On the front of the Mosa, on September 8, 1914, the fort of Troyon-sur-Meuse, sixteen kilometers south of Verdun, was sieged.
September of 1914 On the front of the Mosa, on September 8, 1914, the fort of Troyon-sur-Meuse, sixteen kilometers south of Verdun, was sieged. For five days, the Germans subjected him to intense artillery shelling. The German emissaries invited the fort to surrender on two occasions, "in the name of the Kaiser." When defenders answered "never," the Germans fired 236 shells in half an hour; in total they fired ten thousand shells. Twenty-two men were crushed to death when a missile blew up the roof of the narrow underground corridor through which they were trying to reach the main defenders. The French officer in command, Commander Toussaint, and a single infantry detachment, consisting of 472 men, along with a dozen pieces of artillery and two machine guns, endured for five days, but in the end they were crushed. The French High Command decided to retire completely from Verdun, but the local commander, General Sarrail, disregarded the order and remained in front ...