Bitsch military training area
The Bitsch military training area (French camp militaire de Bitche , also Bitche-Camp or Bitsch-Lager ) is located near the Lorraine town of Bitsch, Moselle department in France . It covers an area of 3468 hectares.
history
The construction of the Bitsch military training area was started in 1900 by the German administration by buying up areas totaling 3285 hectares. A camp for 3500 soldiers and 100 officers was set up in the southeast of the site. On April 1, 1901, the military training area went into operation. The German Kaiser Wilhelm II visited the military camp on May 14, 1903. During the First World War , the site was used to train German soldiers .
After Lorraine was conquered by France at the end of the First World War , the French army took over the area and trained reservists here. After the western campaign , the German Wehrmacht took over the area from 1940 to 1945 for training purposes. The military training area was greatly enlarged, so that 28 Lorraine municipalities - large parts of the cantons Bitche (Bitsch) and Volmunster (Wolmünster) - but also three Palatinate - those in the "Red Zone" located Hilst , Riedelberg , Schweix - with over a total of more than 10,000 inhabitants were excluded from repopulation after the evacuations in 1939 and left to be destroyed. From 1945 the French military used the area, which had been returned to its old dimensions.