LORRAINE - Montreux - German Front Walk
- by Pierre Grande Guerre
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- 13 Sept, 2019
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Year of visit: 2010, 2011
Our point of departure is in the town centre of Raon-l'Etape, where in front of the Town Hall stands this sculpture group of Gaston Broquet.
... to the village centre of Montreux, where we park our car near the village church.
... to the point of departure of the Montreux German Front Walk, ...
Panorama view from this bunker south-westward into the direction of the French lines at the horizon around Neuvillers-lès-Badonviller. Left the D 20, right; the Grand Bois.
On both sides of the D 20 were German lines, with bunkers on the hill tops left and right, guarding the D 20 for an eventual French breakthrough.
View from the departure point towards our first goals: the Bois des Boulottes and the Côte de Montreux.
Before we continue finding trenches and bunkers, I will explain in the frame below the wartime background of this location, and I try to sketch for you an impression of the wartime daily life here.
The Montreux Font Sector - The situation of 1915
The 19th Ersatz Division covered the right flank of the "Donon"-Brigade (later called the 84. Landwehr Brigade) and it covered the left flank of the Bavarian 1. Landwehr Division.
The French opponent: the 141e Brigade d'Infanterie
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The units of the French 141e Brigade d'Infanterie, a component of the 71e Division d'Infanterie, opposed the units of the 19th Ersatz Division. The 5th and 6th battalions and two machine-gun sections each of the 349e R.I., of the 358e R.I. and the 370e R.I. formed together the 141e Brigade. The 71e D.I. was active in the area from Badonviller and the Col de Chapelotte until Domèvre in the north, covering the right flank of the 74e D.I., positioned at the Reillon area, Lorraine. |
The Germans installed an artillery base "of all calibres" in the Bois du Chêne Fourchu, "Forked Oak Wood", west of Parux and east of Montreux.
"11 May 1915. Between le Bergerie and le Hameau d' Ancerviller (nearby, north and west of Montreux (P.G.G.)) one of our patrols came in contact with a strong enemy reconnaissance unit, which marched to le Bergerie and halted there. One of other patrols wounded in the Grand Bois (immediately west of Montreux) a Feldwebel of the 40th Ersatz (Regiment) and took him prisoner.”
(The bold links in the texts refer to locations of the previous Photo Impression about Avricourt - Leintrey - Reillon - Domèvre - Montreux - Parux.)
“20 June 1915. One of our patrols of the 221e (R.I.) made prisoner a man of the 40th Ersatz in the Grand Bois. Calm day.
21 June. One of our patrols killed in an ambush in the Grand Bois two Germans, belonging to a group, which came from the bunker at Height 332. (Near and south-west of Montreux; we will later visit this bunker at the end of this page). Contra battery fire of our artillery.”
“4 October 1915. (…) The enemy fired on our first lines. Our artillery returned fire on the batteries of the enemy (near Parux), the trenches of Montreux, Angomont, Val-et-Chatillon.
5 October 1915. The enemy shows an enormous activity during the execution of their works (fortifying barbed wire, trenches, possibly constructing dug-outs). His artillery fires on the Bois Banal and the region north of Badonviller. Fire of our batteries at the station of Blâmont and on the Côte (Height of) de Montreux (335 m. at the Bois des Boulottes). Casualties: 2 killed. 1 Officer, Lt. de Billy, mortally wounded.”
“28 October 1915. A lot of noise during the night in the German lines in the area of Domèvre, Halloville, Montreux. Medium activity of the two artilleries. Casualties: 1 wounded.”
February - March 1916
In February and March 1916 the fights in this front sector intensified, as the records of the 71e D.I. tell us. The "calm days" were temporarily over.
In February 1916 the Oberste Heeres Leitung ordered the German units in the Vosges to execute a series of operations as diversionary actions of the Battle of Verdun to prevent that the French would send troops as auxiliaries from the Vosges to Verdun. These operations continued in this front sector around Montreux until 23 March 1916.
But the fights petered out from 23 March 1916 to the “normal” situation and daily routine of alternating "calm days" of working on trenches with days of patrols, reconnaissance parties, and days of mutual reprisal bombardments.
A view eastward from the edge of the Bois des Boulottes in the direction of the D 20 in the valley.
During our "bunker hunting" walks we often see a lot of wildlife. By exception this fox offered me enough time to photograph this beautiful example of the Vosges wildlife.
... detecting some elephant shields, ...
On the edge of the Bois des Boulottes, just some 75 meters below Height 335, we find this shelter bunker.
A few meters more southward are standing 2 bunkers next to each other. Left a machine gun bunker, right an observation post.
The field of fire of this machine gun bunker, guarding the valley and the road. The Donon, the highest peak, left. La Chapelotte and le Chamois are at the horizon right.
The field of sight of this observation post, directed slightly more north-eastward.
We continue our walk along the edge of the wood to find another damaged concrete shelter.
Some 20 metres southward. An interesting bunker with two purposes; offering shelter and a machine-gun post.
Bobby is peeking through the fire hole of the machine-gun bunker, which is directed south-eastward.
Then we find another rare construction along the Western Front; concrete breastworks with an open room beneath it, ...
Another breastwork. The field of fire is directed at the road and Neuviller.
... with a view at Neuviller-lès-Badonviller. The village formed a small French salient opposite Montreux.
We pass Neuviller to continue east of the village to a western corner of the Bois du Fays, just next to the west side of the D 20.
The trenches and bunkers we will find here, were part of the first German line.
Some loose relics we find in this wood; Corrugated iron and a "Pioniere" spade.
Also here we find concrete breastworks, which are directed southward, ...
On the edge of the wood and the road stands an interesting machine-gun bunker with two openings.
One fire window (left) faces southward, the other directs eastward to the road.
The interior was flooded with 1 foot of water. The other, northern exit.
From here we cross the D 20 and continue northward in the Bois du Fays to a location, called Croix Loher.
... the Croix Loher, a French memorial, commemorating the killing of an officer, J. Loher, on this spot during the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-1871.
We follow a trench northward, running parallel to the road, some 100 m. away from here.
This trench leads us to Height 332.
We will find the bunker here, which is mentioned in the 71e D.I.'s war journal.
Reminder quote: "21 June 1915. One of our patrols killed in an ambush in the Grand Bois two Germans, belonging to a group, which came from the bunker at Height 332."
It is a twin bunker. Unfortunately we can not read anymore the name of the unit, which constructed it. The bunker's name is "Feste Elberfeld".
Considering its size, and the better construction with windows than all the other buildings, we have seen during this walk, I presume this bunker probably may have served as the local command post here, or at least as an "Offiziersunterstand".
At the northern edge we leave the Bois du Fays, while Bobby is offering you a few panorama views westward ...
... to the Grand Bois (left), the Height of Montreux, and the Bois des Boulottes.
Again this panorama in two overlapping steps in more detail. Left and south-westward.
Back at the Montreux village church we change our shoes and we enter, tired but satisfied, our car.
Continue to the next Lorraine chapter, "The Battle of Morhange - August 1914"
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.
