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Remembered Today:

My climb up Hartmannsweilerkopf (HWK)


egbert

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I have already posted two picture-threads from my visits to the Vosges mountain battlegrounds here on GWF. They are "My walk from Schratzmännele via Barrenkopf to Kleinkopf" and "My climb up to the Buchenkopf".
Asked by many pals here for a continuation of the Vosges battleground "series", I am ready to let you participate in my two excursions to the mountain of the mountains, the most tragic, the bitter faught and the most bloody of all - the Hartmannsweilerkopf (HWK). The HWK mostly saw the fiercest battles in 1915, heavy artillery bombardments continued until 1918. The mountain cost the lifes of some 30.000+ brave men, who stayed up there, guarding the mighty HWK for eternity.
The thread will evolve over time with hundreds of pictures. So please come in and join the -

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On my first tour I was accompanied by my friend Louis, a French expert on the Vosges battlegrounds. The tour lasted 8 hrs, was some 12 km long and included 600m height difference.

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Here is an overview of the morning tour which starts at famous Hirtzenstein which has its own history of fierce battles, follow the lovely mountain stream "Goldbach" to fortresses "Unterer Rehfelsen", Mittlerer Rehfelsen", "Jägerfelsen", "Aussichtsfelsen" to the summit of HWK.

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Partial view from starting point Hirtzenstein. This historic picture gives full view of HWK southern slope .

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Historic picture of Hirtzenstein who changed sides many times

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At first I thought what a lovely walk along the Goldbach stream......

passing the place of German wartime baths called Leopoldsbad

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This is what is left today, just a small stream in a side valley

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Around the corner a memory pyramid with inscription "Den Tapferen Gefallenen" = dedicated to the brave fallen. Once the place of a cemetery in "Camp Möllendorf"

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Walking further the easy path, this memorial shows up , dedicated to the "Fallen of the Gelben (Yellow) Ulanen April 1915

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I should also mention , that all following pictures up to the summit were taken in the German frontlines, so all infrastructure you see is German. I will later explicitely point out the French frontline structures.

Not far behind the memorial is an ancient well, now run dry, from Landwehr-Infanterie-Regiment (LIR) 56

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This next picture is interesting. It shows an 8000V power cable used by the Germans. One of the side effects Louis explained to me: they wired the frontline and thus protected their first line trenches from intruders and unwanted guests .

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Some few yards later, this plaque, carved in the rocks above the "Maschinenstollen" honors dead soldiers from Garde-Jäger-Bataillon

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Ive been looking forward to your thread egbert. Hope to be visiting some of the battlefield after our Verdun trip :thumbsup:

Regards

Sean

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