. Battlefields of the World War, western and southern fronts; a study in military geography . nchofficial photograph.) ten miles from its apex to the Meuse trench in its rear, which theFrench call the Salient of Vigneulles, and which commands amagnificent view of the Woevre plain in a great sweep from thenorthwest around to the south. Perched on this strategicpoint, Hattonchatel was long a fortified stronghold to whichthe adjacent country looked for protection. At the base of thevineyard-clad apex of the bastion lies the village of Vigneulles,of which we shall hear more. 358 BATTLEFIELD OF VER
. Battlefields of the World War, western and southern fronts; a study in military geography . nchofficial photograph.) ten miles from its apex to the Meuse trench in its rear, which theFrench call the Salient of Vigneulles, and which commands amagnificent view of the Woevre plain in a great sweep from thenorthwest around to the south. Perched on this strategicpoint, Hattonchatel was long a fortified stronghold to whichthe adjacent country looked for protection. At the base of thevineyard-clad apex of the bastion lies the village of Vigneulles,of which we shall hear more. 358 BATTLEFIELD OF VERDUN South of the Hattonchatel bastion is a deep re-entrant, orcurtain as it would be called in an artificial fortress, wherethe headwaters of the Rupt de Mad, a small stream tributaryto the Moselle, have worn their way back almost to the Meusetrench near the town of Commercy (Fig. 91 and PI. VI). It is inthis Commercy curtain that we find one of the weak points ofthe barrier. It may be that in an earlier period, when the Meuseplateau still stretched far eastward, longer and larger streams. Fig. 91—Portions of the Barrois, Meuse, Moselle, and Saffais plateaus, showingthe former course of the Moselle River westward from Toul to the Meuse, and thesalients and re-entrants along the several plateau scarps forming natural bastionsand curtains. (Modified after Davis.) than now exist here flowed down its west-dipping slope into theMeuse trench, cutting lateral gorges deep below the the east-facing scarp was worn back the heads of theserivers would be cut off; and by the time the scarp reached itspresent position nothing would remain of the beheaded riverssave small rivulets occupying the lower ends of the large this or some other history is responsible,9 the strikingfact is that the Meuse plateau in the vicinity of the Commercycurtain is repeatedly cut across by deep, stream-carved notchesby which one may easily pass from the Woevre lowland intothe Meuse tren
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Keywords: ., boo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjectworldwar19141918
