Wissembourg Gap

The Wissembourg Gap (French: trouée de Wissembourg, German: Weißenburger Senke) is a corridor of open terrain, approximately six kilometres (3.7 miles) wide, between the hills of the Palatinate Forest to the west and the Bienwald forest (and beyond that the Upper Rhine) to the east.

In October of that year the Count of Wurmser defeated the French army guarding the border at the First Battle of Wissembourg and marched his forces south into Alsace, but in December he was defeated by General Pichegru at the Second Battle of Wissembourg and forced to retreat back into the Palatinate.

The Prussians and their Bavarian and Swabian allies were nominally commanded by Crown Prince Frederick, but their movements were in practice directed by his chief of staff, General Leonhard Graf von Blumenthal.

The Treaty of Versailles returned Alsace to France, and restored the Wissembourg Gap's status as an international border.

The formation which led the push through the Gap was the American VI Corps, commanded by General Edward H. Brooks.