FORT DE LONCIN - HISTORY'S TURNING POINT 

I have to say it, thank you for bringing this amazing historical experience to us it is absolutely incredible to think about what it would have been for the soldiers who fought and died at this location.

I absolutely love the old machines! Beautiful craftsmanship back in the day! If a place was haunted I would definitely put my money here.... tragic

This is truly exceptional, there is so little recorded in the overall histories of the 1st World War. Much is written about the trenches as they accounted for such massive casualties on all side but not to mention these battles as if they never happened and there was no resistance to the German advance until they met the BEF! Thank you so much for filling in these Forgotten historical events that all but the locals are unaware of. As with all your work you are impartial in reporting what happened rather than what the historians immediately after the war documented.

fantastic team of people looking after the fort.

The heroes are still there in the old fort is so Amazing they still are being watched over by Volunteers.

stunning video Tino - i think this tops most of WWI Fort videos - there is a lot of information to take in i'm no expert on WWI weapons but the cannons and field guns used were completely insane, so huge, the mind boggles at the power and effectiveness of these weapons - that almost begs for a video on these things alone (hint hint) certainly, Fort De Loncin gives some amazing lessons, 1. like so many the design was way ahead of its time, the man hours these must have taken to build, the materials and quantities used, the vast castings on the structures and how they were moved into position, the engineering is mammoth 2. again the guns and size used, and effectiveness, the shock waves (warrants a video of its own) 3. the power and destruction shown here is beyond words, just what kind of forces are needed to shift such bulky materials, no wonder so many souls were lost, and those returning from war so badly shaken, we are so far detached from these events that must never be repeated hats off to the volunteers on their clean up operation and partial restoration, it makes everything that much easier to understand that power generator is absolutely stunning, what a work of state of the art but then i wonder how close we may be to war again today, i don't think we will see anything like we do here with WWI & WWII - its all going to be tanks, air and done remotely from ship

Amazing restoration done there.Another great video and im learning alot of history and military history on your channel.Thanks so much for helping to keep these history alive.cliff USA.

What a amazing place and amazing men .

Absolutely mind blowing! Thank you for sharing this. Thank you to all of those fallen hero's. The world is eternally grateful.

Heh Tino, I just wanted to say thank you for talking so much about the role the Belgian army played in WW2. I am English, although my surname is very clearly Belgian. I know very little of my heritage and watch your documentary films with great pride to to how important the Belgian army was. All I know is my family was from near Ghent and my grandfather saw his 2 sisters shot by the Germans as part of the massacres.

Incredible…speechless

OMG..this one brought tears to my eyes...Thank you Tino.

Amazing! I live less than 200 km away and used to work in Maastricht for 6 years, but haven't been there, because i didn't know the history! I was at Fort Eben Emael of course, as everyone knows about that. This will be corrected in the spring or summer!

Amazing work Tino, thanks 👍🤠, we should never forget the true hero's of war that gave there life's for are freedom, for all soldiers on all sides good or bad. R.I.P.

Glad to see this report of the fort I visited twice many years ago. I only have photos from these visits.... It was very special to visit the fort my great-grandfather served during the war.....🇧🇪 I love the passion when you tell all this amazing stories.... I visited all the forts around Liege, Eben-Emael, Huy and some Antwerp Forts.... Too bad most of the forts around Namur are not exploited.....

That intro sir. Touching. Great edits. On point Tino. Keep up the good work brotha

Awsome, thanks Tino.

Another great video Tino. The determination the Belgium had to fight till practically the last bullet is rarely told and is very heroic. Thanks for showing and telling how it really was.

Outstanding and appropriate review, great work.

Thank you so much for these videos. You do these in a manner that I've never seen in any documentary way. So much history as well as the human and strategic story presented in a real person way. As someone who was totally bored through most of school I wish more people got information presented to them the way you do.

The fort being destroyed mid barrel change really brings home the human tragedy of the destruction of the fort. Too often even after savage fighting these forts seem to lack traces of the men who fought and died there. Here you have a moment of the gun crew's interaction with the fortress frozen in time when the magazine blew.

We are ready herr Struckmann.

EXCELLENT ducumentary. What you are doing Tino by presenting this type of historical monuments, in this case Fort de Loncin, It is paying tribute to all the soldiers who gallandtry gave their lives for their country. Thanks very much.

It’s a bit difficult to comprehend everything that was going on at this time of WW1. Thank you Tony for bringing this to us and sharing it!

Thanks again Tino for bringing this story to us. Sad so very sad

Brilliant once again thank you very much appreciated

Thanks man. Love your work as always

I have recently returned from a trip to visit WWI and WW2 fortifications. Day one was a visit to Fort Loncin. I had had flight delays from JFK to Brussels, and I was a bit jet-lagged. GPS was a bit off, and it took some doing to find the fort. It is an a residential area, now. I was the only visitor and first toured the museum. Then, I walked down the ramp to the postern and into the dry moat. With all of the photos, videos and books, I still had to see it myself to understand the violence that had destroyed the massif and had left the deep crater, leaving the huge, broken turret bases and the overturned weapons. I walked the dry moat around to the counterscarp battery. Again, drawings and photos don't make it clear how terrifying it would have been for German sappers to slide down into the ditch, entangled with barbed wire, and face the awful fire from the batteries, only to face a climb up to the roof of the fort. I also visited Fort Lantin, to see what Fort Loncin had looked like before its destruction.

Absolute best to do it on RU-vid!!!! Should easily be a favorited History Channel/Cable channel show (if they still had great shows like this airing) keep up the great work Tino!

I've visited this fort (and others) 15 years ago. I feld the same enthusiasm from these people who takes care of the monuments. It's nice to see that the "go for it" spirit is still there.

That was amazing. Thank you for your dedication to the history of conflict.

Thank you Sir for posting this video, history is an impertive for understanding the now.....

Fantastic video! I have just visit the fort and it was a great experience. You have seen much more than I did but your documentary is really a good summary. Great job!! Really appreciated.

The only example of that engine in existence and it runs!

Wow This is such a great piece of history THANK YOU !!!!

Brilliant as usual 👏

Tino, nice vid again....😁👌 This was the second fort what I ever visited and where I was very impressed of.... ....when I was there in the 90's, it was not possible to go inside....thank you to take me with you by this video....🤗

An excellent video. Nice to see another historian give the respect due to those who gave the ultimate sacrifice by not going into those holes and tunnels when so many others would just to get a picture. Keep up the great job

awesome segment..

Wow, just wow- bravo to these guys for the restoration. :)

That is wild how the pressure inside that fort from the explosion destroyed those domes and just tossed them up in the air as if it were nothing at all. I can't imagine how horrible it would have been to be in the place of one of those men. Mind boggling the forces involved in doing this much damage. Great video. Thanks for doing this. Stay well. -Wil 👍

Thank you so much for this. If my grandfather's we're watching they would be blow away. Great cinematography, rather lovley voice over over too...great video. Thank you . 😊 Charlotte. X

Thank you for your visite and for wonderfull movies. Excuse me for my english, its very poor ! Jean BERX Vice Président of fort de Loncin.

Thank you Tino. Great work and detail as always. So nice seeing those men restoring the old steam machines and taking care of the remains. I wonder if the fort could of survived if it was reinforced with rebar? I wonder who first used rebar in a fort? Greetings from Moscow

Venting exhaust steam through the smokebox to force the fires exhaust smoke out the smokestack creates an artificial draft through the firebox. Thus drawing air in from below the firebox, through the grates assisting in the combustion of the fuel, and generating greater heat in the firebox. That heat causes the water in the boiler to boil, then running the live steam (saturated with water) through a steam dome, causes the excess moisture to condense, and fall back into the boiler. The now superheated (dry) steam can be compressed to increase its power to drive pistons. The exhaust steam vented after the piston stroke is then fed up into the smokebox to continue the process. This is a brief simplified explanation of contemporary (to the fort in question) steam engine operation.

Just over 600 likes. That should be much higher

Requaescat-ins-pace, vous Soldats-honeurables. -- Kind and Respectful Regards, -- Uyraell, Wellington, New Zealand.

A touching video

It seems that locally families must have list an entire generation, and this must have had such an incredible impact economically and also emotionally. How do we not know this? How is it not taught in schools?

Tino thankyou

Tino I would love to hear about the action around the individual bunker's and the men that mand them thanks goodness

To think of the forces involved to throw the 100s of tons of cannon around... chilling.

Well done!

Theres a utube site called inky that has alot of great info on the magino line with even an interveiw of a survivor

The most horrible thing about war is not that people die for political or sometimes resources, is the people who are dying but for the wishes and dreams of a country's leaders dreams/desires/wants would be friends helping each other do thing, socializing with each other and generally not wishing harm to the other. I think the biggest demonstration of this is when during the Christmas truce of WWI the troops on both sides started caroling together and meeting in no man's land for some season festivities. I don't know if I ever knew the German response but the allied response was horribly negative about such demonstrations. I look at the wars and the massive killings of WWII of all the talent that was stolen from the world. be like

Wow!!!

absolutly awesome and P.S watching these makes me utter you lucky bugger more then i care admit lol

14.50 minute it can be seen in the room with the dome that the concrete did not have any iron reinforcement that is why it cracked from the grenade blows

Question: Is that damaged barrel just sitting in the floor? Very weird...Did the museum people place it there?

Makes me wonder if it was a luck shot, or, the coordinates to the powder storage was known by the Germans.

Thanks for another great fort video, do they know if it was one of Krupp's or Skoda's siege pieces that fired the fatal shot? I know the Germans were having big problems reducing the Belgian fortresses and had to borrow some Schlanke Emmas off the Austrians to help out as they hadn't produced quite enough Dicke Berthas to sort the problem even if the forts weren't reinforced.

Again an interesting documentation, thank you, Tino! But it's so hard to listen to those friendly old men with their extreme accent!

Let me get this straight, if you have a large tank of water and place a sealed heavy weight on top, the water pressure beneath this weight would be great enough to power a mini-hydroelectric machine?

I can't believe that Something so heavy can be tossed around so easily b something that is essentially an expanding gas bubble. Makes You respect Any Ordinance, whether it's demilitarized, left behind and buried for decades in the ground and oxidized, or has the safety engaged.

Have you been fort De Lantin, Fort D'Emborg and Fort Tacremont? Also in Belgium?

parts of the story behind the fort seem like the German army had respect for the soldiers defending Their fort and country.

What are the square boxes with the front cut out of them that are sitting on top of a large pipe that's coming up out of the floor, together mounted to the back wall in some of the small rooms? Are they ventilation, a speaking tube, a waste pipe, or what? I though first waste because the first one I seen was in the kitchen and it made me think that it may have been a waste pipe to the cesspit under the fort. I'm thinking now this has to do with ventilation and is where the fresh air came into each individual room. That brings up another question I have. Do these old forts have a cesspit under them for sewage or how does that work? I'm not sure how else it would have worked back then.

What's the piano intro song?

At 1:22?! But what had happened to the Flemish soldier, was he a spy and had he been hanged by the fortress?

ALL THEM TAKEING TURNS TURNING CRANKING. SWEATING THER 1111111.HELL IS RAINING DOWN ON THEM ......AND THE BIG BANGS..ETC... MY GOD .....IT WAS HELL.......

buried boiler

EAR DRUMS 🥁 🥁.

So sad !

Don't understand a word he's saying.

That must have been some Explosion to do so much damage , there isn't one area it hasn't affected ..I could watch that Machine all day..great vid Tino.