Vauban, nearly a century later, realised the strategic worth of Metz and conceived a vast project which the engineer Cormontaigne, in the 18th century, was to realise. At all events Vauban was able to construct a "horned redoubt" and to add eleven new bastions to those which already guarded the citadel, but it was Cormontaigne who carried out the plan of the inundation of the valley of the Seille, by using the vast waters of the pool of Lindre.
Metz became one of the most formidable fortresses of Europe. Under Louis-Philippe the fortifications were entirely remade and in 1866 preparations were in hand to reconstruct them on a new plan in accordance with the requirements of the then existing military armament. Of the four separate forts of Saint-Quentin, Plappeville, Queuleu and Saint-Julien, only the first two were completed in 1870.
Metz.—The Fort of Saint-Quentin.
View taken from the Esplanade.
(Cliché Prillot.)
The Germans considerably strengthened the wall of circumvallation by the addition of 19 bastions surrounded with moats, and themselves protected with 13 advance works. The extent of the zone of forts reached 30 kilometres and 11 new forts were added.
METZ DURING THE WAR
Before the War the Germans had drawn up their famous "black lists" in which were recorded numbers of manufacturers, political men, journalists, priests and members of Lorraine societies. The inhabitants of Metz were not spared in these lists; many were arrested on the suspicion of exercising "a provocative action and a pernicious influence over the population". Among them were M. Prevel, M. Winsback, secretary of the "Souvenir alsacien-lorrain", league which was dissolved in 1913; M. Gangloff, whose two sons and his brother-in-law, as French officers, laid down their lives for France. Some were able to escape, as occasion offered, and get back to France, like Paul Piquelle, editor-in-chief of the Messin, and the canon Collin, director of the Lorrain.