Following my visit to the French sector between Compiegne - Reims - Verdun - Nancy - Vosges, thought you might like some photos of some of the remaining trench systems. Visitors to the British sector will be pleasantly surprised with these, I hope! German Trenches, Bois Brule
Finally, entrance to a huge dugout system on the Marne Battlefields. This went on into the hillside, and seems to have been used as an air-raid shelter in WW2.
Nice! For the first few pics, was that the original size or did "mother nature" have it's way with them? Some of the trenches don't seem to fit the "stereotype" so to say, thanks again for the glimpse!
The first few trenches were built from concrete, with concrete fire steps. The wooden rails are to stop modern tourists from falling in!
The wooden rails are to stop modern tourists from falling in! Gad Zooks...........They even have Health and Safety in France ! Cheers Paul great pics......Its easy to see in those pictures why its said the German trenches were far better than anything the BEF did. Andy
Its easy to see in those pictures why its said the German trenches were far better than anything the BEF did. The reason for that is because the Germans were the occupying Power and were content to sit there in well built defences. The BEF & the French on the other had the job of liberating the occupied parts of France & Belgium. You don't do that by siting in concrete emplacements & trenches. They were still good enough for what they were needed for. It also depends on the state of the ground to how the trenches were built .
Great photos Paul - I like that area. never actually made it to those particular trenches at Bois Brule (I take it that those are the ones near Apremont?) as I could never find the right one!!! ("le brules" is another part of the the Foret d'Apremont (in the Bois de la Croix St.Jean), another Bois Brule is a few miles to the SE of this one and yet another (the one I ended up in (!) - see trench map) is 5 miles NE of Pont-a-Mousson...no wonder I got confused!!!) Dave (luckily, there was enough "concrete" in "my" Bois Brule also to keep me happy! )
