St. MIHIEL SALIENT - Bois le Prêtre / Priesterwald - Fey-en-Haye Destroyed Village - Kühlewein Brunnen - Vilcey-sur-Trey
- by Pierre Grande Guerre
- •
- 18 Apr, 2019
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Year of visit: 2012
East of the destroyed villages of Rémenauville and Regniéville, west of Pont-à-Mousson, and on the opposite west bank of the Moselle river, northeast of Montauville, we visit the south-east corner of the Saint Mihiel Salient, the “Bois le Prêtre” or “Der Priesterwald”, the Priest’s Wood. This wood formed the centre point of many battles and combats from September 1914 until November 1915.
We start with some distant panoramic views of the wood. Next we shall visit to the French Montauville Nécropole Nationale and the Cimetière du Pétant. From there we shall enter the now densely vegetated battlefield of the Bois le Prêtre, visiting memorials and relics of trenches and dug-outs. After the walk into the wood, we drive to the sparse ruins of the Destroyed Village of Fey-en Haye. From there we shall cross the former front line northward into “German territory” to finish our tour at the “Kühlewein Brunnen” source near Vilcey-sur-Trey.
We start with two distant panoramic views, both from the east bank of the Moselle river showing Pont-à-Mousson, Montauville and the Bois le Prêtre. From one of the “crowning heights” around Nancy, the Côte de Ste. Géneviève. During the war, this was the location of a French artillery base. This first panorama shows a north-westward view over the Moselle valley.
We will
visit now only the graves of French soldiers, who did
find at least a grave. Some two thousand
of them, and as many German soldiers,
disappeared or were atomised on the battlefield in the Bois
le Prêtre.
Some five thousand German soldiers out of 7.000, who were killed in the Bois le Prêtre, are buried in the “Deutscher Soldatenfriedhof Thiaucourt-Regniéville”, which lies outside the geographical range of the subject of this photo impression.
In September 1914 the German tried to capture Verdun from the south side. On 22 September 1914, the Germans occupied all ridges dominating the Plain of Woëvre. The city of St. Mihiel would fall only 3 days later, on the 25th. And so the Germans created the Saint Mihiel Salient.
The frontline went from Les Eparges, St. Mihiel, Apremont, to the Bois le Prêtre on the west bank of the Moselle and north of Pont-a-Mousson on the east bank.
The Salient would never be recaptured until 13 September 1918. As you can read in my Photo Impression of the Butte de Montsec, American troops made a big difference during this last Franco-American offensive.
Before the definite capture of the salient in 1918, the French Army tried to retake the salient many times!
We leave the cemetery. Via the D 105 we continue northward and enter the Bois le Prêtre.
At the T-junction we stop at this post-war demarcation stone, which symbolizes the farthermost point of advance of the Germans.
During the period from October 1914 until November 1915 General Joffre ordered General Dubail and his First Army several times to recapture the salient on the troops of the Army Detachment, the “Armee Abteilung” of General der Infanterie von Strantz, which formed the left wing of the German 5th Army.
In February 1915 Dubail is promoted to be the commander of the “Groupe d'Armée de l'Est”. From then on Dubail intensifies his attempts to break through the German lines and to recapture the Woëvre Plain.
The German journalists of the period called these series of French offensives and pincer movement attacks at the salient the “Joffrezänge”, "Joffre's pincers".
It was the task of the German 8. Ersatz Division of Generalleutnant Hermann Kosch to defend this sector of the Saint Mihiel Salient in and around the “Priesterwald”.
We continue eastward to the height of the "Patte d'Oie" (341 m.), Goose Foot.
Some 100 m. before we reach the summit I detect, hidden in the northern verge of the sandy road, a bunker.
After 100 m. we arrive at the "Patte d'Oie", where we find two memorials.
The memorial in the front commemorates the fallen soldiers of the 356e R.I. of Colonel Dehaye, a part of the 145e Brigade d'Infanterie of the 73e D.I.
Left and behind the 356e R.I. memorial stands the "Monument aux Morts" of the 73e D.I.
Some 5 m. behind the memorials you will find large craters and shell holes.
... and we continue westward in the direction of “Le Vieux Fey”.
By car it takes a few minutes to arrive at the Croix de Carmes and its memorial.
“On this line of ridges from January to August 1915 the 73e and 128e Divisions have lost 7,000 dead and 22,000 wounded.
The Germans have experienced equivalent losses.
Passer-by, Respect this sacred soil.”
“From the Croix des Carmes to the edge towards Fey-en-Haye was located the Quart en Réserve, where the battle raged on during several months in 1915 ( 182 offensive or defensive actions ).” |
Opposite the Memorial of the Croix des Carmes we stop.
The memorial stands 5 m. from the location of the original wooden Croix des Carmes.
Général Lebocq observed from his Command Post near the Croix des Carmes this new phenomenon of flamethrowers attacking the 146e B.I. The flames and black smoke of this weapon, previously unknown to the French, caused panic among them and one battalion fled from its position leaving a gap in the French lines for the Germans to break through.
On that day, 4 July, the 8. Ersatz-Division conquered almost all the ground recently secured by the French troops. The battles in the wood would continue.
... others a sketch of the local front situation of 1 October 1915.
Although the 73e D.I. succeeded on 29 October 1915 to conquer the German 1st and 2nd lines and the Croix des Carmes itself, some days later the front would consolidate in the situation of 1 October 1915.
Left and behind the memorial starts a confusing path, which leads you to the first lines east of the Croix des Carmes
On the northern side of the path and the trench we see Friesian Horses with rusty barbed wire.
On
both sides of
the front
line
sappers
were
constantly
active
to
dig tunnels
for mine
warfare.
During
the
period of 1914
and 1915
both sides
exploded
several mines in
the
wood. On
some of
the
maps
shown here
you
will
find
the
locations of these mine
craters.
Some 25 m. to the east my late wife, Chris ( + 08-05-2018), caught me photographing a French observation post.
I decide to leave the "French" path and to continue northward to look for the No Man's land and the German lines.
Distracted by the sight of a fox I become rather disoriented. I only know that we have entered an open spot and that we walk northward.
After not more than 50 m. we see in front of us again two lines of barbed wire behind each other. We are indeed in the narrow No Man's Land.
A few metres north of this concrete top, we find a trench running north-south with two dug-out entrances.
Our interesting walk in the wood took more of our time, than I had originally planned for this day.
This is all that is left of the village of Fey-en-Haye: some memorials of the former churchyard in the Grande Rue, the only street of the hamlet.
Like the neighbouring destroyed villages of Rémenauville and Regniéville, west of Fey-en-Haye, the village was often disputed and later during the war it formed a part of the French lines. (See the French trench map above.)
The presence of the French troops in the ruins of these villages made them a target for continuous artillery bombardment and attacks.
In 1914 the “Grande Rue” formed the only street of the hamlet of Fey-en-Haye, which had almost 150 inhabitants.
On 3 September 1914 the 368e R.I. chased away a group of German Uhlanen cavalrymen and installed itself in the villages of Rémenauville, Regniéville and Fey-en-Haye. But already by 5 September, units of the 8. Ersatz-Division forced the French to withdraw.
During the days of 23 to 25 September 1914 the 73 D.I. recaptured these villages except for Fey-en Haye. On 30 September 1914 the French troops reached the outskirts of the village, where the Germans had set up defensive positions. Because of the German presence, the French artillery destroyed the village.
During the early morning of 1 April 1915 the 169e R.I. finally retook the village. Thereafter, it would be the target of continuous German artillery bombardment. On 7 April 1917 the Germans attacked with poison gas.
Supported by French units the U.S. 90th Infantry Division conquered the Bois le Prêtre front sector on 13 September 1918.
In 1920 the survivors of the hamlet constructed a new village with the same name some 500 m. to the south.
An inscription at the base of the memorial obelisk tells us: …
“IN MEMORY OF OUR ANCESTORS
WHOSE GRAVES HAVE BEEN DISTURBED
DURING THE WAR 1914 – 1918.
A GROUP OF INHABITANTS OF FEY-EN-HAYE”
On 13 September 1918 the U.S. 90th Infantry Division conquered the Bois le Prêtre front sector.
Just before entering the village of Vilcey-sur-Trey we follow a sign to “Ferme de Gaulange” along the small stream of the Trey. Here we arrive at the last silent witness of the German presence, which we will visit today, the concrete source of the “Kühlewein Brunnen”.
German troops of the Brigade Ersatz-Bataillon 80 constructed this concrete fountain in 1915. It did not serve to “cool the wine”, as the name may suggest, but the source has been named after Oberleutnant von Kühlewein of B.E.B. 80, who served here from September 1914 until the spring of 1917.
(Source: Markus Klauer, “Militärgeschichtligen Reiseführer Lothringen und Elsaẞ”.)
At the “Kühlewein Brunnen we finish our first acquaintance with the front sector of the Bois le Prêtre. I do realise, that we have only covered a small part of this wood, and that there must be more relics to be found in other sectors of the wood, for instance in the Bois la Dame. I hope that one day in the future we will be able to continue our explorations in other parts of the Bois le Prêtre.
Suggestion to continue. You could continue with the “Somme Introduction”, the first chapter of my Somme Photo Impressions, explaining the 1916 Battle of the Somme.
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.
