August 1914 Battlefield Visit
In the summer of 1997, I had the opportunity to visit IR 169's battlefields of August 1914. I included a description of the visit in the first edition of The Iron Regiment. This excerpt describes my observations of this trip.
Pulitzer Prize Winner Rick Atkinson, author of the brilliant World War II Liberation Trilogy, articulated the value of modern battlefield visits to illuminate history; “The ground still speaks to us when witnesses no longer can.” In this spirit, I took advantage of my Army tour of duty in Germany in August 1997 to visit those battlegrounds listed in my grandfather’s journal. From the optic of my own soldier’s eye, this trip connected me to his wartime experience and allowed me to visualize Albert in context outside my image of an elderly grandfather. I have included some reflections from that visit here, which may be of interest should some future student of IR 169 wish to see some of the Alsace-Lorraine battlefields fought over during the first month of the war. Unlike many of the world’s better-known battlefields, there are no markers or guideposts; the quality of the experience is entirely dependent on the depth of the visitor’s research.
Traveling from Bonn, my first destination was to the Mulhouse area, where on August 9, 1914, IR 169 shed its first blood in the war. The initial stop was at the site of Fortress Istein. On the evening of August 8, 1914, the firing of Fortress Istein’s huge guns was IR 169’s first exposure to the sounds of war. The fort was located on the ridge between two gigantic slate hills that overlook the Rhine River basin. In its day, the massive fort held several batteries of large caliber cannon. At the end of World War I, the French occupied the east bank of the Rhine and blasted the fort apart. Today, the only traces that remain are chunks of broken concrete strewn over hillside and a small plaque that marks its history. An active monastery at Istein is carved into the hills facing the south, prompting me to think what a drafty existence this place must be when bitter winter winds blow off the Rhine.
From Istein, I drove to Mulheim, which is the location of the old railway station where 3rd Battalion unloaded from their trains following their overnight journey from Villingen on August 8. I tracked the route of their 12 miles of countermarching that ultimately left them three miles from the start point. Crossing over the bridge, I entered France on the east bank of the Rhine and continued southeast through the Hardt Forest on the same long and straight path of IR 169’s march towards Mulhouse.
As I approached Napoleoninsel (referred locally as the Ilse de Napoleon), it was evident that urban expansion had eliminated any resemblance to the area’s 1914 appearance. A large mall-like shopping center now stands in the area where Regiment 169 formed its line of battle as it neared the canal and commuters returning from nearby Basel fill the roads with heavy rush hour traffic. However, there at the apex of the two canals, still stands the old train station at Ilse de Napoleon - a site that served as the focal point for the 3rd Battalion’s fighting on August 9, 1914. The station is now a private residence and was undergoing some well-needed refurbishing. The train line still runs on the same path and on the same embankment that the Germans used to shield themselves from the murderous French fire from the heights of Rixheim to the south. Battle scars on the south wall of the train station bear witness to the fighting. The station house served as the post-battle collection point for many of the German casualties and was where Albert viewed the bodies of his dead company commander and regimental adjutant on August 10, 1914.
To the south of the railway embankment is the location where IR 169 made its fateful charge into a wall of enemy artillery and small arms fire. Although this area is now entirely built up with modern residential housing, the heights of the Rixheim objective are visible in the foreground. As I tried to visualize French fields of fire that existed in 1914, it became clear IR 169 was assigned a near suicidal mission.
With little remaining daylight, I barely had time to drive to the village of Efringen, about two miles south of the Fortress Istein site. On a rainy day, IR 169 marched from Mulhouse to Efringen on August 16, 1914, which served as the railway embarkation point for XIV Corps’ movement to its next series of battles in the Lorraine heartland. Albert wrote of having established a friendship with some of the Efringen town-folk during previous field exercises and noted the somberness that was evident with the onset of the war. This tiny village was overflowing with thousands of XIV Corps troops starting their journey to link up with the right flank of 6th Army, 80 miles to the northeast.
The next morning I set out to track IR 169’s operations through the Lorraine Campaign from August 17 - August 26, 1914. Their trains carried them north along the right bank of the Rhine and then over the river at Strasbourg, one of Europe’s great, ancient cathedral cities. From Strasbourg, the train continued northwest over rolling farmlands for 30 more miles and climbed towards the mighty Vosges mountain range.
IR 169’s last train stop was at the small village of Luetzelding. When the regiment arrived here on August 17, the French Army was only a few miles to the west. The train station comprises virtually the entire southern part of the village, which is wedged between the Marne Canal and several steep hills. From Luetzelding, I followed IR 169’s six-mile march up a long hill to the town of Phalsbourg, and then west to Mittlebronn. Phalsbourg was the scene of a sharp 1944 battle in World War II, where French forces wrested control of the town from the Germans. A Sherman tank, riddled with 88 mm shell holes, stands as a monument on the spot where it was knocked out. Mittlebronn served as the bivouac point for IR 169 in the two days just prior to the August 20 battle.
On August 19, IR 169 moved on to Hommardingpost to serve as the XIV Corps reserve. Hommardingpost is nothing more than a collection of two or three ancient farm complexes off the highway just south of Sarrebourg. The regiment was posted here as the great German counteroffensive erupted on the morning and early afternoon of August 20.
Unlike my previous day’s visit to Mulhouse, I found the sites in the Lorraine to be remarkably much in the same state as they were over 84 years earlier. Few of the villages have grown much in size, and forests and wood-lines correspond closely to 1914 period maps. Farmers’ fields stretched across the landscape and back to the base of the Vosges Mountains.
From late morning and through the afternoon of August 20, 1914, XIV Corps did everything it could to crack open the stubborn French defenses over a six-mile wide front. Penetrations were made on the German right at Buel and Niederviller but were eventually stemmed by aggressive French counterattacks and furious artillery fire. On the left flank, at Plaine-de-Walsch (referred to in German accounts as Hochweiller), the German infantry ran into strong resistance and made little progress. At 6:00 pm, the XIV Corps Commander sent in his reserve, IR 169 to break the deadlock.
From Hommardingpost, I drove due south through the small valley that contained the Marne canal and up a long, steep hill that led back to the Vosges Mountains. At the unnamed crossroads once known as Rehtal, I stopped at the location where IR 169 formed its battle line for the attack on the French line between Vallerysthal and Plaine-de-Walsch. By the time IR 169 arrived here, the fields were littered with many dead and wounded troops from the 28th Division’s futile assaults. At the bottom of the hill is an intersection where the 3rd Battalion attacked. This was the spot where Albert’s 9th Company jumped into the abandoned French position only to face a barrage from carefully pre-ranged French cannon. Looking down the road and towards the outskirts of Plaine-de-Walsch, I noticed what looked to be a cemetery.
Sure enough, I had stumbled across the well-kept military cemetery that contained the remains of both the German and French dead from the August 20 fighting. The Germans and the French each interred about 350 soldiers, with a small handful having individual markers and the rest buried in two separate mass graves. Inspecting the monument on the German grave, I came across the names of “Musketeer Schindler” and “Fusilier Schmidt.” Both these men were mortally wounded in the barrage where Albert and Schmidt attempted to evacuate Schindler to safety. After briefly reflecting on how close my grandfather came to meeting his fate here, I resumed my trip for the next decisive part of the battlefield, the nearby village of Vallerysthal.
Vallerysthal is at the foot of the Vosges Mountains. The steep surrounding hills made the town a natural channel point for the attacking Germans. With the German penetration of the French line just to the north at Paine-de-Walsh, the defenders had little chance of holding out for long against a determined attack. The older structures in the village remain marked with bullet and shrapnel scars on all sides of the buildings. Elements of IR 169 spent the night of August 20-21 in the village, catching a few hours rest before the next day’s attacks commenced.
On August 21, the 9th Company was the lead unit in moving out of Vallerysthal when came under a brisk fire. Numerous houses had to be cleared before it was determined the French were now posted on a hill to the south. I followed the path of the battalion through Vallerysthal that soon merged with the village of Biberkirch.
Winding my way up the hillside, I could appreciate IR 169’s challenge in again attacking a strong French position across open farmland. With the help of effective artillery support, the 9th Company, along with the machine-gun company and two rifle companies from 2nd Battalion, were able to maneuver close enough to ambush an unsuspecting French battery near Harzweiler. From here, the German attack gained momentum as the 2nd and 3rd Battalions overran the French lines and captured another artillery battery outside of Voyer. In walking this ground, I could identify what probably were the shallow remnants of the French defensive positions.
Having concluded my examination of the Voyer/Harzweiler battlefields, I moved on the regiment’s unopposed two-day march towards the Meurthe River. Through the next 25 miles, I passed through 12 small French villages on the way to the next confirmed point of the journal - the village of Vacqueville and the site of a sharp engagement on August 24. Passing Hattigny, I took particular note of the fact that the regiment would have passed this point exactly 84 years to the date of my presence there. A second town of interest was Taconville, the 1914 location of the French/Lorraine border. Here, Albert’s narrative recalled his company commander’s inspiring speech upon invading French soil. St. Poole marked the general area of where the Germans retreated after they crossed the Meurthe in early September 1914. Trenches established here lasted the duration of the war. Like Vallerysthal, a number of the older buildings in Vacqueville still bear scars from the battle. Quickly passing Vacqueville, it was on to the next objective, Baccarat.
Baccarat remains renowned for its manufacture and sale of some of the world’s finest crystal. Brilliant displays of fine crystal ranging from chandeliers to ornate gowns and goblets radiate from the showcase windows of stores that line the main commercial streets. In contrast to the rather dreary small towns and villages that are so common to this region, Baccarat stands out in charm, brightness and a combination of provincial and metropolitan character. The town is divided by the Meurthe River, which flows into the Moselle 20 miles to the north.
Baccarat was the scene of wild fighting on the morning of August 25, 1914. After catching a German picket force by surprise, the overzealous French commander allowed several of his companies to be trapped and virtually annihilated on the east side of the bridge. The bridge itself saw some of the worst of the slaughter, with almost 100 dead French soldiers later tallied upon it. Albert’s journal contained a vivid description of the artillery fire upon the bridge on the far bank and the many dead lying in the town square.
After entering Baccarat, I drove along the eastern bank and crossed over the large stone bridge that spans the rapidly flowing Meurthe. On the west bank was the main town square, with a modern church standing on the southern corner. According to a historical marker, the original St. Remy church, first built in the 1500’s, was destroyed in the August 1914 battle. A second church was rebuilt on the site, only to be destroyed again during World War II. An impressive memorial commemorates 350 French soldiers of the ill-fated 86th Regiment of Infantry killed trying to defend the town.
My final destination was the village of St. Barbe. In a sharply contested forest battle, Albert’s sister unit, Regiment 170, led the six-mile advance from Baccarat to the outskirts of St. Barbe. Outside St. Barbe, IR 169 resumed the lead and attacked the town from a clearing to the east. With reports that French civilians had fired on the German troops, the town was set ablaze after its capture.
Midway to Rambervillers, there was a cut-off that led to St. Barbe, a short distance to the east. I arrived at St. Barbe at dusk, which was about the same time of day that IR 169 launched its attack. Of all the villages I visited, the evidence of wartime damage to St. Barbe was most visible. A simple town in a poor region, it seemed as if the survivors of the battle never had the proper resources to fully rebuild after the war. Bullet and shrapnel marks still mar a number of the buildings. An old church stood starkly above the rest of the four street. Driving through the small and twisted streets, I observed a very old woman standing in a doorway and realized that as a little girl, she could have very possibly been present in St. Barbe at the time of the battle.
Many of these small towns and villages remain largely untouched by time and provide a unique connection to those hot and desperate August days of 1914.
For those interested in following IR 169’s experience in the Battle of the Somme, I recommend Andrew Jackson’s website www.pals.org.uk/pals_e.htm which provides an excellent description of the battlefield around IR 169’s 19 month stand at Serre. With the centennial of the First World War, countless other guidebooks have been published that include many of IR 169’s battlefields.
In the summer of 1997, I had the opportunity to visit IR 169's battlefields of August 1914. I included a description of the visit in the first edition of The Iron Regiment. This excerpt describes my observations of this trip.
Pulitzer Prize Winner Rick Atkinson, author of the brilliant World War II Liberation Trilogy, articulated the value of modern battlefield visits to illuminate history; “The ground still speaks to us when witnesses no longer can.” In this spirit, I took advantage of my Army tour of duty in Germany in August 1997 to visit those battlegrounds listed in my grandfather’s journal. From the optic of my own soldier’s eye, this trip connected me to his wartime experience and allowed me to visualize Albert in context outside my image of an elderly grandfather. I have included some reflections from that visit here, which may be of interest should some future student of IR 169 wish to see some of the Alsace-Lorraine battlefields fought over during the first month of the war. Unlike many of the world’s better-known battlefields, there are no markers or guideposts; the quality of the experience is entirely dependent on the depth of the visitor’s research.
Traveling from Bonn, my first destination was to the Mulhouse area, where on August 9, 1914, IR 169 shed its first blood in the war. The initial stop was at the site of Fortress Istein. On the evening of August 8, 1914, the firing of Fortress Istein’s huge guns was IR 169’s first exposure to the sounds of war. The fort was located on the ridge between two gigantic slate hills that overlook the Rhine River basin. In its day, the massive fort held several batteries of large caliber cannon. At the end of World War I, the French occupied the east bank of the Rhine and blasted the fort apart. Today, the only traces that remain are chunks of broken concrete strewn over hillside and a small plaque that marks its history. An active monastery at Istein is carved into the hills facing the south, prompting me to think what a drafty existence this place must be when bitter winter winds blow off the Rhine.
From Istein, I drove to Mulheim, which is the location of the old railway station where 3rd Battalion unloaded from their trains following their overnight journey from Villingen on August 8. I tracked the route of their 12 miles of countermarching that ultimately left them three miles from the start point. Crossing over the bridge, I entered France on the east bank of the Rhine and continued southeast through the Hardt Forest on the same long and straight path of IR 169’s march towards Mulhouse.
As I approached Napoleoninsel (referred locally as the Ilse de Napoleon), it was evident that urban expansion had eliminated any resemblance to the area’s 1914 appearance. A large mall-like shopping center now stands in the area where Regiment 169 formed its line of battle as it neared the canal and commuters returning from nearby Basel fill the roads with heavy rush hour traffic. However, there at the apex of the two canals, still stands the old train station at Ilse de Napoleon - a site that served as the focal point for the 3rd Battalion’s fighting on August 9, 1914. The station is now a private residence and was undergoing some well-needed refurbishing. The train line still runs on the same path and on the same embankment that the Germans used to shield themselves from the murderous French fire from the heights of Rixheim to the south. Battle scars on the south wall of the train station bear witness to the fighting. The station house served as the post-battle collection point for many of the German casualties and was where Albert viewed the bodies of his dead company commander and regimental adjutant on August 10, 1914.
To the south of the railway embankment is the location where IR 169 made its fateful charge into a wall of enemy artillery and small arms fire. Although this area is now entirely built up with modern residential housing, the heights of the Rixheim objective are visible in the foreground. As I tried to visualize French fields of fire that existed in 1914, it became clear IR 169 was assigned a near suicidal mission.
With little remaining daylight, I barely had time to drive to the village of Efringen, about two miles south of the Fortress Istein site. On a rainy day, IR 169 marched from Mulhouse to Efringen on August 16, 1914, which served as the railway embarkation point for XIV Corps’ movement to its next series of battles in the Lorraine heartland. Albert wrote of having established a friendship with some of the Efringen town-folk during previous field exercises and noted the somberness that was evident with the onset of the war. This tiny village was overflowing with thousands of XIV Corps troops starting their journey to link up with the right flank of 6th Army, 80 miles to the northeast.
The next morning I set out to track IR 169’s operations through the Lorraine Campaign from August 17 - August 26, 1914. Their trains carried them north along the right bank of the Rhine and then over the river at Strasbourg, one of Europe’s great, ancient cathedral cities. From Strasbourg, the train continued northwest over rolling farmlands for 30 more miles and climbed towards the mighty Vosges mountain range.
IR 169’s last train stop was at the small village of Luetzelding. When the regiment arrived here on August 17, the French Army was only a few miles to the west. The train station comprises virtually the entire southern part of the village, which is wedged between the Marne Canal and several steep hills. From Luetzelding, I followed IR 169’s six-mile march up a long hill to the town of Phalsbourg, and then west to Mittlebronn. Phalsbourg was the scene of a sharp 1944 battle in World War II, where French forces wrested control of the town from the Germans. A Sherman tank, riddled with 88 mm shell holes, stands as a monument on the spot where it was knocked out. Mittlebronn served as the bivouac point for IR 169 in the two days just prior to the August 20 battle.
On August 19, IR 169 moved on to Hommardingpost to serve as the XIV Corps reserve. Hommardingpost is nothing more than a collection of two or three ancient farm complexes off the highway just south of Sarrebourg. The regiment was posted here as the great German counteroffensive erupted on the morning and early afternoon of August 20.
Unlike my previous day’s visit to Mulhouse, I found the sites in the Lorraine to be remarkably much in the same state as they were over 84 years earlier. Few of the villages have grown much in size, and forests and wood-lines correspond closely to 1914 period maps. Farmers’ fields stretched across the landscape and back to the base of the Vosges Mountains.
From late morning and through the afternoon of August 20, 1914, XIV Corps did everything it could to crack open the stubborn French defenses over a six-mile wide front. Penetrations were made on the German right at Buel and Niederviller but were eventually stemmed by aggressive French counterattacks and furious artillery fire. On the left flank, at Plaine-de-Walsch (referred to in German accounts as Hochweiller), the German infantry ran into strong resistance and made little progress. At 6:00 pm, the XIV Corps Commander sent in his reserve, IR 169 to break the deadlock.
From Hommardingpost, I drove due south through the small valley that contained the Marne canal and up a long, steep hill that led back to the Vosges Mountains. At the unnamed crossroads once known as Rehtal, I stopped at the location where IR 169 formed its battle line for the attack on the French line between Vallerysthal and Plaine-de-Walsch. By the time IR 169 arrived here, the fields were littered with many dead and wounded troops from the 28th Division’s futile assaults. At the bottom of the hill is an intersection where the 3rd Battalion attacked. This was the spot where Albert’s 9th Company jumped into the abandoned French position only to face a barrage from carefully pre-ranged French cannon. Looking down the road and towards the outskirts of Plaine-de-Walsch, I noticed what looked to be a cemetery.
Sure enough, I had stumbled across the well-kept military cemetery that contained the remains of both the German and French dead from the August 20 fighting. The Germans and the French each interred about 350 soldiers, with a small handful having individual markers and the rest buried in two separate mass graves. Inspecting the monument on the German grave, I came across the names of “Musketeer Schindler” and “Fusilier Schmidt.” Both these men were mortally wounded in the barrage where Albert and Schmidt attempted to evacuate Schindler to safety. After briefly reflecting on how close my grandfather came to meeting his fate here, I resumed my trip for the next decisive part of the battlefield, the nearby village of Vallerysthal.
Vallerysthal is at the foot of the Vosges Mountains. The steep surrounding hills made the town a natural channel point for the attacking Germans. With the German penetration of the French line just to the north at Paine-de-Walsh, the defenders had little chance of holding out for long against a determined attack. The older structures in the village remain marked with bullet and shrapnel scars on all sides of the buildings. Elements of IR 169 spent the night of August 20-21 in the village, catching a few hours rest before the next day’s attacks commenced.
On August 21, the 9th Company was the lead unit in moving out of Vallerysthal when came under a brisk fire. Numerous houses had to be cleared before it was determined the French were now posted on a hill to the south. I followed the path of the battalion through Vallerysthal that soon merged with the village of Biberkirch.
Winding my way up the hillside, I could appreciate IR 169’s challenge in again attacking a strong French position across open farmland. With the help of effective artillery support, the 9th Company, along with the machine-gun company and two rifle companies from 2nd Battalion, were able to maneuver close enough to ambush an unsuspecting French battery near Harzweiler. From here, the German attack gained momentum as the 2nd and 3rd Battalions overran the French lines and captured another artillery battery outside of Voyer. In walking this ground, I could identify what probably were the shallow remnants of the French defensive positions.
Having concluded my examination of the Voyer/Harzweiler battlefields, I moved on the regiment’s unopposed two-day march towards the Meurthe River. Through the next 25 miles, I passed through 12 small French villages on the way to the next confirmed point of the journal - the village of Vacqueville and the site of a sharp engagement on August 24. Passing Hattigny, I took particular note of the fact that the regiment would have passed this point exactly 84 years to the date of my presence there. A second town of interest was Taconville, the 1914 location of the French/Lorraine border. Here, Albert’s narrative recalled his company commander’s inspiring speech upon invading French soil. St. Poole marked the general area of where the Germans retreated after they crossed the Meurthe in early September 1914. Trenches established here lasted the duration of the war. Like Vallerysthal, a number of the older buildings in Vacqueville still bear scars from the battle. Quickly passing Vacqueville, it was on to the next objective, Baccarat.
Baccarat remains renowned for its manufacture and sale of some of the world’s finest crystal. Brilliant displays of fine crystal ranging from chandeliers to ornate gowns and goblets radiate from the showcase windows of stores that line the main commercial streets. In contrast to the rather dreary small towns and villages that are so common to this region, Baccarat stands out in charm, brightness and a combination of provincial and metropolitan character. The town is divided by the Meurthe River, which flows into the Moselle 20 miles to the north.
Baccarat was the scene of wild fighting on the morning of August 25, 1914. After catching a German picket force by surprise, the overzealous French commander allowed several of his companies to be trapped and virtually annihilated on the east side of the bridge. The bridge itself saw some of the worst of the slaughter, with almost 100 dead French soldiers later tallied upon it. Albert’s journal contained a vivid description of the artillery fire upon the bridge on the far bank and the many dead lying in the town square.
After entering Baccarat, I drove along the eastern bank and crossed over the large stone bridge that spans the rapidly flowing Meurthe. On the west bank was the main town square, with a modern church standing on the southern corner. According to a historical marker, the original St. Remy church, first built in the 1500’s, was destroyed in the August 1914 battle. A second church was rebuilt on the site, only to be destroyed again during World War II. An impressive memorial commemorates 350 French soldiers of the ill-fated 86th Regiment of Infantry killed trying to defend the town.
My final destination was the village of St. Barbe. In a sharply contested forest battle, Albert’s sister unit, Regiment 170, led the six-mile advance from Baccarat to the outskirts of St. Barbe. Outside St. Barbe, IR 169 resumed the lead and attacked the town from a clearing to the east. With reports that French civilians had fired on the German troops, the town was set ablaze after its capture.
Midway to Rambervillers, there was a cut-off that led to St. Barbe, a short distance to the east. I arrived at St. Barbe at dusk, which was about the same time of day that IR 169 launched its attack. Of all the villages I visited, the evidence of wartime damage to St. Barbe was most visible. A simple town in a poor region, it seemed as if the survivors of the battle never had the proper resources to fully rebuild after the war. Bullet and shrapnel marks still mar a number of the buildings. An old church stood starkly above the rest of the four street. Driving through the small and twisted streets, I observed a very old woman standing in a doorway and realized that as a little girl, she could have very possibly been present in St. Barbe at the time of the battle.
Many of these small towns and villages remain largely untouched by time and provide a unique connection to those hot and desperate August days of 1914.
For those interested in following IR 169’s experience in the Battle of the Somme, I recommend Andrew Jackson’s website www.pals.org.uk/pals_e.htm which provides an excellent description of the battlefield around IR 169’s 19 month stand at Serre. With the centennial of the First World War, countless other guidebooks have been published that include many of IR 169’s battlefields.