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Battles in the Vosges

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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VOSGES, BATTLES IN THE, 1914-8.---The Vosges mountains ( see 28.214) rise sharply to the N. of Belfort. From the groups of the Ballons, which reaches a height of more than 1,200 metres, the main ridge runs N. by the Drumont, the Grand Ventron (1,309), and the Hohneck (1,366). North of the Bonhomme pass (949) the ridge falls gradually to 558 metres at Saales, near the headwaters of the Bruche, one of the Alsatian tributaries of the Rhine. From the Saales gap the ridge rises to Mont Donon and Prancey, each over 1,000 metres high, and is prolonged through a series of vast forests as far as the Saverne valley. From the Ballon d'Alsace to the Donon, the Vosges form a mass of mountain with steep slopes, narrow deeply cut valleys and swiftly flowing torrents, a terrain always difficult and often impossible of passage away from the roads. The summit of the ridge generally takes the form of a swollen saddle, wooded in places but usually covered with the large grassy swards known as the Chaumes (Calvi Montes). These Chaumes are wind swept all the year round, very hot in summer and very cold in winter, and the snows which cover them completely from Oct. onward only disappear in early June. Both slopes of the ridge are clad with magnificent fir and pine forests, which end just below the crest in a thin ledge of bushes bending before the wind. The fall of these slopes is steeper on the Alsatian side than on the other; immediately below the crest a cliff of granite rocks or sandstone falls almost vertically, often in the southern part of the Vosges, for some 250 metres. From the foot of this wall begins a gentler slope extending all the way to the Rhine valley. On the Lorraine side, however, the mountains descend much less steeply in a series of ridges towards the Moselle and the Meurthe. The points of passage, formed by the roads crossing the ridge, acquire considerable importance owing to the absence of such crossings elsewhere. These points of passage, moreover, are not numerous. In the group of the Ballons the pass of Bursang, with the smaller passes of Oderen and Bramont, lead from the Moselle valley to the Thann valley. At the foot of the Hohneck the pass of the Schlucht leads from Gerardmer to Munster and Colmar; to the N. the Bonhomme and Louchpach join the valleys of the Vologne and the Weiss. The pass of Ste. Marie unites Ste. Marie-auxMines and Schletstadt; the gap of Saales leads from Prorenchers to Schismeck; and, lastly, a road which passes over the summit of the Donon leads from Celles to Molsheim and Strasbourg. The only railways across the Vosges were the two main lines from Strasbourg to Nancy, by Saverne, and from Mulhouse to Belfort by Dannemarie, together with the narrow gauge railway from