Photos Hartmannswillerkopf, Alsace, France, 2007.

Pierre Grande Guerre

Pierre Grande Guerre

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Dear Friends,

I have been away for a while, due to my study about a WW2 topic, some nasty health problems, and of course due to our last trip, we, the Mrs. and me, have made to the battlefields of the Somme and the Vosges mountains in France.
During those days, the last week of May and the first week of June, I took 1043 photo’s of these battlefields.

I just finished 5 photo-pages of a total of 105 pictures with an impression of the Hartmannswillerkopf, or the Vieil Armand, in the Vosges mountains, Alsace, France.
It is an impressive site, where still much is to be seen. Especially the Germans built from april 1915 until 1918 an underground town, by drilling tunnels and enlarging caves, which could be entered from a maze of trenches and concrete bunkers on the surface.
We realised during our fatiguing walk that we have only seen a small portion of the German lines. We hope to revisit the Hartmannswillerkopf again in the autumn of 2007 to explore the many other bunkers and “Stollen” of the German 2nd and 3rd line.

If you are interested to view my 5 part photo-impression about the Hartmannswillerkopf, please click HERE.

Thank you for your attention.

Pierre GG.

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Pierre,
Those are amazing pictures. The trips that you do and the things that you see. Pictures only show a little of it all. The amount of stuff that is left after all these years. Hard to imagine that thousands of soldiers were in that area.

Cheers,
Cliff :salute:
 
Fantastic photos......and to think that I regulary "commute" through the Col du Bussang on my way from Istanbul to London and never realised what lay in the mountains the other side of Thann.

Bravo!
 
@ cliffn @ istanbulian.

Thanks gentlemen for your kind reactions. :D Now I am busy with preparing with some new pages about the Somme, but in some few months I will also edit new pages about the Vosges mountains, the Lingekopf or le Collet du Linge, Col du Wettstein, Hohrodberg, etc.
I will let you know here, somewhere in this forum, when these pages are ready to be visited.

Your comment is fuel for my motivation and my personal pleasure to go on with the extension of my site.
Again , thanks!

Pierre GG
 
Hello to all
Here other pic from the Hartmann.
I was last year on holliday in this country.
One word for this: marvelooooouuuussss







The museum





The cimetery




Have all a good day.

Ludwig
 
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Hartmannswillerkopf - Vieil Armand.

To simplify the routing and the navigation in the Alsace Vosges Photo Impressions I merged the already existing three Hartmannswillerkopf Photo Impressions into one web-page of 157 images.
Like many loyal guests do write me, their TV-screen functions also as their computer monitor, as I have been doing now for the last half year. Since I switched monitors, I became a bit annoyed by the rather poor quality of my photo’s of these HWK-series. Reason enough for me to completely re-edit the Hartmannswillerkopf-page and to improve the quality of my photo’s, more suitable to watch my web-page on a television screen. In the process I added more and remarkable French and German period pictures!
So, if you are bored and interested at the same time, please, visit (perhaps again) Hartmannswillerkopf – Vieil Armand and click on: http://pierreswesternfront.punt.nl/index.php?r=1&id=415960&tbl_archief=0#415960 .
Thank you in advance for visiting my website!

Pierre
 
Really great pictures of both of you!

Pierre, when will you offer your own sightseeing tours all along the Western Front. I would book a trip immediately... :D
 
Thanks gentlemen, Eric, Opas Enkel and Badener, for your compliments!
If you are living far away from the Western Front,Badener, I can understand, that you envy me for my explorations.

When I used to be in a better health than nowadays, Opas Enkel, I considered to set up with my wife a modest battlefield organization. After meetings some of the guests of already existing battlefield tours during our trips along the front, and hearing them complaint about the quality of the wine and cheese during their field lunch, we abandoned this idea. Complaining tourists form the reason why we prefer to keep our passion and our pleasure to ourselves and why we sometimes only take some well interested friends, like our old Dutch friend, Ben, with us to the battlefields for a few days. The best way to experience the former battlefields is to my opinion in a group of not more than 5 or 6 persons. But anyway, I do gladly share my experiences and impressions with you via the internet!

Again thanks a lot for your reactions!
 
Hoi Pierre
I can understand not wanting to deal with whinging tourists, many take the tours because they have been told by firends that it was greaat, their friends were probably interested in the history and the region, but the next wave of tourists are only interested in the ammenities. I would gladly sleep on a bench and eat only bread to take a tour through this area (Maggie, on the other hand, may not be so inclined:)
Your posts make it possible for those of us far from this place, to see the best of it.
Thanks
Gus
 
Hi Gus,
You are welcome, Gus. Thanks for your understanding about not having the ambition to be a real battlefield guide.(With all respect for the patient professional battlefield guides).
Since I realized some years ago by messages like yours here, Gus, how welcome my photo impressions are for people, who are for one reason or another not able to visit the front, it almost became a kind of a mission for me to share my experiences with fellow interested people and eventually interested newbies, like the younger generations. It is also and foremost my joy to prepare myself for these trips, to make these trips, to work independently of anyone on my website or to work at ease without the pursuit for profit. These reactions like yours encourage me to go on sharing and improving my experiences with others.
Thanks again, Gus!
 
Hoi Pierre,
You do not need to thank me, or any one else who enjoys your work, we need to thank you.
Best
Gus
 
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