The Fort Saint-Julien, renamed ' in German, is a military installation near Metz. It is part of the first fortified belt forts of Metz and had its baptism of fire in late 1944, when the Battle of Metz occurred. == Historical context == The first fortified belt consisted of Metz forts de Saint-Privat (1870) of Queuleu (1867), des Bordes (1870), Saint-Julien (1867), Gambetta, Déroulède, Decaen, Plappeville (1867) and St. Quentin (1867), most of them were unfinished or simply used as is in 1870, when the Franco-Prussian War burst out. During the Annexation following this war, Metz, which oscillated between a German garrison of 15,000 and 20,000 men at the beginning of this period,〔.〕 and which overtook 25,000 men before the First World War,〔.〕 gradually became the first stronghold of the German Reich.〔François Roth, « Metz annexée à l’Empire allemand », dans François-Yves Le Moigne, Histoire de Metz, Toulouse, Privat, , p. 350.〕