The LG cloche was a defensive element common to many Maginot Line

Maginot Line

The Maginot Line , named after the French Minister of War André Maginot, was a line of concrete fortifications, tank obstacles, artillery casemates, machine gun posts, and other defences, which France constructed along its borders with Germany and Italy, in light of its experience in World War I,...

 ouvrages. The fixed cupola was deeply embedded into the concrete on top of a combat block, with only the top surface visible. The opening permitted the ejection of grenade

Grenade

A grenade is a small explosive device that is projected a safe distance away by its user. Soldiers called grenadiers specialize in the use of grenades. The term hand grenade refers any grenade designed to be hand thrown. Grenade Launchers are firearms designed to fire explosive projectile grenades...

s from the interior of the cloche, providing a means of close defense against enemy troops on top of the bunker. 75 units were installed in the Maginot Line.

LG refers to Lance-Grenade (grenade launcher

Grenade launcher

A grenade launcher or grenade discharger is a weapon that launches a grenade with more accuracy, higher velocity, and to greater distances than a soldier could throw it by hand....

). Unlike other cloches such as the GFM

GFM cloche

The GFM cloche was one of the most common defensive armaments on the Maginot Line. A cloche was a fixed and non-retractable firing position made of a thick iron casting which shielded its occupant...

 or the JM

JM cloche

The JM cloche is an element of the Maginot Line. It is a non-retractable non-rotating cupola of steel alloy like GFM cloches, but are armed with twin heavy machine guns, as opposed to the lighter automatic rifles associated with the GFM. There are 179 JM cloches on the Maginot Line.JM is an acronym...

, the LG cloche was effectively "blind", possessing a single shuttered orifice 60 millimetres (2.4 in) in diameter in its flat crown. It had no observation ports at all, as it did not project appreciably above the surrounding surface. The LG cloche came in three models: a small version, 1.3 metres (4.3 ft) high, a large 2.1 metres (6.9 ft) version, and a cloche for two persons, 2.2 metres (7.2 ft) tall. All were 1.9 metres (6.2 ft) in diameter. LG cloches were usually found in the vicinity of an entrance block.

The LG cloche was armed with a grenade launcher that could fire at an angle from 45 degrees to vertical in all directions. The original 60mm mortar/launcher was not satisfactory. A 50mm mortar, the same used in the GFM cloche, was used as a replacement, but was not much more successful.