major prisoner of war camp housing British and allied soldiers and sailors. It was also used in this context as a penal camp, housing repeated escapers and recalcitrant prisoners. In 1815 during Napoleon's Hundred Days, Brigadier-General Creutzer was the commandant. Bitche was besieged by General Zollern's Fourth Infantry Division of the Austrian IV Corps, but Creutzer refused to surrender until the general armistice. Although Bitche was hotly contested by the Germans after the Battle of Wörth during the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, it held out until the war's end. A large part of the fortification is built into the red sandstone rock, and was rendered bomb-proof; a supply of water was secured to the garrison by a deep well in the interior. Commander of the fortress of Bitche was Louis-Casimir Teyssier. After the war, it was given to the German Empire as part of Alsace-Lorraine. It was given back to France in 1918. The town is near the Maginot Line, into which the citadel was integrated. Alsace-Lorraine returned to Germany after the French Campaign in the summer of 1940 and remained under German occupation. The training ground at Bitche was utilized by the German Army to form new divisions, for example the 65th Infantry Division formed at Bitche in July 1942. Bitche was liberated in December 1944 by Allied troops but was relinquished in the withdrawal forced by the German counteroffensive. In March 1945 the U.S. 100th Infantry Division broke through the Maginot Line in the Bitche area and liberated the town for good. The attack was a part of Operation Undertone. After 1945, Bitche became one of the busiest military camps where all parts of the French army manoeuvered. Infantry and cavalry also went to Bitche for experimenting with new weapons during the Cold War. Special training took place against potential bacteriological attacks from the "EAST" side. Until 1997, military service was compulsory in France. Millions of young soldiers had a few days of training in Bitche. On March 19, 2021, the official page of Bitche on Facebook was removed without explanation. After the incident was reported by media, Facebook restored the page and apologized to the town. Population International relations Bitche has been twinned with Lebach, Saarland, Germany since 1979. The town of Bitche was mentioned in BBC comedy panel game QI, in episode 9 of season 3 (or series "C", as the show refers to the series