ALSACE VOSGES - Col du Bonhomme - Col de Mandray
- by Pierre Grande Guerre
- •
- 24 Jul, 2019
- •
Year of visit: 2004, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2014
The Col du Bonhomme used to be a border checkpoint of the 1871-1918 Franco-German frontier. This old border stone has been moved from the Col itself to some 100 m. more southward along the D 148.
The text is not more readable. It used to be:
This hotel at the Col du Bonhomme forms always our base of operations to explore the battlefields. According to Martial, our host and cook, there used to be a French wartime cemetery on the premisses of his hotel.
The Col's junction offers a good departure point for our explorations.
The Col also offers this Memorial for the French, 69-years old General Bataille, commander of the 41st Infantry Division since 3 September 1914, and 6 of his officers, who died on the Col du Bonhomme on 8 September 1914 by the impact of a German artillery grenade.
From the 41st Infantry Division's War Journal d.d. 08-09-1914:
"At 11.40 hrs. just returned to the Col du Bonhomme, where the artillery bombardment redoubles it's intensity, General Bataille makes his observations from the houses at the Col, when a 19 cm projectile explodes just in front of him, and it also hits mortally Captain Couillaud."
25 August 1914 - The 30e Battalion Chasseurs
Alpins occupies the Col du Bonhomme
On 25 August 1914 the 30e Battalion Chasseurs Alpins occupied the Col and the area around it.
General Bataille's headquarters used to be in and around this foresters house.
Around the house: some collapsed entrances to former French dug-outs.
At the beginning of the Great War General Joffre launched Plan XVII, a kind of pre-emptive strike to recapture the lost Alsace Lorraine sector. Joffre ordered an "Offensive à l' Outrance!", an "Offensive to the Utmost".
They were opposed by the Bavarian 6th Army of Crownprinz Rupprecht von Bayern, and the 7th Army of General von Heeringen.
From the Col du Bonhomme we make a trip northward via the D 148 to the Col du Pré des Raves and the Col des Bagenelles. From the Col des Bagenelles we will later jump westward, via a numberless road, into the Forêt Domaniale de la Croix aux Mines. First: a short route from the Col du Bonhomme northward via the Col du Pré des Raves to the Col des Bagenelles.
... the by dense vegetation hidden Roche du Coq de Bruyère (Rock of the Rooster of Bruyère).
Of course I entered the tunnel, armed with my hat for protection and my flashlight.
After 15 m. at the right is a small and low side room, with a rifle hole directed to the east.
Some 15 m. furtheron , again a lower room on the right side. It might have served an observation opening eastward, or a as "caponnière", a hole to throw hand grenades down the steep slope.
The tunnel ends some 15 m. further on; the entrance to the left corridor down is filled in.
From the same spot a view northward over the former German lines in the Valley of the Lièpvre river, in the direction of Ste. Marie-aux-Mines (in German times "Markirch").
From the Col des Bagenelles a teleview up- and eastward to the Roche du Coq de Bruyère.
The Col des Bagenelles offers this panorama view northward over the valley of the Lièpvre river, in the direction of Ste. Marie-aux-Mines.
We return to the Col du Pré des Raves and from there we continue westward. We make some stops near the Col du Pré, at the Col de la Séboue, the Col des Journaux, and the Col de Mandray.
Hundred m. after passing the Col de Pré des Raves, we find on the verge of the right, or northern side of the narrow road, a battlefield grave.
The battlefield grave of a Chasseur Alpin Lt. Y. Burlé of the 7e B.C.A., fallen on 13 August 1914 in the wood some 100 m. west of the Col du Pré des Raves. The grave is positioned just in between two 100 years old trees, which clarifies the strange angle of this photo.
This ditch is one of the few relics of a French trench along this side road.
At the Col des Journaux near Fraize the Franco American Association raised this monument ...
... and the 400,000 French and Allied soldiers, who died during the Great War in the Vosges.
Left column of this bronze plaque:
"Dedicated to 7 Indo Chinese Regiments - to 3 Divisions of Polish Volunteers, who fought under French Colours - to the 5th American Infantry Division -to the 868 Regiments or Battalions, who took part in the battles from 1914 to 1918 in the Vosges."
Centre column of the plaque:
"Memorial erected to honour 400.000 French and Allied soldiers, who died for France on the Vosgian soil, high region of combats of war 1914-1918."
Right column of this plaque:
"Heraldic shield of the city of Fraize with it's "Croix de Guerre" - dedicated to the Battalions of the French Chasseurs Alpins (mountain troops) - to the English pilots under the Royal Flying Corps - to the 30 African Regiments - to the 2 Divisions of Czechian Volunteers, who fought under the colours of France.
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.
