VERDUN - Loison - The German "Camp Marguerre"
duda-wsm • 21 March 2019
Year of visit: 2006
"Behind the German Lines", hidden in "le Bois d'Hingry", near Loison, at the dead-end side road of the D 14, a visit to the relics of the former German concrete factory, "Camp Marguerre".
In the hamlet of Loison we follow this sign.
Along the dead end road into the Bois d'Hingry we find in the wood many German made traces, like these water basins, ...
... and concrete ruins of an encampment.
In these concrete bungalows there are shafts.
These photos are only some samples of the many German constructions in this wood.
Behind the lines, and covered by the wood, ...
... the encampment has served ...
... as a halting place for the German troops to and from the front.
At the end of the dead-end road we arrive at the concrete factory of Hauptmann Marguerre, which the French call:
Camp Marguerre
.
About Camp Marguerre
The area around Spincourt with its large forests was an ideal zone to hide troops and supplies. From early August 1914 the Germans occupied this area, and exploited this region to the full at the cost of the inhabitants. German troops also did set up quite an industry in this area, which is not far from the frontline. Butcheries, bakeries, canning factories, sawmills and even a modest artillery factory, like the one in Duzey, were built up to supply the troops along the front with beams and planks for trenches, food, ammunition, etc.
The engineer, Hauptmann Marguerre, created in this wood a comfortable encampement for his "Pioniere", working in his " Beton Fabrik
", or " Befa
", or "Concrete Factory".
The Befa experimented and tested with different kinds of concrete to improve the quality of their "Blockhäuser" (bunkers). The factory also produced the concrete for the base of the 380 mm artillery gun at nearby Duzey
.
We explored this spot, starting at marker 5, then on to marker 6, 3, and 2. I saved the most impressive spot for the last, marker 4 and marker 1, the decorated bungalow of Hauptmann Marguerre himself.
We start at marker 5, the relics of the concrete factory.
We start at marker 5, the relics of the concrete factory.
The ruines of the quarters for the concrete workers.
The site may now look like the ruines of a "Kriegs Ferien Park", a "War Holiday Resort", ...
... but the purpose of this factory was deadly serious.
A concrete guard post along the main path.
At marker 3, the spot called "Kasino" bunkers meant for leisure of the officers and soldiers.
The interior of the bunker.
The exterior of the eastern bunker.
At marker 2 we find two other bunkers, the east and middle one...
... and the northern bunker.
We continue to some well decorated bungalows.
At Marker 4 we discover these bungalows for officers.
Interior: on the walls we detect meticulously handpainted ornaments.
And of course the German slogan: "Grüss Gott".
The front of the quarters of Hauptmann Marguerre, and his officers at Marker 1.
There is an inscription on the architrave:
| " ERBAUT VON DER BEFA
UNTER LEITUNG DER HPTMN. H. MARGUERRE
".
|
The windows are meticulously carved out ..
The window at the right side.
Inside we detect on the walls some marvellous hand painted ornaments, ...
... like these romantic roses, ....
... silent witnesses of a rather comfortable life, ...
... considering the circumstances along the front.
With a last view...
... at Hauptmann Marguerre's comfortable bungalows, ...
....we leave for the next front trip and the next chapter. Go to:
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.
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.
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