Henri-Alexis Brialmont

Henri-Alexis Brialmont (born May 25, 1821, Venlo, Neth.—died June 21, 1903, Brussels, Belg.) was a Belgian soldier who was the leading fortifications engineer of the late 19th century.

Educated at the Brussels military school, Brialmont entered the Belgian army in 1843 and rose to the rank of major general (1874) and the post of inspector general of fortifications (1875). Brialmont’s innovations developed out of his plans to fortify Antwerp and other Belgian cities against modern long-range artillery. He adopted a system that made use of a perimeter of detached forts situated at an average distance of 4 miles (6 km) from a city, as with the 12 forts that he constructed at Liège. Each fort was built of concrete with some steel reinforcement, and its big guns were mounted in disappearing cupolas and steel turrets in order to protect them from enemy artillery fire. Some of the forts were pentagonal, others triangular, with much of the construction underground. Brialmont designed the ring fortresses around Antwerp, Liège, and Namur in this fashion.

In constructing defenses along their frontier facing Germany, French engineers emulated Brialmont, with particularly strong clusters of fortresses at Verdun and Belfort. In the opening days of World War I, Brialmont’s Belgian forts crumbled within a few days under the pounding of heavy German guns, but the French forts at Verdun, which were of more recent and sturdier construction, later absorbed tremendous punishment and became focal points for some of the war’s bloodiest fighting.