The fighting in Hauts de Meuse

Due to the French push across the Marne and the resistance of Fort Troyon, on 13 September 1914 the German Fifth Army retreated. It fell back onto the marshy plain of the Woëvre, where it took up positions prepared in advance. On 20 September, the Germans attacked from Étain to Pont-à-Mousson and succeeded in reaching the Meuse at Saint-Mihiel. Within a few days, they had carved out a salient in the French front, but were stopped by the 16th Army Corps. The Germans dug themselves solidly into their positions. Lying between Verdun and Saint-Mihiel, this sector was the scene of bloody fighting in 1915. At the Calonne Trench, Bois des Chevaliers, Bois d’Ailly and Bois Brûlé, the infantry were severely put to the test. Throughout the war, these sectors, to the south of Saint-Mihiel, were among the most active.

Dominating the plain, the Les Éparges ridge was at the centre of fierce fighting, in which thousands died. The summit of the hill was blown up by underground mines dug by sappers on both sides. Between 5 and 14 April 1915, the French 1st Army attacked in Woëvre and Hauts de Meuse. Faced with strong enemy resistance, it was unable to seize the ridge.

From 22 to 26 February 1916, in view of the German pressure on Verdun, the French evacuated Woëvre to fall back around Fort Moulainville, which had been bombed for weeks by the Germans. In 1917, due to a shortage of troops, the front came to a standstill until the Franco-American offensive against the Saint-Mihiel salient. Launched on 12 September 1918, the offensive was brought by nine American and four French divisions, supported by 3 000 guns, 1 500 aircraft and 200 tanks. It succeeded in driving the enemy back to the border, taking 16 000 prisoners. The front then stabilised until the armistice of November 1918.

Dieue, a nearby village of medical facilities

During the operations of 1915, many troops were stationed in Dieue, along with two headquarters. Declared a military hospital, the village received large numbers of wounded, in particular those of the 68th and 28th divisions. The 2/14 field ambulance was divided between several houses in the village, one of which (on Place du Jeu-de-Quilles) still bears a red cross on its façade. Having gone through triage by the divisional ambulances at Calonne, the seriously wounded underwent surgery and treatment here, before being taken to Petit-Monthairon evacuation hospital, then on to the hospital of Queue-de-Mala. Lastly, they were evacuated by train or ambulance car to the hospitals of Bar-le-Duc.

The soldiers who died in 1915 belonged to the 8th, 11th, 51st, 67th, 106th, 110th, 128th and 132nd Infantry Regiments (IR) and the 25th Battalion of Chasseurs Portés (BCP), whose divisions fought at Les Éparges or the Calonne Trench. In Petit-Monthairon, there still stands a burial stone bearing the numbers of the units that were buried there and are today buried at Dieue. Just after the war, a memorial was erected to the 284 soldiers then buried on this site. It lists the names of the units of all the soldiers buried here, who came from across France and its colonies.

Located near the old 9/2 ambulance, the Quatre-Vents National Cemetery holds the bodies of 531 French soldiers, killed throughout the war in battles in the Verdun area. Built in 1916, this cemetery was further developed in 1920 to make room for the remains of soldiers originally buried in Recourt-le-Creux.

Among the soldiers buried at Dugny is the body of General Ernest-Jean Aimé, commander of the 67th infantry division (DI), and who fell on 6 September 1916 at Souville fort, buried in grave n° 1665. This general officer, who was born in 1858, chose the military way of life at the age of 11. A colonel at the start of the war, he was given command of the 21st infantry brigade, then of the 67th infantry division. On 6 September 1916, whilst on a reconnaissance mission near Souville fort, he was fatally injured by shrapnel. He was posthumously commended by the Army: General officer of the highest military and moral worth. Gloriously killed in action, whilst he was going towards the line of fire to reconnoitre the battlefield and support the morale of his troops, who were about to launch an attack.

Today in Froméreville-les-Vallons, on the site of the former national cemetery (which was closed in 1983), a monument inaugurated in 1985 bears the epitaph "Eternal glory to those who gave their lives for the sacred cause of Freedom. Froméréville-les-Vallons 1985". The bodies of the soldiers who were initially buried in this cemetery were taken to the cemeteries of Landrecourt-Lempire and Verdun Glorieux.

The Battle of Verdun, 1916-18

During the Battle of the Marne, Verdun and its ring of forts formed an entrenched camp that provided solid support for General Sarrail’s 3rd Army. The enemy sought to bring down this stronghold with two attacks: one to the west against Revigny-sur-Ornain, the other to the east against Fort Troyon. Both attacks failed.

Throughout 1915, General Joffre launched bloody operations to the east against the Saint Mihiel salient and, to the west, deployed the 3rd and 4th Armies to defend the Argonne. These local combats descended into tunnel warfare and became a real test for soldiers’ morale.

It was in this sector, therefore, where French positions were poorly maintained, that Germany’s General Falkenhayn decided to launch an offensive to wear down the French Army. On 21 February 1916, Operation Gericht went ahead against the French positions. After a violent bombardment of the right bank of the Meuse and the town, the Germans advanced over a ravaged landscape. In four days, they progressed four miles, despite determined resistance from the 30th Army Corps, defending the Bois des Caures woods.

On 25 February, the enemy took Fort Douaumont, while General Pétain’s 2nd Army was tasked with defending Verdun. Pétain organised the front and supplies. The Bar-le-Duc to Verdun road became the main artery, the “Sacred Way” which, day and night, brought supplies for the defence of Verdun.

Stalled outside Vaux and Douaumont, on 6 March the German 5th Army expanded operations on the left bank of the Meuse. These two ridges, the only natural obstacles controlling access to Verdun, became the most disputed positions on the left bank of the Meuse. On 9 April, the attack was driven back. For every French and German soldier, the battle became “the hell of Verdun”, in which the artillery triumphed. On 7 June, despite a heroic defence against attack from flame-throwers and gas, Fort Vaux, in turn, fell. The Germans threw everything they had into the battle. On 23 June, 80 000 German infantrymen, preceded by a deluge of gas shells, took the village of Fleury. On the 26th, the Germans took Thiaumont.

The Franco-British offensive launched on 1 July on the Somme forced the Germans to divert troops, aircraft and guns from the Verdun front. The last major attack took place on 11 and 12 July against Fort Souville, less than two miles from Verdun. The bitterest of struggles went on for Hill 304 and Mort-Homme. Between 21 February and 15 July, the two armies fired more than 40 million shells of all calibres. Three quarters of the French Army passed through Verdun, where losses on 15 July amounted to 275 000 dead, wounded or captured. The same was true for the German Army.

On 24 October, Fort Douaumont was recaptured. On 2 November, Fort Vaux fell into French hands. From February to November 1916, French and German troops fought one another in what was one of the most terrible battles of the Great War.

In August 1917, the French recaptured Hill 304 and Mort-Homme, and completely freed up Verdun. But the struggle went on along the Caurières ridge, where enemy artillery deployed new mustard gas shells.

On 26 September 1918, the Allies attacked from Champagne to the Meuse. Bois des Caures was retaken in October.