Argonne
The Argonne - French L'Argonne , in Germany after the First World War, mostly as Argonne Forest called - separate the wave pool of Champagne from originally only on the Maas beginning Lorraine .
landscape
The Argonne are a hilly country that is formed by several layers (French: Côtes ) of chalk and white Jurassic limestone, which extend from the north-northwest to the south-southeast. It forms a 30-35 km wide north-south about 110 km long strip between the Aisne and its tributary Ante as a demarcation to the Champagne in the west and the valley of the Meuse in the east. To the northwest, the Argonne merge at Charleville-Mézières into the ridges of the foothills of the Ardennes (Crêtes Préardennaises) without a sharp border . The high plateaus of the Barrois connect to the southeast . The heights of the Argonne are covered by strips of forest several kilometers wide. With a prevailing sub-Atlantic climate, holly- beech forests (Ilex aquifolii-Fagetum) are the forest community that is characteristic of the Argonne. In between there are fertile fields and meadows. The valleys of the north-flowing rivers Aire in the south and Bar in the north run through the hill country lengthways. The core is the southwestern sandstone ridge between Aisne and Aire, up to 303 m above sea level, with the Forêt d'Argonne (Argonne Forest) , the largest contiguous forest area in this hilly region.
Theater of war
In 1792 Charles-François Dumouriez and François-Christophe Kellermann fought off the invading army of Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand in the cannonade of Valmy . These events are described by Goethe in his writing Campaign in France .
During the First World War, the area was the scene of fierce fighting between the Germans and the French, especially the Vauquois mine war , and later also the Americans (autumn / winter 1914, summer 1915, autumn 1918, Meuse-Argonne offensive ). Numerous military cemeteries bear witness to the heavy fighting in which thousands of soldiers died. On the German side, the Argonnerwaldlied originated in the First World War .
Web links
- Communes de l'Argonne Ardennaise (French)
Coordinates: 49 ° 11 ' N , 4 ° 57' E