240 replies to this topic

[Siege Gunner]

You will have to buy Chester a headlamp camera, Egbert.  With all that jagged metalwork and barbed wire about, it's a wonder he didn't cut his paws or get entangled.  I think a medal may be in order  –  perhaps the Doggibix Kreuz with added Eisen ...

Thanks again for sharing your fascinating photo-safari.

[egbert]

Thanx Mick


French summit blockhouse. Who carried all the T-iron to the Buchenkopf peak?

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[egbert]

Devastated; as the lines were too close for artillery destruction this could have been the work of trench mine-throwers?

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[Dragon]

If you ascend la Tête des Faux from Col du Calvaire, you can clearly see the mule track used for the conveying of some materials. (It's as you begin to climb again after the Cimitière Duchesne.)  I'll see whether I have pictures.

Great pictures, Egbert.

Gwyn

[egbert]

Gwyn, this is my plan B after Reichackerkopf to climb the Buchenkopf from Col du Calvaire. Please add your pictures!

[egbert]

...

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[Dragon]

I'm hoping to do a Gaschney-Reichackerkopf walk again in September. I'll look out for messenger dogs wearing GWF badges.  

Gwyn

[egbert]

This is the last French line directly at the rim of Buchenkopf summit. The rocks are undermined, but nevertheless pretty much destroyed

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[egbert]

....

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[egbert]

The strategic value of the peak is obvious in the next 2 pictures. They are stiched together from several single ones. Although reduced from 3mB to 100kB you may imagine why this mountain was subject to fierce combat

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[egbert]

stunning views into the French hinterland

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[Dragon]

As you asked... Just a quick one. This is the mule track I mentioned. As you can see, it's begun raining. The path is gentle here, but begins to ascend and it's possible to see trenches and debris on either side.

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(Compressed for the forum.)

Gwyn

[Gunner Bailey]

Great thread Egbert.

I've only made one visit to the area but came away with similar photos to yourself. Vast amounts of barbed wire, many concrete bunkers, lots of ironwork around, stone lined trenches and lots of steep hill climbs. On one battlefield the slopes were nearly 1 in 3 and I can't imagine how the German Army fought their way up these slopes. Many of these battlefields are closed to any form of access from November to April because of snow.  

It is a much neglected area by British visitors and probably others too. Well worth a visit.

John

[Siege Gunner]

This is the mule track I mentioned.

If the mules are still available, I might get up there one day.   Those metal beams (are some of them lengths of railway line?) look too long to have gone up on the back of a mule.  Was there another means of uphill transport?

[Neil Mackenzie]

Nice photos Egbert.

I was there a few weeks ago myself. It is a stunning place that is definately worth a visit. I cannot imagine how the were able to move around in the winter and/or in the dark up and down those slopes.

Neil

[Dragon]

Many of these battlefields are closed to any form of access from November to April because of snow.  

It is a much neglected area by British visitors and probably others too. Well worth a visit.

I posted a few pictures of winter in this thread. My local newspaper used the second one of Hohrod Military Cemetery for its Remembrance picture last year. (I'm not sure they realised it's a German cemetery.) Le Linge was totally deserted - the barrier was open so the rare visitors could just wander in. I emphasise that we don't take risks.

I agree with your second comment; it's very rare that we see a GB-plated car. Definitely most rewarding to visit.

Those metal beams (are some of them lengths of railway line?) look too long to have gone up on the back of a mule. Was there another means of uphill transport?

Undoubtedly barges.     

The mule convoys carried supplies of food and munitions to the chasseurs alpins up numerous granite-paved pathways. I can remember seeing tangled remains of what looked like rail-tracks alongside this path, but I don't know exactly what they were. Maybe some sort of monorail? There was a funicular railway on the other ascent, as shown in the early photos of the 'station'. Egbert's archive image seems to show a hoist system which is in addition to the railway.  I'll read up.

Gwyn

[towisuk]

Well done Egbert, Gwyn, I only wish you two could do a lecture on this particular patch of the front, with these superb photo's and your knowledge it would be one "not to miss"
many thanks for sharing..
regards
Tom

[Siege Gunner]

I can remember seeing tangled remains of what looked like rail-tracks alongside this path, but I don't know exactly what they were. Maybe some sort of monorail?

Some kind of railway, probably powered by a winding engine, seems likely, but I was actually thinking of lengths of railway line used as reinforcing bars, as, for example, in the roof structure of the Vampir Dugout.

[Gunner Bailey]

I posted a few pictures of winter in this thread. My local newspaper used the second one of Hohrod Military Cemetery for its Remembrance picture last year. (I'm not sure they realised it's a German cemetery.) Le Linge was totally deserted - the barrier was open so the rare visitors could just wander in. I emphasise that we don't take risks.

I agree with your second comment; it's very rare that we see a GB-plated car. Definitely most rewarding to visit.


Gwyn

Lovely photos Gwyn. The one with the moon especially so. Where I went to at le Veil Armand (Hartmannswillerkopf), the altitude is 956 metres (nearly 3000 feet) and the road up there is closed for most of the winter.

John

[Dragon]

Yes - as evidenced by the lower photo. These were taken exactly a year apart. The first is Lac Blanc, well known to the French troops and visible looking down from the path up la Tête des Faux from le Col du Calvaire, photographed in December 2006. The second is up towards the front line near Breitenbach and Metzeral in December 2007. This was the point at which the road stopped!



and



(This isn't an edited image. It's a record shot, that's all. It was getting dark, it was extremely cold and I didn't have a tripod handy.)

And this wasn't a bad winter. I've been snowed in before now (2004 I think) and been in Strasbourg with wind temperatures of minus 27 celsius, to the point that you think your skin is about to peel off and drift to the floor like an discarded pair of surgical gloves and be blown across Europe. I can only be awed by the grit, tenacity and courage of the troops who existed in the mountains in all weather conditions.

The Germans did at least have a few comforts in the form of heating, water and power supplies in some of their fortifications. The chasseurs alpins had nothing like that.

Gwyn

[egbert]

This is a picture from the French summit lines towards the end of the mule path Gwyn mentioned.

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[egbert]

Returning through 30 meters No-Mans-Land back to the German lines and fortress, I realized the huge amount of barbed wire and chevaux-de-frise. I wonder how useful, effective it was in wintertime with ice and 2 meters snow. I do not think that combat died totally.

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[egbert]

.....

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[egbert]

So when my descent started I thought what effort it might have been to carry the dead and wounded down to the first aid station. In this map I recaptured my total walk and at the end of the red line is the German hospital bunker. It must have cost superhuman efforts to bring the wounded down.

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[egbert]

I would say the descent with a stretcher takes more than 2 hours, through narrow communication trenches even more. At the very end of the walk, or should I say start, is the hospital bunker

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