Unexcused Absences France 2014 - Week 10 Recap (he said)

France 2014 – Week 10 Recap (he said)

by Kent 16 Sep 2014

Sunday morning we left Sedan early, so we could arrive in Mouzon for lunch and a walk-about. We couldn’t stay long because we had to make it to Stenay for the evening. They have a nice canal port which unfortunately was a pretty full, but we found good parking out on the main canal just downstream of the lock next to a group of apple trees busily shedding their apples. The current town name comes from its Gallo-Roman name “Sathanagium,” which may explain why the image of Satan is found on the town’s coat of arms and on the front of the town hall.

A bust of the Devil on the side of the Stenay Hotel de Ville

Monday morning we strolled around town and then your intrepid correspondent took time out of his busy schedule to visit the European Beer Museum. They had the usual displays showing the old brewing equipment, but the examples of beer schwag were the most interesting; there was an entire floor of the museum devoted to posters, ash-trays, bottle openers, old bottles, labels, newspaper ads, even a Heiniken windsurfer from the 1980’s – any kind of promotional materials related to beer.

Kids love beer! Poster at the Beer Museum

That afternoon we cruised to Dun-sur-Meuse, home of the “Pershing” bridge, although it’s officially named the “5th Division” bridge. This was where General “Blackjack” Pershing crossed the Meuse River in his efforts to push back the Germans in the fall of 1918, the success of which helped lead to Germany’s capitulation about six weeks later. The town lies at the base of a hill which is dominated by a very old fortified church.

Dun-sur-Meuse and its fortified hilltop church

Tuesday morning we rode our bikes about 10km north-west to the little village of Mont-devant-Sassey, the site of a small skirmish early in WW I which featured a young Lieutenant Rommel (later Field Marshal Rommel in WW II) leading the German attack. The fighting took place on the grounds and cemetery around a gorgeous hillside church. Many of the gravestones show evidence of the battle, with numerous chips, pockmarks, and cracks caused by bullets and shell fragments.

Site of the WW I hillside skirmish with Lieutenant Rommel

Wednesday morning we purchased fuel from Meuse Nautique (a rare canal-side fuel station) in Dun-sur-Meuse, then cruised south to Consenvoye. We spent happy hour with a Dutch couple, Henk and Marjolein, onboard Jori, their beautiful 11-meter sailboat.

Meuse River scenery near Consenvoye

Thursday we continued south to Verdun. We are now in one of the two main areas of fighting during WW I; the other area is the Somme, to the north and west up closer to the English Channel near Belgium. It was in the hills and forests around the Meuse (Argonne, Verdun, Les Eparges, St-Mihiel) that the fighting chewed up close to one million lives (and injured millions more) over a three-year period.

The river port in Verdun

Friday morning I took an early train to Metz, rented a car, then drove back to Verdun in time to stock up at the weekly market. That afternoon we used the car to visit a series of WW I sites. First stop was the Ouvrage de la Falouse, a small WW I fort located just south of Verdun. We then drove west to Butte de Vauquois, the destroyed village of Montfaucon d’Argonne, and the American Cemetery at Romagne-sous-Montfaucon, where by chance we met the head of the American Battle Monuments Commission in France.

WW I era pop-up gun turret (foreground) and armored spotting port at the Falouse fort.

The Butte de Vauquois is (actually, was) a flat-topped hill in the shape of a half-kilometer long oval running roughly east-west, which was home to a pretty little village up until 1914. The Germans decided to fortify the north side of the hilltop as it was a strategic location overlooking the valley and surrounding countryside. The French didn’t want them to advance any farther south, so they built defensive trenches on the south side of the hill, in places within 80 feet of the German trenches. Both sides then set about excavating networks of tunnels under each other’s trenches, so they could surprise their enemy with strategically placed underground explosions.

View from the German front-line trenches at Butte de Vauquois

This they did with such vigor that the entire top of the hill was blown to dust. What used to be a flat hilltop is now a rugged, crater-pocked moonscape. And while there were many villages destroyed in France during WW I, the town of Vauquois was simply erased. The official tally of mines detonated is 199 by the Germans and 320 by the French, including a single massive explosion of 60 tons of dynamite, set by the Germans, that carved a crater over 300 feet in diameter and 80 feet deep. Entire companies of men on both sides simply disappeared. It was so nerve-wracking for anyone to sleep, with the constant threat of being blown sky-high at any moment, that the two commanders eventually agreed to only blow each other up in the late afternoon. The craters are all still very apparent, but are so enormous that they are difficult to photograph except from the air. Needless to say, it is a sobering place to visit. A private historian maintains a good description of the operations at Vauquois here.

Butte de Vauquois village not long before WW I

Vauquois hilltop today – all that’s left of the village after three years of mine warfare are the enormous craters

After Vauquois we drove a few miles north to the destroyed village of Montfaucon, where remains of the church and a few walls and doorways of houses are visible in the woods. The site is also home to a large monument recognizing the contribution of the American First Army whose entry into the war in the summer of 1918 pushed the Germans back and ultimately led to the armistice later that fall. Two-hundred forty steps lead to the top of the main monument, and a few dozen more lead to a roof-top viewing platform.

Remains of the church in Montfaucon

We finished the day at the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery, the largest US cemetery in Europe. It was late in the day, and as we approached the chapel a nicely-dressed man was locking up for the day. He said “bonjour,” and I replied “bonjour, or perhaps good afternoon?” He laughed and said to come on in, he was happy to stay open for a while longer for fellow Americans. Turned out he was the head of the American Battle Monuments Commission in France, a part of the US government Executive Branch that builds and maintains military monuments and cemeteries around the globe. He gave us a nice history of American military efforts in the area, and showed us on a map where the 29th division had fought when he found out we were from Virginia.

The Meuse-Argonne American WW I Cemetery

At 14,246 headstones, the cemetery is fifty percent larger than the more famous WW II American Cemetery in Normandy. The site was finished and dedicated in the mid 1930’s, and surprisingly was not molested in any way by the Nazi occupation during WW II. America’s contribution to ending WW I was really its first major participation in world affairs, and this cemetery and memorial are a sobering look at the human cost of that participation.

German trench line in the woods above St Mihiel

Saturday, we drove south to visit the trenches around Saint-Mihiel, another area of intense fighting. The Germans, in hoping to encircle and destroy Verdun, had created a salient, or pocket, of occupation that included Saint-Mihiel and the surrounding hills and woods. Because the front lines of both sides were mostly in the forest (as opposed to open fields where the trenches were quickly smoothed over at the end of the war by farming activities), the trenches of both the Germans and French lines are still clearly visible. The small sites of Bois Brûlé (burning woods) and Tranchées des Bavarois (Bavarian Trenches) are maintained with signs and placards, but the trenches run for miles and miles through the thick forest, and are still quite visible through the underbrush. And quite literally everywhere you look you see craters from the almost continuous mortar and artillery fire from about 100 years ago.

A German field hospital behind the front lines near St Mihiel

On our way back to Verdun we stopped at the destroyed hilltop of Les Eparges. This was, like Vauquois, a flat-topped hill seen as a strategic site by both sides. And as described above, the flat hilltop has been replaced by giant craters caused by the two sides’ mining efforts. The only difference here is that the hilltop was not originally a village. The most heartbreaking thing about this site was a plaque containing the diary entry of one of the French officers during the fighting. To paraphrase, he said, “We took this hill at the cost of 10,000 French lives. And when we reached the top and looked into the distance, all we saw was hill after hill after hill. Will it cost 10,000 French lives for each of these hills?”

Re-constructed French front line trenches at Bois Brule

After we returned to Verdun we again had happy hour with Henk and Marjolein onboard Jori. Although they’ve owned the boat for 12 years, this is their first year cruising the canals of France. In the mid 2000’s they spent three years sailing the same boat completely around the world. Happy hour turned into dinner and we spend a terrific evening swapping stories about our adventures. Our favorite was the story about how they were “accidentally” married (too long to get into here, but it’s a good one!)

View from the canal port at Verdun

Next week my Dad arrives, and we will have the car for another few days so we intend to visit more battlefield sites of both World Wars. We also plan to take a side trip to Luxembourg, just because we can.

France 2014 Week 10 Numbers