under the management of the SILE association. Today, he visits with underground galleries, electric factory and barracks.

The name Four-à-Chaux comes from an old limestone extraction facility located nearby, active until 1939. In wartime, the book had the coded name A4. It was part of the Langensoultzbach subsector, integrated into the "main line of resistance" between Lembach and Schmelzbach. His crew consisted of 580 men, with a bimonthly bearing.

The structure has unique technical features in the North-East, such as an upslope underground plane (regional rirety, more common in the Alps), linking the entrance of ammunition — located 24 metres below that of the troops — to the main galleries. Its electrical plant was equipped with four 160 horsepower Sulzer generators, feeding 4.5 km of underground galleries.

After the 1940 Armistice, the Wehrmacht occupied the site and tested explosives there, causing the death of a German officer. The repairs of the 1950s-1960s allowed its preservation. Nearby, the fortress of Hochwald (always military) and the air base 901 Drachenbronn recall the strategic context of the Maginot line in Alsace.

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