At the suggestion of a friend, I tried using ChatGPT for the first time, using inquiries about sites to visit at Verdun, Meuse-Argonne, Belleau Wood, and Chateau Thierry. It proved very useful in leading me to locations about which I could do more research. It was through ChatGPT I found the Butte de Vauquois which I'd never heard of. Thinking it was primarily a hill taken by the Americans at the start of the Meuse-Argonne offensive, we decided to stop there on the way to the American Monument at Montfaucon and the Meuse-Argonne American cemetery. It proved to be one of the most unique, memorable, and melancholy stops on our trip.
Butte de Vauquois is a small hill, rising more than 300 feet above the surrounding rural landscape. In 1914 its flat top contained the village of Vauquois, with a few homes, barns, and a church. From the top it provides a commanding view for miles of the countryside in all directions. That view sealed its destruction in the Great War.
The German army seized the hill during its initial advance in September 1914 because of its military importance for observation of French movements. Later that fall, the French began efforts to recapture the small plateau, by March 1915 controlling the south side of the village. That remained the front line until September 1918. The entrenchments of the armies, many of which still exist, were at points only 30 feet apart. Both armies started tunneling into the hill to provide for supplies, barracks, and shafts for mines to be set off under each other's lines.
More than 15 miles of tunnels were built during the course of the war. We saw a German trench mortar and the deep shaft in which it had been placed. With trenches were so close, conventional artillery could not be used because of the risk to their own soldiers, so these high arcing mortars were brought in to bombard the French. Entrance to one of the tunnels:
The two sides also set off more than 500 mines in the course of the war, creating a huge gulley, a rift line, running the full length of the plateau between what became the final German and French lines. The largest explosion, in May 1916, killed 108 French soldiers and destroyed the western end of the hill. The village of Vauquois was completely destroyed, only a few foundation stones of the church remaining.
Photo from French side:
Photo from German side:
According to the sources I found, about 14,000 soldiers were killed on the hill during the war with the bodies of 8,000 never found. Among those killed was Auguste Chaillou, one of the developers of serum therapy to treat diphtheria. From 1895 to 1914 Chaillou was chief of anti-rabies services at the Pasteur Institute. Age 49, Chaillou died on the hill on April 23, 1915, while serving as a medical officer.
This was war on an intimate scale, the sides locked closely together for four years. Even seeing it in person, it is difficult to envision what it must have been like for the soldiers on both sides, living day after day, month after month, year after year, in such proximity to each other.
When visiting today you park about halfway up the hill and then do the short, but steep, climb up the wide path. We had the hilltop mostly to ourselves the day we were there, as we walked the trenches and gaped at the results of the mining. We viewed the entrances to the underground tunnel system but could not enter without being accompanied by guides.
The video below provides further views and explanations and this link takes you online article.
This video takes you through the underground tunnels.
A site one must visit to really feel the vast destruction....I found a small piece of brick where the church once stood and wondered how long ago someone first laid this foundation.
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