ARGONNE - Mort Homme - Côte 304
- by Pierre Grande Guerre
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- 16 May, 2019
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Year of visit: 2005
Argonne, northeast of Verdun, along the D 38, we visit two hills close to each other: the Mort Homme and the Côte 304. Together these hills on the west bank of the river Meuse formed from 6 March 1916 the centre point of the 1916 Battle of Verdun on the west bank.
As part of the “Operation Maiköpfchen”, the Germans attacked on 6 March 1916 two hills on the left bank of the Meuse River, northwest of Verdun; the Mort Homme, or the Dead Man, and Hill 304, baptised after its altimeters. A complete battle for these hills is created within the Battle of Verdun, which initially lasts until 15 March, but which flares up again in early April.
With great difficulty, the French managed to drive the Germans back to the northwestern slope of the Mort Homme in early April. It is on this occasion that on 10 April General Pétain encourages his troops in a handwritten order with the words: “Courage. On les aura!" Or "Keep courage! We will get them!”
By the end of April the French repossessed the summit of Mort Homme.During the month of April, the number of French troops grew from originally 150,000 men in February to 520,000 men at the end of April. Despite the advantage of the Noria the defending troops have great difficulty maintaining their positions against the numerous German attacks along the entire front of Verdun.
But the Germans started digging three long and wide tunnels in April for the supply of soldiers, who help them take the hills again at the end of May. In the north the Ortlieb tunnel, in the middle the Kaiser tunnel and in the south, the closest to the front line, the Verbindungs or Bataillon tunnel. O.a. via the three tunnels, the Germans attacked again on 22 May the Morthomme and Hill 304. On May 30 1916 they captured the hills.
From the Mort Homme we continue via the D 38 westward to the Côte 304, Hill 304.
On the third of May German artillery guns launched a bombardment for 36 hours on Côte 304. On 6 May the German infantry went “over the top”. It took the Germans still 3 days to capture the summit of Côte 304.They did not manage to occupy the very summit until 29 June 1917. On 24 August the French retook the hill.
Some rusted objects of the period.
We find a private memorial for a fallen Zouave-officer, Second Lieutenant George Fabre of the 3rd Mixed Regiment of Zouaves Riflemen, awarded with the Légion of Honour and the Croix de Guerre, fallen near this spot on 18 May 1916.
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.
