Western Front Virtual Tour — Stop 41: Fort de la Pompelle

East of Reims on highway N44 is Fort de la Pompelle, built between 1880 and 1883 as part of Reims's defenses based on the designs of General Séré de Rivière after the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871). Captured briefly in 1914, it was retaken and protected Reims throughout the war, especially during the German advances of 1918. In its newly restored and remarkable museum are uniforms, equipment, weapons, pieces of artillery, horse-drawn carriages, scale models, dummies, documents, and the world's largest collection of German pickelhaube helmets.