The massif of L’Authion separates three valleys from each other in the Alpes-Maritimes department in the southeastern corner of France. Located at a strategic location, the peaks of L’Authion figure in history over the centuries as armies have clashed here high in the mountains.
L’Authion consists of several peaks rising close to each other as two ridges come together separating the watersheds of the Roya, Vésubie and Bévéra rivers. With three peaks poking above the 2,000 meters mark, they are the southernmost summits in the Alps to do so. On each of the three main mountain tops, military structures mostly created during the late 19th century stand, abandoned today.
EARLY CAMPAIGNS
The County of Nice was an important part of the lands ruled by the House of Savoy from 1388 until 1860. Nice lay on the border between Piedmont-Savoy and French Provence. French troops occupied the county twice during the late 17th and early 18th centuries – 1691-1697 (Nine Years’ War) and 1707-1713 (War of the Spanish Succession). The conflicts between the countries extended into the 18th during the War of the Austrian Succession 1744-1748 and later during the Revolutionary Wars. In both, war touched the mountain tops of L’Authion.
In the second conflict, Piemontese set up defensive positions here to block a French army from gaining the Col de Tende from which to invade Piedmont directly from. Developments for war between Revolutionary France and Piedmont centered upon French desires to get at the Austrian province of Lombardy to the east of Piedmont. Prussia and Austria had combined to try and roll back the consequences of France’s Revolution.
King Vittorio Amedeo III of Piedmont did not trust the French. The king was wary of what Austria would do, as well, if he offered free passage to the French army. France declared war in September 1792.
Campaign Beginnings
Savoy – difficult for Piedmont to defend – fell quickly as did the County of Nice. Pushing north up the Roya Valley towards Tende, the French became stopped by the fortress at Saorge. They eventually withdrew from both the Roya and Sospel, keeping only the Col de Brauss. Under the new command of Armand Louis de Gontaut-Biron, the French recaptured Sospel as well as driving the Savoyards out of the Vésubie valley. Biron soon transferred to the Vendée where his seeming lenient conduct towards the Vendéens would lead to a date with the guillotine at the end of 1793.
change of command
The new French commander, Gaspard Jean-Baptisté de Brunet, began the campaign anew at the beginning of June 1793. Brunet pushed his forces in two wings against L’Authion and the Col del Raus, the next pass north. Brunet led the main attack on L’Authion while his subordinate, Jean Mathieu Philibert Sérurier, led the attack on the Raus. The goal was for Sérurier to cut off the line of retreat for the Savoyard defenders facing Brunet.
On the Savoyard side, the commander was Marquis Carl Francesco Thaon di Revel e Sant’Andrea, a general with roots from the County of Nice, a military family and a history of service dating back to 1740. He had between 8 and 12,500 men to defend with atop L’Authion. While Sant’Andrea was in overall command of the defense, atop L’Authion. His force divided into two divisions. The right division of about 5,200 Austo-Piemontese soldiers were under General Giuseppe Antonio Dell’Era. At an age of over 70, Dell’Era commanded the Savoyard right wing concentrating at the Col de Raus. The left division was led by General Pernigotti working out of Briel with a little over 7,000 troops. The French brought between 16 and 18,000 men into the attack.
French Repulsed
From Sospel, the French attacked Agaisen, the Linières and the Mangiabo all taken forcing the Austro-Piemontese back to Ventabren and L’Authion opening the door for a French occupation of Briel on 10 June. Sérurier’s attack at the Col de Raus went nowhere, forcing him to withdraw. In the center, from the starting point of Peira Cava, General Jean-Jacques Dortoman pushed straight ahead towards the Camp d’Argent and Baisse de Tuies before running afoul of the defenses atop L’Authion and Millefourche.
The attacks on Millefourche – L’Authion – and the Col de Raus repeated on 12 June with the same repulses. Frontal attacks against fortified defenses did not work. An appearance of an Anglo-Spanish fleet off Nice caused alarm on the French side. After burying the dead, the French withdrew to see what happened next. One more attempt at both sites in July again met with the same results convincing Brunet, he needed to think about an offensive along the Mediterranean coastline in order to outflank the Austro-Savoyard defenses on L’Authion. French losses counted 2,000 dead. The Piemontese lost 600 casualties – killed and wounded – while the Austrians estimated to losing another 600.
Leave it to Napoleon
A flanking maneuver along the coast would have violated the neutrality of the Republic of Genoa which the Paris government did not want to do. They did want to hold someone responsible for the defeat, however. General Brunet suffered a relief of command in August. Defeat plus noble birth became enough of a cause for Brunet to get the guillotine by the year’s end. Dortoman was also relieved and arrested towards the end of August. He lost his head at the end of February the following year.
The Savoyards spent the rest of the late summer trying to recapture Nice, which they briefly succeeded with near the end of the year since most of the French forces in the area were busy fighting the Siege of Toulon. Napoleon Bonaparte, having become a new brigadier general for his part guiding the artillery at Toulon, had adopted Brunet’s plan. With representatives from the Directory on hand, he convinced the French Army of Italy commander, Pierre Jadart Dumerbion to implement it.
By moving through Genoan territory with part of the army, then turning north towards Piedmont, the rest of the French forces – about 20,000 men – advanced straight at Saorge. André Masséna led the flanking force while Napoleon led the attack on Saorge. Masséna soon brought his force to bear on the Savoyard flank. When Massena captured La Brigue further up the Roya Valley, the Savoyards retreated all the way over the Col de Tende. The campaigns of Napoleon were underway.
1860 NEW BORDERS
Flash forward 65 years and Piedmont and France now allies. In return for a combined attack against the Austrians in the province of Lombardy, the Savoyards were willing to give up both Haute Savoy and the County of Nice. The Austrians were pushed out of much of northern Italy with the Kingdom of Italy proclaimed under the House of Savoy. The whole of the county was not, however, handed over.
The royal hunting reserves of the High Mercantour Alps – on today’s border, remained part of Italy as a favor to King Vittorio Emmanuele II. This meant the villages of Tende and La Brigue remained part of the Savoyard lands though now detached from the County of Nice. It also gave a new strategic role for L’Authion. The highpoint just off the border was just as important to the French in the defense of their new dominions as it had been previously to the Savoyards in keeping the French from invading Piedmont proper.
NEW ENEMIES, NEW FORTS
For the first decade, France and Italy remained friendly. The continued French support for the Papal States did cause disagreements. The disagreements became worse after the fall of Napoleon III following the disastrous Franco-Prussian War of 1870. Italy used the opportunity to finally conquer Rome making most of the Italian peninsula united behind the House of Savoy. Next, France, defeated in Europe, turned her attentions to a growing colonial empire in Africa. Those interests conflicted with Italian hopes in Tunisia. Friendships now long forgotten as Italy drifted into the orbit of the new Germany – and ironically, the Austrians.
SÈRÈ DE RIVIÈRES
Raymond Adolphe Séré de Rivières served as a fortifications expert within the ranks of the French army engineers since 1839. Following the war of 1870, he led a review of French defenses on the Italian border, probably in response to the Italian takeover of Rome. In 1873, Séré de Rivières became the secretary for the Committee of Defense. With a presence on the main stage, he presented a plan to reorganize the defense of the newly realigned French borders following 1870 with her defensive forts on her northeastern frontier with Germany lost in the cession of the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine. Séré de Rivières envisioned a series of strong forts created in a line. The lines would hopefully channel enemies into a place of France’s choosing. Waiting armies could then finish the enemy off.
One year later, Séré de Rivières became the director for the Service du Génie (Military Engineer Service). The Minister of War gave Séré de Rivières a charge to create the construction of the line of forts he planned for. While most of the energies went to creating a series of forts for northeastern France, Séré de Rivières had also seen and served in the mountains along the border with Italy. Included in his plans, old fortresses revitalized with new ones created for the changes ongoing in relations between France and Italy. Séré de Rivières served as the director until replaced in 1880. His program continued, however, until 1885 with additions later on as we will see here on L’Authion.
FORTS OF SÈRÈ DE RIVIÈRES ON L’AUTHION
The main forts built here were La Forca and Milles Fourches. Before construction of the forts, roads needed building and improvement. Mule tracks began laying down in 1877, allowing construction to begin. The two forts went up between 1887 and 1900 – the third fort, Trois Communes began later in 1898. Each fort provided combat accommodation for troops serving inside. Otherwise, soldiers serving on L’Authion had a large barracks area behind La Forca and below Mille Fourches at Cabanes Vielles. There was also an extensive barracks area a few kilometers to the south of the Col de Turini in Peïra Cava.
fort design
Both La Forca and Milles Fourches are copies of each other. These forts belong to the first generation of Séré de Rivières forts. In this, the forts set up a few kilometers from the border to protect the way over the pass. They could provide artillery cover from 6 kilometers behind to the rear. The forts were relatively small with very few openings along the façades. A dry moat sat behind a barricaded perimeter wall. The moat surrounded the walls which featured concrete caponiers on two opposing corners. The caponiers provided defenders the opportunity to defend the entrances and the fronts from ground level. An internal courtyard later became replaced with a vaulted concrete chamber. Trois Communes, built later atop the highest peak of L’Authion, provided more protection to the other two forts.
Almost as soon as the forts were built, artillery technology developed more powerful explosives and projectiles capable of piercing older armor plating and stonework. Moats, parapets and caponiers could easily be shattered. The guns developed no longer created smoke making it harder to see where an enemy was firing from.
La Forca
La Forca sits at 2078 meters elevation. The fort’s barracks ruins sit atop the hill on the north ridge of the massif 300 meters to the north. Other outbuilding ruins lie 50 meters outside the walls slightly to the northeast on the main road leading to the barracks areas. About 250 men manned the fort here. With the development of the Alpine Maginot Line in the 1930s, plans were made to integrate a CORF style shelter with a GFM block into the fort, but those plans were never carried out.
CORF additions to the original forts of the Maginot were completed after the initial construction of the line. They were much simpler in design and strength meaning much cheaper to build. GFM bell cloches were iron structures sticking up from the fort beneath with embrasures that could be used for observation, machine guns or grenade launchers for in close defense.
Most of the action around L’Authion happened to the north around the Col de Raus on the border. Here the first Frenchman to die on the Alpine front fell 14 June 1940 – Jean Rigot. A memory plaque remains near where he fell on Capelet Supérieur. It seemed that I walked past this plaque along GR 52, but without a picture, I think the plaque still must lie somewhere on Capelet Supérieur?
Mille Fourches
Mille Fourches lies just underneath La Forca another 300 meters to the southeast at 2042 meters. This fort was a copy of the fort above at La Forca. Both forts were built above previous Savoyard emplacements. There is a small barracks building outside just below the fort. During the 1945 attack on L’Authion by Free French forces, this fort like the others atop L’Authion were occupied by soldiers of the German 34th Division. Mille Fourches fell on 11 April the same day as Cabanes Vielles, with La Forca falling the next day.
POINTE DES TROIS COMMUNES
The fort at Pointe des Trois Communes sits a bit higher than the other two – 2080 meters. This fort went up last starting in 1898. It was a bit of a prototype fort built above ground with reinforced concrete sides – though only facing toward potential Italian fire were built of the reinforced concrete. The fort was built to be able to cover the other two forts with support fire. It also supported the other Maginot forts at Baisse de Saint Veran and the Col de Raus. Like the sites of the other two forts.The Pointe des Trois Communes did not see much action in the 1940 fighting. In 1945, the actions here culminated in the capture of the massif by the Free French.
A project was initiated to adopt the fort to Maginot standards in late 1939 entailing the levelling of the upper floors and conversion of lower embrasures for machine guns. A GFM bell was also planned but none of the plans saw light. On the southwest side is a concrete structure which was part of the supply cable car network installed on L’Authion. Two cables ran southeast to the Gros Ouvrage at Plan Caval, three lines ran to Col de Raus and six to the Petit Ouvrage at Baisse de Saint Veran.
1945 april
The fort here was the last on L’Authion to fall 12 April 1945. Of the 262 men who fell in these last days of World War II from the 1st Free French Division, they are buried at a mausoleum next to the communal cemetery in L’Escarene, a village halfway back to Nice. 86 bodies were not claimed by families and they lie here. The others are remembered with plaques.
CABANES VIELLES
On the southeast side of L’Authion, you find the ruins of the barracks at Cabanes Vielles -1780 meters. The barracks here originated in the 1890s built from wood. Restoration later occurred Cabanes Vielles with cut stone making them sturdier. A cable car for supplies became added in the 1930s reaching down to Camp d’Argent, the Col de Turini and father lower to the village of Moulinet. More than a thousand men summered up here.
The ruins are off limits due to structural reasons, but an area on the south end has an old Stuart M5A1 tank disabled during the attacks presently emplaced in a concrete plaza surrounded by plaques explaining the events of the recapture of L’Authion. The tank had been pitched off the road originally during the fighting when it became disabled. Later, pulled back up from the slopes below, the tank became encased in concrete in time for the 60th anniversary of the battle – 2005.
operation canard – when is a duck a duck?
The late war push onto L’Authion came from Charles de Gaulle’s desire to bring the Tende-La Brigue areas – the old royal Savoyard hunting grounds – back into the County of Nice and thus, France. Allied powers were not keen on changes in borders, so de Gaulle wanted to force their hands. Operation Canard began 10 April 1945 with the 1st Free French Infantry Division (motorized), 3rd Senegalese Infantry Regiment, Pacific Infantry Battalion and tanks from the 1st Rifle Regiment of the Marines. Germans defending belonged to the 34th Infantry Division and part of the 5th Alpine Division.
Conquest of L’Authion completed on 12 April at the cost of 262 men killed and 644 wounded. Further pursuit liberated Breil on 13 April with Tende and La Brigue on the next day.
Cable Car access
From the parking area near the central monument plaza, Grand Randonnée 52 comes in from the south. Retrace its steps a few hundred meters to the west and you come across a couple of cement cisterns which date to the late 19th – early 20th centuries. This was the main water source for troops atop L’Authion. A more recent cistern and water trough dates to the 1930s. The water source is located on GR 52 here utilizing the old track which linked Camp d’Argent to Cabanes Vielles. From the water source over to Cabanes Vielles, the track gets wider since trucks loaded up with water for the various forts up here.
From the plaza, Gr 52 continues southeast dropping off a road leading to a local dairy. The path on the right – southwest – leads to more barracks ruins and beyond to the upper cable car depot for a 2.8-mile (770-meter drop) cable car built in the late 1920s to supply the installations on L’Authion from the road leading up the Bévéra Valley just beyond Moulinet.
Further west on the massif, on the road up out of the Col de Turini is Camp Argent – Silver Camp. Just above the pass was a munitions depot. Camp d’Argent was a cable transmission center with cables running down to Turini and above to Plan Caval. There were also several prepared battery positions in this area as well as near Cabanes Vielles and the Vacherie de L’Authion – the dairy just below Plan Caval.
PLAN CAVAL
Plan Caval – 1935 meters – became the major new feature Maginot planners added to the defenses of L’Authion. This was to be a large fort, a gros ouvrage (or artillery fort) with six combat blocks. It was a late addition to the Alpine Line beginning in 1938 and still unfinished in 1940. Three of the six blocks were not completed.
Uncompleted were Block 1 (entrance block), Block 2 (this, an artillery block planned for two 75-mm mortars) and Block 3 (another artillery block planned for an 81-mm turret. The turret was still not on site in June 1940. Block 5 featured as an artillery observation block with a GFM bell; Block 6 sported two embrasures for twin machine guns – on to the front and one flanking on the left; Blocks 4 also featured one twin machine gun embrasure to the front, two slots for machine rifles and on iron bell cloche for another twin machine gun.
The fort was to be manned by 11 officers and 287 men, though since it was unfinished on June 1940, there were considerably fewer men here. Plan Caval earlier featured the site of barracks for grenadier troops stationed here manning a battery dating to the 1880-1890s on L’Authion. On the north side of the fort lie three small blockhouses interconnected by concrete trenches seemingly not connected to the main fort.
OTHER MONUMENTS
There are two other monuments of note up here on L’Authion. One remembers the members of the Marines who died here. This monument sits on the road lying below Trois Communes linking Plan Caval to the Baisse de Tueis to the west. The road passes underneath La Forca, between that fort and Mille Fourches.
At the Baisse de Tueis – 1889 meters – stands another monument dating to 1901 to the dead of 1793. Other later plaques have added to the base including one to those Frenchmen who fought here in 1945 from the 1st Free French Division and the Pacific Marine Battalion.
TODAY
Today, is a little ski area with two places to stay at Camp d’Argent. Hiking on GR 52, we spent the night in the Gite d’Estive which was super. It is a great place to walk. Many drive up on the roads leading up from the Col de Turini.
We walked in on Grand Randoneé 52 along the Ortigue Ridge extending north and south from L’Authion. This scenery is spectacular with views deep into neighboring valleys over a thousand meters below. To the north spout the peaks of the Mercantour along the post 1947 Franco-Italian border. Far to the south, glimpses of the Mediterranean come into view. Closer at hand to the south while you are walking on the north ridge of the L’Authion massif near the Baisse de Tueis, the extending Ortigue Ridge continues with a series of peaks poking up inviting further exploration – Giagiabella, Ventabren and Mangiabo. All the while, nature and history coincide.