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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Trip to the Munster Valley


mandy hall

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Treat me gently, this is the first time I have posted my holiday photos on the forum.

The gite we rented in the village of Hohrod. A lovely gite with fantastic views.

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On Sunday afternoon we visited the French Cemetery of Metzeral

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From here we drove to the German Cemetery at Breitenbach. The road up to the cemetery turned into this track. I saw a red squirrel here.

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On Monday we drove north out of our village to the Col du Wettstein and visited the French Cemetery of Le Linge

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one of the plaques from the ossuary

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Great pictures Mandy thank you, a beautiful countryside.john

Thanks John, more to follow tomorrow

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Thanks for sharing your photos, Mandy. They bring out how green the marcaires and forests are, yet the cemeteries underpin the devastation caused to the beautiful landscape when the pastures and hillsides were transformed by barbed wire, concrete shelters, military routes and cable installations. Restored in some ways in the 1920s, then thrown into crisis again less than twenty years later. Ghastly.

Here's a link to a page about the funeral plaques at Wettstein. The rows of them are very effective and some inscriptions very moving, like the simple "Est-ce-toi?"

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This is an early postcard of the German cemetery at Breitenbach. Unfortunately undated.

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Postcard of Cimetière Wettstein (le Linge) posted in 1923.

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Cards from my collection.

Gwyn

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Great pics, sorry to be thick but where is Munster Valley?

Tony

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Thanks for the postcards Gwyn, nice to see the comparision between then and now.

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From the Col du Wettstein we drove to the Col du Calvaire and then walked up to the top of the Tete des Faux

Stone in parking area.

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signpost in parking area.

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flowers on way up

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the track to the top this is where it now became hard work

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It was possible to see evidence of trenches and craters in the trees but they don't show up very well in photos.

Memorial near the top

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the top

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Here's a map. I already had it and included it in my thread on Reichackerkopf, which is why the arrows are there. The lower one shows Munster, Alsace.

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And a closer one I had already. The places labelled are ones Egbert and I wrote about. Mandy stayed close to Reichackerkopf (the lower arrow) and her pictures of le Linge, Cim. Wettstein, are the middle arrow. Hohrod (Mandy's top photo) is labelled north of Munster.

Then she writes about the battlefield relics seen while climbing la Tête des Faux (mountain), which is the top place arrowed.

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Hope this helps.

Gwyn

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the track to the top this is where it now became hard work

That track is the remains of a wartime mule track to transport material to the summit. :)

When I saw that monument to 62e BCA myself a few years ago, I noticed the date (6 July 1916) and then suddenly realised that the very date I was seeing it was 6 July 2006. It felt really spooky... and then a mist came down.

Gwyn

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Excellent photographs showing liitle of its battlefield past.

Its a beautiful passage into Germany from the Vosges.Once had an overnight stop at Gerardmer before travelling on to Freiburg and the Black Forest.Another at Colmar sometime later.It looked impressive in the evening lights.

Later visited Le Linge and journeyed into Germany for lunch..went on to the Black Forest and found 3 inches of snow on the Feldberg high above Schluchsee in early October.Bismark's memorial stands proud at the top of the Feldberg.

The Great War dead are still being discovered from time to time from the former battlefields around Le Linge.Locations where the dead had been recovered were denoted by white crosses.Still a threat from unexploded munitions according to warning notices erected.

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Thanks for the maps Gwyn, for those interested everything visited so far was on the doorstep of where we stayed.

Thanks Frank, we visited Le Linge on the way back to the gite from the Tete des Faux, more photos to follow.

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  • Admin

Fabulous photos Mandy and I looked up the gite, it looks very good.

Michelle

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Oh wow--really enjoyed those, Mandy. In many ways, the terrain reminds me of portions of my state, West Virginia. Looking forward to seeing more.

Chris

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