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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

My climb up Hartmannsweilerkopf (HWK)


egbert

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This is a look back in time when the corridors were filled with personnel and material. Here heavy trench mortar ammunition.

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Sean, you are 10 minutes too late. Thanx for your warning but it is too late.

In the line of GWF duty I earned my wound badge in black, when I did not pay attention and slammed my unprotected head into the rocks above me. I was unconscious for some seconds, blood poured down from my hairs and a bit of tooth was broken. Louis attended my injuries with his first aid kit and I was awarded the wound badge.....

Military censorship does not allow presenting the wounded to the public. So this picture only shows the place of horror.

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Edited by egbert
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Sean, you are 10 minutes too late. Thanx for your warning but it is too late.

In the line of GWF duty I earned my wound badge in black, when I did not pay attention and slammed my unprotected head into the rocks above me. I was unconscious for some seconds, blood poured down from my hairs and a bit of tooth was broken. Louis attended my injuries with his first aid kit and I was awarded the wound badge.....

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:D I did warn you!

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Excellent thread Egbert !

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

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Steve, if you prepare yourself with maps, trenchmaps, images etc, no, you do not need a guide and can do all walking and climbing by yourself.

I just took the advantage to ask Louis, a long time WW1 internet friend to guide me in his "home district".

Part 2 of my climb, some 100 pictures later, I did by myself, after thorough preparation.....(It is by far more than a hill, it is a mountain with 956m altitude. All trails are fully open to the public)

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Fascinating pictures Egbert. I live in Basel within sight of the HWK, and agree this an area that is quite anything else on the Western front. British visitors don't tend to come here since the fighting was between the French (and Americans) and Germans, but it's an extraordinary and now beautiful place.

John

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Steve, you may also want to take an old Brodie with you, if you intend to follow in egberts footsteps :whistle:

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Camera rotates further to left (looking East) down to Rhine Valley. I do not need to elaborate on the strategic position of this fortess. The Rhine valley was German heartland.

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Camera slews further left (North) where you can see Mittlerer Rehfelsen (M.R.), a sister fortress guarding the ridge (the camera shor from where I took picture post #71)

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Panorama picture covering Feste Bamberg (left) and M.R. (right). 4 fortresses protected a French breakthrough into this hillside location from where enemy artillery spotters could direct artillery fire into the German heartland. That was the importance of HWK. Those who possessed the summit and Eastern ridges could control the movements in the Rhine valley. Thus the bitter fought battles up there.

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The following two pictures demonstrate the importance of cross fire protection from/to U.R. to/from M.R.

This view from U.R. towards M.R.

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Here I have marked two MG embrasures firing and covering the area from inside M.R. towards U.R. Maybe you can recognize the 2 holes in the rock with that picture resolution.

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Thanks again egbert. I assume that you covered this section without the need for any medical attention? :thumbsup:

Sean

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