Exploring la Tête des Faux (my article)

[Dragon]

I was invited to write a piece for a selection of articles published in memory of David O'Mara, the unassuming but incredibly knowledgeable military historian ("Croonaert") who died a year ago. Should anyone wish to read about this mountain battlefield in the Vosges, it's reproduced here on my blog. Its intended readership is people who aren't military minded, certainly not experts, but who might like to dip into the atmosphere of a very charged mountain, higher than yr Wyddfa, where men had to exist in the polar temperatures, snow and freezing fog of December,1914. 

The piece is accessed by clicking on the hyperlink below the .pdf .

https://thebluelinefrontier.com/2023/01/17/exploring-la-tete-des-faux-2/

Text and photos are mine.

(I am not a member of the Great War Group, so any questions about the group should be directed to them, not me.)

 

Gwyn

 

 

Edited 1 February , 2023 by Dragon
Removing my illustrative photo

[Dragon]

The fact that this post has had barely any views, just five visits to the page and no comments supports my long-held opinion that the 14-18 war in the Vosges is of very little interest to members of a forum about the Great War.

The fact that it has had 30 page visits, interested comments and discussion from an unrelated WhatsApp group comprising people who are of various professions but none of them are particularly interested in history suggests that the public is probably a more receptive audience. 

I don't automatically expect people to like what I write, though it's nice if they do, because I have never pretended to be a military historian and I have my own written voice which doesn't suit everyone. That's fine. I had hoped for at least some interest in the wider experience of the war and its battlefields.  Perhaps I should have headed my post "La Tête des Faux. Four hours from the Somme".

[tomisitt]

Well I enjoyed it enough to download it on my Kindle, but then (as you know) I’m quite interested in the lesser-known battlefields. It’s a shame that the Anglosphere doesn’t want to look beyond the Somme, but please don’t give up trying.

[Matlock1418]

I think probably more missed rather than ignored here at GWF - both your post/article and the region and its own history

I don't think is really a case of the 'Anglosphere' not actively wanting to look beyond the Somme but national history and family history does tend to steer that way for many.

Interesting to expand my scope a little to an area never visited.

Lovely article and super photos [wish I could have seen many more - Tom knows I check his threads and photos out] - very atmospheric feelings.

Particularly like/interested in the photographed German stelae - the commemoration and the way nature is reclaiming its own ground.

M

Edit: I would just comment that I initially missed your post in this particular sub-forum as I admit it's not one I visit very often - The Western Front sub-forum might have perhaps got more hits [?] - but you are up and running now.

Edited 1 February , 2023 by Matlock1418
Edit

[Fattyowls]

Lovely evocative writing Gwyn, thank you. I've been interested in the area ever since I stayed in a gite in the early 90's which had a set of original French wartime pictorial magazines. One had a very stylised drawing of the Hartmannswillerkopf and it has remained with me ever since. Since I've never managed to get further south than St Mihiel writing like yours is the next best thing to a visit.

Pete.

 

[Michelle Young]

I’ve been rather preoccupied, but I will read it. As you know, the Vosges is an area I’ve visited a couple of times, and I wish to go back. 

[pierssc]

Good article, thanks for putting it up.  A part of France I don't know and must explore.

[knittinganddeath]

Gwyn -- just wanted to say that I loved your article and on that basis I have just recommended to someone on another forum that they consider the Vosges for their "battlefields roadtrip."

[Lingekopf]

Hi Gwyn,

loved your article here just as much as on FB. I think that it got somewhat lost in here as most reader simply have no idea what the Tete de Faux or the Buchenkopf is. If at all they have heard of the Hartmannsweilerkopf. Which is a shame. But as a collector and researcher for the Vosges combat I can tell you that as a topic it is rarely known, even in Alsace itself. And what people know is mostly overexaggerated post war stories that do not even come close to what really happened there. And they are also ignorant of all the installations that were built there during the quiet years, the miles of Feldbahnen or the long Drahtseilbahnen, factories, depots and and and. Its a shame, but thats how it is.

Regards,

Martin

[mebu]

Somehow missed this article. Just had a read through and found it a splendid piece of writing, an excellent word-picture of the area and the vestiges.

I don't know the area well, having had only a couple of brief visits while en-route on business, certainly arouses the interest to consider a full walking tour.

Peter

[Dragon]

Thank you for the nice comments on this piece. I haven't seen them before now because I hadn't been to the forum recently. I take the point about the post being missed probably because of its unfamiliar subject.

I enjoyed writing about la Tête des Faux and it was a good excuse to visit it in my imagination using the many photos I have of the battlefield since my first walk to the summit in 2006.

Gwyn 

[Geniesoldaat]

Great article and pictures about a lesser known piece of the western front.

[Dragon]

Thank you for reading my piece and for your comment, Geniesoldaat. 

Two of the sites on la Tête des Faux have been included in the UNESCO listing Sites funéraires et mémoriels de la Première guerre mondiale announced on 20th September - cimetière Allemand Kahm and nécropole nationale Duschesne. 

L'Alsace

 

[Geniesoldaat]

That's good, thank you for informing me Dragon