YZER FRONT 3 - Diksmuide - Trench of Death
duda-wsm • 11 March 2019
Year of visit: 2005
Diksmuide, 23 km north of Ypres, a small road along the river Yser, national symbol for the endurance and resistance of the Belgian Army, during a period of 4 years of war: the Trench of Death.
The Belgian Army started digging this trench in 1915.
The purpose of this trench was the capture of a heavy defenced German machine gun post, ...
... defending the German petrol tanks, on the left bank of the Yzer river.
Digging the trench had to be done without any protection and under violent enemy fire.
The Germans did the same on their side.
A few meters away from each other both parties were compelled to stop.
The entire Belgian army, each unit by turns,fought in this most advanced post of the Belgian defence.
A period of fifty months of artillery shells, mortar shells, grenades, gunfire, and hand-to-hand combats until 28 September, 1918.
During these months both armies fortified their positions with concrete bunkers.
As told before yet in my chapter about Nieuport - Ramskapelle, Belgian engineers caused in 1916 an inundation,
between themselves and the Germans in order to stop the incessant attacks.
Two sentry posts were also installed in the trenches.
The units in the Trench of Death were serving each during three days.
After having been relieved, they went to rest for another three days, behind the frontline, to return again for the next tour.
In 1917, a big concrete shelter was set up by Belgian troops called, the "Mouse-trap".
The Germans now and again infiltrated into these Belgian trenches, causing fierce hand-to-hand combats.
The "Mouse-trap" proved to be of great support preventing these infiltrations.
On three sides of its concrete peek-holes had been made, where from attacks could be spotted in time.
Even nowadays it still looks quite impressive, how the Belgian Army resisted the German troops for 4 years on such a narrow piece of land, amidst flooded meadows.
Continue
with this chapter to : " YZER part 4 - Leke Vladslo Houthulst
".
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.
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.
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.