My climb up Hartmannsweilerkopf (HWK)

[Tony Ring]

egbert

This is so interesting and it is an area I knew nothing about. Thank you.

Apart from the bunkers & trenches etc would you expect to find remains of soldiers and their equipment or have these been removed over the years. I am thinking about the fields in France etc where these items are still being found.

Tony

[egbert]

Tony, as in other high intense battlefields , you should expect the same casualty finds. If you visit the nearby Lingekopf or Reichackerkopf there are several white crosses of recently found bodies.

Sean, at the leaving of U.R. I was still elaborating whether to walk back to dressing station....but in the line of GWF duty I decided to press on.

Off now towards Feste Bamberg and M.R.

[egbert]

Cheval-de-frise aside the path....

[egbert]

....trenches, bunkers all over the ridge

[egbert]

and always barbed wire

[egbert]

A trench protected by tons of barbed wire and cheval-de-frise

[egbert]

Reaching Feste Bamberg. For orientation: view towards East to the Rhine valley, U.R. right, M.R. left. A formidable fortress, I am standing on top

[egbert]

I hope Gwyn can follow this thread and may post some of her high resolution THEN Feste Bamberg images here.

[egbert]

Post war picture of Feste Bamberg. The vegetation comes back, leaving the colorless moonscape behind.

Note: the majority of infrastructure is underground.

[egbert]

Then

[spconnolly007]

Sean, at the leaving of U.R. I was still elaborating whether to walk back to dressing station....but in the line of GWF duty I decided to press on.

I shall update your service records: Character-V.Good! Carry on soldier

[Dragon]

Thank you for sharing your photos, Egbert.

Do you need or have to have a guide to explore the hill ? Is it all accessible to the public ?

No, you don't need a guide. As a simple start, you can walk down through the Silberloch cemetery, through the gate at the end and pick up a well-used path either to the cross at the summit or round the perimeter of part of the mountain. There are all sorts of off-shoots of this path down trenches or through woodland.

A map is advisable (and a periscope would be useful). The trenches crisscross and sometimes you need to go underground to reach the next section. I have got lost in the system and you simply can't see above the edge of the trench or structure to get your bearings. Believe me, that's scary especially when it's nearing dusk and the light is fading. I also take a torch.

I can recommend HWK Ephémérides 1916-1918 by Philippe Koch (CSV catalogue) which contains maps, illustrations and chronology. I bought it at l'Abri Mémoire, the visitor centre / Vieil Armand study centre, at Uffholtz, which has a large collection of material.

It isn't a hill, by the way. It's a mountain and you need to be fit to walk there.

Gwyn

[SteveMarsdin]

Thanks Gwyn and Egbert.

It would be nice to spend a couple of days in Alsace next year (both of your comments about it not being a hill are noted !)

[Dragon]

Apart from the bunkers & trenches etc would you expect to find remains of soldiers and their equipment or have these been removed over the years.

As Egbert says, bodies are still coming to light. Walkers may find remains, sometimes unearthed by animals, and sometimes a man may be identified. You see white crosses marking the spot. I included a few pictures of crosses and of equipment (bucket, spade, etc) in my thread on Reichackerkopf. "Fossilised" sandbags aren't unusual. I've also photographed glass and pottery with German inscriptions, bits of clothing like buckles, and items of ammunition. Quite a lot of enemy concrete was destroyed by reafforestation after the wars. The forests were replanted in the 1930s.

It's worth bearing in mind, too, that the war didn't only ravage the key mountains. You can be in all sorts of places and realise that, or be told that, what you are looking at was appropriated and used in the Great War. I'm thinking of, for example, farms which were converted into shelters, or remains of tramlines taken over for military use.

I think I may start a thread showing a few places in the Vosges which you might never guess had a Great War past.

Gwyn

[Dragon]

I hope Gwyn can follow this thread and may post some of her high resolution THEN Feste Bamberg images here.

Do you mean like:

and

Cards from my collection.

Gwyn

[roel22]

I think I may start a thread showing a few places in the Vosges which you might never guess had a Great War past.

Please do, Gwyn!

Roel

[egbert]

On the way between U.R. and to M.R. another fortress (one of the string of fortifications mentioned earlier) shows up, "Hexenküche" (=witch kitchen)

[egbert]

Meanwhile I reached an altitude of 800m and the present path runs a short while parallel along the mountain flank.

[egbert]

From here you can take a steep short-cut to wards the summit via a formidable trench system constructed into the rocks and also heavily fought over in 1915: "Himmelsgraben". We did not take this climb, and I took only a photograph from the beginning of "Himmelsleiter"

[egbert]

I hope you can recognize the difficult and steep climb in this picture from the start of Himmelsleiter trench leading uphill

[egbert]

Gwyn's image from post war, post # 115 lower image infact is Himmelsleiter and would perfectly match in here, like this one

[Cnock]

Egbert,

thanks for posting

Cnock

[egbert]

Thanks Eddy @ all for your responses!

Meanwhile I have reached Mittlerer Rehfelsen (M.R.). Some pictures for your overview. They correspond with posts #71-73. Here is the view back from where I came all the way around the ridge.

[egbert]

Same view, post war picture. I included with red arrows the attack waves from the French towards U.R. and M.R.

[Dragon]

Gwyn's image from post war, post # 115 lower image infact is Himmelsleiter and would perfectly match in here,

Sorry it's a bit late, but this one?

Or this one?