Description
Construction began in March 1931. Costs amounted to 16.7 million francs, including 1.7 million francs for the aerial tram.
- Block 1 (entry): one machine gun embrasure. The space around the entry block is very limited. The aerial tram entrance on the upper level was linked to the main ouvrage in 1937 via an avalanche-protected tunnel-like shelter constructed above grade and armored with rocks, using a counterweighted 60 cm rail system at a 50% slope.
- Block 2 (infantry): two machine gun embrasures and one grenade launcher embrasure. This block and Block 3 are effectively counterscarp positions, covering the ditch of the old Séré de Rivières fort, and reached by galleries outside the enclosure of the old fort.
- Block 3 (infantry): two machine gun embrasures and one grenade launcher embrasure.
- Block 4 (observation): one machine gun cloche and one observation cloche.
- Block 5 (artillery): one twin 75mm gun turret, one grenade launcher cloche, two 75mm gun embrasures and one 81mm mortar embrasure.
- Block 6 (artillery): one observation cloche and one grenade launcher embrasure.The position was called the observatoire de l'égout ("observatory of the sewer"), on a lower level, perched on a vertical cliff face. It was added in 1937-38 to provide additional flamking coverage to Saint-Ours.
A proposed gallery to connect the ouvrage to the nearby above-ground peacetime barracks was not pursued.
The Roche-la-Croix supérieure battery 44°27′52.78″N 06°47′59.46″E / 44.4646611°N 6.7998500°E / 44.4646611; 6.7998500, or "Fort Supérieure", was built between 1884 and 1889 to protect the original Fort Roche-la-Croix (or Fort Inférieure). It continued in that role, equipped with two machine guns and an 81mm mortar. The Abri du Ancien Camp as well as the observation posts La Duyère and Les Calanches were associated with Roche-la-Croix. Additional fortifications on the opposite site of the valley form a barrier to an advance through the Ubayette valley. The battery and the original Redoute de Roche-la-Croix are closely associated with the system of fortifications centering on the Fort de Tournoux 3.7 kilometres (2.3 mi) to the west, built in the late 19th century.
Read more about this topic: Ouvrage Roche-la-Croix
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