Ouvrage Welschhof, Military fortification in Gros-Réderching, France

Ouvrage Welschhof is an underground military fortification in Gros-Réderching with three combat blocks connected by galleries containing machine gun positions and observation equipment. The installation houses ammunition storage, command centers, kitchens, medical facilities, and power generators situated approximately 30 meters below ground level.

Approved by CORF in February 1934 and finished in 1938, Welschhof was a "New Fronts" petit ouvrage, one of the last built in the Rohrbach sector. On 21 June 1940 the Wehrmacht's 262nd Infantry Division attacked but was stopped by 75 mm fire from Simserhof. Two German 150 mm guns then fired 111 rounds at Block 1, breaching its façade; Captain Lhuisset surrendered at 10:00 on 24 June.

The ouvrage takes its name from the Welschhof farm behind which its planned second-phase entrance was to stand. Its garrison in 1939 was 158 men and three officers of the 166th Fortress Infantry Regiment, commanded by Captain Lhuisset. Block 1 carries the only mixed-arms embrasure built under casemate anywhere on the Maginot Line, alongside an AM cloche and two GFM-B cloches.

The ouvrage is abandoned and its galleries are not maintained for visitors; entry into the underground passages is unsafe. The three combat blocks stand in the open near the Welschhof farm, between the Haut-Poirier and Simserhof positions. Approach on foot from the surrounding fields and view the rusted block façades from outside.

Block 1 holds the only casemate-mounted mixed-arms weapon on the entire Maginot Line, alongside a JM/AC 47 embrasure and a machine-gun embrasure. Its surface carries one AM cloche and two GFM Type B cloches. The planned 81 mm mortar turret and separate rear entrance block were never built.