I am trying to research the route of the Western Front south from the St Mihiel salient down the Meuse and along the Vosges to the Swiss border in order to travel it. I'm finding it quite hard to get information on this part of the front in sufficient detail. Chris Baker, who gave a talk to the Worcestershire branch of the Western Front Association, recommended I talk to Christina Holstein. I've found her on here, but I'm not able to send a message directly (I lack the permissions on this site, apparently - maybe I'm not a member of long enough standing?) so I'm trying to get a message this way.

So Christina, if you read this, could you contact me at bwofficer@googlemail.com? Hopefully you might be able to tell me where I could find the information I seek (maps, places of interest and an overview of the fighting in the different sectors).

Alternatively, if anyone else knows of any history books or guide books on the fighting in those sectors, could they also contact me?

Regards,

Bruce Officer

Bruce, thanks for raising the profile of this little known part of the Great War.

I would also be interested in any overview of the fighting on this part of the Western Front. My understanding is that the line was relatively static after 1914, apart from in the Vosges Mountains, and was anchored around the fortresses of Toul, Epinal, Belfort and Nancy.

While it was held by the French; in 1918, parts of the line in Lorraine were taken over by the Americans and increasingly so as their numbers increased towards the Armisitice in November 1918.

Martin

I'm not sure what you mean about south of St. Mihiel as the front went outh east from Verdun down the hills to St. Mihiel (with a bulge there across the Meuse) and then up to north of Pont à Mousson. On the height of Xon (which can be visited if you know the way) near the village of Lesmenils it swung more or less directly east and headed to the Vosges via near Chateau Salin.

You can still find a little of it near Chateau Salin on the GR5. It's years since I walked it, but its on my list of places to try and visit again - once I work out exactly where it was!

When are you intending to b in the area. I go down the Pont à Mousson to St. Mihiel area quite frequently guiding, so perhaps we could meet sometime. Mail me off-list if interested.

Hello Bruce,

I'll see what I've got that shows the line clearly. It's not an area that most people visit and if you do go there, make sure you've got a picnic for lunch as it's not easy to find places to eat in the middle of the day!

Christina

Hi Bruce and Martin,

This is a difficult area for English-speakers, as it is scarcely mentioned in English histories of the war. Indeed, it doesn't feature much in French histories either once you've left the Meuse region and St. Mihiel Salient.

As David says, from St. Mihiel the front left the River Meuse and turned northeast towards Pont-à Mousson. I'm afraid that I haven't got a really detailed map of the front beyond Pont-à-Mousson but roughly speaking it crossed the Moselle at Pont-à-Mousson before turning southeast and - again roughly speaking - following the valley of the River Meuthe to St. Dié. There it turned south to Colmar and southeast to the Swiss border. The Vosges is not my area, I'm afraid, but there are plenty of people on the Forum who know it well.

Here's a link to a map of Western Front that shows the eastern sector, although not in detail: http://www.historyonthenet.com/WW1/westernfront.htm

Here is a short overview and small map of the battle of Lorraine in August 1914: http://timelines.com/1914/8/14/battle-of-lorraine

There is a nice description in English of sites between Pont-à-Mousson and St Dié here: http://battlefieldseurope.co.uk/ww1fr.aspx
I've used that one myself to find some out of the way places.

The area between St.Mihiel and Pont-à-Mousson is covered by quite a number of books written from the American standpoint. The Michelin Guide called The Americans in the Gt. War, Vol. 2, The Battle of St. Mihiel, covers it in enough detail for most purposes. I can give you some other suggestions in English or French if you are interested in more.

As to what to read on the area between the Moselle and the Vosges, as I say, I've never found anything in English covering that area but there may be others on the Forum who have. The Michelin Guides are still interesting, although they weren't all translated. If you read French try the following: Nancy et le Grand Couronné and Metz et la bataille de Morhange. There is another guide covering Colmar, Mulhouse and Schlestadt but despite being part of the series of battlefield guides produced after the war, it has almost nothing about the war in it.

The Lorraine front was pretty static after the first weeks of the war. Toul, Epinal and Belfort remained in French hands throughout the conflict as did Nancy, which was not a fortress city. The fighting to the north of Nancy in August 1914 on the semi-circle of hills called the Grand Couronné came within a few miles of the city but the hills remained in French hands and the Germans never came back. The views from up there are really astonishing in their extent.

The Americans did indeed take over part of the Lorraine front in 1917 and 1918. I know of no book dealing solely with their experiences in the area but it is mentioned in the relevant divisional histories.

There are plenty of interesting and forgotten places in the area - the Xon beacon, which has recently been cleared and has stunning views on a clear day, Ste Genevieve, which was smashed during the fighting in 1914 and has been rebuilt, Nomeny, where a large number of civilians were massacred (I think the figure is 72), Vitrimont, with a memorial chapel to almost 10 000 French dead, Lagarde, which was just inside the German border of the time, Baccarat and lots of other places.

I hope this starts you off. If you have other questions, just ask.

Christina

Thanks for that. I'm going to be very busy for a week, so I'll digest what you've said after that. My basic aim is to travel the complete length of the front as close as possible by bicycle. I have a route list from someone else on here, basically a list of towns and villages he passed through when he did the same, but nothing about what happened at these places and what, if anything, to see. I'm trying to flesh that out a bit otherwise the ride from the Swiss border up to St Mihiel will have very few specifically Great War stops! I've made contact with the chap who does walking tours of the Vosges (though I've let that contact slip this last year) but that still leaves the sectors from the north end of the Vosges to the south end of the St Mihiel salient.

I speak halting but passable French and read it a fair bit better, so that's not really a problem.

Bruce

It might be an idea to edit out your e-mail address in posting #1. You never know who could get hold of it.

Roger

Both St. Dié and Lunéville were occupied by the Germans during the early weeks of the war and Baccarat was shelled. There was serious fighting around Gerbéviller. You'll find something about the area that would give you places to visit in a recently republished book called 'Verdun to the Vosges' by Gerald Campbell, correspondent of The Times, who was there in 1914-1915. Naval and military Press had it in their latest catalogue.

Christina