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.
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!")
("You know very well, that they never have touched me!")
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.
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.
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
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!"
"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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
