German Territory Occupied by the French

[isanders]

On most maps of the western front there is a what appears to be small bit of german territory occupied by the french to the south near the swiss border.

Can anyone tell me the history behind this, how it was captured, how many towns, villages involved, what happened to the civilian population?

Many thanks

[paul guthrie]

Early in the war the French seized Thann and got all the way to Mulhouse 2 times before being driven out. Both times Germans treated celebrating inhabitants badly. The French held Thann and surrounding bits the entire war.

I think there is more about this on Marco's site. Yes, there is http://www.unfortunate-region.org/

[Adam Harland]

I rather think that the French would have preferred to see the reoccupation of Alsace asFrench territory liberated from the germans, rather than german territory occupied by the French!

In the early part of 1914 the french army advanced sufficiently for the germans to fear a threat to Freiburg, which is on the german side of the Rhine, but the retreats from Mulhouse meant that the french 'occupation' was only of lands ceded to germany following the franco-Prussian war in 1870-1. Matters are confusing in Alsace, as so many of the locations have german sounding names.