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The national necropolis of La Croix-Ferlin, Bligny

La nécropole nationale de La Croix-Ferlin. © ECPAD

 

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Situated in La Croix Ferlin, the Bligny national necropolis contains the remains of French soldiers who died during fighting in the region in 1918. Redesigned in 1923 to bring together the bodies of other soldiers exhumed from individual graves and various temporary cemeteries, it now contains some 4,654 bodies, including 2,160 in individual graves. An ossuary contains the remains of 2,506 soldiers. Among these soldiers are interred the body of a Russian and two combatants who died for France during the 1939-45 war.

Near the necropolis is the Italian military cemetery of Bligny, the main memorial to the Italians’ engagement in the Great War, which contains 3,440 bodies.

 

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Bligny
À 17 km au sud-ouest de Reims, sur la RD 380

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Cormicy French national war cemetery

La nécropole nationale de Cormicy. © ECPAD

 

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Bearing witness to the violence of the fighting that happened in the region, the Maison bleue war cemetery in Cormicy contains, from the First World War, the bodies of 14,431 French soldiers and two British servicemen. Eight French soldiers and two Brits killed during the Second World War are also buried in this war cemetery. This cemetery was rearranged later to hold the bodies of soldiers exhumed from isolated graves or the various temporary cemeteries in the Vesle valley and the national war cemetery of Hermonville. The remains of 6,945 soldiers were placed in two ossuaries.

 

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Cormicy
À 17 km au nord-ouest de Reims, en bordure de la RN 44

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Summary

Eléments remarquables

Tombe du général Baratier, mort pour la France le 17 octobre 1917

Soupir French war cemetery n° 2

La nécropole nationale de Soupir n° 2. © Guillaume Pichard

 

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TheSoupir French national war cemetery n° 2 contains the remains of soldiers who died for France in the various battles in the Chemin des Dames (the Second Battle of the Aisne). Built in 1934 to inter the remains of soldiers that were still being discovered in the region, this cemetery contains the bodies of 2,829 soldiers who fell during the two world wars. Among the burials here relating to the First World War, there are 2,216 Frenchmen including 250 in the ossuary, 26 Russians, five Belgians (including four civilian victims) and two unknown British. From the Second World War, there are 545 Frenchmen buried here, as well as 33 Belgians including 33 civilians victims. Alongside the there are also the bodies of Pierre Muller, su repose également le corps de Pierre Muller,second lieutenant in the 9th Algerian infantry battalion, who died on 17 September 1958 in Algeria (grave no. 2361).

 

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Soupir
À 25 km à l'est de Soissons, en bordure du CD 925 (Soissons/Neufchâtel-sur-Aisne)

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Loupeigne National Cemetery

La nécropole nationale de Loupeigne. © Guillaume Pichard

 

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The Loupeigne National Cemetery, built on the side of a hill in 1919, is home to soldiers who died for France from 1914 to 1918 during battle in the Aisne department, mostly in the period from May to June 1918. From 1920 to 1924, other French soldiers who were initially buried in other military cemeteries in the region were transferred here, including many unidentified bodies.

Today, this national cemetery is home to 1,077 soldiers including 598 French soldiers, 120 of whom lie in an ossuary. One French soldier from WWII also lies in the cemetery.

This national cemetery also includes a German section with 478 soldiers who died in 1918 during the Ludendorff fourth offensive, which started on the Chemin des Dames on 27 May and led them to Château-Thierry in June 1918.

A mausoleum chapel was built in memory of the artillery and infantry officers who died in 1917 and 1918.

 

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Loupeigne
Au bord de la D79 entre Loupeigne et Mareuil-en-Dôle

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Summary

Eléments remarquables

Chapelle-mausolée à des officiers d'artillerie et d'infanterie tombés en 1917-1918

Vailly-sur-Aisne National Military Cemetery

La nécropole nationale de Vailly-sur-Aisne. © Guillaume Pichard

 

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The Vailly-sur-Aisne National Military Cemetery is the final resting place for soldiers who gave their lives for France during the Chemin des Dames offensive in April 1917. Established at the same time as the battles, it was enlarged in 1924 and 1935 to include bodies of soldiers exhumed from nearby interim cemeteries (Allemant, Jouy, Laffaux, Nanteuil-la-Fosse, Sancy and du Bois-Morin). The cemetery contains the individual and collective tombs of 1,576 soldiers, including 1,559 French combatants from World War I and 17 from World War II.  It adjoins a British military cemetery where 676 soldiers, who primarily fell in September 1914, are buried.

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Vailly-sur-Aisne 02370
A 17 km à l'est de Soissons, en bordure du CD 925

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Summary

Eléments remarquables

Monument aux morts du 120èmeBCP tombés le 8 juillet 1917. Monument aux morts 1914-18 de l'UNC de Vailly.

The Champs national cemetery

La nécropole nationale de Champs. © Guillaume Pichard

 

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The Champs national cemetery holds the bodies of soldiers who died during the two world conflicts, namely 2,731 Frenchmen including 940 in two ossuaries, 80 Russians, an unknown Belgian soldier and one Italian who fell during the fighting on the Chemin des Dames between 1914 and 1918. 178 Frenchmen killed in the fighting during the French campaign in June 1940 also lie in this cemetery. Among the soldiers buried here are numerous infantrymen from the colonies.

 

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Champs
Au nord de Soissons, D 56

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The Crécy-au-Mont national cemetery

La nécropole nationale de Crécy-au-Mont. © ECPAD

 

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The Crécy-au-Mont national cemetery holds almost 1,400 French soldiers including 356 who lie in two ossuaries, 1,865 Germans including 579 in an ossuary, but also 19 French soldiers who died in 1940 during the French campaign. Created in 1919, this cemetery was developed up until 1935 in order to bring together the bodies exhumed from temporary military cemeteries located in the numerous communes of the Aisne department.

From autumn 1917 onwards, the village of Crécy-au-Mont was occupied by the Germans, who only left in March 1918. It was taken back from the French in May 1918, to finally be liberated on 30 August 1918. Close to the village, the Germans set up a firing platform for one of the six big SKL/45 naval cannons, wrongly thought to be Big Bertha. This long-range artillery equipment was capable of bombing Compiègne.

 

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Crécy-au-Mont
À 36 km au sud-ouest de Laon. À partir du CD 937, à la croisée du chemin dit d'Estournelles et du vieux chemin Coucy-le-Château / Soissons

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Vauxbuin National Cemetery

La nécropole nationale de Vauxbuin. © Guillaume Pichard

 

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Built in 1919, Vauxbuin National Cemetery contains the graves of 4,898 French soldiers from the First World War, 940 of whom were laid to rest in two ossuaries, and one Russian soldier, killed mainly during the Chemin des Dames battles in Autumn 1914 and April 1917. The bodies of 17 soldiers who were awarded the ‘Died for France’ distinction during the 1940 French campaign are also buried here. A German cemetery where 9,000 soldiers are buried was built close to this site.

 

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Vauxbuin 02200
À 5 km au sud-ouest de Soissons, en bordure de la RN 2 (Paris/Laon)

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The Bois-Robert national cemetery in Ambleny

La nécropole nationale Le Bois-Robert. © Guillaume Pichard

 

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Located at Le Bois-Robert, the Ambleny national cemetery holds 10,601 Frenchmen including 3,076 in four ossuaries, 76 French civilian victims and one Russian who died during the First World War. Created in 1923, this site was developed from 1934-1935 in order to bring together the bodies exhumed from military cemeteries to the south-west of Soissons.

Among the soldiers buried here are the bodies of numerous overseas soldiers. From 1917-1918, Caledonian Creoles were assigned to the Pacific Mixed Regiment (BMP), a unit made up of Kanaks, Caledonians and Tahitians. Behind the front, in the sector of Ailette sector, close to Chemin des Dames, these men took part in trench repair work.

Among the 76 civilian victims is Estelle Allain, née Berhamelle, aged 49, who died on 24 June 1915 in Soissons (grave n°15). She lived in an apartment in Soissons, rue Sainte-Eugénie, and her building was bombed by the Germans in June 1915. She did not have time to hide in the cellar, which had become a shelter, and was seriously wounded. She died as a result of her injuries, and was recognised as having died for her country.

In 1954, the bodies of 561 French soldiers who died for France during the Second World War were also brought here.

 

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Amblény
À 11 km à l'ouest de Soissons, sur la RN31 (Rouen/Reims), avant l'intersection avec la D17

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Chauny National Cemetery

La nécropole nationale de Chauny. © ECPAD

 

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Built in 1919, the Chauny National Cemetery holds bodies that were exhumed from temporary military cemeteries in the Chauny, Coucy and Laon region. In 1953, the remains of soldiers who had died during the Second World War were buried there. In this cemetery lie 468 French soldiers, including 139 in an ossuary for the period 1914-1918, and 18 killed in May-June 1940, including eight whose identities are unknown. The cemetery is located near a German cemetery with 1,527 tombs and a British cemetery where 435 soldiers are buried.

Among the soldiers buried here lie Roger Turpaud, a soldier in the 276th infantry regiment (IR), a legal journalist at the Figaro and later editor of the Police Commissioners' Newspaper and Financial Administration (plot 1, grave no. 71) and Jean-Louis Coqueton, a corporal in the 278th IR, head of office at the Creuse prefecture, who was wounded and taken prisoner on 21 September 1914 at Moulin-sous-Touvent. He died at the German lazaretto in Chauny on 1 October 1914 (plot 2, grave no. 14).

 

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Chauny
À l’est de Soissons, D 937

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