| It should be remembered that in 1914, with the declaration of war, Alsace was integrated into the German Empire since 1871. The Vosges ridges will be largely crossed by French troops and soon, the front will stabilize on the eastern (German) slope of the massif which will shelter the only mountain battlefields of the Franco-German front. The French troops are therefore on this only place of the Franco-German front in position of invader since they will fight in enemy territory, which will add an additional handicap to the already very harsh conditions of the fighting in the mountains. Of the many sites that have suffered this furious mountain fighting, few are those that will be preserved at the end of the conflict: Lingekopf, Hartmannswillerkopf and Tête des faux The classified site that is visible today at Linge represents only a small part of this battlefield that stretched over 2300 meters from the crest of Lingekopf to the summits of the Schratzmaennele and the Barrenkopf, some remains of which still emerge here and there outside the preserved site. |  | |