Ouvrage Latiremont, Military fortification in Meurthe-et-Moselle, France

Ouvrage Latiremont is a gros ouvrage of the Maginot Line on the border of Ugny and Baslieux in Meurthe-et-Moselle. It has two shaft entrances and six combat blocks, mostly set in the Bois de Pracourt, linked by more than 1,200 metres of galleries at an average depth of 30 metres. Block 5 and Block 6 each carry three embrasures for 75 mm Model 1932 guns, and Block 4 mounts an 81 mm mortar turret.

Surveyed by CORF in early 1931 and approved in May 1931, Latiremont was built from 1931 to 1935 by the contractor Monod of Paris at a cost of 88 million francs. From September 1939 to June 1940 its guns fired 14,452 rounds of 75 mm and 4,234 of 81 mm. Attacked from 21 June 1940 by the German 161st Division with 21 cm howitzers and 30.5 cm mortars, it surrendered on 27 June. Renovated in the 1950s as part of the môle de Crusnes, it was later abandoned.

The site shows how soldiers lived and worked underground in kitchens, barracks, and medical rooms built into the rock. These spaces still convey the daily life of the garrison during wartime operations.

The whole forest around the ouvrage is classified as military terrain and access is forbidden; the site is abandoned but secured, so it cannot be visited. The structures lie in the Bois de Latiremont on the hill of la Tiremont, whose summit reaches 398 metres. Water ingress has stained the floors and walls of the galleries.

The site is closed: the Bois de Latiremont is classified as military terrain and access is forbidden. The hilltop, at 398 metres, had already been occupied by the French army in the First World War, and its trenches and underground shelters remain visible under the vegetation.