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Memory of the WWI in the valley of Munster
Memory of the WWI in the valley of Munster
From September, 1914, the region of Munster is the theater of bloody ambushes until the area of Colmar.
The fights in “Haute Alsace” are widely represented in the national press and they have matters of great importance for the French population.
After a German general offensive in February, 1915 and two French offensives in March and June, 1915 at the Reichackerkopf, a wooded upland, and in Metzeral, a village, the front stabilizes in the south and west of Munster. The third large-scale offensive is planned on the massif of the Linge - Barrenkopf. From July 20th till October 16th, 1915, the assaults of the battalions of “chasseurs alpins”, a mountain infantry elite, are continuously succeed each other. This last fight, which will have cost 17000 young lifes in the elite battalions of the French and German armies, will demonstrate that in High Mountain, the relief plays a prevailing role on the outcome of the battle.
From October, 1915 to the armistice of 1918, the valley of the Fecht will become a quiet sector of the front.
In 1968, the battlefield of the Linge goes out of the oversight, with the creation of the memorial of the Linge association which will realize a museum there in 1981.
A lot of other battlefield are little-known or unknown by the public: Reichackerkopf, Braunkopf, Sillakerkopf, Altmattkopf, Hilsenfirst, Kehfeil and many others whose the scares are very scattered. These sites became places of history due to the disappearance of the last alive witnesses of this human tragedy.
The “Communauté de Communes” of the Valley of Munster realized in 2008 and 2009 two historical tours to the Reichackerkopf and to the Linge. “Société d’Histoire” of the Valley and the City of Munster and the “Souvenir français” work every year on the safeguard of numerous works and historic documents.
A book which recount the fights of the valley of the Fecht by original photos and letters of French and German soldiers was published in 2012 by Daniel Roess : Les Hautes-Vosges 1914-1918 – Les témoins. Edition: Bernard Giovanangeli.
To discover : The Alpine Ambulance Museum in Mittlach
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