. Battlefields of the World War, western and southern fronts; a study in military geography . in the region betweenOrnes and Damvillers, there are several additional outlyingbuttes, of much value as advanced strongholds and observa-tion posts before the main escarpment. The double-crestedbutte near Ornes called Les Jumelles is significant not merelyas to form, justifying the translation The Twins, but to themilitary geographer its value for observation suggests anothermeaning of this French word, The Field Glasses. It is inthe Toul sector, however, that the military value of the erosionbuttes
. Battlefields of the World War, western and southern fronts; a study in military geography . in the region betweenOrnes and Damvillers, there are several additional outlyingbuttes, of much value as advanced strongholds and observa-tion posts before the main escarpment. The double-crestedbutte near Ornes called Les Jumelles is significant not merelyas to form, justifying the translation The Twins, but to themilitary geographer its value for observation suggests anothermeaning of this French word, The Field Glasses. It is inthe Toul sector, however, that the military value of the erosionbuttes is most fully utilized. Mont St. Michel stands two milesin front of the main escarpment and is crowned by a powerfulfortress which commands the marshy plain of the Woevre in everydirection. Its guns dominate a long sweep of the Moselle Riverand the roads, railways, and canals converging on the Toul of it is a smaller butte, fully prepared for the installation of 11 Bertrand Auerbach: Le plateau lorrain: Essai de geographie regionale, Paris,1893, P- 129. 362 BATTLEFIELD OF VERDUN. MEUSE PLATEAU 363 artillery in case of attack. Thus are the outlying plateau remnantsincorporated as a vital part of the formidable defensive system con-stituting the main southern buttress of the fortified line of theMeuse. Even where not crowned in advance by permanent defen-sive works, it would be difficult to overestimate the possible valueof these islands of high, dry land standing forth in the low, wetplain. The greater ease of communication through the narrowedand trenched plateau in the vicinity of the Commercy curtaingives to that region an unusual importance. Not only do roadsconverge on the defiles from distant localities, but life in thevalley is more active, villages are more numerous, and industriesmore prosperous. Among the latter the quarrying of buildingstone from the limestone formation is important, and quarriesand caverns, old and new, honeycomb the hills, offering excel-le
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Keywords: ., boo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjectworldwar19141918
