Bar-le-Duc, prefecture of the Meuse became an administrative, military and medical centre during the Great War. Upon mobilization, some buildings were turned into army hospitals. The town hall hosted the headquarters, while the schools were used as billets for the troops. On the eve of the Battle of Verdun in 1916, thirteen medical teams provided care in the seven hospitals in the town. At the train station, an evacuation hospital (HOE) ensured the transfer of the wounded to the various medical facilities in the region, depending on the severity of the wounds. With the growing number of dead, a military cemetery was opened in 1915, at the site of the current national war cemetery. The town was not spared by the bombardments which caused many victims. In recognition of their sacrifices, André Maginot, Deputy of Bar-le-Duc and Minister of Pensions, gave the town the Military Cross on 30 July 1920.

In 1941 then in 1945, the bodies of soldiers and victims who died during World War II were brought together there. Among these men, there lie six French (including resistance fighters shot by occupation troops on 28 August 1944, on the esplanade of the Federation: Robert Lhuerre, Jean Pornot and Gilbert Voitier), a Belgian lieutenant, Armand Jacob, who died at Bar-le-Duc on 15 June 1940 (grave no. 793) and a Soviet, Constantin Maskaloff (grave 2804 A to D).

Erected in 1922 at the centre of the war cemetery, a lantern tower is dedicated to the memory of the allied soldiers who disappeared during the fighting at Pierrepont on 22-23 August 1914. The stones of the lantern tower come from a former cloth factory which was dismantled stone by stone and reassembled in the cemetery. The size of this monument is explained by the desire to emulate the imposing monument in the nearby German cemetery, where 3,017 soldiers were laid to rest.

The Battles of Champagne, 1914-18

The Franco-British counter-offensive on the Marne in September 1914 and the failed “Race to the Sea” signalled the end of the mobile war on the Western Front. To protect themselves from artillery fire, the belligerents dug in.

In the winter of 1915, General Joffre launched a series of attacks on the German trenches in Champagne, all of which failed. Intended to chip away at the German lines in the sectors of Souain, Perthes, Beauséjour and Massiges, these were particularly bloody operations. The front didn’t budge.

In the summer, to break the deadlock and provide support to the struggling Russians on the Eastern Front, Joffre, true to his doctrine, decided to launch a fresh offensive. Supported by another operation in Artois, the main operation took place on the vast, arid chalk plain of Champagne, on a front spanning 15 miles, from Auberive to Ville-sur-Tourbe. It was carried out by the 2nd and 4th Armies, against the Germans of the 3rd Army, who were dug into solid trenches. Further back, on the opposite slope, was a second position, hidden from aerial reconnaissance and out of range of the French guns.

After an artillery bombardment lasting three days, the attack was launched on 25 September. The French took the first lines easily, with the exception of the Butte du Mesnil. To the east of the formation, the Colonial Division took “Main de Massiges”, a key element in the German formation.

But the momentum was broken by the second position, which remained intact. The exhausted French troops had to go on fending off powerful counter-attacks, during which the two armies lost 138 000 men. By November, difficult weather conditions and the sheer scale of the losses forced Joffre to abandon the idea of carrying out further attacks. The front returned to relative calm.

The German offensive of July 1918 put this front once more at centre stage. Reims, under continuous fire from German artillery, came under threat once again. But General Foch, engaging all of his forces from the Meuse to the North Sea, and with growing support from the Americans, conducted a broad manoeuvre. In the Reims area, General Gouraud’s army successively took Navarin, Tahure, Le Mesnil and Sommepy, then advanced towards the Ardennes until November 1918. Today, the Suippes area preserves the memory of this bitter fighting, through the ruins of the villages of Perthes, Hurlus, Mesnil, Tahure and Ripont.

Pursuing the defeated enemy on the Marne, the French and the English crossed the Aisne region on 13 September 1914. However, the Germans got a hold of the Chemin des Dames plateau very quickly. After heavy fighting, the enemy managed to remain the sole master of the plateau in November 1914. This progressively turned into a fortress that was only definitively liberated in October 1918 by French and Italian troops.

The Craonnelle National Cemetery was built during the war near an aid station. It includes the bodies of soldiers who died in battle for France along the Chemin des Dames from 1914 to 1918. After the war, the cemetery was developed to accommodate other soliders buried on the Plateau de Californie and the Plateau des Casemates, or those buried in temporary cemeteries at the aid stations of Flandres à Oulches, Vassogne, Jumigny, Craonne, Moulin Vauclair. This cemetery is home to nearly 4,000 French bodies nearly half of which are in two ossuaries. In addition, 24 British soldiers and two Belgian soldiers are also buried there.

Kanak riflemen in the Aisne: the Pacific Mixed Battalion

The Bataillon Mixte du Pacifique (Pacific Mixed Battalion – BMP) was formed of Kanak, Caledonian and Tahitian soldiers. From August to October 1917, these men shored up their position in the Ailette sector. In June 1918, they fought in the Battle of Matz. Attached to the 418th Infantry Regiment, this unit took part in the bloody attack on the Pasly plateau, near Soissons. On 25 October, the BMP distinguished itself during the capture of Vesles, Caumont and Le Petit Caumont farm. In the space of a few hours, 32 Kanaks, ten Tahitians and five Caledonians were killed. Today, the national cemeteries of Flavigny-le-Petit, Soupir, Ambleny and Cerny-en-Laonnois contain the remains of these soldiers, like Alosio Waangou, a native of Saint-Gabriel-Pouébo, New Caledonia, who was killed on 29 September 1918 on Hill 193 and is buried in grave no 3113.

The Chemin des Dames, a key sector on the First World War front

From the very first weeks, the Chemin des Dames plateau was fought over by the belligerents, who knew that, by occupying this strategic position, they could observe the plains of Reims and Soissons. After the Allied push across the Marne, the enemy retreated to the plateau, which was progressively fortified. In autumn 1914, violent fighting broke out in the sector of Vailly-sur-Aisne, Crouy and on Hill 132.

On the eve of spring 1917, the French planned to launch a massive offensive in this sector that had hitherto been spared. But the German retreat to the Hindenburg Line forced General Nivelle to rethink the focus of the operation. On the morning of 16 April, after an intense bombardment which proved to be of limited impact, the first waves went over. After climbing the slopes of the plateau, they came up against barbed wire, much of it intact, and were mown down by machine-gun fire. At a cost of major sacrifices, the French reached the plateau’s ridge. On the 17th, despite difficult weather conditions, they persevered in their efforts. Yet a lack of success saw Nivelle’s authority crumble. From 16 to 30 April, 147 000 men were put hors de combat, 40 000 of them dead.

On the verge of collapse, French morale wavered. With the failure of the offensive, mutinies broke out in the ranks of some units, who refused to go to the front. When protests became more widespread in May 1917, the military authorities reacted. Many arrests were made. Those held to be the ringleaders were tried and sentenced by military tribunals. Over 500 death sentences were passed, then commuted by the political authorities. Even so, nearly 30 were carried out. Meanwhile, a more effective system of rotation and leave was introduced.

During the summer, fresh attacks with more limited objectives were launched against strategic positions on the plateau, namely at Craonne and Laffaux. With autumn came the Battle of Malmaison. In the spring of 1918, the Chemin des Dames was once again fiercely contested. On 27 May 1918, the Germans surged forward, shaking up the French positions. They quickly occupied the Chemin des Dames. The front was broken. But on 18 July, the movement was halted. The Allies counter-attacked, pushing back the enemy. During the weeks that followed, the fighting raged. On 10 October, one month before the armistice, the Germans abandoned the plateau for good to French and Italian troops.