On a quite stretch of the D6 north of the village of Fleigneux just before the fork with the D29 you will find the Saint-Menges Maison Forte or Fortified House.

These fortified houses were built just before the outbreak of hostilities. During peacetime the soldiers lived “upstairs” and when the war came to this part of France they moved into and fought from the bunker below.

Lieutenant Boulanger and his four men of the 10th Antitank Battalion of the 78th Regiment of Artillery were responsible for the defence of this particular fortified house.

Incorrect Then and Now

In his magnificent and highly recommended book PK 666: Die Propagandakompanie Volume 1, Axel Urbanke identifies the period photograph above which has long been misattributed to the Saint-Menges Maison Forte as actually showing Maison Forte MF 13 Moison Friquet, which stood one kilometre behind the Belgian border and two kilometres from the village of La Chapelle on National Road 58. It was demolished in 1978.