VERDUN - Bois des Caures - Lt. Col. Driant's Command Post

  • by Pierre Grande Guerre
  • •
  • 21 Mar, 2019
  • •

Years of visit: 2006, 2009

Samogneux, 15 km north of Verdun, is our point of departure.
We follow the yellow D 905, northward, to the Command Post of the French legendary Colonel Driant.
At Samogneux we find this post war demarcation stone, reminding the most advanced point, ...
... captured by the Germans on 24 February 1916, during the Battle of Verdun.
Nearby stands this impressing Poilu-statue of a soldier lifting his gas mask, overlooking the battlefield in horror and awe after the fighting.
We continue south and go to the left to enter the D 905.
After 7 km we reach a junction. On the left side of the road stands this Memorial for the legendary Lt. Colonel Driant.
Only some 150 m away from the spot, at the east side of the road D 905, is the location, where Lt. Colonel Driant received a bullet in his head, and died instantly. His last words were:
"Vous savez très bien qu'ils m'ont jamais touché!"
("You know very well, that they never have touched me!")
"THEY HAVE FALLEN SILENTLY UNDER THE SHOCK LIKE A TALL WALL"
"HERE HAS FALLEN THE LT. COLONEL DRIANT"
Lieutenant Colonel Emile Driant
Lieutenant Colonel Emile Driant was quite a remarkable character.
In 1905 he destroyed his career in the army by marrying the daughter of the disputed General Boulanger. Besides that, he also publicly took position against the anti clerical tendencies within the French army.
After leaving the Army in 1905, Driant wrote several books under the alias of "Capitaine Danrit".
In 1910 he was elected to be a member of the Chambre des Députées (House of Deputies).
As the war broke out in August 1914, Driant re-entered the army in August 1914. He commanded two battallions of "Chasseurs à Pied" of the 72th division.

Before the Battle of Verdun broke out, Driant had protested heavily with General Joffre about General Galliéni's recent withdrawal of troops and weapons from this front sector in the Bois des Caures.
On 21 February 1916, at the start of the Battle of Verdun, Driant was 60 years old.
We enter the wood at the west side of the road D 125, to walk to the Command Bunker of Lt. Colonel Driant.
A 1918 Model Machine Gun Bunker along the road D 125 near the monument, south east side of the bunker.
East side of the bunker. 
View of the interior of this bunker. 
Machine gun opening on the north east side, towards the direction of the German lines.
Battle in the Bois des Caures, 21 February 1916
Until the Battle of Verdun this sector of the front line had been relatively "quiet".
At dawn,on 21 February 1916, German 210 mm shells bombarded the trees in the wood, the French positions and artillery guns.
At 16.00 hrs the German infantry troops, with their "pickles" removed from their helmets, "Pickelhaubes", attacked the French 72th and 51st Divisions.

Driant disposed in this wood over a large network of three lines of trenches and bunkers.
Two whole sections of troops were destroyed by the bombardment.
By the end of the bombardment only one fifth of the Chasseurs à Pied (Light Infantry Troops) were left to defend their positions.
During the German infantry attack the French Soldiers defended ferociously every inch of their positions with bayonets and handgrenades. At the end of the day the casualties on the side of the 18th German Army Corps were enormous. They did not succeed to take over the French positions in the wood yet.
But this would take only one day more.
Chasseurs à Pied in the Bois des Caures
These ditches are the relics of the French trench system in the wood.
Two shell holes caused by German field artillery.  The wood is covered with these shell holes.
A relic of a French side board in a trench.
Another waterfilled shell hole.
This communication trench connects directly to Col. Driant's Command Post Bunker.
The "blind" north side of the Command Post bunker,  in the state of 1918.
The southern "open" side of the Command Post Bunker of Lt. Colonel Driant.
The 32 small remembrance columns, positioned in a half circle around the bunker are erected by the families of
the battallions of the Chasseurs à Pied, who were fighting around this spot in the wood, the Bois des Caures, on 21 February 1916.
The two entrances to the Command Post Bunker.
The morning of 22 February 1016
A period photograph of Colonel Driant in front of his Command Post before the battle.
The next morning, on 22 February 1916, Driant planned a counterattack to recover some of his lost territories in the area. German flame throwers had burned many French troops on his right flank.
Only 80 Chasseurs à Pied were left over, and defended this position around their Colonel Driant.
With his gun in his hand Colonel Driant declared: "Vous savez très bien qu'ils m'ont jamais touché!"
"You know very well, that they never have touched me!"

A moment later Driant received a bullet in his head, and died instantly.
The loss of the Caures Wood would launch another three days of fierce combat fighting in the adjacent front sectors.
Of course I entered the bunker for some interior views.
A view of the interior of the bunker.
Another view of the interior of the bunker.
Two last images of the Command Post.
We turn back to our car, parked nearby this Memorial for the brave Lt. Colonel Driant.
We take our car to go 4 km northward through the Bois des Caures, to Flabas, behind the nearby, former German lines, to visit the location of the German Reprisals POW Camp.
 
 Continue to the next chapter: "The German POW Reprisals Camp of Flabas"

AISNE - Chemin des Dames

by Pierre Grande Guerre • 29 Nov, 2019

De Vanceboro Bridge Bomaanslag

by Pierre Grande Guerre • 14 Nov, 2019

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

ALSACE-LORRAINE - The Gap of Charmes - La Trouée de Charmes

by Pierre Grande Guerre • 01 Oct, 2019

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.

LORRAINE - Avricourt - Leintrey - Reillon - Domèvre - Parux

by Pierre Grande Guerre • 18 Sept, 2019
Though we depart from Badonviller in the Northern Vosges , we make a jump northward to the east of Lunéville and Manonviller. We start at Avricourt on the border of Alsace and Lorraine. From the Avricourt Deutscher Soldatenfriedhof we explore the southern Lorraine battlefields ; the mine craters of Leintrey , the Franco- German war cemetery and Côte 303 at Reillon , and some German bunkers near Gondrexon , Montreux , and Parux.

LORRAINE - Montreux - German Front Walk 

by Pierre Grande Guerre • 13 Sept, 2019
We depart from Raon-l’Etape to drive northward via Badonviller to Montreux to visit the  "Circuit du Front Allemand 14-18", the  Montreux German Front Walk 14-18,  with its trenches , breastworks , and at least twenty bunkers.

LORRAINE - The Battle of Morhange - 1914

by Pierre Grande Guerre • 08 Sept, 2019
North-east of Nancy, east of Pont-à-Mousson, and south-east of Metz we visit the battlefields of the Battle of Morhange of 14 until 20 August 1914. We follow mainly topographically the route of the French advance eastward over the Franco-German border of 1871-1918.
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.

LORRAINE - Lanfroicourt – Nomeny - Monument du Grand Couronné 

by Pierre Grande Guerre • 05 Sept, 2019
South of Manhoué we start this trip at Lanfroicourt along the French side of the Franco-German 1871-1918 border, marked by the meandering Seille river. We visit some French bunkers  in Lanfroicourt, near Array-et-Han and in Moivrons. From there we go northward to the outskirts of Nomeny and the hamlet of Brionne to visit the ( second ) memorial, commemorating the events in Nomeny of 20 August 1914. We continue westward to finish at the Monument du Grand Couronné at the Côte de Géneviève, a former French artillery base, which offers several panoramic views over the battlefield.

LORRAINE - Bouxières-sous-Froidmont - Verny - Feste Wagner

by Pierre Grande Guerre • 28 Aug, 2019
North of Pont-à-Mousson and south of Metz, we explore the relics of German bunkers and fortifications along the Franco-German 1871-1918 border. We start at Bouxières-sous-Froidmont to visit the nearby height of the Froidmont on the front line. This time we will show only a part of the Froidmont, focusing on its military significance.  From the Froidmont we continue via Longeville-lès-Cheminot and Sillegny to the “Forêt Domaniale de Sillegny” to explore some artillery ammunition bunkers. Next we continue to Marieulles for its three interesting bunkers and to Vezon for its line of ammunition depot bunkers. From Vezon we continue to the “Deutscher Kriegsgräberstätte Fey – Buch”. From Fey we go eastward, passing 6 bunkers near Coin-lès-Cuvry to finish our trip at the top construction of the “Feste Wagner” or “Fort Verny”, north of Verny.

VOSGES - Mutzig - Fort de Mutzig - Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II

by Pierre Grande Guerre • 25 Aug, 2019

From Badonviller or the Col du Donon we continue north-eastward for a visit to an extraordinarily well restored sample of German fortifications:  the Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II, or Fort de Mutzig,  lying on a height, some 8 km. away from the 1871-1918 Franco-German Border.

VOSGES - Ste. Marie-aux-Mines - Tête du Violu / Bernhardstein

by Pierre Grande Guerre • 23 Aug, 2019
We concentrate on the German side of the front around "Markirch", Sainte Marie-aux-Mines, the so-called "Leber" front sector . We first pay a visit to the Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines Deutscher Soldatenfriedhof, and next to the southern side of the Col de Ste. Marie for the many interesting bunkers of the German positions at the Bernhardstein, at the north-eastern slopes of the Tête du Violu. On the next photo page about the Haut de Faîte we will continue with a visit to the northern side of the pass and the "Leber" sector.
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