New Britain herald., 1930-09-12
VOSGES SLIGHTLY
 DAMAGED BY WAR
Little Battle Activity There
 Scars Soon EfacM

war on the western front, so tn,
 Vosges formed the hinge" O
 PaH's dash into Alsace, which wal
 begun 50 ambitiously with the cap.
 ture of Thanh in the late summer
 Of 1914 and which ended in abso-
 lute deadlock in the closing days oi
 1915.
 Thereafter the department of the
 Vosges and that portion of Alsace
 proper which had fallen to Pau served as a rest sector for the French, and later as training
 ground for three-tourths Of the
 American divisions which later
 were to participate in the Saint
 Mihiel and Argonne otfensives.
 Fighting in Alsace and on the
 fringe of the Vosges was of a
 desultory character, only possible
 when weather permitted. and never
 employing artillery in major
 sense. Due to this. and the fact
 that the first victories were of a
 decisive nature, the damage was
 not great.
 The city of Saint Die in the
 northeastern corner of the depart
 meat was badly shelled during the
 battle of that name, but it stands
 as the only one to be even partial
 ly destroyed. Cornimont. La Bresse,
 Gerardmer, the important railway
 center of Remiremont, Arches,
 Epinal and Saulxures, all of them
 stones throw from the Alsatian
 border, virtually were left un-
 touched. and to the end of the war
 there was not a mark on the little
 foothill hamlets of Kruth and
 Odern across the then German border
 Further on into Alsace, Metze- ral, Mittlach, sondernach, Mulbach and Munster were pretty we'll shot up in the struggle for the Braun kopf. and more to the south and in tho region of Guebwiller,s Alt kirch, Mulhouse and Thanh, the damage was more noticeable in 1918. while isolated mountains in the long Alsatian range-Hart- manswielerkopf, the Ballon d'Al- | sace, the Schlutt, Hoehneck- were the targets for artillery throughout the war, because of their tre- mendous value as observation l posts.
 It is pity, in way that so much fighting took place here, and that the towns, few as they were in number, were subjected to she'll Ing. As early as the spring of 1916 the French were willing to admit that the campaign of the First Army had been motivated by sentimental reasons, and that the b0,00o men who had perished in taking and retakine Hartmanswie- lerkopf had been thrown away in battles of no tactical importance whatever.
 Nevertheless, the French consid- ed themselves fortunate that no more damage was done, and par t1cularly that Gerardmer, the beau- tiful little resort at the feet of the schlutt and Hoehneck. was not even scrached. I,
 Under the circumstances only , 1s.ooo Of the S2,o0o inhabitants of the Vosges felt obliged to quit { their homes during 1914 and 1915. 1 and records show that with the ex- ception Of those who sold out to 1 their neighbors all' had returned by the time the Americans arrived in the sector. The ststisticians were at some pains to list 1o5 towns destroyed in the department and 12s other damaged figures which American doughboys are permitted to doubt at will. Even s the French figure of 1sIs gave only : 2,122 houses destroyed and 5.se3 I damaged, which would indicate an [ average of only twenty houses ( each for the towns destroyed con- pletely
 It is significant to note that of 12o,o0o acres affected by the war, only 4,500 are listed as arable, due to the fact that most of the fight Q ing was in the mountains here and L over land which had never been J titled and over which today cattle c in search of forage. p
 To complete the picture-3s2 fac o ,ories were dismantled or destroy u ed, 2,445 kilometres of highway p and 20 kilometres of railway torn ID. It is probable that all of the 70, Kilometres or railway were be- q ,ween Metzeral and Munster, q neither of which is in the Vosses. The highways were not. are not . Ind probably will never be any nore famous than the rocky roads ). the Arkansas Ozarks. and hence 'annot be considered much of a oss, AS for the factories, it is Inown that the French themselves destroyed several when it was cared that the Germans would ake Saint Die and perhaps Gerard ner, Cornimont and La Bresse, while it is not unlikely that resi- ents of German sympathies (and hey were numerous) accounted for he rest.
 Obviously, under the circum- tances, the Vosses has quite re- overed. Which is to say that it , little different than 1t ever was. 'n hot July day in 1918 the cor espondent patiently pared pota- oes in a little wooden shack on hill beyond -Bois On an equally hot July day in s3o he trudged up the little hill gain. The sign which bore the fen mysterious name cuisine" ad faded with eleven winters LOWS. but there were marks of otato parings on the unboarded GOT, or at least seemed to be. he Vosges have changed that lit Q in the intervening years.
 SURPRISE FOR ALL