Routes for Visiting the Battle-Fields of Verdun
Four hundred thousand Frenchmen died for their Country on the battlefields of Verdun.
It is with feelings of deep respect that tourists visit the sacred ground and thus pay tribute to the heroes who there laid down their lives.
Four routes starting from Verdun lead to the most famous battle areas.
1st Route. The right bank of the Meuse and the forts of Tavannes, Vaux, Souville and Douaumont.
2nd Route. The left bank of the Meuse, Cumières, Mort-Homme, Hill 304 and the “Sacred Way”.
3rd Route. Calonne Trenches, Éparges Ridge and the Woëvre plain.
The battlefields of the Argonne adjoin on the West those of Verdun. We pick up at Esnes the route that leads to this region (2nd route opposite).
4th Route. Montfaucon, Romagne, Vauquois mound, Varennes, the forest of Argonne, Haute Chevauchée and the valley of the Biesme.
This volume ends with the visit to Metz, the Cathedral and the Place d’Armes, the Esplanade, and the new and old quarters.
1st Route
Leave Verdun by the porte Chaussée, cross the Meuse, and the fortified enclosure and turn left along the Rue d’Étain (N. 18).
This takes one up the Faubourg Pavé used by relief troops holding the Vaux and Douaumont sectors.
The bombardment of this suburb was incessant until after Verdun was completely cleared in December 1916.
On the left, the tricolor floats over a military cemetery containing over 6,000 graves. This is the Faubourg Pavé cemetery.
On the crest of the hills, on the left, are the forts of Belleville, Saint-Michel and the Marceau barracks which were utterly destroyed. Here started the rear of the battlefield. Behind this crest the field kitchens of the units in the line were concealed. Every night, the fatigue parties, known as “cuistots”, facing a thousand dangers started from here to take up food to the men in the line.
Follow the Route Nationale for about 6 km.; beyond the Cabaret Rouge Inn on the right, and the Valteline ravine on the left, the road ascends. Go past the cross-road at Bellevue farm and then turn left by the road leading to Tavannes fort.
The road runs downhill and then rises across the shattered Hospices Wood.
Take the metalled road on the right leading to Tavannes fort.
Tavannes Fort
Built of stone about 1880 it was never concreted, like Vaux and Douaumont forts. Tavannes fort dominates the ground behind the Vaux-Souville line and the Étain-Verdun road. The Germans, in their effort to reach Souville, sought by frequent bombardments to destroy the fort which resisted stubbornly, but on May 7th a 17-inch shell destroyed one of the arches and caused serious damage. Looking westwards, the horizon is bounded by the long straight line of plateaux. There are three elevations on this line, three points which mark the tragic battlefield of Verdun; on the left the Saint-Michel fort which immediately dominates the basin of Verdun; in the centre nearer still, Souville fort; and finally, further away, on the right, Douaumont.
Return to the road by which the fort was reached and turn into it on the right, following it for about 300 metres until you come to the fork.
At this fork the road passes above Tavannes tunnel. By following to the left the line of telegraph poles the West entrance is reached.
Although the entrances were constantly shelled by enemy artillery, this tunnel was used as a shelter for the reserves of the Vaux-Souville sector and as a munitions depot. Bunks were fitted up in three superimposed rows, 300 to 450 feet in length, and separated by spaces, where those who could not find bunks slept as they could on the ground. Despite the ventilating shafts in this tunnel 1,500 metres long, the air remained foul owing to the stenches of all kinds. On the night of September 4th-5th a grenade depot blew up, causing many victims.
At the fork, take the road on the right to Vaux Fort. At a sharp bend on this road, the Tavannes ravine, where the railway from Verdun to Metz runs, dips down to the plain of the Woëvre.
The road rises to a plateau formerly wooded but now only a kind of brownish moorland, dotted with tree stumps. On the left can be seen what remains of Vaux-Chapitre Wood and, on the right, the remnants of Laufée and Chênois woods.
By crossing Horgne ravine an open plateau is reached, at the end of which is silhouetted a kind of rock, rugged and uneven “like sandbanks thrown up by a mighty sea over the ages”. This rock is Vaux fort.
Vaux Fort
Built of masonry about 1880 and afterwards reconstructed in reinforced concrete, the fort was only completed in 1911. Smaller and less powerful than Douaumont fort, it dominates the plateau to the south of Vaux ravine and the reverse side of Douaumont plateau. Hence its importance.
To follow the battles which were unfolded round Vaux fort, let us climb on to the superstructure of the fort. From there a huge panorama lies before our eyes.
To the north is seen a deep ravine, Bazil ravine, at the bottom of which glistens Vaux pool. Vaux village, situated more to the right, has totally disappeared, Meusien station has been rebuilt there, its red-tiled roof shewing vividly against the dark mass of Hardaumont Ridge.
On the left, the ground rises towards a crest, forming the slopes of Fausse-Côte and Caillette woods. The projection on the crest is Douaumont fort.
On the right, the Woëvre plain extends to the horizon: in clear weather the blue line of the Moselle Heights is visible. The plain is overlooked by hills, on the nearest of which was the site of the Damloup battery. At the foot are the ruins of Damloup village where the Horgne ravine starts.
The Battle Round Vaux. Attacks of March and April 1916
During the early days of March 1916, the Germans reached the crest on the horizon, to the north of Vaux fort, from Douaumont to Hardaumont redoubt.
To storm the entrance to Bazil ravine by capturing the village and Vaux pool, then to outflank the fort by the ravine at the same time as they delivered a frontal attack, such was the manœuvre which the enemy intended to attempt in March and April.
On March 1st, in front of Vaux village and fort, the French front was held by the 303rd Brigade (Naulin), 408th and 409th Regiments, which were going to be reinforced by the arrival of the 1st, 3rd and 31st Battalions of chasseurs and parts of the 38th, 86th, 158th, 149th infantry Regiments and the 71st territorial Regiment.
From March 6th to 11th the enemy, regardless of sacrifices, attacked madly in mass.
They reached the western edge of the village but were driven back at the point of the bayonet. Barricades blocked the main street of the village which was defended at all costs.
The enemy were so eager that they made a direct attack on the fort. The attacking waves climbed the brow. The slopes, which are very steep to start with, concealed them and gave them protection, but as soon as they reached the more gradual slopes leading to the fort, they were mown to the ground and fled back in disorder, leaving more than 200 corpses in front of the barbed wire.
The attack of March 9th was made with such confidence in their victory that the German commander announced in his communiqué: “Vaux village and fort, after a strong artillery preparation, were captured in a brilliant night attack by the 6th and 19th Posen Regiments”.
On the next day, to justify this lying message, a new attack was ordered, which failed in spite of a deluge of fire rained upon the shell of the fort.
Colonel Naulin, commanding the 303rd Brigade, wrote in his report: “This period is particularly trying, especially from March 9th onwards. The iron rations have been eaten up: food supplies no longer reach us and we are out of water: on the 10th and 11th the garrison is reduced to drinking melted snow. In spite of everything, the morale has never been better. The men realise that the sacrifices cheerfully made have not been in vain and that behind them, Vaux fort though battered beyond recognition is still ours....”
The South-West edges of Vaux in May 1916.
On the left, Bazil ravine and the tip of Vaux pool.
In the centre, the village ranging along the northern slopes of hill containing Vaux fort.
Casemates of Vaux Fort in November 1916.
A signaler reaches the fort.
Losses were however, heavy on both sides, the 303rd Brigade when relieved having lost 2,500 men and 65 officers.
On the 31st, fighting broke out afresh. In the village of Vaux, the attackers surrounded the garrison which made its escape and clung to the Western outskirts.
On April 2nd, a fresh enemy division swarmed down the southern slopes of Caillette wood and reached Bazil ravine. It was a serious moment. Douaumont was outflanked to the South, and Vaux to the West.
The 3rd Corps (Nivelle) was rushed to the relief, the 5th Division (Mangin) at the head; Mangin had only the 74th Regiment available at the moment. There was no time to lose. Mangin reached Souville where he turned and said to the colonel of the 74th who accompanied him: “My friend, no half-measures here but get to close quarters with the Boches and get after them with bombs”.
The 74th and then the whole 9th Brigade crossed Bazil ravine, which was filled with gas, cleared Caillette wood with bombs and at the point of the bayonet, and held fast to the recaptured line, repelling all counter-attack.
On April 9th and 10th the enemy again attacked unsuccessfully in front of the fort but captured Vaux village.
The June Attacks
At the beginning of June the enemy planned to make violent attacks upon Vaux fort.
The south moat of Vaux Fort in May 1916.
Occupying the village, they held the head of Bazil ravine. Their plan was to outflank the fort simultaneously on the West by Fumin ravine and wood and on the South-East by Horgne ravine.
On June 1st, in front of Damloup, their attack failed, but in the centre the bombardment overwhelmed and almost buried the 6th French Division which barred the Bazil ravine.
Deploying from the ravine the enemy advanced through Fumin wood.
On June 2nd, after the fall of Damloup, the enemy progressed through Horgne ravine. The fort, pounded by a storm of 210, 380, and 420 shells was threatened simultaneously from 3 sides, and closely besieged. Survivors from the trenches at hand took refuge in the fort. In the redoubt to the west of the fort a handful of foot-soldiers of the 101st died fighting to the last man.
The Germans reorganised on the flanks of the hill and repulsed all counter-attacks.
The Capture of the Fort (June 3rd-8th)
On June 3rd, at dawn, a wave of German pioneers crept through the fog and smoke, eluding the look-out men at the fort, captured the Casemates on the North Moat (Photo above), then got down into the half-filled moat, and crept stealthily along the funnels on to the superstructure of the fort, where they put their machine guns in position.
Since March, the fort and its surroundings had received no less than 8,000 heavy shells every day. The Commandant Raynal, who was O. C. of the fort, was imprisoned underground with his men. The garrison, regularly composed of the 6th company, a company of machine guns of the 142nd and about 40 artillery men and sappers was augmented by two companies of the 142nd, a company of the 101st and a company of machine guns of the 53rd who had taken refuge there.
To economise food and water, the surplus contingents were ordered by Commandant Raynal to leave the fort. On the night of the 4th-5th, a first detachment of the 142nd made its escape under the direction of Lieutenant Buffet, who returned next evening to the fort bringing orders. On the night of the 5th a hundred more men managed to get away. Carrier pigeons and optical signals soon furnished the only means of communication.
On the afternoon of the 4th, the last pigeon was released. On the morning of the 5th, thanks to two signalmen who volunteered to change a signal post which the Commandant had difficulty in observing, communications were maintained.
On the evening of the 5th, Commandant Raynal sent his last message that could be read in its entirety, and which ended: “We have reached the limit, officers and soldiers have done their duty. Long live France”. Nevertheless, the fort continued to hold out and refused to surrender.
On the night of the 6th, 7th, reinforcements tried to relieve it and reached the moat, but after losing nearly all their officers they were compelled to fall back.
The Germans who had gained a footing in the ruins of the superstructure, were only able to drive the French out of the casemates by lowering baskets of grenades with time fuses and by spurting liquid fire and asphyxiating gas.
Driven back in the underground passages, the defenders continued the fight with grenades and bayonets. The sand bags which were used to barricade the passages were thrown into the air by the rending explosions. Attackers ran at every turn against machine guns or bombers.
“Captain Tabourot, who was defending the north-east gate, lies writhing in agony, wounded in the stomach and with broken legs. The aid post is a hell where hundreds of wounded lie parched with thirst in the stinking darkness of paraffin lamps. Water is unobtainable. The stench increases, in the atmosphere of smoke and gas it is impossible to breathe. On the 7th, at 3.50 a.m. the fort signals again, and these are the only words that are read “... at the bitter end.... Vive la France!” (L. Gillet).
The 2nd regiment of Zouaves and the Colonial regiment of Morocco made a last effort on the morning of the 8th to relieve the garrison. They reached the approaches of the fort, from which clouds of thick black smoke, caused by a violent explosion in one of the casemates, were pouring. Exposed to the fire of the enemy machine-guns installed in the superstructure of the fort and attacked by constantly increasing reinforcements, they were unable to hold their ground.
On the 8th, at 4 p.m. when the German communiqué announced the capture of the fort, the heroic defenders were at last overpowered, the unwounded among them not having tasted a drop of water for two days.
By winning the admiration of the enemy, the Commandant Raynal was allowed to keep his sword in captivity and his heroic men were accorded special treatment.
Five months later, on November 2nd, after the victory of Douaumont, the Germans hurriedly evacuated the fort.
Under the escort of one of the garrison the interior of the fort may be viewed.
Notice in the passages the marks made by bursting bombs. The dummy barricades with loop holes which obstruct the passages were built by the French in 1917, after the recapture of the fort, they replace the walls of sandbags which Commandant Raynal’s heroic garrison had put up.
On leaving Vaux fort, return along the same road to the fork of Tavannes tunnel.
A hundred metres beyond the first bend on this road, the furthest line reached by the Germans in September 1916 is crossed: this line then runs down to the left to Woëvre, passing between Damloup battery, captured on July 11th 1916, and Laufée redoubt.
The whole field of battle is entirely pounded up. A few rudimentary trenches can only be discerned with difficulty here and there.
The woods which used to cover the plateau of Vaux fort and the slopes of Horgne ravine have disappeared.—The much worn surface looks like a sponge.
The Panorama From Souville Fort
At the fork at Tavannes tunnel, turn right towards Souville fort seen immediately in front.
On the right, the ruins of Tunnel and Hôpital batteries; on the left, the ravine of Hôpital wood, with trees denuded of branches. This ravine was crammed with artillery batteries which were daily subjected to fire and deluged with poison gas.
The road turns to the right, at the foot of the escarpments of Souville fort, the shapeless mass of which dominates the ridge. After passing the ridge, the vast panorama of the Souville-Douaumont battlefield unfolds itself. This was “the supreme arena, captured and recaptured, the holy of holies of this sacred ground” where the soil has been ploughed and blistered with thousands of furrows like as it were to a cataclysm unprecedented in nature. No one can regard unaffectedly this battlefield, unique in the world, the furnace where for ten months millions of men fought face to face and nearly 700,000 laid down their lives.
To understand properly the battle which look place before Souville in June and July 1916, let us examine from left to right the vast panorama reproduced above.
On the left the horizon is bounded by the long Froideterre hill. (It was on this crest that the mortuary of Douaumont was afterwards built). On this straight line stand out conspicuously Froideterre and Thiaumont redoubts, then the ridge rises appreciably towards Douaumont fort which crowns the highest point, 388 metres.
Between Thiaumont and Douaumont a tricolor floats above the temporary mortuary of Douaumont. Lower the cemetery of Fleury is conspicuous by a big white patch, and the site of the village is a little more to the left on the reverse of a slight slope encircled, from East to West, by the ravines of Poudrière and Vignes. Nearer, at the cross-roads, is the site of Chapelle-Sainte-Fine; the road which branches off to the right plunges into Fontaines ravine and leads to Vaux.
To the right of Douaumont, the ridge drops slowly towards Hardaumont hill, separated from Vaux Fort hill by Bazil ravine.
Between Souville and Vaux stretch the old woods of Vaux-Chapitre, Fumin and Chênois.
The Battle in Front of Souville (June 1916)
Thiaumont redoubt, Froideterre hill, Fleury and Souville fort formed the last powerful barrier which the enemy, in June 1916, wanted to break through in order to get an uninterrupted view of the basin of Verdun.
With Souville captured, the enemy dominated the town at a distance of hardly two miles, while the defenders in acute danger were driven back upon the last zone Belleville, Saint-Michel, with the Meuse immediately behind.
Time was getting on and the enemy felt themselves menaced on the Somme and the eastern front. This is the time for success the Kaiser announced. A German officer, taken prisoner before the attack, was reported to have said “The capture of Verdun was anticipated in four days”. A curious map distributed to each one of the attackers and later found on the prisoners showed the various stages to Verdun and with false figures of distances the road from Verdun to Paris.
From Froideterre to Vaux fort the French line was held by the 11th and 6th Corps (Mangin and Paulinie).
From the 21st, an unprecedented bombardment was directed upon the zone Froideterre-Fleury-Souville-Tavannes. The ridges were set on fire, smoking like volcanoes and black and yellow smoke clouds rose from all the ravines. It was a continuous bombardment, marked every now and then by the terrific bursts of enormous shells of 380 and 420 calibre which deluged down upon Froideterre, Souville and Tavannes.
On the evening of the 22nd, the enemy, to complete his task of annihilation, poured down upon the plateau of Souville, the ravines, the battery emplacements, and the tracks nearly 200,000 gas shells. The atmosphere became unbearable to the point of suffocation. The enemy expected to meet with no further resistance, so certain were they of having annihilated artillery, food and supply convoys, and supports.
Nevertheless, reinforcements proceeded up to the “furnace”, under the protection of gas masks, stooping under the weight of their packs, stumbling in shell-holes, while shells were falling about them on all sides.
“All night long, the troops climbed this Calvary. In the morning, tired out, they would withstand the shock of the attacking infantry.”
At daybreak on the 23rd, the bombardment reached an intensive fury.
“Masked, blinded, half-suffocated and half-buried in the earth thrown up by the incessant shell-fire, the troops in the line of the Garbit, Toulorge Giraudun Divisions knew perfectly that, when the tornado lifts, that moment would be the signal for the attack. They waited (and what a waiting that was!) on ground churned up by fire, listening to the pitiful cries of the wounded, and with the dead to keep them company. They waited, controlling their nerves, all on edge but strung towards one object, one idea, never to give ground but to fight and hold on. The sentries wiped with their benumbed fingers the glasses of their periscopes, and peered into the smoking horizon. The barrage lifts, the enemy are leaving their trenches, Ah! here they come!” (H. Bordeaux: La Bataille devant Souville).
It was 7 a.m. when across the hills and by all the ravines converging on the plateau, Couleuvre and Dame ravines which lead to Froideterre, Caillette and Bazil ravines which lead to Fleury, Fontaines ravine which extends from Vaux towards Souville, the thin columns wended their way, 80,000 “feldgrau”: Bavarians, chasseurs of the Alpine Corps, troops inured to hardship, advanced on the 5 kilometre front.
In the first line, the storm battalions marched in mass formation, preceded by an extended line of bombers who held the handle of their bombs and leapt from hole to hole. In the rear, supporting troops assembled in the ravines. The French batteries kept up an incessant barrage, harrying these ravines which became charnel-houses of blood, poisoned with gas fumes.
On Froideterre hill, Thiaumont redoubt was forced to capitulate with its garrison. Attacked from front and flank, the chasseurs of the 121st Battalion struggled, outnumbered ten to one, and hand-to-hand fighting took place along the whole front of the battalion which was encircled, only sixty chasseurs being able to escape with their lives from the encounter. Through this breach in the line 4 Bavarian companies burst through as far as Froideterre redoubt. But the obstinate defence of Thiaumont enabled the 114th Battalion of chasseurs to come up, who then deployed, “as though on parade” and by a dashing display with bayonet and grenade harassed and overwhelmed the Bavarians who, for a moment, had got possession of Froideterre redoubt.
In the centre, Fleury village was outflanked. A battalion of the Alpine corps who had succeeded in crossing Bazil ravine before the lifting of the French barrage, hurled themselves against Fleury and gained a footing in the western outskirts.
Before Souville, fortunately, the main German attack was broken by the 307th Brigade (Colonel Bordeaux). The 407th Infantry Regiment held the line on the wooded slopes of Vaux-Chapitre. The right held on without giving way, but on the left contact was broken through a gap being made: this enabled the Germans to fall upon the defenders in rear. It was a critical moment, saved by the Colonel of the 407th who had posted several machine gun batteries near his headquarters, and was able to slow down the attacking waves. At the same time he improvised a force of reserves, adding telephonists, stretcher-bearers, pioneers, orderlies and cooks, and with these he attacked the enemy who were surprised and fell back.
The Souville road was still barred. The fort, where so many heroic artillery observers had been buried or blown to pieces by the bombardment, continued to remain the ever-alert sentinel of the battlefield.
The flags of the attacking German regiments, which had been sent up from the depots to the front to be unfurled in captured Verdun, were sent back to the rear by higher orders.
But the enemy had not yet finished his attempts to force the barrier. They captured Thiaumont and Fleury, and on July 11th they intended to try, by way of Poudrière and Vignes ravines, to outflank Souville fort on the West while at the same time making a direct attack upon the north slopes (Plan p. 78).
In front of Souville, the line was held by the 131st Infantry Division (Duport) and in front of Vaux fort by the 79th (Mordrelle), reinforced by the 128th Infantry Division (Riberpray).
In the Vaux sector the attack failed.
But on the left of the battle, the enemy passed Fleury and penetrated into Poudrière and Vignes ravines. On the 12th, at daybreak, they captured Chapelle Sainte-Fine, thereby threatening Souville fort. The enemy quickened his pace and climbed the slopes of the fort, with the French barrage playing right on them. Under this rain of fire the attackers swerved and a final headlong rush carried 150 Germans to the summit of the fort, “like the edges of foam from a packet steamer which dissolves into spray”. All were captured or killed in an instant in the moats. The Germans could not take Souville.
From the slopes of Souville, go down to the cross roads of Chapelle Sainte-Fine, where the memorial (page 79) marks the limit of the German advance before Verdun.
From Chapelle Sainte-Fine, Vaux pool may be reached on the right by following the famous Fontaines ravine, between the stumps and the brushwood of Vaux-Chapitre wood and Fumin wood.
Five hundred metres from the cross roads of Chapelle Sainte-Fine, on the right, is Haie Renard, the scene of one of those undying exploits which contributed to the safety of Verdun. On August 1st 1916 the Germans had progressed as far as this crest which dominates the head of Fontaines ravine.
On August 5th, the enemy by a hustling attack on the 10th Regiment and the left of the 56th, forced a new indentation in the line whereby the position of the 4th Zouaves was threatened, more to the west. The colonel realising the danger decided to counter-attack in the neighbouring sector, but his whole reserve only numbered 24 zouaves, a pioneer section commanded by Lieutenant Charles.
The position was acute: on the other side of the ravine the Germans were continually advancing. The Colonel sent his section into action. The men fell to the bottom of the ravine which was beaten down by 150’s, then crossed the road, and climbed up in the face of the enemy’s fire. Lieutenant Charles calmly reorganised the line. This little band lay on the ground and fired full at the enemy.
Presently the order to charge with the bayonet was given: every man got ready. The leader rose and with a cry of “Advance” the Zouaves leapt forward. Disconcerted and wavering the Germans turned tail and raised their arms: those who resisted were run through and forty prisoners were sent back to the rear under charge of one man, for by this time Lieutenant Charles had only 7 Zouaves left. With his 7 Zouaves, 2 men and one sergeant of the 56th Lieutenant Charles held the recaptured line. In the middle of the night this handful of heroes was relieved by an entire battalion.
Continue towards Vaux pool and stop a hundred metres from the pool.
Make your way to Vaux pool on foot between the crests of Hardaumont and of Vaux fort.
Make a half turn and come back by the same road as far as the Chapelle Sainte-Fine cross roads. Then continue some 40 metres, taking the turn on the right to Douaumont.
About 500 metres from the cross-roads is the site, on the left, of Fleury village. A slight raising of the soil is the only sign that is left that a village once existed. Captured on June 23rd, 1916, Fleury village was not definitely freed until August 18th, after two month’s incessant fighting.
On June 26th, the 114th Battalion of chasseurs clung to the borders south and west of the village. On July 15th, in an attack made by the 3rd Zouaves, one battalion lost all its officers. On August 2nd, the 56th and 10th Infantry Regiments captured the station to the south of the village, with 350 prisoners and 11 machine guns. Next day, some units of the 207th crossed the village but they ran short of ammunition so that after a close combat somewhat ill-matched, they had to withdraw to their original line. On August 4th, the 134th Infantry Regiment captured some buildings, as also did the 8th Tirailleurs four days later.
On August 10th, at length, the colonial regiment of Morocco planned a systematic capture of the village. From the 10th to the 16th, they advanced to the sap and organised their starting points. On August 18th, supported by a battalion of the 8th Tirailleurs, the colonials attacked singing the Marseillaise and the Anthem of the Marines. Two battalions encircled the village, but in the centre each shell-hole and every hollow had become a miniature fort to be stormed in the teeth of machine gun fire. Next day was a fight of knives and bombs. At night a hundred surviving Germans gave themselves up. After the capture of the village the enemy concentrated a terrific artillery fire on it, and up to September they endeavoured to retake the ruins.
The Southern edges of Fleury, in July 1916.
The Main Street of Fleury, in July 1916.
A trench in the ruins of Fleury, in October 1916.
Fleury during the Battle of Verdun.
One kilometre beyond the ruins of Fleury, the road divides; the left fork leads straight to Bras, but take the right hand one as far as the road to Douaumont fort, 300 metres to the right.
On the crest Thiaumont redoubt stands out prominently. To the left of the redoubt is Froideterre Hill, which was, at the end of June and July 1916, a palpitating centre of the battle. Thiaumont is, in fact, at the junction of several ravines, where Douaumont crest joins Froideterre and that of Thiaumont joins Souville. For three months the rival artilleries poured their fire on this tragic mound. The redoubt was almost pulverised and buried under these terrific bombardments, changing hands 16 times in all. Recaptured by the 128th, on June 30th, it was held by the 202nd Regiment when, on July 4th, the 6th Regiment of Prussian Guards attacked it after a tremendous bombardment.
The colonel of the 202nd, though lying wounded on a stretcher, assisted the commander who took his place. The latter took with him at all risks, to sound his orders, a bugler who had not finished his training and did not know much about bugling. Moreover, his instrument was far from perfect.
“Sound all the same”, ordered the commandant, “Sound every time you see the Boche”.
Though he extracted from his instrument some dreadful noises, the bugler conscientiously carried out his job, which made him a target for any number of projectiles. By his side in the same shell-hole a “feldwebel”, captured at the outset of the action, was poking fun at him. When questioned, he arrogantly replied: “In half an hour, the Prussian guard will be here. You will see”.
Provoked by this, the commandant shouted in his face: “You do not know my soldiers, it is they whom you will see”. Then and there the commandant led a brilliant counter-attack which threw the enemy back on the Thiaumont road.
When the commandant returned to his post, the bugler blew a blast as loud as an ass brays: the “feldwebel” stood to attention, saluted and said “The French are brave, yes, brave”: But he added, throwing a provoking glance upon the bugler: “Their music is... rotten”.
Douaumont Fort
The gorge of the fort with its heaped up moats is now reached.
Climb on to the superstructure of the fort, a kind of rough and devastated field where grass grows and the wind whistles.
Several French 400 shells and a German 420 have broken the thick shell of the fort; deep funnels mark their track.
From Douaumont fort, southwards, the plateau falls and ends in wooded slopes which overhang Bazil ravine: these are Caillette and Fausse-Côte woods. Above rise Vaux fort, then to the right Tavannes, and next Souville. The plateau which contains Douaumont extends to Froideterre Hill.
Turning towards the valley of the Meuse, the monument of “Bayonet Trench” can be seen about 1,500 metres away, the site of Douaumont village being half-way. Beyond the monument are the slopes which surround Dame and Helly ravines. On the horizon are outlined the heights of the left bank of the Meuse, Mort-Homme and Hill 304. The peak of Montfaucon also rises on the horizon.
To the north is the battlefield of the surprise attack of February 21st-25th. The plateau is marked with small hills and culminates at Hill 378, Vauche wood with its skeletony trees standing out: further to the right are two adjoining mounds, the Ornes twins, and finally to the West, by the Hardaumont Hill, the plateau falls on the plain of Woëvre.
The Capture of Douaumont Fort (February 25th 1916)
For four days the German infantry, advancing from the crests which formed the horizon to the North (the twin Ornes, Caures wood), made ground in the region of woods and ravines lying before the slopes of Douaumont, despite the heroic sacrifices of the 37th Division, the Chasseurs (2nd and 4th Battalions) of the 20th Corps and the 31st Brigade (Reibell), all hopelessly outnumbered.
On the 25th the enemy, encouraged by their advance, hurried forward their attacks. Near Vauche wood they climbed the slopes leading to the plateau of Douaumont. The units composing the van of the 24th Brandenburgers had orders to halt and reorganise about 800 metres from the barbed wire entanglements of the fort. One of the lieutenants commanding a company of this regiment decided, however, to take a chance and push on to the fort situated on the crest which was covered with snow. The company advanced under cover of patrols and made a breach in the entanglements. They then discovered the side casemates and, seeing no one, they slithered along the poles in the moats and then climbed up the wall of the scarp on a bank of snow. In this way they gained an entry into the fort which was only held by the turret artillerymen and a few engineers who were surprised and powerless.
The attackers were presently joined by another company of the same regiment.
The French officer in command of the fort had been misled by the snow storm into taking the attacking party for Frenchmen who were falling back and consequently made no effort to stop them.
Why was Douaumont fort almost unmanned?
After the fall, in 1914, of Liége and Maubeuge forts, the high Command had decided against garrisoning forts, and for merging the garrisons with the troops in the field.
Suddenly, on February 25th 1916, the fort till then in the third line, became the first line of defence and moreover at the junction of two units already widely deployed. On that particular day, the staff of General Balfourier which took the place of that of General Chrétien did not imagine for an instant that the fort was so denuded of defenders. Hence this unfortunate incident.
The French Attack of May 22nd 1916
Douaumont became an excellent observation post for the enemy. On May 22nd, the 10th Brigade of Mangin’s division intended to try and capture it.
From the 19th to the 22nd the French heavy guns bombarded the fort. On the 20th, the bursting of a 400 shell caused a tremendous fire in the fort, which blew up a munitions depot and annihilated a whole battalion, according to prisoners’ accounts.
On the 22nd, at midday, the 129th Line Regiment occupied the west part of the fort, but the 74th, unable to take the east part, held on to the crest about 200 metres away.
During the night and the day of the 23rd, the enemy artillery pounded the narrow salient recaptured by the French. A battalion of the 74th lost 75% of its effectives.
On the 24th, the 1st Bavarian Corps reserved for the attack on the left bank of the Meuse, recaptured the fort and its approaches from the decimated troops of the 10th Brigade.
The Victory of Douaumont (October 24th 1916)
For five months the enemy progressed inch by inch from Douaumont fort to Chapelle Sainte-Fine. In a few hours on October 24th, Mangin’s troops were destined to recapture all this field of battle.
On October 24th a dense fog overhung the whole plateau, but Mangin decided to attack all the same. At 11.40 a.m. three attacking divisions were launched.
They marched by the compass without hurrying, in good order and with assurance, over muddy ground, full of holes, where it was essential to avoid sinking in or stumbling. At first observation posts were useless but several aeroplanes went up, and as masters of the air and flying very low, they followed the progress of the troops and kept the Commander informed.
West of the fort, on Froideterre Hill, the “tirailleurs” of the Guyot de Salins division captured Thiaumont redoubt at a single dash, which had cost so much blood and effort. While the “tirailleurs” were consolidating the captured positions, the zouaves went through them and hurled themselves upon the village of Douaumont, outflanking the fort to the west.
East of the fort, chasseurs and foot soldiers of the Passaga division advanced towards Hardaumont Hill, crossed Bazil ravine, without check, and captured Caillette woods.
General Ancelin who commanded the left brigade of the division was killed at the start of the engagement.
The dense fog, which had concealed the starting of the attacking waves and had enabled them to reach the railway without having a single shell directed at them, cleared and showed Douaumont fort on the left.
This view magnetised the chasseurs and foot soldiers. A soldier waved a flag on the muzzle of his rifle, while another man, standing on the crest, madly sounded the charge.
But Douaumont fort was the prime objective and upon a Colonial regiment from Morocco, the one that captured Fleury, fell the glorious task of taking it.
Croll’s battalion was to surround the fort, then go beyond and cut it off while Nicolay’s battalion was to attack and enter it, drive out the enemy and take up their position there. However, in the thick fog, this battalion inclined too much to the West and was late. The captain commanding the first wave of Croll’s battalion not catching sight of his comrades, instead of going round the fort, took the initiative of crossing the superstructure. There his men fell in with foot soldiers of the 321st Infantry Regiment the extreme left wing of Passaga’s division, who were trying to find touch with the Colonials. The battalion came up at the very moment when the fog lifted and revealed the fort.
“With the French aeroplane cruising low just over the fort”, wrote Commander Nicolay in his report, “the battalion approaches the moats in single column line, their leaders in front and rifles slung. Then they climb the steep slopes of the rampart gorge. On reaching the top of this rampart, they find in front of them the mouths of the casemates wide open, and, further forward, the court in an extraordinary state of disorder. In front of this chaos which the great fort had become, emblem of determination and power marvellously recovered, the heads of the column stand still and gaze. The battalion commander, who had halted for a moment at the bottom of the moat to see the movement was correctly carried out, rejoins at this instant the head, and while paying homage to this sacred and unforgettable sight, he gives orders to attack the machine guns which start to fire from the bottom of the casemates. This first resistance is overcome, and everyone reaches his objective (the operation having been fully rehearsed before the attack). All opposition from the turrets is likewise successively dealt with”.
The superstructure of the fort was conquered. There remained the posts and the corridors to be attacked: bombers made themselves responsible for these and in a short while a hundred prisoners, including four officers, were brought in with 10 machine guns, 2 cannons, provisions and material of all kinds.
The monument erected to the memory of the soldiers of the 3rd Battalion of the 74th.
(Photo Martin Collardelle, Verdun.)
The prisoners assisted their conquerors in putting out the fire which was still burning.
During the night the line was advanced 400 metres more to the North. Douaumont fort, the famous “corner-stone” of the defence of Verdun, lost by surprise on a day of grief, was recaptured in a magnificent dash.
On the following December 15th, a new French offensive cleared the Douaumont line 2 miles more to the North, thus robbing the enemy of any possibility of re-taking the fort.
Visit the interior of the fort under the escort of one of the guard.
At the entrance, a casemate has been burst open by a French 400 shell.
The lower structure of the fort, corridors, casemates and rooms are almost intact.
In one casemate is a small museum of shells, grenades, trench mortars, machine guns and all kinds of respirators.
East of the fort the monument erected in honour of the 3rd battalion of the 74th Infantry Regiment can be reached.
On the other side, to the West, the tourist can go as far as the ruins of Douaumont village.
Douaumont Village
It was chiefly in front of this village that the surprise attack of February 21st was checked.
On the evening of February 25th, zouaves and the “tirailleurs” rescued it. From the 26th to the 28th, the 5th German Infantry Division made five furious attacks, but were unable to break down the resistance of the 95th Line Regiment and units of the 153rd Division which were defending the village. On March 2nd, after a preliminary bombardment which destroyed the village and isolated the battalion holding it, the 113th German Infantry Division attacked about 1.15 p.m., North and East. The Germans wore French helmets as they advanced. After a second bombardment the enemy again attacked, overwhelming the defenders, one company of whom resisted to the last man. The remains of the French battalion took their stand fifty metres South-East of the village and prevented the enemy from debouching. On the 3rd, two battalions of the 172nd and 174th Line Regiments retook the village at the point of the bayonet. During the night the Germans counter-attacked twice unsuccessfully with heavy loss, 800 dead being counted in front of one of the French trenches. On the 4th a third and more powerful counter-attack succeeded in driving the French from the village, but broke down against new positions 200 yards to the south.
Return to the Thiaumont road.
Continue to the left, towards the crest where the temporary mortuary of Douaumont is situated.
A memorial fund to the Defenders of Verdun is being raised for the purpose of erecting a mortuary in the centre of the battlefield, on a lofty point giving a clear view of the whole area. (See the yellow pages at the beginning of the Guide). The memorial will include, besides the mortuary, a large Catholic chapel and a mausoleum of each religion.
The remains will not be all placed together, as is the case in most existing mortuaries, but will be collected according to the sectors where they were found and placed in a hundred separate tombs. By this arrangement those who mourn a lost hero can kneel before a particular tomb with the hope that his remains are there.
On August 22nd, 1920, Marshal Pétain, honorary President of the Committee, laid the foundation stone of the permanent mortuary. That of the Catholic chapel was laid with the co-operation of M. James A. Flaherty, supreme head of the Chevaliers of Colomb.
“Bayonet Trench”
From Douaumont mortuary, go down towards the monument of Bayonet Trench. The road passes through the ruins of Thiaumont farm, which once adjoined this road.
Near the bend in the road rises the monument of “Bayonet Trench”, erected to the memory of the heroes of the 137th through the generosity of the American citizen, George F. Rand.
How were the foot soldiers of the 137th buried alive? Many stories centre round this tragic episode. The following version of the story is vouched for by one of the surviving officers, Lieutenant Foucher:
“Setting out from the citadelle of Verdun on June 9th 1916, the 1st battalion of the 137th reached the line on the night of the 10th-11th and relieved the 337th.
“Bayonet Trench” lay on the right of the 3rd company and on the left of the 4th company. On the morning of June 11th, a violent bombardment took place, lasting all that day and part of the night. During the course of the 11th under the bombardment of shells of 150, 210 and larger calibre, the trench assumed the appearance from which it gained its name. The men were awaiting the attack with fixed bayonets, but their rifles were propped against the parapet within reach, for they had in their hands bombs to be used as a first means of repelling the probable attack. Shells falling in front, behind and on the trench broke in the edges of the latter, burying our brave Vendéens and Bretons. Owing to the men not having their rifles in their hands, the bayonets stuck out after the collapse of the trenches. From that evening, June 11th 1916, the trench kept the appearance which it was found still to bear at the Armistice.”
Return to the Car
The road merges into Dame ravine. Formerly, Nawé wood extended to the left, but now not even the stumps remain, so churned up is the ground. From the ridge to the bottom of the ravine the soil is pitted with shell-holes.
From June to October 1916, the first German lines ran over the ridge which stands out on the left. On October 24th 1916, the day of the victory of Douaumont, the Zouaves and the “tirailleurs” of the 36th Division cleared these slopes which were honeycombed with dug-outs. All who were cowering in these shelters gave up without a show of fight. An officer of high rank, was captured as he was getting out of bed and a quarter-master was made prisoner with all his mail.
During the following night, Sergeant Julien of the 4th Zouaves, returning from a ration party was captured by the Germans who were still occupying a dug-out. However, he took a high tone with them, telling them of the fall of Douaumont, and invited them to give themselves up in their turn, then and there. He so impressed them that they soon laid down their arms. He then collected them and brought back to the rear of the French lines his magnificent “bag”, a company and six officers.
At a turning in the road Haudromont Quarries are shortly visible. Their steep white walls show up against the clay of the hill. The enemy had cut galleries in the stone, proof against the heaviest shells.
These quarries were captured from the enemy at the time of the taking of Douaumont by the 11th Infantry Regiment, who on the left wing extended the general attacking front.
The infantrymen set out, singing: “We shall get in the quarries when the Boches are no longer there...”, and surrounded the quarries from the North. They encircled the defenders, firing on them from top to bottom, while the Germans who had taken up their refuge there protracted the resistance. The fight continued with bombs in the galleries until evening.
From Haudromont quarries a further 300 metres to the right is Helly ravine.
On the left is Couleuvre ravine, to which the battered slopes of Chauffour wood, captured during the offensive of December 1917, descend.
These slopes are crowned on the east by Douaumont fort which is plainly silhouetted against the sky.
Next, return to the quarries and keep straight on to Bras.
Before reaching Bras, a road goes off to the right to Poivre Hill and Louvemont.
The road which goes uphill to Louvemont was reconstructed after the village in May 1921.
Poivre Hill
On the evening of February 25th, the 37th Infantry Division which had suffered severely and was afraid of being outflanked on the South-East, fell back on the ridge of Froideterre. Verdun was almost unguarded in the valley of the Meuse. The 39th Division of the 20th Corps promptly reoccupied Poivre Hill and barred the road to Bras.
The enemy endeavoured to break through this barrier, but they were enfiladed by salvoes of artillery which was in position on the left bank of the Meuse. During the entire battle of Verdun, the southern slopes of Poivre Hill and the woods which extend down the slopes on to the Meuse formed, along the edge of the Meuse, an unbroken pivot of the whole of the French line on the right bank of the Meuse.
In 1916 the Germans converted the opposite slope, north of Poivre Hill, into a regular fortress, with concrete galleries, redoubts and armed posts. On December 15th 1916, three columns of the 112th Line Regiment, supported and covered on the march by quick-firing guns, rushed this fortress, flanking the entire German line. It was a complete surprise and in half an hour Poivre Hill was in our hands. German officers were captured as they were getting out of their beds. During this same attack, but more to the east, Commander Nicolay, one of the victors of Douaumont, was killed in front of a fortified cavern.
The tourist who wishes to see the monument of Caures wood, erected to the memory of Colonel Driant and his chasseurs will turn right at Bras, in the direction of Vacherauville, where he will turn right along G. C. 6a to Ville. The monument is situated about 4½ miles from Vacherauville at the junction of the road followed with the road which branches off to Flabas (See plan p. 60).
Return to Vacherauville and turn left towards Verdun along R. N. 64: the road follows the Meuse, and twists round the foot of Froideterre Hill, then Belleville and Saint-Michel. Verdun is re-entered by the Porte Chaussée.
2nd Itinerary: The Left Bank of the Meuse
Leave Verdun by the Porte de France. Beyond the railway bridge, keep straight along the valley of the Meuse which is dominated on the right by Belleville Hill.
Pass through Thierville village.
Opposite is seen Marre fort. At the foot of the hill on which the fort stands, turn to the right. Leaving on the left the farm of Villers-les-Moines, the road then climbs a small eminence, Hill 243, below which is the Charny redoubt. The road branching off to the right crosses the railway and leads to Charny.
It was at Charny that the Germans crossed the Meuse in 1870. Here they shot the retired notary, M. Violard, on the pretext that he had aided the francs-tireurs in a surprise attack.
The road skirts the north slopes of the hills on which stand the modern forts of Vacherauville, Marre and Bois-Bourrus.
Marre will be found almost entirely destroyed. After passing the ruins of the church, take the right-hand road and keep straight on to Cumières. Half-way the station is passed on the right and on the left is the road to Chattancourt.
Attacked on March 14th, and destroyed by shell fire on April 25th, Cumières was only captured by the enemy during the night of May 23rd-24th. On May 26th, in the evening, after a desperate struggle the French retook the eastern portion.
On May 29th and 30th, after two days of continuous bombardment, they were momentarily driven back by superior numbers towards Chattancourt, but a vigorous counter-attack brought the French again to the southern outskirts of the village. Caurettes wood, however, to the south-west of Cumières remained in the enemy’s hands.
On August 20th 1917, Cumières village and wood were recaptured by a regiment of the Foreign Legion who attacked singing La Madelon.
From Cumières the road goes straight on to Oie Hill.
From Cumières, return to Chattancourt station and keep right along the road to Chattancourt. About 800 metres further on the village of Chattancourt, completely levelled to the ground, is reached.
From Chattancourt the positions of Mort-Homme can be visited by the road going to Bethincourt. Motor-cars can go as far as the top of Hill 295 or Mort-Homme, where it is necessary to turn the car round and return to Chattancourt, as the road is cut near Bethincourt by the Forges stream, which has entirely flooded the lower part of the village.
Mort-Homme
Like Hill 304, Mort-Homme was one of the most fiercely disputed positions on the left bank. It consists of twin hills: No. 265 (of which the Bethincourt-Cumières road skirts the summit) and No. 295 (the Morte-Homme proper, round which the road winds on the N. E.), and formed an excellent observation post and artillery position in front of the real line of resistance.
On March 5th, 1916, the German offensive, which, until then, had been confined to the right bank of the river, developed with great violence on the left flank, progressing in six days to the slopes of Mort-Homme.
On the 14th, after a bombardment lasting five hours, sometimes at the rate of 120 shells to the minute, consisting of shells of all kinds, time-fuse, percussion, poison gas and tear gas, the enemy’s infantry attack on Mort-Homme began.
The 25th Division (Debeney), under orders not to fall back, was half buried and asphyxiated. Four colonels, including Colonel Garçon commanding the brigade, and their staffs fell, rifles in hand.
Hill 265 was taken but the infantry and zouaves, by a magnificent defence, held their ground on Hill 295, the key to the entire position. A counter-attack by the 15th Regiment further drove back the attackers to the North-West counter-slopes.
On April 9th, the enemy crept up the ravine of Corbeaux wood and attacked the line between the summits of Hills 265 and 295. During a struggle of unprecedented fury lasting over four hours and foiled four times in succession, the enemy reorganised and made fresh attacks until evening. The 8th and 16th battalions of chasseurs and the 2nd battalion of the 151st Line Regiment repulsed the Germans in terrific hand-to-hand fighting. The 8th battalion of chasseurs, “the battalion of Sidi Brahim” was outflanked on the wings and fought with three fronts, determined to hold on till the last man fell.
On the 20th, the 32nd French Corps (Berthelot), in their turn, took the offensive. After a careful artillery preparation, three battalions of the 40th Infantry Division passed Hill 295 and established their line on the north slopes. The enemy counter-attacked with an effort to outflank Mort-Homme by Hayette ravine but suffered terrible losses.
On the summit of Mort-Homme, the 150th Infantry Regiment repulsed all the attacks of a determined enemy and held Hill 295.
In order to ensure a greater measure of security, orders were given to protect, by means of wire entanglements, the small defensive post at the top of the hill. As soon as night fell, a man volunteered to put the first entanglement in place and was immediately shot dead. A second man immediately took his dead comrade’s place and carried on with the work. He too, was killed. The same fate befell a third man, who after seeing his two fellow-soldiers killed, volunteered to continue with the task. A fourth man brought in the three bodies of the men who had just been killed in trying to put the entanglements in position, and then volunteered to fix a fourth entanglement alongside the others. Eventually the small outpost was entirely protected, and thanks to the sacrifice of these four brave men of the 150th Regiment, the enemy’s efforts failed to pierce the defences.
Finally on May 23rd, a fresh German Corps was hurled against the summit of Mort-Homme, and succeeded in gaining possession of it.
From June 9th to 24th, the enemy were unable to debouch from Mort-Homme owing to the firm stand taken up by the 15th Corps (Maud’huy).
On June 15th, more than a kilometre of trenches was actually recaptured from the enemy.
In 1917, the sector was often the scene of violent combats, the Germans ending by occupying Hills 265 and 295. In these they organised formidable defences, according to their usual practice, especially as regards deep shell-proof tunnels. During the offensive of August 20th 1917 the 31st Infantry Division recaptured Mort-Homme and its tunnels.
Follow the clearly marked path which ascends the slopes of Mort-Homme as far as the monuments to the 40th and 69th Divisions. By following the trench a little beyond the monument to the 40th Infantry Division and to the right, one reaches the mouth of and steps down to the Bismarck tunnel. Continue along the ridge towards Corbeaux wood, from whence there is a panorama view of the valley of the Forges stream and the heights north of this valley (the old French line of March 1916). On the right can be seen Caurettes ravine with its denuded wood.
About 200 yards in front of the edge of Corbeaux wood, a stairway with a hundred steps gives access to an enormous German tunnel, joining Forges ravine and Caurettes ravine.
This tunnel, called Corbeaux tunnel by the French and Gallwitz tunnel by the Germans was captured by the 7th tirailleurs of the famous Morocco division.
On August 20th 1917, this tunnel was passed over but the enemy still held out in it.
Zouaves and tirailleurs kept careful watch at all the exits and ventilating shafts of this immense underground cavern, and it was not until the following day that the garrison of eleven hundred men including a colonel, three battalion commanders, and all their staff gave themselves up.
Continue as far as the northern edges of Corbeaux wood.
Corbeaux Wood
The table-lands dominated by the two Mort-Homme hills are cut on the north by a ravine bounded at the bottom by Corbeaux wood. This was a favourable spot for the massing and launching of attacking troops to reach Hill 295. On March 6th, the French line was brought back to the northern edges of the wood. On the 7th, the enemy succeeded in getting a footing there, wild hand-to-hand fighting being accompanied with so much bloodshed that in many places the snow became red. On the 8th, the 92nd Infantry Regiment retook the wood in twenty minutes; on the 10th, at nightfall, the 92nd, deprived of its colonel and receiving no support from the French artillery who failed to see their rocket signals on account of the intervening wood, had to give ground inch by inch under the assault of an entire German division.
Return to the car by the same path. From Mort-Homme go back to Chattancourt and take the road on the right to Esnes. This rather steep road climbs the northern slopes of Hill 275, bringing one to a pass from which Hill 304 may be seen opposite. Continue as far as the cross-roads where turn right to go into Esnes. After passing the ruins of Esnes church, keep straight on, taking the second turn on the right not the first which leads to Bethincourt.
Do not take the left-hand road which ends in a very steep rough track in a bad state of repair (plan p. 118). The second road to the right twists and turns, leading to the Calvary of Esnes, from which there is a magnificent view of the battlefields on the left bank from Mort-Homme to Bois-Bourrus. At the Calvary, take the right-hand of the two roads.
This road passes between Hill 287 and the famous Hill 304.
Hill 304
Hill 304, with Hills 287 and 310 South of Esnes, forms a line of natural fortresses which kept under their cross fire not only the roads of approach but also the bare glacis or the steep escarpments immediately bordering them.
The nearest sheltered approaches to Hill 304 are Avocourt and Malancourt woods. From these woods started the first attack conducted by the 11th Bavarian Division against the hill on March 20th 1916.
The Bavarians were checked, however, by the French cross fire, on the long barren slopes leading to the ridge. From March 20th to 22nd their three regiments lost, to no purpose, from fifty to sixty per cent of their effective strength. On April 9th, before Hill 287, the first German attacking wave succeeded in gaining the support trench, but the French survivors in the advance trench crawled out from among the dead and debris of their trench and annihilated the attackers.
On May 3rd, 80 German batteries concentrated their fire on Hill 304 and its approaches.
Clouds of black, green and yellow smoke rose from the hill-top as from a volcano, obscuring the sky to a height of 2,500 feet, according to the reports of aviators. As a British war correspondent put it: “The sky was like a dome of invisible rails on which fast trains ran madly”. On May 4th and 5th, a fresh German division attempted to occupy the position, believing it and its defenders to have been annihilated. On the 4th, they gained a footing on the North slopes of Hill 304, from which they were dislodged during the night by the 68th, who then had to withdraw. On the 5th the same German division attacked the Camard Wood and Hill 287 on the left. In this wood, entirely levelled by an eleven-hour bombardment, the 66th Line Regiment first held up, then charged the assailants at the point of the bayonet. At Hill 287 a battalion of the 32nd Line Regiment likewise brilliantly repulsed two attacks. On May 7th, after a tremendous shelling, the enemy attacked Hill 304 simultaneously from three sides with troops from five different divisions. It was their greatest effort against this position. Thanks to two French regiments of picked troops (125th and 114th), one company of which charged, to the strains of La Marseillaise, the Germans were thrown into disorder and driven back to the N. slopes. During the rest of the month the enemy counter-attacked but without success.
On June 29th and 30th, the enemy endeavoured to outflank Hill 304 East and West, by means of liquid fire.
During December, fresh efforts came to nothing.
During 1917, the Germans continued stubbornly with their attacks on Hill 304.
On June 28th and 29th, a powerful attack carried Hill 304 and an advance was made between the hill and the south-east corner of Avocourt wood, in a slight hollow, known as Col de Pommerieux. This hollow was, however, reconquered on July 17th by the French 51st and 87th Infantry Regiments, supported by two battalions of the 97th Infantry Division (335th and 346th Regiments) and one battalion of the 73rd Infantry Division. After a remarkable artillery preparation, the French infantrymen, in half-an-hour, reached the fortified crest, and regained a kilometre of ground. The 87th Line Regiment, went 300 yards beyond their allotted objective and captured an observation post, in front of the crest, which they promptly christened “Le créneau de Gretchen”. The attack caught the enemy off their guard at the very moment a relief was being carried out, and 520 prisoners belonging to three different divisions were taken.
On August 24th, Hill 304 was wrested from the Germans by the 272nd and 128th Infantry Regiments of the 5th Brigade (Nérel). This brigade which attacked in front of Hill 304, on the Pommerieux plateau and at Camard wood, captured prisoners belonging to five German divisions. On the same evening, after capturing Hill 304 this brigade stormed several redoubts and carried the first line to the Forges stream, i.e. more than two kilometres from the starting point.
From Hill 304, return to the Esnes Calvary and from there take the road on the right to Avocourt.
Avocourt, Avocourt and Malancourt Woods
One of the finest feats of arms in the battle of Verdun was performed at Avocourt.
On March 20th, 1916, the Germans who had never been able to take the village, attacked the wood with a fresh division, the 11th Bavarian Division. The attack succeeded, with the help of liquid fire. A French counter-attack on the 29th by the 210th Infantry Regiment, and a battalion of the 157th, recaptured the wood and the redoubt known as the “Réduit d’Avocourt”. The attacking troops which had not been revictualled for four days, had finished their reserve rations twelve hours previously. So fatigued were they that they slept standing despite the bombardment. To rouse them, their chiefs, at 3 a.m. next morning, ordered the buglers and drummers to play. As the day was breaking the music suddenly stopped, a shell having buried all save one drummer. Furious at this, the men, with the drummer at their head, rushed forward, and by 8 a.m. the wood had been entirely reconquered.
From Avocourt, return to Esnes. Again take the Chattancourt road but about 1,500 metres from Esnes, take the road on the right to Montzéville, G. C. 18, as far as Dombasle-en-Argonne, where take R. N. 3 to Verdun.
Dombasle was one of the points where the Sainte-Menehould-Verdun railway was bombarded.
Going through Blercourt, there are two level crossings to pass: after the second, the “Sacred Way” branches off on the right to Bar-le-Duc, via Souilly.
Refugees from the Verdun District passing through Souilly along the “Sacred Way” worn into furrows by motor convoys.
The fate of Verdun, even of France, depended on this road. Disintegrated by frost and thaw, and subjected to the wild rush of transport which in the space of five days raised the fighting strength of the Verdun army from 150,000 to 800,000, this road visibly sank. When General Pétain took command of the battle on February 25th, his first care was to ensure that this road was firm and sound. All along the road 16,000 men divided into gangs were engaged upon the task of repairing it. Quarries were opened in the vicinity, and without interrupting the convoys of lorries which ran at regular intervals, thousands of roadmen threw tons of stones on the road. The road stood up to the strain and carried all necessary supplies up to the vast battle.
Re-enter Verdun by the Porte de France.
3rd. Itinerary: The Tranchée de Calonne — The Ridge of Éparges, the Woëvre
Leave Verdun by the Pont Beaurepaire, Rue de l’Hôtel-de-Ville, Rue St-Sauveur, Rue St-Victor, the Porte Nationale and R. N. 3 (See plan of Verdun, exit III).
Follow R. N. 3 for two and a half kilometres and then take R. N. 64, on the right, which follows the Meuse valley, towards Houdainville and Dieue-sur-Meuse. At the latter village, turn left along I. C. 5 to Sommedieue. This very picturesque road climbs through Amblonville forest towards the Tranchée de Calonne, I. C. 3 which should be taken on the right.
The Tranchée de Calonne
It is almost straight, crossing the entire Amblonville forest. It was formerly the haunt of poachers and hunters only.
But now the Tranchée de Calonne evokes more tragic memories. From the word “Tranchée” it might be supposed that it was a relic of the Great War. It is not so, however, since for more than a century this name had been given to the road which M. de Calonne, Minister of Finance under Louis XVI, had had laid out on the ridge of hills to approach his château, built at the foot of the Heights of the Meuse. This château was destroyed during the Revolution.
The story goes that M. de Calonne hoped one day to receive the king in his residence, and wishing to welcome him in a worthy manner, had planted rose trees all along the road. Anyway, during the war wild roses could be seen blooming along this forest road which became indeed a “trench” in the military sense of the word.
The front cut the “tranchée de Calonne” a little to the south-west of Saint-Rémy. On both sides it was bombarded and kept busy with never-ending attacks and counter-attacks.
In March 1915, the French brought into position there naval 140 guns intended for firing at a 12,000 metre range over Éparges, right behind the enemy lines. It was with difficulty that the sailors installed their heavy guns in this clay soil.
This effective bombardment irritated the Germans, who on the 24th, launched a mass attack which reached the third support line.
The naval officers who were isolated in their post with their telephone wires cut and no contact with the infantry, rapidly organised their defence and swept the ground with the fire of their only heavy guns and a few 75s, dragged up by hand, which fired with their sights at zero.
The Germans, however, continued to advance, and on the 25th they were no more than one kilometre from the guns, the only protection for the sailors now being broken down trenches and the remains of barbed wire entanglements. On the 26th, while the sailors were preparing to make a firm stand against the enemy’s attack, two French battalions of chasseurs, called in to reinforce, crawled through the undergrowth and gradually got up to the position from which they counter-attacked. On the 27th, the firing died down, but the Germans reorganised and again attacked on May 5th. The first rush gave them some advantages, which were quickly wrested from them by the arrival in the field of the Moroccan brigade and six battalions of chasseurs who recaptured, in a few hours, all the ground lost on April 24th.
The Tranchée de Calonne enters the forest, every part of which was used by both sides during the war for engineers’ and artillery parks, aid posts, shelters, small-gauge railways and gun emplacements of which trace can still be found.
On the left the bifurcation of Mont-sous-les-Cotes is passed.
Soon the forest clears and then only blackened tree stumps are seen, cut by shot and shell, as the old lines are crossed.
Pass the road junction, to the left of the Éparges road, a road which is broken up and impassable. Continue along the Tranchée de Calonne which crosses, at 1,500 metres, the hill of Senoux near which were the enemy first line trenches. Turn left along I. C. 13 in the direction of Saint-Rémy. After 2½ kilometres the road descends as far as the stream of Longeau or Éparges.
All along this road, on the left side, the Germans had built into the hill concrete dug outs, pillboxes, underground galleries and headquarters posts and there are also some German tombs.
On reaching the valley, near the stream, there are cross-roads, the road on right leading to Saint-Rémy, the ruins of which can be seen. Continue straight on to Combres, along an uphill road. Beyond the crest, at a sharp turn to the right, opposite a large blockhouse, get out of the car and proceed left along the path to the Éparges crest, which at first runs along the south slope of the spur in the old German positions. Notice on the right the entrances to many huge mine galleries which, under the crest, communicate with the openings on the north slope. The path rises to the eastern edge of the spur, point X (on plan), whence there is a wide view over the Woëvre. Return along the trenches on the crest. On the north slopes were the French lines containing a series of huge mine craters organised into defensive positions. At the highest point marked by a sign post, an excellent general view of the position is obtained.
Éparges Spur
Éparges spur, 1,400 metres in length and 346 in height, dominates the Woëvre plain. Its sides are steep and slippery, springs break out of the soil and small streams drain down its slopes. It is in very truth, as it has been called, “a mountain of mud”. It is a magnificent observation post which dominates the surrounding country. “He who holds Éparges, has all the roads under fire”.
The Germans gained possession of Éparges on September 21st 1914 and quickly organised several lines of trenches between the summit and the valleys; at certain points five ranges of fire could be brought to bear on a point, and the whole crest was transformed into a strong redoubt, flanked east and west with two bastions.
The French occupied, to the North, the brow of Montgirmont and Éparges village, about 600 metres from the German trenches.
It was at the West part of the Spur (point C) that, at the end of October, the French commenced their attack, step by step, to the sap, at the same time penetrating into the woods which cover the flanks of the ravine.
In February there started a series of almost daily attacks and counter-attacks, only finishing at the beginning of April. On February 17th, thanks to a mine explosion, the French got a footing in the enemy first line; attacks and counter-attacks lasted five days during which Colonel Bacquel was mortally wounded at the head of his troops. The French held all the west bastion and they started to advance towards the east bastion. From March 13th to 21st, they returned to the attack and occupied the enemy front line.
On March 27th a battalion of chasseurs made a fresh push, bringing them nearer the summit. On April 5th, started the last big attack which the 12th Division was to carry on day and night until the 9th. The rain and muddy ground seemed for the moment to hold them back and render their efforts in vain.
In the evening, part of the crest was occupied but the use of aerial torpedoes which blotted out whole ranks of men, and a massed counter-attack, launched on the morning of the following day at 4.30 a.m., robbed them of the gains of the first advance. During the evening of the 6th and all the night of the 6-7th, in spite of a continuous downpour, the trenches were recaptured step by step, with 100 prisoners including several officers.
On the 8th the summit and the west ridge were firmly occupied and at midnight, after fifteen hours of furious and uninterrupted fighting practically the whole ridge was in French hands.
On the night of the 8-9th, it took fourteen hours to get fresh troops into position in squalls of rain and a blinding wind. The attack was resumed at 3 p.m. on the 9th, the ground being hollowed out into deep pits into which men sometimes disappeared altogether. Finally the French held the west bastion (point C), the fortified curtain and stood their ground in front of the east part (point X).
A mine crater at the extremity of the spur, point X. (60 metres in diameter, 30 in depth).
At the end of 1915 and in 1916 the struggle was rather less bitter but still deadly enough: the story of a mine exploded by the Germans, as told by a young Lieutenant of the 74th Infantry Regiment, brings out vividly the tragic side.
“On the evening before, I had relieved, between the point “X” and the point “C”, a section of the 129th. My night had been spent in visiting my posts and establishing contact. At daybreak I returned to my hole, a mine listening gallery running down crosswise for about 15 metres. Everything was quiet and it appeared that the enemy had done no work for two days on their mine chamber. Were we going to be blown up? No one dreamt it would be so.
“About 4 p.m. we distinguished quite plainly the detonations of several petards. “Good, the Boches are working, we are alright for to-day!”
“At that very moment we heard a formidable rumbling, our dug-out rocked and came to earth again as though a Hercules had lifted it several metres high and then let it fall again with a bump. We were turned topsy-turvy one on top of the other in the darkness.
“Cries were heard, some one was wounded. We lighted a candle and extricated the man who fortunately had nothing the matter. “Come on, boys, at them with bombs”.
“To get out—the exit was blocked three metres high at least. Moreover a stream of water had been let in at the higher end of the sap.
“Without loss of time we got down to work. To reach the piled up debris a man had to crawl in the midst of the stream, flat on his stomach, and only one could work at a time.
“An hour passed, then two, centuries it seemed. The water rose, the air became less and less pure.
“I spare you the agony of a man who perceived that his end was near, who saw it coming and knew that he could not escape it.
“It was now three hours since the mine went up. The water had reached our feet. The candles had gone out, we could breathe only with the greatest difficulty, and everything seemed to be going round.
“All of a sudden a cry was heard: “Lieutenant, here is the daylight.” A man had succeeded in making a hole through the mud with the barrel of his rifle.
“At last! Everyone felt restored to life. Already we could breathe again. Our candles would burn.
“After another half-hour we got out of this hell and it was time too.
“Where were we? In the enemy’s lines or our own? What had happened during these four hours? What had become of my posts?
“I pointed out to my men the direction of our lines and I tried to regain my bearings. But the aspect of the ground had completely altered. For half-an-hour I probed the darkness. I could make nothing of it, when, suddenly, I seemed to see two shadows. I made myself known, but the two men moved off and fired a star-shell in my direction. It was a German star-shell.
“I made my way to the rear and reached the Battalion Command Post at Bois Joli. I had been posted “missing”.
“No one had news of my section. I went back to the line and found a corporal and two men who were in the line at the time of the explosion. For four hours they had prevented the enemy patrols from investigating the ground and occupying it. They were the sole survivors.”
Return to the car by the same path.
Continue straight along and rejoin, at Combres, G. C. D. 10 that leads to Fresnes or making a half-turn, go down to the cross-roads of Saint-Rémy, turn to the right towards Éparges, cross the village, and keep on towards Trésauvaux passing between the crest of Montgirmont and Hures Hill, on the left (photo above), and so reach Fresnes-en-Woëvre.
At Fresnes turn left, on leaving the village, towards Manheulles and follow R. N. 3 straight on to Verdun.
4th Itinerary: The Argonne — Montfaucon — Romagne
This itinerary is a continuation of the circuit of the left bank of the Meuse. It joins it at the village of Esnes (see plan above, on the right).
Tourists who do not wish to prolong their itinerary by the loop Montfaucon-Romagne can make straight for Vauquois, then, in Argonne, by the G. C. 28, the road from Esnes to Varennes via Avocourt and Vauquois.
Tourists starting from Sainte-Menehould can reach Varennes by R. N. 3 from Islettes and Clermont-en-Argonne road: from Clermont, climb the Aire valley as far as Varennes, then Vauquois by G. C. 2a and R. N. 46.
This itinerary joins up with that from Champagne via Vienne-la-Ville and Ville-sur-Tourbe.
Starting from Esnes by G. C. 18, the road climbs to Hill 304, then falls to Forges stream and Malancourt, beyond which were our first lines from 1914 to 1916.
The road then climbs towards the peak of Montfaucon, one of the most famous German observation posts along the whole front. This peak embraced a horizon extending from the plains of Champagne to the Heights of the Meuse.
From Hill 304 the tourist traverses the battle area of the 79th American Division when the latter attacked the formidable heights of Montfaucon on September 26th 1918.
To the 313th American Regiment fell the honour of making a direct attack on Montfaucon while the other regiments of the division had to outflank the peak right and left. Reaching the bottom of the slopes the 313th attacked with two tanks at nightfall. They were overwhelmed with a deluge of fire and forced to withdraw to the northern edges of Montfaucon wood.
On the following morning they returned to the attack, supported by tanks and a barrage of machine guns. At 11 a.m. the 313th entered the village and at 1 p.m. units of the 27th Division effected contact with the victors.
A large number of bodies have since been taken to the United States, but 15,000 graves still remain in this cemetery.
From Montfaucon follow I. C. 4 to Cierges and Romagne. In Romagne, near the church keep right along the Cunel road and cross the bridge. About 250 metres beyond the village, the vast American cemetery of Romagne on the slopes of a hill comes into view. Return to the church, then follow the Charpentry-Varennes road, G. C. 2a.
Pass through Eclisfontaine and then Charpentry. Beyond this village the road descends the valley of Aire. Two kilometres beyond the village, turn left along R. N. 46 to Varennes.
In Varennes, after crossing the railway, and before reaching the church, turn left for 200 metres, then turn left again along G. C. 38 which goes down to Vauquois. Cross the railway and about 4 kilometres from Varennes, take the road leading right to the new village of Vauquois at the foot of the famous mound.
Vauquois
Vauquois is one of the famous points of the Argonne battlefield. The Germans took it in September, 1914, during a strong attack on the French 3rd Army, in their efforts to encircle Verdun. The ridge concealed their operations to the north of Varennes, covered the re-victualling of the Argonne front by the Four-de-Paris road, and in addition furnished their artillery with an excellent observation post. The importance of the position caused the Germans to convert it into a veritable fortress. Caves were made in the rock and connected by underground passages. The streets of the village were excavated, so that the vent-holes of the cellars formed loop-holes on a level with a man’s head. The walls of the houses and gardens were battlemented, and trenches were dug in the slopes in front of the village. The position was supported and flanked by the guns in the Woods of Cheppy, Montfaucon and Argonne. Approach was the more difficult, in that the position was surrounded on all sides by ravines and glacis, which provided admirable firing positions for the machine-guns.
This formidable position, which, earlier in the war, before the improvement in the French artillery, would have been considered impregnable, was taken by the French 10th Infantry Division (Valdant) after heroic sacrifices. The first assaults especially, made without artillery preparation or support, cost the splendid French Infantry heavy losses.
The first attack was made on October 28, 1914, by two battalions of the 46th Regiment of the line. The French front lines were then on the Mamelon Blanc, facing Vauquois. Two companies debouching from Noir Wood attacked the western slopes of Vauquois, the sections deployed in skirmishing order, without artillery preparation, and without a single big French gun being fired on the village. As the men dashed forward up the slopes, they were shot down by the carefully concealed German riflemen, but continued nevertheless to advance, in spite of the rain of bullets, till an avalanche of big German shells overwhelmed and scattered them. At the end of half an hour almost all of them were out of action.
The second assault was made on the following day (the 29th), after a very short artillery preparation, during which only a few shells were fired, most of which failed to burst. Fresh companies attacked further to the right, near the Cigalerie. The men charged with the bayonet, but as on the previous day, were mown down by the German machine-guns and rifles, and failed, after heavy losses. At night, an attempt to rescue the wounded left on the field was unsuccessful, the enemy firing pitilessly on the stretcher-bearers, in spite of the Red Cross lantern.
The third assault was carried out on February 17th, 1915. The operation went near to success. The artillery preparation with 75’s, 155’s and 270’s lasted more than twelve hours. Before the attack, three mines should have gone up and destroyed the enemy lines. Only one exploded, but not being dug deep enough into the hill, the effect was merely that of a small mine and the stones thrown up fell back for the most part on the starting off trench, killing or wounding 30 men. In spite of the confusion created by the mine, the men climbed the ladders and proceeded to the attack. The band of the 31st Line Regiment, grouped on the Mamelon Blanc, in full view of the enemy, played the Marseillaise. In a few minutes several bandsmen fell killed or wounded, but the attacking waves had gone forward and the surviving bandsmen sounded the charge. The colonel of the 31st, who was leading the attack, fell mortally wounded but the companies leading the attack scaled the slopes of Vauquois. The 31st charged into Vauquois and reached the ruins of the church, but caught by the fire of the Argonne and Montfaucon batteries and the machine guns of Cheppy, they were forced after heavy losses to fall back. Abandoning the plateau they held on half-way down the hill.
A fourth attack was carried out on February 28th with no more success. At last, on March 1st, the decisive attack was executed by the 31st, supported by the 46th and the 89th. The preparation was further improved. A plan of the village, of which only the ruins were left, was issued to the troops. Each company had its precise objectives and the men were armed, for the first time, with the new hand-grenades, charged with melanite.
The bombardment began at dawn. Big guns shattered the dug-outs, and 75’s hoisted to the top of Mamelon Blanc, and fed by infantry who carried up shells on their backs, fired directly on the village.
The start off was magnificent. Suddenly, a flashing line of bayonets stood erect on the flank of the hill.
Vauquois Hill
The slope occupied by the French lines: view taken from the Mamelon Blanc.
In the foreground, the Gabionnade, then the road from Boureuilles to Cheppy and the communicating trenches leading to the front line at the top of the hill.
In the background was the pretty village of Vauquois of which nothing is left.
The slope was hard to climb. Standing on the parapet a bugler madly sounded the charge until he was laid low by a bullet. At his observation post, General Valdant, who was following the attack, turning with great emotion to his officers, raised his kepi, and said: “Gentlemen, salute!” The fight was stubborn: twice the troops, dashing from one shell-hole to another, reached the plateau, the second time standing firm. The houses were taken one by one, and the church reached. The village had been wiped out—only shell-holes, heaps of stones, bits of walls and shattered cellars remained. Throughout the next day the Germans shelled the defenders, who were armed only with rifles. Outflanked, the French were slowly forced back from shell-hole to shell-hole, fighting all the time, but their line of defence, organised under fire on the edge of the plateau, brought the enemy to a standstill.
At 2 p.m. the French infantry again attacked the village, carried the German trenches, entered the ruins at 2.35 p.m. and drove back the enemy at the point of the bayonet. At 3, 4, 5 and 5.30 p.m., the Germans counter-attacked, but although troops of fourteen different units were successively launched, they could not dislodge the French from the main street. Twice during the night they tried, in vain, to take the church. For four days and nights, under an incessant pounding by high-explosive shells and a rain of bullets, the French troops held on, without supplies, dependent for their food on the rations taken from the dead. The Colonial Infantry, who for a short time relieved the attacking troops, were decimated in a few days. The Germans were already making use of a powerful minenwerfer, to which the French could only reply with hastily-devised mortars roughly made out of 77 mm. shell-cases, and which carried only 100-150 yards. It was an unequal contest. The Germans attacked almost every night, but were repulsed with hand-grenades and rifle fire, sometimes with the bayonet. The position became untenable, and the French had either to retreat or advance. Once more they attacked.
On the afternoon of March 4th, the 76th Line Regiment took the German trenches west of the church, and reached the wall of the cemetery in spite of small mines being blown up under their feet, and the enemy’s bombs. On the 5th a German counter-attack was repulsed.
The capture of Vauquois by the French was definite. During the night of the 15th-16th, a fresh German attack was easily repulsed. On the 16th, at the Cigalerie, which during the attacks of February and March had served as a dressing station, Standard-bearer Collignon, of the 46th Regiment of the line, Councillor of State, and former Secretary-General to the Presidency of the Republic, who had voluntarily enlisted at the age of fifty-eight, was killed by the explosion of a shell while trying to rescue a wounded man belonging to the 76th Regiment of the line. Ever since, at Regimental roll-calls, his name follows that of La Tour d’Auvergne, and the reply is made: “Died on the field of honour”.
Monument erected to the memory of “Poilus”, killed in the attacks on Vauquois.
Cazeneuve, of the Opéra Comique, Adjutant of the 46th Regiment of the line, who had volunteered at the age of fifty-four, was also killed at Vauquois by a bomb which shattered his dug-out.
Vauquois for long remained a particularly dangerous sector, the scene of frequent surprise attacks, of mining and counter-mining, and of continuous bombardment. The Germans were not reconciled to the loss of this position, which gave the French an outlook over Varennes and the road which formed a continuation of the light railway which they had built between Montfaucon and Spincourt. On March 22, 1915, near the ruins of the church, they attacked a trench with liquid fire. Mines were exploded almost every month, followed by fighting for possession of the craters.
The battle of Verdun was followed by comparative calm in this sector, both sides practically abandoning mine warfare. In 1917, there was hardly anything except surprise raids or reconnoitring parties. On September 26th 1918, the first day of the Franco-American offensive, the outskirts north of Vauquois were completely cleared and Boureuilles was captured by the Americans.
After visiting Vauquois, return to and follow G. C. 38 to Varennes (214 miles).
Varennes
Coming from Vauquois, the lower town is entered, opposite the church. Cross the bridge over the Aire. The Rue de la Basse-Cour brings you to the Place du Marché where you will see, on the right, the ruins of the house in which Louis XVI spent the night before his arrest.
Drouet who had recognised the king at Sainte-Menehould, reached Varennes before him by a short cut. The whole town, aroused by the tocsin, assembled and compelled the king’s carriage to stop.
Ascend to the upper town which is situated on the slope of a hill. On leaving the village turn right along G. C. 38, the road to Vienne-le-Château, which climbs towards the forest of Argonne. At the edge of the plateau look behind for a view of the Aire valley and Vauquois Hill. About 3 kilometres past Varennes, a road leads right to some German dug-outs said to be those of the Crown Prince.
Return to the Vienne-le-Château road.
One kilometre further and 200 metres beyond the highest point of the road, the Haute-Chevauchée road branches off right and left, an old Roman road running along the central ridge of the Argonne plateau.
Turn left and drive carefully for the first two kilometres which are in pretty bad repair.
The road passes through Bas-Jardinet Woods, which are full of gun emplacements. On leaving the woods, the road climbs towards Hill 285. On the right and behind this hill are the sectors of Fille-Morte and Courte-Chausse, the scene of struggles as stubborn as those in Grurie Wood.
The Haute-Chevauchée road is the central pivot where the Germans endeavoured, on July 13th 1915, to dent in the French front so as to reach Clermont-en-Argonne and the Sainte-Menehould-Verdun railway.
On July 13th, the 113th Regiment held the sector of Haute-Chevauchée, on their right the 4th held Hill 263, while on the left the 91st were on the plateau of Bolante. After an annihilating fire which completely destroyed these sectors, five regiments of the 16th German Corps broke through the French lines. The Germans, who no longer had any troops to face, believed that they could march unhindered to the south. Already the enemy patrols had reached the cross road of Maison Forestière, 2 kilometres south of Hill 285.
The 82nd and 66th Battalions of chasseurs and the 131st who had just been relieved received warning at their billets and went up into the line under a barrage of enemy fire, by paths marked out with corpses, through ravines full of poison gas. The men, who were exhausted by a whole night’s march, hurried forward, gasping and almost suffocated. The order was given to the infantry and chasseurs to counter-attack. The 3rd Battalion of the 131st, led by their commander, swarmed up the steep slope of Bolante plateau. The Germans crouching among the tall ferns endeavoured to withstand them, but they were sharply hustled and did not waste time in turning tail. Bolante plateau and the crest of Fille-Morte were cleared at the point of the bayonet, without artillery support. Further to the right, the 66th Battalion of chasseurs captured Hill 285, while the 82nd, with three battalions in the field, recaptured the crest joining Hills 285 and 263.
The 1st Battalion of the 82nd relieved the battalion of the 4th which was defending the redoubt of Hill 263.
The line was established along Hill 285.
By going on as far as the cross road at the Maison Forestière, the large cemetery is reached.
Return to the Varennes-Four-de-Paris road, downhill road skirting the Meurissons ravine.
It was in this wild ravine of the Meurissons spring that the Garibaldian regiment, placed at the disposal of General Gérard, commanding the 2nd Corps, received their baptism of fire. On December 26, 1914, the 2nd Garibaldian Battalion was detailed to take a German trench. The attacking front was limited, about 150 yards, but the position was strongly held and protected by a deep entanglement of barbed wire. After an artillery preparation lasting from midnight until dawn, the Garibaldian companies rushed forward, one behind the other, to make a breach at all costs, but were held up by the uncut wire. At one point an opening was made and a few men got through to the edge of the German trench, only to be killed there. It was during this engagement, which cost the 2nd Battalion 30 dead, 17 missing, and 111 wounded, that Second-Lieutenant Bruno Garibaldi—a grandson of Giuseppe Garibaldi, “the old red bird” whom, in 1870, the Prussian General Werder confidently expected to “catch in his nest” in the Vosges, but failed in the attempt—was killed. Bruno Garibaldi, though in reserve, advanced to the assault with the 2nd Battalion, his sword drawn, his green tunic unfastened, showing the traditional and symbolic red shirt. Wounded in the hand, he went back to the trench to have it dressed, then returned immediately to the fight. Struck by a bullet, he continued to urge his men forward, until another laid him low. Before dying, he embraced a wounded comrade near by, saying “Kiss my brothers for me”.
On January 7th, after a half-hearted German attack, which was easily beaten off, rough trenches were dug on the plateau—in view of a possible retreat—by men belonging to the 46th French Regiment of the Line, who worked under heavy fire. General Gouraud, commanding the 10th Infantry Division, who came to examine the position, was wounded in the shoulder by a machine-gun bullet. On the following day a violent German artillery preparation began at dawn. At 7.30 a.m. three regiments of Bavarian chasseurs advanced to the attack. A trench held by men of the 89th Line Regiment was blown up and the Bavarians took the first and second lines held by troops of the 89th and 46th Regiments of the Line, who put up a fierce resistance. On the plateau the 11th Company of the 46th, which held the unfinished supporting trench, stopped the rush of the enemy. The Germans, unwilling to risk a frontal attack, turned the position on the right flank, and finally took the trench, but only after the gallant defenders had fired their last cartridges. The Germans penetrated into the ravine, capturing the regimental headquarters, and wounding the colonel and his staff. The 11th Company, however, still held on. On the crest, the cooks and the sick seized rifles and joined in the fight. At about 9.30 a.m. a blast of trumpets on the right announced the arrival of reinforcements. Units of the French 89th Regiment of the Line and 2nd Garibaldian Battalion charged through the undergrowth. A furious hand-to-hand struggle ensued in the copse-wood, no quarter being given. The French succeeded in saving their comrades of the 46th, and checked the enemy, who eventually evacuated the ravine.
At Le Four-de-Paris, turn right along G. C. 63 towards La Harazée and Vienne-le-Château.
The road follows the valley of the Biesme, dominated on the right by a series of spurs separated by ravines where flow the streams of Fontaine au Mortier, Fontaine aux Charmes and Fontaine de Madame.
The crests and ravines covered by Grurie Wood were in 1914-1915 the scene of fierce struggles.
Bagatelle—Fontaine-aux-Charmes—Fontaine-Madame—Saint-Hubert—Marie-Thérèse, all these sectors were made famous by communiqués as the scenes of terrific fights.
From La Harazée a path leads to Fontaine-aux-Charmes, following the stream which falls into the Biesme at La Harazée and to which it gives its name; another path follows the stream of Fontaine-Madame.
These two streams enclose a plateau broken by ravines along which the French advanced in September and October 1914, seeking to threaten the German lines of communication through the Argonne.
The German troops of Von Mudra decided to reach the valley of the Biesme by penetrating the ravines of Fontaine-aux-Charmes and Fontaine-Mortier towards La Harazée.
In Grurie Wood, the French line was held by regiments and battalions of chasseurs of the 32nd Corps. For over a year a desperate struggle was destined to take place without quarter day and night.
Attacks followed attacks and counter-attacks counter-attacks: every inch of a devastated area was disputed without truce or rest.
Every day saw the same fearful struggle in the depths of the forest: the rival trenches were hardly 30 metres apart, sometimes only 10, protected merely by line of barbed wire which could not be carried far out nor fixed down. Barricades of sandbags were built up in the communicating trenches, which often ran through the enemy lines, to mark the boundary, and, behind these, men kept watch. On each side the temptation was too strong to pay a surprise visit to this “no man’s land” and to spring into the opposite trench.
The front trenches were blotted out by aerial torpedoes and mine explosions which completely demolished the frail barricades often made up of human corpses. Then followed hand-to-hand fighting with bayonets and knives.
Among the numerous encounters which all resembled each other, here is the account of one taken from the annals of the 150th Regiment, one of the gallant regiments of the 32nd Corps.
On April 18th, the 2nd Battalion attacked Bagatelle trench which was held by the Germans. Our attack, which started at 2 p.m., was successful and we advanced 80 metres. A German counter-attack straightway robbed us of the fruits of our effort. At 7 p.m. the 2nd Battalion again started the attack but were mown down by machine gun fire. A third attack was launched by the same battalion, only to be thwarted by a counter-attack. Their fourth effort ended at 11 p.m., with a gain of a yard and a half! Commander Grosset of the 1st Battalion was mortally wounded.
From April 25th to 27th the Germans unsuccessfully attacked, the 150th not yielding a single inch of ground.
On the evening of May 1st, at 5 p.m., the 3rd Battalion of the 150th relieved the 2nd Battalion of the 161st. At 5.30 p.m., before the relief was complete, the Germans blew up one of our block-houses by means of a mine and hurled themselves upon our trenches. On the whole front of the 3rd Battalion, the German attack broke out with ferocity, the enemy artillery firing behind our lines and reaching an extreme intensity, so that our companies in the front line were completely cut off. Liaison with the front line became impossible and no reinforcements could be sent up to the units in the first line trenches.
In the centre, the 9th company, commanded by Captain Juge, held on splendidly against the incessant attacks of the enemy who used liquid fire and an unlimited supply of bombs. To keep up the supply of ammunition in the sector was difficult, the 9th company running out of bombs: their casualties kept mounting and the situation was grave. Standing upright on the parapet, with his revolver clasped in his hand, Captain Juge cheered on his men. He fell wounded but got to his feet again shouting: “Stand your ground, stand your ground, my men, and be brave”. He was wounded again but refused to be taken back to the rear. This valiant officer continued to keep up the courage of his men who stood on the exposed ground and fired point blank at the enemy who were making incessant attacks. Captain Juge was wounded a third time. By this time the company was reduced to one officer and 23 men, with no bombs and no cartridges. The 10th and 11th companies counter-attacked, checking slightly, though not stopping, the furious onslaught of the Germans. Attacked in rear, these two companies after losing many men were forced to fall back. The 10th, though they had run out of ammunition, only gave ground inch by inch, building up and defending nineteen barricades in succession while falling back 100 metres. At every one of the barricades there was furious hand-to-hand fighting: our men counter-attacked from the parapet with the bayonet and fought with the butt end of their rifles and thus succeeded in bringing the enemy advance to a standstill.
On the left, the 12th company held the Germans in check, and though at one time surrounded, they cut a way through with their bayonets.
At 7 p.m., the Germans attempted a new attack and wrested from us a second line trench. The 12th company under the command of Lieutenant de Marolles counter-attacked once more, regaining the lost ground. Our men snatched sacks of bombs from the hands of the German bombers, and supplied with these, the grenadiers of the 12th company following the irresistible lead of their officer, 2nd. Lieutenant Germain, went forward and captured a machine gun from the enemy after killing the gunners.
At 9 p.m. quiet again reigned. Our first line was left entirely in the enemy’s hands, but the second line after being lost and recaptured, then lost again and again retaken, remained wholly in our possession....
On August 10th, the regiments and battalions of chasseurs of the 32nd Corps, all included under the command of the 3rd Army, were relieved by those of the 10th Corps.
After passing through La Harazée, Vienne-le-Château is reached. Turn left opposite the church and follow G. C. 67 to Vienne-la-Ville. The tourist reaches the edge of the Argonne plateau which gives place to the chalky plains of Champagne.
For a tour of this region, read the guide entitled: The Battles of Champagne.
Sainte-Menehould, on the Verdun-Paris railway, can be reached, by G. C. 67 and then G. C. 17, 15 kilometres.
Different moments of an attack during the offensive of September 25th 1915.
Before the attack, the first waves wait for “Zero” in the starting off trench: in the distance, smoke of the bursting shells used in the artillery preparation.
The first wave has gone over, and has just got into the first enemy trench from which they are about to start for their new objective.
From Verdun to METZ
The tourist can go from Verdun to Metz either by the Route Nationale No. 3, the Porte Saint-Victor—Haudiomont—Mars-la-Tour and the battlefields of August 1870 (see page 166), or by the Route Nationale No. 18 (the Route d’Étain) and R. D. 1.
Étain
In 1914 Étain was bombarded on August 24th and 25th. On the 24th many inhabitants were killed. On the 25th, the inhabitants who took refuge in the cellars of the town hall perished under the ruins of the building, but 200 others escaped to Verdun.
On the same day the French forces, north of Étain, crushed the 33rd German D. R. Nevertheless the order to retire was given and the enemy occupied the town which they pillaged methodically. Every other day convoys took back to Germany, furniture, linen, wines, groceries, cloth, footwear, tools, and even materials.
In April 1915, the French troops came back quite near Étain where the line was established until February 1916.
In the town, which is partly destroyed, the church, much damaged, can be seen on the left.
Through the steeple which was cut in two by the bombardments can be seen the internal structure: the Germans had fitted up an observation post inside.
Viollet-le-Duc used to consider the church of Étain with its three naves one of the five noteworthy churches of the Meuse. It was commenced in the 13th century and finished in the 15th.
The majestic choir, with its large windows with manifold mullions, was 15th century. Inside (right aisle) could be seen the font and the Notre-Dame-de-Pitié by Ligier-Richier (photo page 164).
Metz — Origin and Principal History
The origin of Metz dates back to the Celtic epoch; it was the capital of the Mediomatrice. The Romans fortified it to defend the frontiers of the Empire against the Barbarians. Thus Metz became the starting point of the six great Roman roads which led to the distant provinces, two roads from Metz to Reims, two roads from Metz to Treves, one by the right bank, the other by the left bank of the Moselle: the road from Metz to Strasbourg and the road from Metz to Mayence.
Being a very rich and densely populated town, it was embellished with numerous Roman monuments, of which excavations have brought to light important traces: the Amphitheatre near the Porte Mazelle, and especially the Aqueduct of Gorze dating from the 4th century, which was 22 kilometres long, bringing to Metz the waters of Gorze. There are splendid remains to be seen at Jouy-aux-Arches.
The Roman Emperors during their stay at Metz lived in the palace of the governors which stood on the Place Sainte-Croix.
Metz was captured and devastated by the Huns in 451 A. D.
A half-century later the ruins were restored and the city became, on the death of Clovis (in 511 A. D.) the capital of Austrasie and the cradle of the Carolingian branch. Louis-le-Débonnaire was buried in the Abbey of Saint-Arnout. The treaty of Verdun (843 A. D.) gave it to Lothaire who made it the capital of his kingdom, Lotharingia, which became, later on, Lorraine. But thirty years later the treaty of Mersen (870 A. D.) assigned it to Louis-le-Germanique.
In the name of the Emperor it was first administered by counts and then by bishops. In 1220, on the death of Count Thiébault, the town was raised to a kind of republic under the title of “Imperial free town” and until 1552 was administered by sheriffs.
Under Henry II, the French, lead by Montmorency, occupied the town after a treaty had been concluded with Maurice de Saxe. The Duc de Guise, appointed governor, skilfully and energetically defended Metz to which the Emperor Charles V had laid siege (October 19th, 1552). On January 1st 1553, Charles V withdrew after losing 30,000 men. The kings of France for a long time held the title of Protector. Henry III was the first to be called the sovereign lord. The Parliament of Metz, constituted in 1633, finally brought about the downfall of its municipal independence and the treaty of Westphalia (1648) definitely made it part of France. It became the capital of the province of Trois-Évêchés, composed of Metz, Toul and Verdun.
Up to the Revolution, Metz escaped the horrors of war, though on every occasion the town suffered from the consequences. Troops were continually passing through and the barracks were used as a place of muster. Turenne, Villars, the Marquis de Créqui, and Marshal Villeroi encamped within its walls, and at Metz, Louis XV, in August 1744, fell seriously ill, and the whole of France prayed and fasted for the “Well-beloved”.
In 1790, Metz became the headquarters of the new department of Moselle. Two sieges in 1814 and 1815 were successfully repulsed.
The year 1870, however, marked a sad date in the history of Metz, till then nicknamed Metz the Virgin City.
The battles of Borny (August 14th), Rezonville (August 16th), Saint-Privat (August 18th) forced Marshal Bazaine to fall back on the walls of the town. He put up a feeble resistance, being content to await developments, without even attempting a serious sally which might have saved his military honour. On October 28th, he put his name to the capitulation, and on the following day he handed over 173,000 men, 60 generals, 6000 officers, 58 standards, 622 field guns, 876 heavy guns, 72 machine guns, 137,000 chassepots, 123,000 other rifles and masses of untouched munitions. Six months later, the treaty of Frankfort (May 10th 1871) ceded to Germany Metz and a part of the department of Moselle. Metz became the capital of German Lorraine.
Marshal Fabert, Generals Custine, Richepanse and Lasalle, the composer Ambroise Thomas and the poet Paul Verlaine were born at Metz.
The Fortifications of Metz
The situation of Metz destined it to become a stronghold of first importance. The Romans fortified the town, which had been built by the Gauls, and constructed the first citadel. The walls were preserved for a considerable time, and Bishop Robert in the 10th century, again utilised their outline. It was only in the 12th century that the new circumvallation was extended to the island formed by the two arms of the Moselle; it was composed of a high rampart protected by 68 towers. In 1532 the Duc de Guise ordered the engineer Pierre Strozzi to restore these fortifications which had undergone two sieges (1444 and 1552) and were in a pitiable state. Four years later (1556), Marshal de Vieilleville had a citadel flanked with four bastions constructed on the site of the ancient monastery. This citadel (which lasted till 1802) was on the spot now occupied by the Esplanade.
Vauban, nearly a century later, realised the strategic worth of Metz and conceived a vast project which the engineer Cormontaigne, in the 18th century, was to realise. At all events Vauban was able to construct a “horned redoubt” and to add eleven new bastions to those which already guarded the citadel, but it was Cormontaigne who carried out the plan of the inundation of the valley of the Seille, by using the vast waters of the pool of Lindre.
Metz became one of the most formidable fortresses of Europe. Under Louis-Philippe the fortifications were entirely remade and in 1866 preparations were in hand to reconstruct them on a new plan in accordance with the requirements of the then existing military armament. Of the four separate forts of Saint-Quentin, Plappeville, Queuleu and Saint-Julien, only the first two were completed in 1870.
The Germans considerably strengthened the wall of circumvallation by the addition of 19 bastions surrounded with moats, and themselves protected with 13 advance works. The extent of the zone of forts reached 30 kilometres and 11 new forts were added.
Metz During the War
Before the War the Germans had drawn up their famous “black lists” in which were recorded numbers of manufacturers, political men, journalists, priests and members of Lorraine societies. The inhabitants of Metz were not spared in these lists; many were arrested on the suspicion of exercising “a provocative action and a pernicious influence over the population”. Among them were M. Prevel, M. Winsback, secretary of the “Souvenir alsacien-lorrain”, league which was dissolved in 1913; M. Gangloff, whose two sons and his brother-in-law, as French officers, laid down their lives for France. Some were able to escape, as occasion offered, and get back to France, like Paul Piquelle, editor-in-chief of the Messin, and the canon Collin, director of the Lorrain.
Before mobilisation had begun or hostilities declared, the “suspects” were forcibly torn from their families and confined in cells, without trial, in the military prison of Metz. A few days after they set out, without saying goodbye to their families, for Coblentz. When taken to the fort of Ehrenbreitstein they only escaped the frenzy of an excited populace on account of thirty German bayonets which surrounded them. Worn out with exhaustion, they were shut up in the casemates which were used some years before the war for confining to barracks soldiers undergoing disciplinary punishment and which had been evacuated under the orders of the authority on account of their unhealthy condition.
For months they existed in these dungeons under the most deplorable physical and moral conditions. Some of them, by depositing a surety of 30,000 marks, left to go and live under a kind of penal regime in the Prussian Rhineland. The less submissive element stayed where they were more than two years and were then subjected to the same regime as their comrades who had already left. They were absolutely forbidden to enter the fortress of Metz.
These “suspects” never knew the reasons for their arrest until August 1917. Permission to return to their town was given them in November 1918 by the “Soldiers Council” which had replaced the Imperial Government.
Several inhabitants of Metz were promptly seized and drafted into the units sent up to the front, especially the Russian front. Among them, one of the brothers Samain, president of the “Lorraine Sportive” was sent to the French front in the batteries most exposed to danger. When crippled in the legs he was brought back from the front and thrown into prison.
The Germans subjected Metz to a regime of terror. The German inquisition was not confined to the street, but it intruded into the homes. Everything that reminded them of France, books, sacred family relics, had to disappear.
Speaking French became a provocation.
To say “Merci, Monsieur” and “Bonjour, Madame” were court-martial offences at the courts—ordinary and extra-ordinary—which sat permanently at Metz. Sentences never stopped. All the French newspapers were suppressed and only the official German papers were allowed.
The German authorities instituted an organ, La Gazette de Lorraine, to be modelled on the infamous Gazette des Ardennes and to further the same purpose, the demoralisation of the French nation. In this gazette, the Germans carefully published, in the first issues all the sentences pronounced by the courts-martial, in the hope of terrifying and cowing the inhabitants of Metz. It was a vain hope: it had the opposite effect of strengthening their resistance. The system of spies and informers was widespread under official orders.
A young girl, slily exhibiting surprise at seeing a squadron of French aeroplanes pass overhead, shouted in front of her house: “Oh Kolossal!” Denounced by a loyal German woman, she was called before the court-martial (the first of three appearances).
To the military judges who tried to force her to admit to her anti-German sentiments, she replied: “My father who was imprisoned in a fortress is exiled with my mother in Prussia. My two brothers, French officers, are no doubt dead by this time, and I cannot yet love Germany”. She was set free this time, but a stricter watch was kept on her.
Orders were given to celebrate the “great German victories”. The “Mutte” of the Cathedral was rung. The Germans noisily showed their delight on the Esplanade round the statues of the “idols”. The mayor, a noted German naturally, read the bulletin of victory from a window of the Hôtel de Ville decorated and illuminated.
The inhabitants shut themselves up in their homes. “Though we live side by side we shall never meet one another”, they said. When forced to fly flags, they hoisted, as far as they could, the decorated emblem of the cross of Lorraine.
The bombardment of Verdun was audible at Metz and caused much anxiety. But the people of Metz saw the return of the “feldgrau” who, once mad with enthusiasm, now had fear in their eyes at the mention of Verdun.
Russia succumbed. Could they still hope? The most obstinate did not give up hope and they buoyed up the falling spirits. Pious families prayed in the churches.
1918.—The inhabitants of Metz felt that the end was near. Hunger held the German population in its grip, though the natives of Metz managed, by every known and unknown ruse, to conceal food which their friends in the country obtained for them almost under the noses of the police. The allied squadrons of aeroplanes came every night to bombard the station of Metz-Sablons. Forts thundered, bombs burst, and munition trains blew up. The Germans proclaimed with loud shouts the offensive that was to bring peace. At the end of July the newspapers, which had been extolling the German attack, started talking about defending themselves.
The people of Metz knew that they were certain of becoming French again. And now the battle drew near the fortress. With feverish haste the Germans manned and equipped the forts. Were they to undergo the devastation of a bombardment? Already American shells were falling on the south suburb of the town. “At what price shall we buy our liberty” was the feeling in every heart. Events moved swiftly and at the same time the iron discipline of the imperial army crumbled. In the numerous barracks soldiers grumbled, argued and refused to obey orders.
Threatened with an offensive in Lorraine, the Germans ceased holding some of the defences of the fortress.
The catastrophe was quite near. Mutiny broke out, and lead by the insurgent sailors who had come from Kiel, a howling mob of soldiers rushed headlong through the streets, seizing their officers, tearing their ensigns and smashing their rifles. Council of workmen and soldiers drove out the imperial government, proclaimed a republic and hoisted the red flag. The men of Lorraine who had been brigaded in the German army demobilised themselves and returned to their homes.
The Germans were reduced by all this to a standstill and signed the armistice. The inhabitants of Metz waited with silent pent up feelings for their deliverers.
The sad hours were finished and done with: the “wonderful hours of Freedom” sounded.
The Liberation — Metz After the Signing of the Armistice
When the Armistice was signed on November 11th, the American artillery was within range of the forts of Metz which they had already bombarded several times, and the troops were all in position for the offensive fixed for November 16th.
By the terms of the Armistice, invaded countries, including Alsace and Lorraine, had to be evacuated by the 26th. So on Tuesday November 19th 1918 the French troops made their solemn entry into Metz, evacuated by the German soldiery, amid scenes of indescribable enthusiasm.
Then the march past took place on the Esplanade in front of General Pétain who was appointed Marshal the same morning.
On a white horse and in his large blue cloak he took up his position in front of the statue of Marshal Ney: he was supported by General Fayolle, commanding an army group and General Buat, major-general.
General Mangin, commanding the 10th army, owing to an accident on his horse, was unable to be present, his place being taken by General Leconte for the parade. On the same day there took place the induction of M. Mirman, commissary of the Republic, who was received by General de Maud’huy, governor of Metz.
Salvos of guns and the sounding of the “Mutte” in the Cathedral heralded this festal day.
On the following Sunday, November 24th, the chief men of Metz appointed the new municipal council and decided that the streets should revert to the names they held before 1870 and that the new streets should be named after generals and great men who had distinguished themselves during the War. The list was settled by a by-law on December 7th.
On Sunday, December 8th, President Poincaré, with a retinue consisting of the Minister for War, the President of the Council, G. Clemenceau, the Presidents of the Chambers, Ministers, Marshals and French and Allied Generals came to announce the definite restoration to France of the lost provinces.
It was an unforgettable day. Girls in Lorraine costume lined the streets and flowers were thrown from windows on to the procession. The review took place in the morning on the Esplanade, and also the presentation of the star-studded baton to Marshal Pétain. The ceremony was opened with a speech by the President. Then followed a touching scene, when M. Poincaré and M. Clemenceau approached each other and joined in a long embrace.
In the afternoon there was a reception at the Hôtel de Ville when President Poincaré conjured up all the history of Metz concluding thus:
“The years have passed on Metz, and Metz has not changed.
“The protests which her great Bishop, Mgr Dupont des Loges, used formerly to carry to the Reichstag in the name of all the people of Metz, in the name of all the inhabitants of Lorraine, have continued after his death with the same quiet firmness, you, inhabitants of Metz, have repealed them, year by year, in your pilgrimages to Mars-la-Tour, in your visits to the cemeteries, in your worship of the memory of France.
“Beloved town of Metz, your nightmare is past, here is France back again opening her arms to you”.
The procession was then received with great ceremony by Mgr Fell at the Cathedral and visited the cemetery of Chambière to pay homage to the dead of 1870.
On October 27th, 1919, the Croix de Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur was bestowed on the town of Metz with the following inscription:
Town whose persistent loyally to France never faltered during a captivity of 48 years;
Rich in a past glorious and without stain, unsullied by her misfortunes, exposed for centuries to the covetousness of a near enemy, she has richly deserved to be honoured because she has suffered so long.
She symbolises, in her deep affection for her Mother country, Lorraine, at last wholly restored as a French province.
Visit to Metz — The Place d’Armes
The Place d’Armes, on to which the Cathedral and the Hôtel de Ville look, is adorned with fine buildings. On this site the cloister of the Cathedral, the musicians’ quarters, several chapels and private houses used to stand.
In 1753 the Marshal de Belle-Isle, governor, decided that a “Place” should be made on this spot and that a West door giving access from the Cathedral to the Place should be constructed.
The plans of the architect Blondel necessitated a lowering of the ground level.
For months and years the canons and sheriffs set themselves against the work or held it up. During the night of August 9th 1755, M. de Belle-Isle called together the garrison and by the light of torches, had the whole work completed: by the morning the excavations were finished.
On the Place d’Armes the statue of Marshal Fabert, by Etex (1840), stands between military trophies.
The statue of the great Metz captain (1599-1662) who was governor of Sedan, has only the following words as his inscription:
“If, to prevent a place which the king has entrusted to me falling into the enemy’s hands, I had to throw myself, my family, and all my possessions into the breach, I would not hesitate for a moment to do so”.
Marshal Fabert, who was as clever an administrator as he was a magnificent soldier, restored agriculture and commerce in Champagne, and established at Sedan the manufacture of broadcloth, which till then belonged to Flanders and the Pays-Bas. King Louis XIV held him in very high esteem.
The Cathedral and the Place d’Armes.
On the left extremity of the cathedral is the pseudo-Gothic porch built by the Germans (see photograph on p. 179) in the decoration of which William II is represented as the prophet Daniel (Photo p. 178).
In the foreground, on the Place, the statue of Marshal Fabert.
(Cliché LL.)
The Cathedral
All one side of the Place d’Armes is occupied by the Cathedral Saint-Étienne, a masterpiece of the pointed style. The fabric recalls Amiens and Beauvais. If from the outside it may seem curtailed, the interior (121 m. long, 22 wide and 43 high), with its resplendent stained windows, is vast and altogether beautiful.
The most ancient parts of the cathedral do not date back beyond the 13th century.
The nave has eight bays—it was completed in the 14th century; at the top of the fourth bay it is flanked by two square towers.
The north tower is the tower of the Mutte, so called from the municipal bell hung there. It is topped with a beautiful spire which forms an excellent observation post over the surrounding country.
Here was the post of the look-out man who had to report fires. On the other side of the nave rises the tower of the Chapter which was finished in 1839. A monumental door opens at the base of each of these towers.
Another tower, polygonal and smaller, called the Tour de l’Horloge, is added to the south aisle. On each side of the choir, where the branches of the transept meet, rise the two small towers of Charlemagne, so called in memory of those which stood in the Roman building. They lead by spiral staircases to the outside terraces which run along the cathedral.
While the nave is 13th century, the transept dates from the 15th, and the choir, built over a huge sepulchral crypt, is contemporaneous with the last period of Gothic art.
Although completed in 1546, the Cathedral had still to undergo numerous modifications. Fires caused repairs to be made and then in 1753, by the Governor’s orders, Marshal de Belle-Isle, the making of a “Place” in front of the cathedral necessitated the demolition of the Bishop’s quarters and the construction of a west door.
The ground level was lowered from 8 to 9 feet and the architect J. B. Blondel was instructed to make out elaborate plans.
They were worked out from 1761 to 1764 and were at once put into execution and continued with till 1771. While endeavouring to have regard to the ancient structure, Blondel strove not to make a west door to the Cathedral but rather to create in front of the cathedral an independent door, the classic lines of which would blend happily with the buildings of the “Place” but would contrast with the style of the edifice (See page 174).
In 1791 other alterations were made: following the plans of Gardeur-Lebrun the rood-loft was done away with, and likewise the ancient altars and the vaults. Finally the roof which was burnt on the night of May 6-7th 1877—the day of the entry of William I into Metz—was replaced in 1880-1882 by a copper roof, raised several metres.
The Doric fore-part of Blondel’s design was pulled down in 1903 by the Germans, to make way for a west door conceived in the style of the rest of the church. It was not, however, a very happy effort. At the corners were sculptured statues of the prophets. One of these statues, that of Daniel, had the face of William II. The inhabitants of Metz, who had always resented the presence of this effigy at the entrance to their Cathedral, before the arrival of the French troops, fastened to its hands a chain from which hung a small board bearing the words: Sic transit gloria mundi.
It will be replaced by a work of Hanaux, a sculptor of Metz, who was responsible for the French monument of Noisseville.
There is no church which has so much space open to the light. In the transept and choir it has been calculated that there are 4,071 square metres of window and it is no exaggeration to say that the whole structure is like a huge stained-glass window.
Some of these windows date back to the 13th century. The large rose-window, at the bottom of the nave, which dates from the 16th century, is the work of the master glass worker Hermann. The windows of the north transept date from the 15th century. Those of the south transept, of the choir and the apse, are 16th century.
The bell named “La Mutte”, which is in the tower of the same name, did not belong to the church but to the town. The existing bell, which is rung on all great occasions, was cast in 1505. It weighs 13,000 kilos, so that when it is put in motion, a perceptible swaying can be fell in the large spire and in the small spires. It bears the following inscription:
Dame Mutte suis baptisée,
De par la Cité ci-posée
Pour servir à la Cité
Aux jours de grandes solennités;
Et aussi pour crier justice,
Prendre ban de bonne police;
Les contredire quand bon me semble
Et pour convoquer gens ensemble.
From the top of the Cathedral tower the best general view is obtainable of Metz and the country round. One can realise the importance of its forts round which the Moselle seems to be an immense moat. On the left bank, the hills fall sheer and are a natural defence: on the right, the hills are not so high but are strengthened by a line of forts. Likewise, by seeing them glistening in the distance, a better idea is gained of the many streams which encompass or pass through Metz: the Seille and the stream of Saint-Pierre, the stream of Noisseville, the stream of Châtel-Saint-Germain—the Moselle which the canal doubles and which is itself divided, forming in front of Metz the large island Saint-Symphorien, then, near the dam called Wadrineau, the smaller island of Saulcy. At the foot of old Metz flows yet another branch of the Moselle which divides in two to isolate on an island the Préfecture and the Theatre. Beyond is the large island Chambière, recognisable by its drill ground and its cemeteries.
The Hôtel de Ville
After leaving the Cathedral, the Hôtel de Ville is also to be found in the Place d’Armes. It was started in 1766 and finished in 1771. Its style is simple, the façade being ornamented with two pediments and fine grilles. A porch leads to a beautiful staircase. Opposite the stairs is to be seen a bas-relief in white marble on which are engraved the famous line of Ausonius:
“Salve magna parens frugumque virumque Mosella”...
Hail, Moselle, illustrious mother of crops and men!
Inside there are vast banqueting halls where the public sessions of the Academy are held. The Academy of Metz was founded in 1760 by Marshal de Belle-Isle under the title of Royal Society of Letters, Sciences and Arts and endowed with a sum of £60,000.
It was suppressed at the Revolution and re-formed on March 14th, 1819 with the motto “l’Utile” and obtained from Charles X, on September 5th 1828, the title of Royal Academy. It consists of 36 titular members and 18 resident members, in addition to 4 honorary members, correspondents and associates.
The Academy has been largely instrumental in maintaining French culture in Lorraine during the years of annexation.
On the grand staircase are to be seen three stained-glass windows put up in 1582: the middle one is the Duc de Guise after the siege of Metz; the right, the Metz bishop Bertram; the left, the sheriff Pierre Baudoche.
The flag which floats on its façade is the one previously used in 1870. Carefully preserved in the Carnavalet Museum at Paris, it was returned to the Mayor by the vice-president of the Paris municipal council on December 25th, 1918.
On leaving the Hôtel de Ville, take, to the left of the Place d’Armes, the Rue Fabert (see, on left, the statue of the Virgin), then the Rue des Clercs which is a continuation of it. Coming to the bottom of the Rue des Clercs, on the left is the Place de la République, and on the right the Esplanade.
The magnificent space of the Esplanade was used as a parade ground for the garrison troops.
Ney, Duc d’Elchingen, prince of the Moskwa, was born at Sarrelouis. He is depicted with his rifle in his hand, ready to fire (Photo p. 181).
Next, go to the end of the Esplanade, beyond the music kiosk, on the terrace: there is a magnificent view over Saint-Quentin Hill and Fort, Plappeville fort and the Moselle. The Island of Saulcy and Poudrière exactly opposite will also be seen.
On this terrace used to stand the bronze statue of William I on horseback (1892). The inscription on the pedestal used to state that the statue had been erected to the Emperor “by his grateful people”. The conqueror pointed with his finger to Moselle and the powerful forts of Plappeville and Saint-Quentin which protect the town. William I was knocked down headlong some days before the entry of the French (Photo opposite).
In place of William, a statue “to the victorious poilu” was erected during the night of January 6-7th with the inscription: “We’ve beaten them”. This was done as a pleasant surprise for Marshal Pétain who was coming on the following day to present colours to 16 regiments, and to confer decorations on several officers and men. This statue was made in seven days in a workshop of Metz by the sculptor Bouchard.
The Palais de Justice, built in 1776, looks out on to the Esplanade. On its site formerly rose the Hôtel de la Haute-Pierre, which belonged to the Duke of Suffolk, lover of Queen Mary of England. He had it pulled down, and built, in a year and six months, the beautiful “Hôtel de Suffolk”, which for a long while was used as the town hall. Finally, in 1776, Clairisseaux built the existing palace. The following should be seen: the iron banisters of the great staircase, and, in the interior court, two bas-reliefs, one commemorating the humanity of the Duc de Guise in assisting the soldiers of the Duc d’Albe after the siege had been raised; the other commemorating the peace of 1783 concluded between England, France, Spain, United States of America and Holland. Behind the Palais de Justice stands the beautiful equestrian statue of Lafayette.
Return to the Place de la République and turn right along the Avenue de la Citadelle which separates the Esplanade from the Place de la République. Follow this road, which presently passes, on the left, the Engineers’ barracks and then a garden.
After passing the garden, turn left into the Avenue du Maréchal-Joffre which leads to the Place du Roi-George (in front of the former station).
Not far from the Place, a round tower is visible, the remains of ramparts of the Middle Ages. Leave the old station behind you and go alongside the gardens by the Avenue Serpenoise which follows the tramway; immediately to the left is the Porte Serpenoise (1852).
Beyond the Place de la République, follow the Rue Serpenoise which is a continuation of the avenue. It is the busiest street in Metz. It is further continued by the Rue Ladoucette which leads to the Rue Fournirue.
Keep right along the Rue Fournirue and then still right along the Rue du Change to reach the Place Saint-Louis.
The Place Saint-Louis or du Change was formerly occupied by sixty stalls of money-changers. Some of the houses in the “Place” have preserved their battlements, their pointed or semi-circular arches and their three-cusped casements as well as some Renaissance balconies. This name of Saint-Louis comes from a statue of Louis XIII, found in the ruins of the citadel and converted by the priest of Saint-Simplice into a Louis IX. Mystery plays were acted in the “Place”. It was then used for the executions of criminals and after that a corn market.
At the far end of the “Place” take the Rue Royale and then turn left into the Rue Coislin which runs alongside the Coislin barracks (plan below).
At the bottom of the Rue Coislin take the Rue Pont-à-Seille which leads to the Place des Charrons, then at the end of the Place, the Rue du Grand-Wad leading to the Rampart des Allemands and continue left as far as the Porte des Allemands.
The Porte des Allemands, on the Seille, is a remarkable edifice.
It is mentioned as far back as 1324. In the 15th century it was entirely restored by the architect Henri de Banceval.
Opposite the Porte des Allemands, take the Rue des Allemands (see the interesting church of Saint-Eucaire on the right) and continue to the Place des Paraiges.
At the end of the Place, turn right along the Rue Saulnerie and its continuation on the left, the Rue du Paradis leading into the Rue des Capucins. At the end of the latter is the Place des Maréchaux where is Sainte-Ségolène Church, built on the site of an oratory founded by Saint Segolene in the 7th century. The present church, built at two different periods (the choirs, the nave and the doorway are earlier than the aisles) dates back to somewhere in the 13th century. The long and narrow windows are mostly in pairs and with a spear-head finish. The side chapels contain beautiful stained-glass windows and there is a curious openwork gallery in the organ-loft and some interesting pictures.
Turn left and take the Rue des Trinitaires, passing an old building with square turrets, near a gateway “Hostel Saint-Ligier”. Then turn right into the Rue de la Bibliothèque.
In this street is situated, at the corner of the Rue Chèvremont, a huge building, formerly the church of Petits-Carmes, the work of Sébastien Leclerc, which includes both the Library (80,000 volumes and 1,987 manuscripts) and the Museum (collections of local archaeology, natural history, objets d’arts, and three picture galleries).
At the Museum, take the Rue Chèvremont which ends at the Rue de la Boucherie, into which turn left and so reach the Pont Saint-Georges, over the Moselle.
Cross this bridge from which there is a beautiful view (Photo page 190), and enter the Rue du Pont-Saint-Georges. Immediately to the right branches off the Rue Chambière leading to the Chambière Cemetery where are the graves of the French soldiers who fell during the siege of 1870.
The road runs between the vast slaughterhouse, the cattle market and the huts used as an army storehouse. An old cemetery is crossed with some monumental tombs standing in the midst, and then by skirting the Israelite cemetery and the Moselle the military cemetery is reached.
There are plain tombs under bushy trees. In the centre is a tall pyramid 12 m. high; all the base is represented by numerous coffins piled on each other. There rest the soldiers who died in the hospitals of Metz from wounds received at the battles of Borny, Gravelotte, Saint-Privat, Servigny, Pletre and Ladonchamps. There are 7,203 in all.
Wreathes, tri-coloured cockades, and ribbons have never ceased, for 48 years, to adorn these graves which the ladies of Metz piously decorate with flowers every anniversary.
Return by the same route to the Rue du Pont-Saint-Georges. The Rue Vincentrue is soon reached on the left and should be taken.
Then turn right into the Rue des Bénédictins.
Apply, at No. 7 in this street, to visit the Church of Saint-Clement.
It was started in 1668. The choir, the nave and the aisle were begun in 1680 by the Italian, Spinga. The West door was damaged in the Revolution. The church is now part of the College founded by the Jesuits, where Marshal Foch began his education.
Return to the Rue des Bénédictins and continue along it until the Rue Saint-Vincent is reached on the left, leading to the “Place” of the same name, on which stands the remarkable Church of Saint-Vincent built in 1248.
The straight-built nave supported by 12 small-columned pillars, the very regular choir, and the beautiful ogival chapels should certainly be seen.
Continue along the Rue Saint-Vincent on the other side of the “Place”. The Rue Saint-Marcel, which is its continuation, leads to the Rue du Pont-à-Morts which should be followed to the left.
Cross the Moselle by the Pont-Moyen (pretty view). Follow the Rue Sainte-Marie which follows the bridge and then turn left along the Rue du Faisan leading to the small and charming Place de Chambre.
From the Place de Chambre return to the Cathedral and the Place d’Armes by the little Rue d’Estrées.