quietest on the western front, and up to the end of the war no
further fighting took place apart from artillery activity and
patrol encounters. Morton's American division came into line
here for the first time in 1918, prior to taking part in the decisive
battles in that year on the Mouse.
Operations in the Sundgau in front of Belfort. The headquar- ters of the syth Div. had been transferred to Dannemarie on Sept. 18 1914. When this transfer had been completed, the offensive reconnaissances of the Belfort garrison were pursued with renewed vigour; they were even pushed as far as Altkirch and Waldighoffen, and their advance facilitated the occupation by outposts of the passages of the Largue between St. Ulrich and Seppois and the garrisoning of Pfetterhouse by custom-house officers from Chavannate. Toward the end of Sept. the organiza- tion of the Belfort garrison was unexpectedly changed by the departure of the active brigade which the Governor was ordered to despatch to the Meuse within 24 hours, and by the demands on its magazines made by the generalissimo in order-to increase the reserves of the armies in the field. Batteries of 155 mm. short guns were formed from the artillery in the fortress; the stocks of 75 mm. ammunition were almost entirely depleted, and the loss of the active troops was not completely compensated for by the insufficiently trained territorial battalions which took their place, though the numbers in cither case were about equal. As against this the Germans in the Sundgau were receiving im- portant reinforcements; and the French reconnaissances, in the Course of their daily encounters, met with an ever-increasing resistance. In view of these circumstances the Governor of Belfort mads a careful calculation of his forces, and toward the end of Oct. proceeded to redistribute the troops which he consid- ered could bs allotted to the defence of the forward positions, leaving in the fortress only the minimum consistent with safety.
According to these arrangements the 57th Div. remained between Guvenhattcn and Strueth as the centre, and, so to speak, the spinal cord of the new disposition. A northern group, equivalent in strength to a mixed brigade, held the interval between Guvenhatten and the Doller on its left, while a similar group was established on its right to occupy the front from Strueth to Pfetterhouse. The infantry of these two groups consisted only of territorial battalions, and the artillery of a few 75 mm. guns borrowed from the 5/th Div., and some 90 mm. batteries formed from the reserve artillery of the fortress. All units were ordered to fortify their positions and to cover their fronts by means of heavy and medium calibre batteries borrowed from Belfort.
Two divisions of French reservists and territorials were thus in close contact with the enemy on a front of 20 m. a line which would have been far too thin but for the fact that its flanks rested to the frontier and on the mountains, and its rear on Belfort. But the main strength of the dispositions lay in the fact that Belfort remained, for all the troops drawn from the garrison and operating in front of the forts, a centre of command which unified all their efforts, and a point of support which could sustain or receive them in case of need.
The new distribution of the French forces in the Sundgau marked the opening of a period of activity which was employed in consolidating the ground held, in rectifying the line, and carrying out small and methodical advances as far as the in- creasing hostile resistance permitted, until the limit of expansion permissible and the limited forces available was reached. The northern group first strengthened its position at Thann, estab- lishing its heavy artillery on the heights of Roderen, and then established itself solidly on the left bank of the Soultzbach. It then swiftly assumed the offensive on Nov. 7 ; by the joth it had pushed forward beyond Michelbach and thus rendered it im- possible for the enemy to pursue his attacks against Thann, which was now in a pronounced re-entrant and could hencefor- ward only be bombarded. On Dec. 2 Aspach-le-Haut fell to the combined efforts of the troops from Thann and those from Belfort, but the northern group was held up before Aspach-le-Bas and the Kalberg, which the Germans had converted into a regular fortress. It therefore turned its attention to the right bank of the Doller, occupied Pont d'Aspach station, penetrated
on two separate occasions into Burnhaupt-le-Haut, but without being able to remain there, and finally established its right early in Jan. 1915 at the S.E. angle of Langelittenhag wood.
Meanwhile, in a series of successful operations, the 57th Div. had occupied Hecken, Falkwiller, Gildwiller, and penetrated into Buchwald and Keibacker woods. The advance of the northern group to Langelittenhag secured the division's left, and shortly after its front was firmly established on the eastern edge of the forest between the Soultzbach and the Spcchbach. Beyond this forest lay the village of Ammertzwiller, which was strongly fortified and held; an attempt to storm it on Jan. 25 1915 failed owing to want of effective artillery support and lack of munitions, .and was not repeated, and in front of Dannemarie, the villages of Balschwiller, Ueberkummen and Eglingen were taken and the 57th Div.'s front was pushed forward to the far bank of the Rhine-Rhone canal.
On the right of the 5-th Div. the southern group, which was at first almost completely isolated, also set to work to gain ground by small partial offensives; the infantry advanced by slow de- grees, consolidating the ground gained at each stage, and thus gradually succeeded in settling and straightening the general line of the front. On the extreme right it was pushed forward to the middle trench of the Largue, below Largin mill. At the same time the position of Pfetterhouse was put in a state of defence, and a 155 mm. battery was placed in position on the slopes S. of the village for counter-battery work against the hostile artillery near Mornach. In front of Seppois the occupation of the Largue valley was completed by the capture of the Entre-Largues salient, which encroached on the heights of Biscl, and further to the N. the southern group's outposts occupied a line in front of and more or less parallel to the Seppois-le-Bas-Largitzen road.
North of Largitzcn the line of advanced posts was at first drawn in rear of a group of lakes in the middle of Hirtzbach wood. Later, when the southern group was reinforced, infiltration northward became possible, and the front was pushed forward to the eastern edges of the communal forests facing Carspach and Hirtzbach. Then on Jan. 25 1915, while the 57th Div. attacked Ammertzwiller, the southern group cooperated by advancing S. of the canal, the hostile positions were overrun and our troops crossed the Aspach road, but the check to the 57th Div. leaving them in a salient, they had to be withdrawn, having effected only a small permanent advance in Carspach wood. The action of Jan. 25 1915 was the last effort made to carry out an advance in the Sundgau. The outpost line of the Belfort garrison had then been advanced to a front from N. to S. along the edge of the Brickerwald in front of Michelbach, thence by Pont d'Aspach station, the S.E. corner of the Langelittenhag, the eastern edges of the Buchwald and of Gildwiller wood, Eglingen, the salients of Carspach wood and the communal forests, the crest of the slopes between Seppois and Bisel, the Entre-Largues and Largin mill. To the N. this outpost line joined with that in the Petit Doller, in front of Thann; to the S. it rested on a tongue of Swiss territory known as the Bcc-du-Canard, between the Ban- holtz and Courtavon wood.
The Belfort garrison had employed the offensive-defensive method to the utmost possible limits in carrying on operations for five months, despite the constant depletion of its forces and munitions by the High Command, and in establishing itself firmly between the Petit Doller and the upper Largue; its re- sources in men, artillery and ammunition were too small to allow of more being done. The objects laid down by the governor in the dark hour at the end of 1914 had, moreover, been practically achieved. The fortress had been made strong enough to inspire a salutary fear in the Germans; the gap was barred and the barrier had been pushed far enough forward to secure Belfort against possible bombardment, save from the ineffective bombs of raiding hostile aircraft. Finally the Belfort troops had set foot as conquerors on the soil of Alsace that soil whose inhabitants had twice been rendered desperate by the French retirements; they had re-established the prestige of their country at little cost in blood, and had had the honour of restoring to France a portion of her beloved lost provinces.
