bruce Posted 13 August , 2009 Share Posted 13 August , 2009 Thank you for so rivetting a thread. Now....post pics from the next walk, please.......so long as it is OK with Chester! Bruce Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
egbert Posted 13 August , 2009 Author Share Posted 13 August , 2009 Thanx Gwyn, any more Buchenkopf and surrounding area images? Bruce -you wish I would....but I do understand very well now, that this forum prefers Somme and Flanders stuff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bruce Posted 13 August , 2009 Share Posted 13 August , 2009 NO! Although most of us on the Forum are British, and thus besotted with Ypres and the Somme, there are some of us who also find other areas of interest. So please don't think that we aren't fascinated with this thread.....and want more! Bruce Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete1052 Posted 13 August , 2009 Share Posted 13 August , 2009 This is a good thread and Egbert and Gwyn deserve our thanks. I don't regard it as having been poorly received by those whose primary interest is Ypres and the Somme. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dragon Posted 13 August , 2009 Share Posted 13 August , 2009 Not me. I simply showed Egbert where the path goes. He took the photos and went to the trouble of preparing them for the forum. Thanx Gwyn, any more Buchenkopf and surrounding area images? No, it's your thread! My photos are elsewhere on the Internet. Most of the old photos I could reproduce are of le Linge and HWK. Most of my own need editing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete1052 Posted 14 August , 2009 Share Posted 14 August , 2009 Mick, are you out there for translation? You are not hiding away are you? Perhaps the cat has got Mick's tongue (as they say in America). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Michelle Young Posted 14 August , 2009 Admin Share Posted 14 August , 2009 Superb photos Egbert and Gwyn. I'm also very glad to see Chester fully recovered from his major surgery. Michelle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete1052 Posted 14 August , 2009 Share Posted 14 August , 2009 For the purpose of comparison, click here to see what a German pillbox evolved into by 1938, when thousands similar to the one pictured were built on the German western frontier from north of Aachen to the Swiss border. In parts of Germany these are now being demolished. The accompanying text is also worth reading. The link is to the Siegfried Line Campaign, by Charles B. MacDonald, U.S. Army Center of Military History, 1963. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bruce Posted 14 August , 2009 Share Posted 14 August , 2009 An interesting comparison. In looking at the plan, and cross section, where is the latrine? Bruce Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete1052 Posted 14 August , 2009 Share Posted 14 August , 2009 I wondered about that too. Maybe it was just a bucket in one of the rooms. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bob lembke Posted 14 August , 2009 Share Posted 14 August , 2009 It's curious how different people see things. I recall the graves but most of all I was awed by the memorial and its message - Many have photos and many have the haunting inscriptions - disparu au Linge - tué au Schratzmännelé - tombé au assaut du Linge - disparu au Linge - disparu au Linge - disparu au Linge - Linge - Linge - Schratzmännelé Schratzmännelé Schratzmännelé Linge Linge Linge Is what I see in German as the Lingenkopf actually la Linge? Or perhaps the Lingenkopf is the summit of la Linge massiv? Bob Lembke Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bob lembke Posted 14 August , 2009 Share Posted 14 August , 2009 An interesting comparison. In looking at the plan, and cross section, where is the latrine? Bruce Just go to the rear, and turn hard left. It is right next to the Jacuzzi. Bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
egbert Posted 14 August , 2009 Author Share Posted 14 August , 2009 I hope the latrine interested pals have done their business by now and we can go on here with the Vosges and the men and their sacrifices. Bob, to answer your question about Linge: actually it is a combination of summits connected by anticlines comprising of (from North to South) : Lingekopf 985m alt., Col du Linge (anticline) 987m alt., Schratzmännele being the highest in this mountain range at 1045m alt., Barrenkopf 981m alt. ending in Kleinkopf at 940m alt. before decending towards Münster town. All of them saw same extreme fierce and brutal combat at very close range. The Lingenkopf serving today as the show-me-bunker-trench-summit littered with tourists. The neighboring mountains I have just mentioned are much less frequented and except Schratzmännele show the same great features like trenches, blockhouses, walled parapets etc like the Buchenkopf. The next day after Chester's Buchenkopf climb, I did the Schratzmännele_Barrenkopf_Kleinkopf and also took tons of stunning pictures....... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dragon Posted 14 August , 2009 Share Posted 14 August , 2009 Bob, I have used the French words throughout, though the spelling sometimes varies within French. As you read German, maybe this multilingual site here will help. (Interesting photos and letters here, too.) Would anyone be prepared to have a go at translating the inscriptions Egbert posted, please? Gwyn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
egbert Posted 14 August , 2009 Author Share Posted 14 August , 2009 See, this is what I mean : Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dragon Posted 14 August , 2009 Share Posted 14 August , 2009 Pete, thanks for the interesting link. I visited some dragons teeth at the Siegfried Line in May and this put them into context. I won't post a photo... Sorry for the tiny deviation, Egbert. The Lingenkopf serving today... littered with tourists. There was absolutely no-one at le Linge when I took my dusk snow photos and my photos of Hohrod Military Cemetery in the snow. Go out of season and always avoid weekends. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IanA Posted 14 August , 2009 Share Posted 14 August , 2009 Very good photo sequence. When I visited Le Linge (at the height of summer) we were completely alone. Trenches, carved from the solid rock, were impossibly close together. Live cartridges were protruding from the parapet. We stayed in a gite in a small community at Tannach and there was a German bunker in the garden. The owner used to collect very large snails there for cooking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
irishmen1916 Posted 14 August , 2009 Share Posted 14 August , 2009 Thank you Egbert for all the photo's and the day to day account in your thread. You have really opened up a complete new area of WW1 to me. Thank you. Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiegeGunner Posted 14 August , 2009 Share Posted 14 August , 2009 Not at all a literal translation, but an attempt to grasp the essence of the inscription: Wanderer verweile in Andacht und künde zu Hause wie wir als Männer gefallen in Treue zur Heimat Spare us a thought as you pass by And later when you homeward hie Tell of the men who here did die To their country true ... Obvious resonances of the epitaph of King Leonidas and the Spartans who sold their lives so dearly at Thermopylae. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiegeGunner Posted 14 August , 2009 Share Posted 14 August , 2009 Wir liegen zusammen in Reih und Glied Wir standen zusammen im Leben Drum gleiches Kreuz und gleicher Schmuck Ward uns aufs Grab gegeben Nun ruhen wir aus vom heissen Streit Und harren getrost der Ewigkeit We lie together in death As we stood together in life The same cross and memorials Were placed upon our graves Now we take our rest from strife And patiently await eternal life Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dragon Posted 15 August , 2009 Share Posted 15 August , 2009 Thank you, Mick. That's appreciated. Gwyn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
egbert Posted 15 August , 2009 Author Share Posted 15 August , 2009 Excellent translation Mick, thank you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jay dubaya Posted 15 August , 2009 Share Posted 15 August , 2009 Another remarkable thread from Egbert with great additions from other forum members (you know who you are!) I know next to nothing about the war beyond the Somme but having paid a flying visit to Verdun and Mort Homme last summer I have become more and more aware of the war from the French perspective. Egbert and Chesters' photos in this thread have given me yet another episode of the war and the extremities of nature in which it was fought, goodness knows what lays beneath the green carpet (Chester knows where to step though) Perhaps a naive question, but how much artillery was used here? cheers, Jon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete1052 Posted 16 August , 2009 Share Posted 16 August , 2009 Jon, look at the photos of blown-down trees that Gwyn posted to see the effect of artillery fire. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
egbert Posted 16 August , 2009 Author Share Posted 16 August , 2009 Yes Pete, the artillery fire was terrible and materiel and men were blown at pieces like anywhere else during the GW. The forested mountains were blown to match size remnants and still today the summits did not recover from the artillery destruction. There are some accounts from survivors on the web -they tell of fierce artillery- as well as infantery fighting. Are you guys ready for the Schratzmännele_Barrenkopf_Kleinkopf? A new thread or continue here? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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