ALSACE VOSGES - Tête de Faux - Buchenkopf
- by Pierre Grande Guerre
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- 16 Jul, 2019
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Year of visit: 2004, 2007, 2008, 2009
The mountain, the Tête de Faux or in German the Buchenkopf; a report of 3 visits on 1 page.
Two visits of 2007 and 2009 to the former French positions on the south west side of the Tête de Faux, scene of the terrible losses of the French 215th Infantry Regiment between 21 September and 2 December 1914, up to the summit.
Next on this page other visits in 2008 and 2009 to the perhaps even more impressive relics of the German positions on the east slope of the Buchenkopf. This area around the Etang du Devin and the summit was the centrepoint of violent battles around Christmas 1914 until February 1915.
2007: From our base of operations on the Col du Bonhomme we go this time to the right on the D 148, southward.
... which was a scène of heavy fighting during the period of August and September 1914, ...
... to reach the parking of the ski station of the Col du Calvaire at 1.134 m. Here we find a small remembrance stone:
From this modest memorial we depart for a 2,5 km long walk upward the Tête de Faux (1.220 m).
...on which the front of the Vosges would froze from a mobile war in a trench war from around 21 September 1914.
At the height of 1.121 m. we reach the Military Cemetery, named after Commandant (Major) Henri Duchesne.
The Cimetière Duchesne contains 292 burials and the bodies of 116 soldiers, together in a communal grave, an "Ossuaire".
On his left the 280e Regiment d'Infanterie guarded this sector, and on his right the 256e R.I. near the Lac (Lake) Blanc.
From the end of September the French organised small fortified posts on all the passes in this front sector, on the Col du Bonhomme, the Col de Louchpach, and the Col du Calvaire near the Lac Blanc. From these posts the French regiments organised reconnaissance expeditions, patrols, and raids. On 2 december 1914 Duchesne launched an attack from the south and the south-west to clear the eastern slopes of the Tête de Faux from the Germans.
Three other large units, like the 152nd Infantry Regiment, the famous "Red Devils" 152e R.I., assisted the attack at targets around the summit, like at the village of le Bonhomme.
At 8.00 AM Duchesne was among the first soldiers and officers, who fell during the attack by machine-gun fire. Soon after the start of the attack the French were stopped by the German superiority of their better fortified trenches and their better defense tactics. The French units were forced to retreat to their original positions. At midnight there were only 2 small parties of soldiers left of the whole French 215e R.I.
From 24 February 1915, the Germans would stay, and continue to occupy the eastern slopes and the eastern half of the summit of the Tête de Faux.
A few meters from the summit stands a memorial for the Chasseurs Alpins, who died here on this spot in July 1916.
But even after that period of 1914 - 1915 the area would stay a bone of contention.
The French front line trenches during the period of December 1914- February 1915.
... remind us of the location of the former No Man's Land on the summit.
We pass this last bunker of French origin, half way in No Man's Land. Possibly it functioned as an advanced listening post.
No Man's Land. View at the first German line: "Stützpunkt Buchenkopf".
2008 and 2009 - The German positions on the Buchenkopf
On a foggy day in June 2008 we approached the Tête de Faux, or the Buchenkopf from the north side, departing from the village of le Bonhomme, to visit the relics of the German positions on the east flank of the Buchenkopf. In 2009, on a sunny day with clouds, we continued our explorations further, but again from the same side.
The first location we encounter is a Bavarian made wartime cemetery.
During the post war clearing operations the French left some relics of the former German cemetery.
... mainly Bavarian soldiers, killed nearby during the fights for the summit.
Under this stone in the former cemetery wall, 4 Bavarian "Landwehrmänner", fallen in July 1916, used to "rest here".
The text for Hans Schneider and his comrades is for the most unreadable.
... a Bavarian dressing station built in 1915, and reinforced with concrete in 1916. The front of the bunker, from left to right.
The entrance is in the relic of a trench, on the left side of the bunker.
At the door opening: In the bunker there are some filled in entrances to underground corridors.
In the corner of the second room: again filled in corridors to man made dug-outs under the mountain.
In 1914 and 1915 the Germans used masonry of natural rocks for their constructions.
This 1915 power plant building on the bank of the Etang du Devin was a very important for the Germans. Besides a forge in the left room, it accomodated in the right room a Diesel engine generator, which provided electric current for all shelter bunkers in the Buchenkopf sector.
The right, generator room. (The graffitti is of modern tourist mountain hikers.)
This front sector was supplied by a "telepherique", a cable car connection, from the north-eastern village of Lapoutroie, down in the Béhine valley.
The generator building lies on the bank of the Etang du Devin, the Sorceress' Pond (926 m.). The Germans called the pond the "Hexenweier".
This pond was important for supplying water to the German troops in the whole Buchenkopf sector. Relics of the pumping system along the bank, ...
The relics of the water pump station, west and above the generator building.
About 1 km. southward from the Etang du Devin, at 950 m. altitude another German wartime cemetery.
... there have been severe battles for the area around both cemeteries near the Etang du Devin on the Buchenkopf, so close to each other.
We walk along some left relics. Again: all German soldiers buried here, were transferred to the Hohrod Deutscher Soldatenfriedhof.
Tombstone of a soldier of an "Armierungs Bataillon", a construction battalion.
The French left the cemetery chapel in tact, obviously for shared religious reasons.
Some 50 m. furtheron and below the path of the dressing station, the entrance to an interesting 1916 bunker.
These are relics of the second cable car station, "Rohlbahntunnel Station Koenig Ludwig", from Lapoutroie.
1916 Concrete on the outside, 1915 masonry on the inside of the walls. The mark points out the telephone and electricity cables.
This building served as the second of the cable car stations. The third one is near the Roche du Corbeau and the summit, which we will visit later.
As we come nearer the Roche du Corbeau, we will not find much concrete anymore.
... and more elephant shelters and filled in entrances to dug-out tunnels.
We are now in the neighbourhood of the third "Rohlbahntunnel Station".
Chris in the third "Rohlbahntunnel Station", near and still below the Roche du Corbeau.
We climb on along the bunkers, belonging to the chain of "Feste Eisenschmid".
Of course I had to enter it using my flash light.
View from this point into the direction of No Man's Land, and the French part of the summit.
Of course we explored the "rear side" and the interior of the bunkers and trenches complex.
With this last picture of the summit we complete our virtual tour over the Tête de Faux.
Continue to the front sector of le Linge or the Lingekopf: "Col du Wettstein - Schratzmännele"
Inleiding: Franz Von Papen & Werner Horn; schaker en pion
Onlangs stuitte ik in een oud boek (1) van 1919 op een opmerkelijk verhaal over een Duitse Luitenant, die in begin februari 1915 een half geslaagde bomaanslag pleegt op een spoorbrug over een grensrivier tussen de Verenigde Staten en Canada. Ook al staat de bekentenis van de dader, Werner Horn, deels in het boek te lezen, de naam van zijn opdrachtgever zal Horn blijven verzwijgen. Na wat verder zoeken vond ik ook de naam van Horn’s opdrachtgever, Franz von Papen, een van de aangeklaagden van het latere Neurenberg Proces in 1946.
In een Grote Oorlog als de Eerste Wereldoorlog is Horn’s aanslag op de brug uiteraard slechts een bescheiden wapenfeit. Toch vermoed ik dat dit relatief onbekende verhaal, dat de geschiedenis is ingegaan als de “ Vanceboro International Bridge Bombing ”, nog interessante kanten kent. Het is onder andere een spionageverhaal over hoe in een groter plan een sluwe schaker zijn naïeve pion offert.
Beknopte situatieschets Canada en de Verenigde Staten in 1915
This trip we start at the Léomont near Vitrimont and we will with some exceptions concentrate on the Battle of Lorraine of August-September 1914 in the area, called, the “Trouée de Charmes”, the Gap of Charmes.
After the Léomont battlefield we continue our explorations to Friscati hill and its Nécropole Nationale. Next we pay a visit to the battlefield of la Tombe to go on to the Château de Lunéville. There we cross the Vezouze to move on southward to the Bayon Nécropole Nationale. At Bayon we cross the Moselle to pass Charmes for the panorama over the battlefield from the Haut du Mont. North-west of Charmes we will visit the British Military Cemetery containing 1918 war victims. From Charmes we go northward to the battlefield of the First French Victory of the Great War, the Battle of Rozelieures of 25 August 1914. North of Rozelieures we will visit the village of Gerbéviller. From there we make a jump northward to visit the ruins of Fort de Manonviller to finish with an interesting French Dressing Station bunker, west of Domjevin.
During this visit, we try to focus on the day that the momentum of the battle switched from the French side to the advantage of the Bavarian side: the day of 20 August 1914, when the Bavarians rapidly re-conquered the territory around Morhange , being also the day of the start of their rather successful “Schlacht in Lothringen”.
We will visit beautiful landscapes of the "Parc Naturel Régional de Lorraine", memorials, ossuaries, and cemeteries. Sometimes we will divert to other periods of the Great War, honouring Russian and Romanian soldiers, who died in this sector. We start our route at the border village of Manhoué, and via Frémery, Oron, Chicourt, Morhange, Riche, Conthil, Lidrezing, Dieuze, Vergaville, Bidestroff, Cutting, Bisping we will finish in Nomeny and Mailly-sur-Seille, where the Germans halted their advance on 20 August 1914, and where they constructed from 1915 some interesting bunkers.
