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936 redoubts of machine-guns. Owing to the fact that the Linge hindered inter-communication between the upper Weiss and upper Fecht, the French decided in July 1915 to occupy it. The pperation was an extremely difficult one, for it was necessary for them to come down from the heights, pass through a marshy valley, and scale steep rock-strewn slopes under hostile machine- gun fire; moreover the troops and supplies necessary for the operations had to be brought up from the rear by inferior mule tracks. After ten hours' intense bombardment, the assault was delivered on July 20 1915, and the struggle swayed to and fro uninterruptedly until the end of August. On this small peak there fell more than 50,000 shells; 7 German brigades came into action one after the other against 16 French Chasseurs battalions and 2 infantry regiments, and at the end of severe and costly fighting both sides remained face to face on the crest in trenches which were held unchanged until the end of the war.

The Hartmannswillerkopf, or, as the French soldiers soon began to call it, the " Vieil Armand," is a spur 95 metres high, thrown out to the N. of Cernay into the Alsatian plain by the Molkenrain (1,125 metres), itself an offshoot from the^Ballon de Guebwiller (1,425 metres), the highest peak in the Vosges. This spur, with its steep slopes, commands the village from which it takes its name, at a distance of some 700 yards. Its sole advan- tage from the military point of view lies in the fact that it affords good observation over the Alsatian plain, from Isenheim to Mulhouse. The French* therefore had advanced their outpost line up the Thann valley by Wilier and Goldbach to the summit of the spur. Its possession by the French naturally annoyed the Germans, and on one wintry day in Jan. 1915 they surprised and captured the French post on the summit, and installed themselves there. In a short time they succeeded in transforming the position into a practically impregnable fortress. Trenches and belts of wire were constructed on all the crests, dug-outs were tunnelled out on the steep eastern slopes, a road was constructed to the summit, and aerial cable set up for the transport of supplies, and concrete shelters for troops and munitions erected, while sub- terranean passages gave access to all the advanced posts.

The loss of the Hartmannswillerkopf caused no apprehension to the French, who still remained in possession of the Grand Ballon and of the Molkenrain, nor could it even be said to cause them any real inconvenience, as they had no intention of taking the offensive in Alsace. Unfortunately pride spoke louder than reason, and a series of useless struggles, which the higher com- mand did not intervene to stop, were undertaken to recover the lost position. The fighting went on for months under very diffi- cult conditions for the French. On the slopes facing Goldbach the heroism and self-sacrifice of the French troops in their hastily dug trenches were unevenly matched against the facilities for defence and attack which had been accumulated by the patient labour of their enemies. Attack and counter-attack alternated during the whole of 1915, and French and Germans alike suffered fearful losses.

Of all these fruitless combats of 1915 the most characteristic were perhaps those which took place at the very end of the year. The 7th, I3th, 27th, and 53rd battalions of Chasseurs and the I52nd Infantry Regt. on the French side were engaged against the German i2th Landwehr Div., the i87th Ersatz brigade and parts of the igth Reserve Division. On the cold winter morning of Dec. 21 the i52nd dashed forward under a crushing fire from trench mortars and machine-guns. Its waves advanced, broke, reformed, and advanced again, destroying with bombs every obstacle in their path; decimated but triumphant they reached the summit and even passed beyond it in their rush, chasing the routed enemy down the further slopes. At the end of the day the exhausted victors, who had made more than 1,500 prisoners, halted and passed the night where they were, without even being able to reform. The Germans meanwhile were concentrating a powerful artillery and massing their reserves to recover the lost ground. The German counter-attack took place on the morning of the 22nd. The French 15 2nd, extended in one long, thin line which was outflanked and broken through by the enemy, was exposed on the steep slopes to a hostile bombardment to which

their own guns could not reply; it struggled desperately all the morning, although the men, exhausted by the previous day's fighting, had to make head against the onset of fresh hostile troops thrown in in whole battalions. After eight hours' fighting the heroic regiment was surrounded in the depths of the ravines, and amid the tangle of rocks was entirely overwhelmed. Forty- eight officers and 1,950 men were killed or taken; the rest cut their way out at the point of the bayonet, and rejoined the reinforcements which, though too late to succour their comrades, still held the summit of the " Vieil Armand." The Chasseurs hung on to the crest, and the fierce struggle continued for several more days until the Germans outflanked their position on the north and forced them to retire to their original lines.

A protest was made by the French Parliament against these useless sacrifices of Dec. 1915, and the Minister of War inter- vened to forbid all local actions not demanded by strategic considerations, and serving no purpose but to increase casualties. This put an end to the fighting which had made the name of the Hartmannswillerkopf famous throughout the world, and from now until the end of the war the two adversaries remained facing each other on the crest, and no further action took place save harmless exchanges of rifle fire. The actions of the Lingc and the Hartmannswillerkopf had in this one year of 1915 cost thousands of human lives. Nowhere on the front had there been displayed more courage, more tenacity, more self-sacrifice, but the results had been absolutely nil.

From mid-Sept. 1914 onward neither of the two adversaries was in a position to manoeuvre offensively in the High Vosges. The strategic defensive was here imposed on both alike by the course of the campaign, and by the local conditions. In the circumstances the task of the commanders was simply to observe the enemy, to strengthen their own positions, and to remain prudently alert without undertaking any local offensives which could only be foredoomed to failure.

The Germans, who disposed of ample resources and good communications in the Rhine valley, should have been content to hold the mouths of the Vosges valleys in strength, while keeping their reserves billeted in the Alsatian plain ready to manoeuvre if necessary against any isolated columns which attempted to be debouched from the mountains. The French on their part had an excellent opportunity of applying to the exist- ing situation on the Vosges crest the defensive principles adopted so successfully by Marshal Berwick in the Alps in 1709. A sys- tem of solid defences at the heads of the valleys, covered by small advanced posts and supported in rear by well sheltered reserves which could be rapidly moved to any threatened point, would have needed for its successful application a good road running N. and S. on the western slopes of the mountains and connecting up the roads to the various passes. Unfortunately no such lateral road existed, so that the Fecht and Thur valleys were absolutely isolated from each other. This fact explains, though it does not excuse, these attacks on the Linge and the Vieil Armand, which eventually assumed proportions far greater than had been originally intended.

In this respect however the situation began to improve after the spring of 1915. The Governor of Belfort then took in hand the construction of the good and well-concealed road between Massevaux and Wilier, connecting the Doller and Thur Valleys. Later the commander of the VII. Army constructed another from the Thur valley road at Kruth along the heights, below the crest which passed behind the Schlucht and extended as far as the Luchpach pass. This new road, together with a few cross tracks, supplied the long-felt need of a lateral line of communica- tion between Massevaux and the Bonhomme pass. It thus became possible to construct strong defensive systems on the heights, and to erect quarters for the reserves and supply parks served by aerial cables further back. A narrow-gauge railway was made from Bursang to Wesserling, so that by 1916 the VII. Army in the Upper Vosges was sufficiently well equipped to be able to fulfil its role with complete security. The Germans, on their side, refrained henceforward from partial attacks which could lead to no useful result. The sector thus became one of the