The Vosges mountains . Western front.

 Colmar is a very pretty town and only half an hour from Brisach.

We had lunch there and then headed up into the Vosges mountains to find the more famous sites of the western front in the Alsace .

  It pretty well follows the ridge of this range of mountains.The logistics of getting supplies ,and cannon ,up here ,and then getting the wounded down again,boggles the mind !

Because the trenches up here were made of rocks and concrete, they have remained intact. Our boys had the mud and rain, these poor buggars had sub zero temperatures , AND rain. 

  The crosses you can see are recent bodies they have found. It's an ongoing business.

These were German trenches. 17,000 men died in the battle for this ridge.

 It's late now so we camped at this French cemetery. Nearby is the German one with the usual black crosses

In the morning we headed for our next goal, St Marie-aux-mines. Pretty little mountain village , but it started raining so we checked our emails at the office de tourisme, visited a cemetery on the ridge,and then beat a hasty retreat to Schirmeck, where we booked into the local municipal camp.

The Donon pass was our final goal in the Vosges. The guide book said there were several walks about 7 Km's long,clearly marked along the lines of both sides. They may have been clear when they were fighting ,but we got lost several times. Then suddenly we would stumble across some remnants. Some of them huge.

Finally , to complete our understanding of this part of the war ,we headed towards Strasbourg, and the Fort de Mutzig. 

 Kaiser Wilhelm had this fort built back in 1893 to keep the French out of the Alsace !!! Both sides were preparing for WW1 even then

It held 7000 men and was used For just 20 minutes early on ,when the French broke through at Donon. It soon had them scarpering back to the hills .

" 'old still now while I take zat bayonet out off your bom"