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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

My climb up to Buchenkopf (The Tete de Faux)


egbert

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Thanks Egbert and of course Chester, great photos. The debris in post #45 look like bits of old Batteries, could the metal in post # 55 be some kind of snipers breast plate ? just a guess, it could also be part of a pot. :P

Peter

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Peter, the rod is I believe plastic so I do not believe they used plastic in WW1. No clue. The plate I thought first is a sniper plate, but has no hole for firing.

Around the summit fortress are lots of walled trenches in very good shape. If you like you can walk inside the trenches like 1915.

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So lets enter the main fortress; the old inscription of the "christening ceremony" is still visible and reads "Stützpunkt Buchenkopf"

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With all these comments its really more fun processing the pictures !

The main bldg comprises of 3 stories, whereof the upper floor suits the riflemen and MG gunners

post-80-1249914972.jpg

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Wow. Very clear, interesting pictures.

What does Stützpunkt mean, please?

Gwyn

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....and taking a lower floor entrance shows the detail where the riflemen were standing and most likely where an MG was placed in the left corner

post-80-1249916164.jpg

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Nestled to the main fortress structure are the frontline trenches with loopholes and parapets; they either are built with concrete or massiv stone blocks

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Further away the frontline trench is overgrown by the summit vegetation. But this should not destract from how the conditions must have been in meter high snow and gastly storms in wintertime

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Every meter on the relative small summit was well protected. The Germans held 1/3 and the French the rest. Consequently the frontline trenches were extremely well protected by tons of barbed wire and chevaux-de-frise

post-80-1249917499.jpg

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Very interesting Ebbert, I spent 5 days inthe Vosges exploring battlefields but have not been where you were, did walk up Hartsmanwillerkopf, beautiful, lots of trenches in stone there.

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Very interesting Ebbert, I spent 5 days inthe Vosges exploring battlefields but have not been where you were, did walk up Hartsmanwillerkopf, beautiful, lots of trenches in stone there.

...and lots of tourists from America there :P

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Silent witnesses of a time when lifes were neglectable and the reports said "Nothing new in the Vosges" although the fighting was fierce there

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Thanks for the pictures Egbert

I was on the Tete des Faux last year and the memories have not gone away

very emotive place

cheers Martin B

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Thanks for the guided tour Egbert (& of course, Chester) very informative, great pictures.

I'll go along with Peter in #76 the remains of batteries; The black rods would be carbon which formed the + electrode & the metal zinc which formed the negative electrode. I'm surprised there isn't more zinc about though as this would have formed the main casing - although it could have corroded away ; remember, how the old, non leakproof type batteries used to rot into a stick mess which ruined many a good torch? I suppose they could be the the remains of WWI batteries, but, after 90+ years, any remains ought to be well and truly buried under the pine needles not sitting on top of them! Probably much more recent as the rectangular shaped bit (bottom left) looks more like part of a modern day type. Bit of a puzzle as to why anyone would want to bother dismembering one of these batteries in the middle of nowhere though.

NigelS

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Nigel, I also opt for the more modern days stuff, no WW1 remnants.

Now- I am walking over the 30something meters to the French lines. This is exactly No-Mans-Land and littered with barbed wire

post-80-1249922416.jpg

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Either a German sap very close the French, or part of the French frontline. This time I am with Gwyn, and did not dare to explore the cave; only Chester knows what's inside......

post-80-1249922797.jpg

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