Bois de Tilly – Tilly-Wald

Northeast of Etain lies the Tilly-Wald. Here was the German Tilly-Wald-Lager. Using various information boards, individual points of interest can be visited and explored.

For camouflage reasons, the camp area was distributed across the entire extensive forest area. Through the Tilly-Wald ran one of the main light railway lines for supplying the camp areas and later position areas located in the Woevre Plain, as well as the switch lines south and west of the town of Etain. The route is still identifiable today. Starting from the former Raubenheimer Weg, which leads through the forest in an east-west direction and is accessible by car, it is part of a signposted information path. In the western part of the forest, the Volker-Stellung ran from 1917 onwards.

At the northeastern edge of the Tilly Forest is the former grave monument for Leutnant (second lieutenant) Ernst Hausmann, 12th Company of the Reserve-Infanterie-Regiment 130 (130th Reserve Infantry Regiment). The regiment attacked as part of the Battle of Etain-Buzy starting on August 23, 1914, advancing from Rouvres toward Amel-sur-Etang. Heavy fighting developed in the area of the Tilly Forest, as the French had skillfully entrenched themselves in the rugged terrain and were initially able to block the German advance. On August 24, 1914, Leutnant d. Res. Ernst Hausmann was killed during this fighting by an infantry bullet. Details of the fighting can be found in the excerpt from the regimental history of RIR 130. Still during wartime, Hausmann was buried at the scene and reburied in 1920 at the German war cemetery Azannes II. The grave monument in the Tilly Forest initially fell into oblivion. It was restored by a Franco-German working group in 2009 and can be visited. The eagle located on the base is a replica