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onjour!
this month of November 2008 marks the 90th anniversary of the First World War armistice that
was signed on November 11, 1918. Even though the front line stretched from the North Sea to
Switzerland, we have chosen to focus on a war zone barely 20 miles long, known as the "Chemin
des Dames" (Ladies' Road), and put the spotlight on one area in particular, the plateau of
Hurtebise and the "Caverne du Dragon" (Dragon's Cave) that were the scene of so much fierce
fighting. We find ourselves on the N2 highway (or "Nationale 2", part of the state-maintained
network), about 12 miles northeast of Soissons and a little over 60 miles north of Paris.
But before continuing, please remember that you can access and read all the newsletters already
published at http://www.francemonthly.com/
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The Oppressor of the Slav People
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On June 28, 1914, the archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to Franz Joseph, Emperor of Austro-Hungary,
was visiting Sarajevo when along the official route a young Serb student, Gavrilo Prinzip, broke
from the crowd and fired his weapon several times.
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Plateau of Californie, France
(Click photo to enlarge)
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The archduke and his wife were killed instantly. "The oppressor of the Slav people" is dead!
Austro-Hungary presented Serbia with an ultimatum, demanding that Austrian police officers
be allowed to participate in the investigation. The request was turned down, and a month
later Austro-Hungary declared war on Serbia, thereby touching off the First World War.
However, the ensuing hostilities can hardly be solely attributed to this event. In reality,
the assassination of Franz Ferdinand was just the spark that set off a tragedy everybody
had been expecting since the turn of the century, as international relations became very
tense. One must also factor in the will of the Germans to fight for a piece of the colonial
empire cake that France and England were sharing at the time, as well as the will of the British
to fight to keep their great trade preeminence. The crisis was inevitable. Germany joined its ally
Austria, while France and England sided with Serbia, their protégé.
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A War Unlike Any Other
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This list of "good" reasons to start a war is far from exhaustive. France, for one, had yet to
come to terms with the humiliation brought on by the Prussians in 1870, when it had to concede
the regions of Alsace and Lorraine to the enemy. The wound was still open, and over the previous
30 years, most Frenchmen had only one thought in mind, to seek revenge and take back the lost
territory. So when general mobilization was announced on August 1, 1914, the men were ready,
almost enthusiastic at the thought of crushing Germans and Austrians. Commanding officers
assured them that it would be over in a flash and that all of them would be home by harvest
time. Germans were also anxious to get this war on the western front over with, so that they
could return to their goal of attacking Russia. After invading Belgium, even though it had
remained neutral, they launched a huge offensive in early September, arriving within 20 miles
north of Paris. This prompted General Foch to requisition taxis to drive the reinforcement
troops to the front. It became known as the "Battle of the Marne", the first indisputable
French victory. Germans retreated some, but then took up defensive positions in order to wait
for the French in what was to become a new form of warfare, the war of position.
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Recipe for Nov 2008
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Goat Cheese Bread
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The "Chemin des Dames" (Ladies' Road)
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It is hard to believe today that a road with such an evocative name was the stage for such tragedy
over the course of four years. Originally, it was a crest road that King Louis XV had paved, around
1780, so that his daughters could go visit their governess without too bumpy a ride in their coach.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the road wound along a plateau of varying width that dominated
the Aisne valley to the south and the Ailette valley to the north, over a distance of about 20 miles.
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Trenches on the 'Chemin des Dames'
(Click photo to enlarge)
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It was a rather monotonous road, if not a flat out sad one, in a landscape barely livened up
by the occasional farmhouse here and there. The region's economy used to rely on vineyards,
but the "mini ice age" of the 19th century rendered the vines unpredictable and the competition
from wines from the south of France put an end to this once lucrative activity. It is replaced
today with sugar beet farming, and fields that stretch as far as the eye can see. Another
noticeable oddity when you find yourself on this plateau is the impression you get of an
extremely flat landscape. It is hard to realize just how hilly it actually can be, and
unfortunately this is what the poor French soldiers, who were to become known as the "poilus"
(hairy), were to discover at their own expense.
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One War Behind
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At first, it went without saying that the French would crush the Germans. After all, wasn't that
first Marne victory proof of their superiority?
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French Soldier on day off
(Click photo to enlarge)
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The French infantry advanced, armed with bayonets, the noble weapon par excellence, the one
used by soldiers worthy of the name. The uniform was also important as it played a part in
impressing the enemy. The soldiers proudly sported their red pants and blue jackets with gold
buttons. Unfortunately, the Germans already had a head start. They were banking on the element of
surprise and therefore had made themselves as unnoticeable as possible, wearing uniforms
of a dark and neutral color. They were also better protected from the shrapnel. The French
helmets barely weighed a couple of pounds, whereas the German ones weighed almost seven.
Also, the French bayonets were a sorry match for the powerful German machine guns with
their 400 rounds per minute. Finally, while the French soldiers wanted to advance and
engage in hand-to-hand combat as they always had, the Germans hid in trenches. Every time
a French soldier would approach, before he could even understand where the shots were coming
from, he would collapse. It came to reason that the form of war had changed. The French army
staff had to accept that their soldiers needed to dig trenches as well in order to protect
themselves.
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An Impregnable Fortress
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You will find the Hurtebise farmhouse on this "Chemin des Dames". It is just one of
the many isolated farms in the region. When you see it today, so solid and peaceful,
you can't imagine the nightmare and anxiety that the owners and farm workers who lived
there endured in the early fall of 1914. What were they to do?
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The Hurtebise Farmhouse
(Click photo to enlarge)
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They were faced with tens of thousands of soldiers fighting on the plateau. The Hurtebise
farmhouse was too obvious a landmark, and it was quickly destroyed by the Germans who took
over the strategic site. Indeed, nearby was a quarry, one of so many you will find in the
region. Originally, these limestone quarries provided building materials for new houses in
the area. There are about 300 of them along this road, but this one in particular held a
considerable advantage. Located in the hill about 265ft above the plain, it offered the
Germans far-reaching visibility over the valley to observe the enemy, and so they settled
down there. The French soldiers had to climb this hill obstructed with trees and brush, most
often waterlogged and muddy, and when they eventually did manage to approach the top, they
were systematically pushed back by German artillery fire. By mid-November, it had become
clear that this was an unequal fight and the cave was nothing less than an impregnable fortress.
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The "Caverne du Dragon" (Dragon's Cave) |
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This quarry is huge, 500 ft long by 500 ft wide and about 100 ft deep. However, it presented
the inconvenience of having all three exits located on the same side, the south one, where
the French were. Of course, these exits had been planned at a time when the quarry was being
used for peaceful purposes. This design made it difficult for the Germans to either leave the
cave or obtain fresh supplies, and so they dug a tunnel 1/8th of a mile long to open up an
emergency exit directly onto the north face of the plateau. For almost three years, there
were about 600 German soldiers living in this wretched place. The inside temperature was a
constant 54° F, while the air was humid and heavily polluted by the electric generators. A
telephone exchange was set up, latrines were put in, and a well was dug to bring in the
essential water needed for a life that took shape somehow or other. From mid-November up
until the spring of 1917, the zone was considered relatively calm, at least from a purely
military point of view. Sporadic fighting aside, the enemies just spied on each other and waited.
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The Nivelle Offensive
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This war of attrition was too much to bear any longer and it was time to get the upper
hand on the enemy. In April 1917,
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Cemetery of Seringes-et-Nesles
(Click photo to enlarge)
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General Nivelle gave orders to go on the offensive and take back the plateau of Hurtebise.
Motivated by a last surge of hope, the infantry attacked, but it wasn't long before they
realized that the general's strategy was sending them to be slaughtered. The first front
lines attempted a breakthrough, but the men just fell one after the other, and rumors of
a massacre were quick to spread all the way to the back lines. The maneuver left hundreds
of thousands dead. After several months of desperate fighting, the French soldiers were
finally able to enter the cave, on June 25th. One month later, the Germans counter-attacked
and took it back by way of the plateau's north face. The French occupying forces backed up
inside the cave. Only a wall was then separating these strange bedfellows who lived under
the same roof until the German withdrawal in early November 1917. For several months they
shared that miserable place and contented themselves with spying on each other. A no-man's
land was created in the very interior of the cave that allowed soldiers to carry in their
wounded. During these few months, the cave was the scene for a bad surrealist play in which
two enemies who essentially lived together had to negotiate truces just to get a little rest.
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An Invitation to Travel... |
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The Nivelle offensive of April 1917 was such a disaster that an exact count of the dead could
not even be established. It is of course always much easier to commemorate the victories, such
as the battle of the Marne or Verdun, and always much harder to remember the defeats. The "Chemin
des Dames" was a defeat by no real fault of the hundreds of thousands of men who died for their
country. They never proved themselves unworthy. They were just the innocent victims of a ruthless
war, as all wars are. Today, the "Caverne du dragon" offers such a great opportunity to recall a
piece of history that I wanted to share it with you in this newsletter. I highly recommend you visit
it, should you ever find yourself in Paris or in the area. The "Chemin des Dames" is not the typical
road that tourists enjoy traveling, but it is the repository of such extraordinary times that it is
well worth the detour for those who want to remember and try to understand what is incomprehensible.
I also recommend the visit of another deeply moving area nearby; once again, it will take an effort
to remember what happened there. In April 1917, America entered the war and 2 million American
soldiers set foot on French soil to ensure the final victory. More than 6,000 of them are buried in
Seringes-et-Nesles, one of the largest American cemeteries in France.
At the start of the 20th century, men fought and died for a country that wasn't theirs. At the start
of this 21th century, others are fighting in their own way to keep alive the memory of these men who
became heroes in spite of themselves. I believe the best way to pay tribute to them is to make a detour
in order to visit these places of memories, which the local men and women have preserved to this day.
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