VOSGES - Ban de Sapt - La Fontenelle
- by Pierre Grande Guerre
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- 16 Aug, 2019
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Year of visit: 2009
At the foot of the here invisible Spitzemberg, we start at a demarcation stone near Le Beulay.
From Frapelle - Le Beulay, we follow the D 45 northward, via La Petite-Fosse, to visit the area of the Col d' Hermanpaire.
This French 1918 Trench Map offers some idea of the networks of trenches around the Col d' Hermanpaire and Ban de Sapt. (Red lines for French trenches and blue lines for German positions.)
Here, on both sides of the Col d' Hermanpaire, the Bavarian 39th Reserve Divison controlled this road over the pass, from Frapelles / Beulay to the valley of the Hure river and the valley of the Fave river, with trenches and bunkers.
The Col d' Hermanpaire was the territory of the Bavarian 39th Reserve Division. Their opponents were the French 210th Infantry Regiment (210e R.I).
We follow a path north-west, along traces of trenches and shellholes.
We pass the relics of the fortified ruines of a farm. Barbed wire poles with a pig tail shape of the period.
View from this spot south-west at the nearby Spitzemberg (841 m.) On 20 September 1914 at the end of the Battle of the Spitzemberg (17-25 September 1914) the French Red Devils of the 152e R.I. conquered the Spitzemberg. So, a view from the German front line to the French lines at the summit of the mountain.
(Dutch readers: In mijn boek "De Rode Duivels in de Vogezen - 1914-1915" vertel ik in detail over deze veldslag om de Spitzemberg.)
We go back to the Col itself to explore the south side of the road, D 45.
From the junction at the pass, along a dead end road southward, we detect this bunker guarding the road upward the Spitzemberg.
We follow a difficult path north, to find this Bavarian machine gun bunker, ...
... with it's top blown off, fallen down at the other side of the path, some 5 m. away.
This Memorial for the Dead, a "Victorious France", stands in front of the Mairie, the Community Hall of the 7 hamlets of Ban de Sapt. The Germans occupied Launois until 24 July 1915. The front line used to run through the west edge of the village.
From Launois we continue to Côte 627, Height 627, centrepoint of the battlefield of Ban de Sapt in 1914 and 1915. View from the hamlet of La Fontenelle at Height 627.
The French occupation of Height 627
On 10 September 1914 the Germans vacate St. Dié. The 30th Bavarian Reserve Division withdraws to the mountain passes along the French-German border. At 14 September the French 133rd Infantry Regiment (133e R.I.), a unit of the 41st Division occupies the village of La Fontenelle, at the foot of Côte 627 (Height 627). On the same day the 1st Bavarian Ersatz Brigade starts to install itself on Côte 627.
The next day, on the 15th, the French 23rd Infantry Regiment (23e R.I.), and the 133rd start to attack Côte 627. On 16 September these regiments, auxiliated by the 97e R.I. and by Chasseurs d'Afrique, conquer Côte 627 on the Bavarian 30th Reserve Division.
After follow up attacks during the next days on Fraiteux and Germanfaing, the offensive stops at 22 September. At 30 September 1914 Commandant (Major) Barberot of the 1st Battalion of the 133me R.I. and Capitaine Cassoly immediately start to design and construct extensive defensive positions of trenches and bunkers on Height 627.
Alternating turns the 23e R.I. and the 133e R.I. will together guard Côte 627.
At the east foot of the height lies the Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment 11 (B.R.I.R. 11). The regiment forms together with the B.R.I.R. 14 the 10th Bavarian Reserve Brigade under command of Generalleutnant Müller. The 10th Bavarian Reserve Brigade and the 5th Bavarian "Ersatz Brigade" form together the 30th Reserve Division.
December 1914 - May 1915
In December 1914 the Bavarians started heavy artillery bombardments on the French positions.
On 27 January 1915 the 133e R.I. launches an attack at the edge of the Bois de Laitre. The attack is a complete failure. The 133e R.I. even loses it's chief, Lt. Colonel Dayet.
In April and May 1915 the Bavarians attack the Height several times with preceding mine explosions, even capturing a part of the French 1st line.
Mine Warfare around Côte 627
From 8 December the Germans start tunnelling. Hearing underground sounds the French start tunnelling also. These activities lead to a constant underground battle for the saps and tunnels. In February 1915 an extensive mine war breaks out, with tunnelling, underground fights, mining and countermining, and with sometimes even several explosions on the same day. This mine war will go on until June 1915.
22 June 1915: German attack and occupation of Côte 627
On 22 June 1915 the 23me R.I., on it's turn, is defending the height.
At 13.55 hrs, the Bavarians explode three mines at the same time. Exactly at 14.00 hrs. the artillery of the 30th Bavarian Reserve Division bombards the village of La Fontenelle and Côte 627. After the bombardment, at 17.30 hrs. the B.R.I.R. 11, assisted at the left flank by the B.R.I.R. 14, launches an infantry attack, using flame throwers, on the ruined French defensive positions on Côte 627. Around 21.00 hrs. the battalions of B.R.I.R. 11 reach all their targets.
Although General Claret de la Touche sends auxiliary troops, the 43e R.I.T., the 37e R.I.C., and the 357e R.I., this assistance, a counter attack lead by Lt. Colonel Sohier, is of no avail. The number of casualties of the French is huge. 23e R.I. for instance lost two thirds of his officers. B.R.I.R. 11 stays and starts to occupy and fortify Côte 627.
This French Army map sketches the German defensive positions.
This map, to be found on Côte 627, shows the attacks of 133e R.I. of 8 July 1915. The orange line symbolises the jump off line. The black lines and x-es represent the German lines. The red arrows stand for the routes of the French attacks. The blue line pictures the new frontline of 9 July 1915 and the area, which 133e R.I. conquered on B.R.I.R. 11. The front line crosses twice the D 49 and runs for a part parallel to it. |
16 July - Unsuccessful German Counterattacks
In the night of 17 July, at 2.30 hrs., the Bavarians, having lost more than 100 men and 4 officers, are forced to call off the operation. The French casualties count that day 29 men.
24 July - The French Final Offensive
On 24 July Lt. Colonel Sohier commands an attack on the German positions in and around the village of Launois. The Germans had fortified three neighbouring houses at the west side of the village into a stronghold.
After a preceding artillery bombardment, which starts at 16.00 hrs., units of the 23e R.I. 133e R.I. , 43e R.I.T. , and of bikers of the Chasseurs Cycliste attack the village at 18.30 hrs. The Bavarians defend the village stubbornly with machine guns. At the end of the day the French manage to conquer the village.
The French take 836 Bavarians prisoner, belonging to the Bavarian Jäger Bataillon 8, Brigade Ersatz Bataillon 3, and B.R.I.R. 14. The French count 522 casualties, among them 106 soldiers killed and 3 officers.
August 1915: Stabilisation of the Front Line
In spite of several German counter attacks in the last week of July 1915, the Ban de Sapt frontline would freeze almost in the situation of 25 July. When the fights were definitely petered out in August 1915, the frontline stabilised until November 1918. The troops on both sides concerned this front sector as a quite sector; the French controlling the D 49, the Germans occupying the north-east. The large battles may be over, but, "to keep the troops sharp", from times to times there were still night patrols, combats, and artillery bombardments going on.
2.240 French soldiers lost their lives at Ban de Sapt.
We arrive at Côte 627. At a spot some 50 m. east and in front of the cemetery, ...
... stands this modest memorial to commemorate 2 officers of the 133e R.I., fallen on this spot on different days.
"E.P. Dayet (citation), colonel of the 133rd Infantry.
Superior officer of high military value and morale. Corps Chief full of self-denial and dedication. Was killed on 27 January 1915 at some few metres from a German trench offering the most beautiful example of courage and contempt of danger."
Again:
Another memorial stone at the foot of the Crucifix tells the fate of Capitaine Burelle:
"The situation has not changed. Organisation of the conquered position. The artillery bombardment of the enemy continues all daylong and a part of the night. Captain Burelle killed - Second Lieutenant Girel wounded. 9 Soldiers killed - 16 wounded." |
The entrance to the Nécropole Nationale de Ban de Sapt - "La Fontenelle"
... representing all units, which were active in this front sector from 1914-1918.
The cemetery also contains a mass grave, containing the human remains of 422 unknown soldiers.
This corporal of the 6th Group of Chasseurs Cycliste with a common name in the Netherlands, seems to have had Dutch roots.
But I checked the last file of Guillaume (Willem) de Vries; his official death certificate. The corporal was born on 23 July 1891 in Paris, and thereby he was a genuine "Son of France".
The sculptor, Antoine Sartorio (1885-1988), who fought as a soldier of the 363e R.I. in the Vosges, designed this memorial.
A sculpture representing "France", looking at the southwest, and at the rear side the sculpture of a French soldier. At the other two sides: empty images of phantoms.
Old comrades in arms left some commemorative panels at the foot of "France".
At the edge of the cemetery and around it, you still can find traces of trenches.
From this former trench you will get this panorama north-westward.
The village of Menil de Senones, right at the horizon. The road in the valley is the D 49.
The mountain at the horizon, right, is the Côte d'Ortomont (894 m.)
We leave Côte 627 via the D 49 along this post-war demarcation stone, in front of the Bois de Laitre:
We make a jump south-westward, to the village of St. Jean d' Ormont, for a visit to the graves of Lt. Col. Dayet and Capt. Burelle.
Behind the church lies a "Carré Militaire", a military plot, with a mass grave under this Crucifix.
In the base of the crucifix we can read, that this military cemetery has been:
... and Lt. Col. Baudrand, the successor of Dayet, as commander of the 133e. R.I.
The mass grave also contains the human remains of an unknown American soldier (right).
Opposite the wall, next to the mass grave, lies the grave of Lt. Colonel Dayet, overlooking the graves of 107 other soldiers.
We leave the battlefield of Ban de Sapt with a last view from the area around Laitre at Côte 627.
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.
