egbert Posted 17 October , 2012 Author Share Posted 17 October , 2012 Full main entrance view Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
egbert Posted 17 October , 2012 Author Share Posted 17 October , 2012 If entered through this main access you find the same labyrinth of galleries and underground shelters stretching over several levels and which can house whole battalions absolute bomb (artillery)proof. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
egbert Posted 17 October , 2012 Author Share Posted 17 October , 2012 Louis my Alsatian/French friend who tended my injuries from U.R. (this time-believe me- I was taking extreme good care to avoid the silver level wound badge) leads the way to the left side galleries, leading to more MG embrasures with demanding views, covering the complete ridge and slope down to U.R. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
egbert Posted 17 October , 2012 Author Share Posted 17 October , 2012 A cavern inside the fortress with a MG embrasure, weapon's sledge still visible Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
egbert Posted 17 October , 2012 Author Share Posted 17 October , 2012 Do you remember what I explained with cross fire and mutual covering? This MG embrasure points exactly towards U.R. and Feste Bamberg where we had been 39 min ago. Imagine the vegetation completely gone -what a firing power rained down on the attackers, clearly visible from these embrasures. Same as before: weapon mounts still visible Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spconnolly007 Posted 17 October , 2012 Share Posted 17 October , 2012 Egbert, do you know how long one of these systems took to complete? Regards Sean Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
egbert Posted 17 October , 2012 Author Share Posted 17 October , 2012 Sean, not really. Most of these systems were built in 1916 and as you will see later, the Germans had compressor stations up in the mountains with extended pressure piping to bore the galleries plus full electricity. So an experienced Pionier Kompanie comprising of miners probably would build it in a couple of weeks/months. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
egbert Posted 17 October , 2012 Author Share Posted 17 October , 2012 Rubblestone (either from boring the underground hallways or rocks cracked from previous artillery duells) was used to reinforce infrastructure like this one on M.R. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
egbert Posted 17 October , 2012 Author Share Posted 17 October , 2012 Detail view with corrugated iron Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
egbert Posted 17 October , 2012 Author Share Posted 17 October , 2012 Before leaving Feste Heiligenstedt a view towards U.R. from one of the revetments, and.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
egbert Posted 17 October , 2012 Author Share Posted 17 October , 2012 same spot, turning around 180° towards part of the fortress and its solid entrance structure Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
egbert Posted 17 October , 2012 Author Share Posted 17 October , 2012 last view from Feste Heiligenstedt, but we still remain at rock formation M.R. for upcoming pictures.........as there are 2 different fortresses at/in M.R...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dragon Posted 17 October , 2012 Share Posted 17 October , 2012 Some of your pictures make me feel claustrophobic! I wouldn't have the confidence to go in there. I find the inscribed stones marking the units very poignant, and, as you know, they can be seen in many of the Vosges sites. It's a link with real people. The compressors are awesome. Amazing considering the conditions they were built in. I've seen them, but I won't post pictures and spoil your story. You know far more about Hartmannswillerkopf than I do. The first time I went there, in about 1995 I think, we were urged to go by some French people we met at a b&b. They talked about le Vieil Armand* with tears in their eyes, literally. That's how significant it is to some French people. (*For those who aren't aware, Hartmannswillerkopf or Hartmannsweilerkopf is the German name for a place which became known as le Vieil Armand to the French troops. Hartmannswiller is a village near Soultz.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Ring Posted 17 October , 2012 Share Posted 17 October , 2012 egbert Looking at the very first photograph on your thread with the name - Hartmannsweilerkopft - across it, can you confirm that the area that you are describing is directly above the letters SW. Tony Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
egbert Posted 17 October , 2012 Author Share Posted 17 October , 2012 Gwyn, the brighter your flashlight the lesser the claustrophobic feelings Compressor gallery comes up in about 30 pictures from here and I hope you post your pictures and observations please. Tony, I am walking/climbing and presenting images from "artmannsweil" with summit of HWK at first n Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dragon Posted 17 October , 2012 Share Posted 17 October , 2012 I always take a torch. I do get very claustrophobic, seriously and I'm wary of gases and collapse. I take it you mean the compressors with the amazing view across the Rhine, near the canteen (or something, I'm working from memory) with the 1943 graffiti? I found that quite affecting as I photographed the crash site of Halifax MZ-807 (at Riesenkopf) on the way to HWK. We had lunch at a ferme auberge on Grand Ballon before going to HWK last June; it was 6°C in fog up there and down at HWK it was 25° in full sun. By the time we'd ascended HWK for twenty minutes, I thought I was going to go into cardiac arrest from heatstroke. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
egbert Posted 18 October , 2012 Author Share Posted 18 October , 2012 Still at M.R. and another fortress showing up between the bushes. Named "Felsennest" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
egbert Posted 18 October , 2012 Author Share Posted 18 October , 2012 Felsennest is/was protected by tons of barbed wire- today scrap Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
egbert Posted 18 October , 2012 Author Share Posted 18 October , 2012 hidden acces to the abyss Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
egbert Posted 18 October , 2012 Author Share Posted 18 October , 2012 Felsennest II Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
egbert Posted 18 October , 2012 Author Share Posted 18 October , 2012 skipped it -no time to explore, carry on Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
egbert Posted 18 October , 2012 Author Share Posted 18 October , 2012 I left Mittlerer Rehfelsen with its caverns and fortresses and am on my way to next highlight which is Jägerdenkmal (memorial to the fallen Jäger). On my way -shelters, shelters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WhiteStarLine Posted 18 October , 2012 Share Posted 18 October , 2012 Great photo stream Egbert, thanks for posting the series. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
egbert Posted 18 October , 2012 Author Share Posted 18 October , 2012 Thanx White Star, tomorrow is Jäger-day. Stand-by for lots of Then and Now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
egbert Posted 19 October , 2012 Author Share Posted 19 October , 2012 Via "Felsenweg", a path along the 800m contour line, I reach "Jägerdenkmal" the place where the Jäger once have buried their dead. The famous pyramid memorial was erected 1915 by RIB 56 and Gardeschützen Bn, blown up by a French nationalist in 1944, and re-erected 1959 by the son of a German HWK combat veteran. The pyramid has several unit plaques attached to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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