Battle of Hartmannswillerkopf

Battle of Hartmannswillerkopf
Part of the Western Front of the First World War
The memorial at Hartmannswillerkopf.
Date 19 January – 22 December 1915 Location Hartmannswillerkopf, Alsace 47°53′00″N 7°10′00″E / 47.88333°N 7.16667°E / 47.88333; 7.16667 (Hartmannswillerkopf) Result Indecisive
Belligerents
France	Germany
Commanders and leaders
Louis de Maud'huy	Hans Gaede
Strength
Seventh Army	Armee-Abteilung Gaede
Hartmannswillerkopf (le Vieil-Armand) class=notpageimage| Hartmannswillerkopf (le Vieil-Armand) in the Vosges Mountains, Haut-Rhin, Alsace

The Battle of Hartmannswillerkopf (French: bataille du Vieil-Armand) was a series of engagements during the First World War fought for the control of the Hartmannswillerkopf peak in Alsace in 1914 and 1915. The peak is a pyramidal rocky spur in the Vosges mountains, about 5 km (3.1 mi) north of Thann, standing at 956 m (3,136 ft) and overlooking the Alsace Plain, Rhine valley and the Black Forest in Germany. Hartmanswillerkopf was captured by the French army during the Battle of Mulhouse (7–10, 14–26 August 1914). From the vantage point, Mulhouse and the Mulhouse–Colmar railway could be seen and the French railway from Thann to Cernay and Belfort shielded from German observation.

The two French invasions and captures of Mulhouse by the French VII Corps (Général Louis Bonneau) and then the Army of Alsace (General Paul Pau), were repulsed by the German 7th Army (Generaloberst Josias von Heeringen). Both sides then stripped the forces in Alsace to reinforce the armies fighting on the Marne, Aisne and further north. For the rest of 1914 and 1915, both sides made intermittent attempts to capture Hartmanswillerkopf. The operations were costly and eventually after another period of attack and counter-attack that lasted into the new year of 1916, both sides accepted a stalemate, with a fairly stable front line along the western slopes that lasted until 1918.