La Hatrelle Fortified House No. 11

Fortified House No. 11, known as La Hatrelle, is an advanced road defensive post located near the Belgian border in the Ardennes. Designed to monitor access routes, delay potential surprise attacks and alert the main line of resistance, it consists of a blockhouse for an anti-tank gun and light machine gun, topped by a house serving as quarters for its garrison.
Armed with a 37mm gun, light machine guns, grenades and anti-tank mines, the post was held by only six men — a non-commissioned officer, a corporal and four soldiers — belonging to the 15th Company of the 147th RIF.
On 12 May 1940, Sergeant Lhernoux, having received no evacuation order, suddenly found himself face to face with the armoured vehicles of Kampfgruppe Krüger. The position, cleverly set up at the foot of a hill opposite a bridge that had just been destroyed, proved formidable. The first two German armoured vehicles were destroyed within minutes. Barbed wire, anti-tank mines and the terrain prevented any flanking manoeuvre. For three hours, a handful of men armed with an old 1916 gun halted an enemy armoured column, until a withdrawal order was finally delivered by a horseman from the 12th GRCA.
Today, the fortified house lies in ruins.