Fans of the seventh art, and more particularly of the adventures of the British agent 007, certainly know Albert Broccoli (1909-1996), nicknamed “Cubby”. The latter was the first film producer, along with Harry Saltzman, to give birth to the James Bond films. He produced and supervised the films until 1989 for “License to Kill”, and passed the torch to his daughter, Barbara Broccoli, for “Goldeneye”. But do they know that Cubby Broccoli discovered, on May 27, 1977, the Maginot Line at Veckring? A lightning visit, unexpectedly and incognito, that Le Républicain Lorrain had not missed at the time.
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This Friday, May 27, 1977, a small plane landed at 11 am at Yutz aerodrome. On board, Albert “Cubby” Broccoli. He was greeted by representatives of the Thionville Tourist Office. A Range-Rover with driver awaits him to take him to a famous restaurant in Thionville, Le Crève-Coeur. At 2 pm, the one who returns from the Cannes Film Festival where he presented “The Spy Who Loved Me”, a new 007 with Roger Moore, puts on his raincoat to “avoid a hot and cold” and takes the road to Hackenberg. The little train of the work is ready to leave, with the mayor of Veckring. The journey into the bowels of the fort lasts about ten minutes, 90 meters underground. Then the producer and the team undertake the ascent of a staircase which leads them towards the light of day. “How could they live in there? “Asks the most American of English producers. “It’s a real obstacle course to get out of here,” he admits, after dropping his jacket and taking a twenty-minute walk in the forest. Then, at 5 p.m., the producer initiated a strategic withdrawal towards Yutz aerodrome.
History does not say if the Hackenberg gave him the idea of a filming of a future James Bond …
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