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Villers-Marmery National Cemetery

La nécropole nationale de Villers-Marmery. © ECPAD

 

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Lying in the heart of the Champagne vineyards, Villers-Marmery National Cemetery holds the remains of soldiers who died for France during the battles that took place in this region. Soldiers who died at the ambulance centre set up in the village in 1915 are buried in this cemetery, which was to have been temporary and was due to be absorbed into Sept-Saulx Cemetery in 1920. Thanks to a petition to the public authorities made by Mademoiselle Hazon de Saint-Firmin, a woman deeply attached to the grave of a soldier buried in this cemetery, Villers-Marmery National Cemetery was maintained and developed over the following years. This initiative meant that other bereaved families could come on pilgrimage and pay tribute to the memory of these soldiers. Exceptionally, Mademoiselle Hazon de Saint-Firmin was also granted the right by the military authorities to leave part of her fortune for the perpetual upkeep of the cemetery. The cemetery was renovated in 2013 and 523 people are now buried here in individual graves.

 

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Villers-Marmery
Au nord de Châlons-en-Champagne, D 37

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Sept-Saulx French national war cemetery

La nécropole nationale de Sept-Saulx. © ECPAD

 

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Founded in 1915 during the military operations in Champagne, the national war cemetery of Sept-Saulx brings together, under the Great War, 3,043 bodies of French soldiers and two other soldiers killed during World War II.  From 1920, the bodies of soldiers began to be brought there after being exhumed from isolated graves or various temporary cemeteries in the region.

After many successful colonial campaigns, in particular in Tonkin, General Henri Van Waertmeulen led, throughout the summer of 1914, commanded a colonial regiment. Brigadier General in 1917, he commanded the 165th Infantry Division. Seriously wounded by shrapnel, he died on 16 July 1918 at the 13/20 ambulance stationed at Sept-Saulx.  Without any other distinction, and thus respecting the quality of grades when faced with mass deaths, his body is buried here next to those of his men (grave 2478). Commander of the Legion of Honour, he is one of 41 Generals who died for France during the First World War and the last general officer to have been killed in 1914-1918. His name features on the war memorial erected in the church of the soldiers of Saint-Louis des Invalides (Paris).

 

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Sept-Saulx
À 20 km au sud-est de Reims, sur la D 57

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Eléments remarquables

Tombe du général van Vaetermeulen, mort pour la France le 16 juillet 1918

Sillery French national war cemetery

La nécropole nationale de Sillery. © ECPAD

 

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Bringing together almost 12,000 bodies, this national military cemetery contains the remains of French soldiers who died in the fighting that took place in defence of Reims, from September 1914 to autumn 1918. This cemetery was established from 1923 onwards for the remains of soldiers exhumed from isolated graves or various temporary cemeteries in the region. Today, in the name of the Great War, it contains the remains of 11,228 French soldiers including 5,548 buried in two ossuaries, and 2 Czech servicemen. Many soldiers from colonial units fell in the defence of the Fort de la Pompelle. Until 1933, before being transferred to Prague, the body of Lumir Brezovsky was buried here. He was the first Czechoslovak volunteer killed on 10 December 1914 at Marquise. There are also the bodies of 29 servicemen who died for France in 1939-1945 and who have been laid to rest there.

Dedicated to graveless soldiers, a chapel-mausoleum was erected at this military cemetery. This idea was supported by the Abbé Fendler, priest of Sillery and president of the Comité du Mausolée des Batailles de Champagne. Presented in 1925, at the International Exhibition of Modern Industrial and Decorative Arts in Paris, this monument was erected thanks to an international fund and was designed by the architect Adolphe Proust. Framing the forged iron gate created by iron craftsman Marcel Decrion, the sculptures were created in fresh concrete, by Edouard Sediey. The window is by the master glassmaker Jacques Simon. Inside the mausoleum are three commemorative plaques provided by the families.  The first stone of this building was laid on 19 September 1926 during the ceremony to commemorate the battles of Fort de la Pompelle and Sillery.

 

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Sillery
À 10 km au sud-est de Reims, sur la D 8

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Eléments remarquables

Chapelle-mausolée aux morts privés de sépultures des batailles de Champagne 1914-18 _ Monument aux morts de la 97e division d'infanterie territoriale de 1915

Fère-Champenoise

Nécropole nationale de Fère-Champenoise. © ECPAD

 

 

Located in Les Ouches, Fère-Champenoise National Cemetery holds the remains of soldiers who died for France in the first Battle of the Marne (September 1914) and during the Campaign for France in June 1940. Established immediately after the battles that mainly took place in the Saint-Gond marshes and on the two Morin rivers, the cemetery was developed from 1919 to 1934 to accommodate the bodies of other soldiers exhumed from military cemeteries or isolated graves in the Marne, the Aube and the Haute-Marne. Since 1928, a commemorative monument has stood here, dedicated to the memory of the French soldiers killed in action from 1914 to 1918. The cemetery holds the remains of nearly 6,000 French soldiers, including over 3,000 in the ossuary, together with some foreigners (including British and Czech) killed during the First World War. In the early 1950s, this cemetery held the mortal remains of 169 Frenchmen and 3 Belgians killed in the battles of the Aisne and Champagne in May and June 1940, and during the Liberation of France in 1944.

 

 

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Fère-champenoise

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Eléments remarquables

Monument aux morts 1914-1918.

Soizy-aux-Bois National Cemetery

Nécropole nationale de Soizy-aux-Bois. © ECPAD

 

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Soizy-aux-Bois National Cemetery holds the remains of soldiers who died for France during the First Battle of the Marne (September 1914), mainly soldiers killed in action at the Château de Mondement and in the Saint-Gond marshes. Established after the battles, the cemetery was redesigned in 1924 to receive the bodies of soldiers exhumed from municipal cemeteries across the region. Covering 610 sqm, the cemetery holds the remains of 1,692 French soldiers contained in the two ossuaries.

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51
Soizy-aux-Bois

Summary

Accès :

Au nord de Sézanne . D 51

Superficie : 610 m²
Nombre de corps : Ossuaires (2) : 1 692
Nombre de morts : 1692
1914-18 : 1 692 Français

Eléments remarquables

Monuments aux morts 1914-1918.

Villiers-Saint-Georges National Cemetery

La nécropole nationale de Villiers-Saint-Georges. © ECPAD

 

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Located at a place known as the "The Path of Beauland" the Villiers-Saint-Georges National Cemetery is home to soldiers who died for France during battle in September 1914. The cemetery was built in the aftermath of the fighting, and was redeveloped in 1918 to include other soldiers from the Second Battle of the Marne who died in battle or in the on-site ambulance. The cemetery contains 60 bodies – 59 Frenchmen and one volunteer fighter from the Czech Army, Mentl Fransisck.

Commended in the Army in 1922, Villiers-Saint-Georges was one of the most advanced positions that the enemy reached in September 1914 and had its own military hospital during the war. The bodies of soldiers that were not claimed by their families lie in the military cemetery where the town’s War Memorial stands.

 

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Villiers-Saint-Georges
A l’ouest de Sézanne, D 15, D 403

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Monument aux morts 1914-1918

Montceaux-lès-Provins National Cemetery

La nécropole nationale de Montceaux-lès-Provins. © ECPAD

 

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Located at a place known as “Behind the chestnut trees”, the Montceaux-lès-Provins National Cemetery is home to soldiers who died for France in the Battle of the Two Morins in September 1914. This cemetery dates from 1920 and was redesigned in 1934 to include soldiers who died during this battle that were initially buried in the military graveyards surrounding Montceaux-lès-Provins or in the communal cemetery. The National Cemetery holds 223 bodies, including 68 individual graves. The remains of 155 soldiers were collected in two ossuaries.

Following the fighting of September 1914, as often happened, civilians were required to bury the dead. Bodies were collected and divided across two ossuaries, while individual graves were kept for soldiers who died in the Villiers-Saint-Georges military hospital in 1918. Collective graves were used up until 1915, but individual graves became more commonplace. Furthermore, the law of 29 December 1915 granted soldiers who died for France the right to be buried in individual graves. Therefore, the Montceaux-lès-Provins Cemetery is typical of military cemeteries from the beginning of WWI and representative of the way French military authorities managed the deceased.

 

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Montceaux-lès-Provins
A l’ouest de Sézanne, D 403

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Eléments remarquables

Monument aux morts 1914-1918 et 1939-1945

Courgivaux National Cemetery

La nécropole nationale de Courgivaux. © ECPAD

 

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The Courgivaux National Cemetery is home to the bodies of soldiers who died for France in the First Battle of the Marne (September 1914). Created in the aftermath of the fighting, the cemetery was redone in 1921, then in 1929. This cemetery holds a total of 225 French soldiers, with 193 of those in the ossuary. It is located on the very battlegrounds of September 1914.

At the end of the fighting in Courgivaux on 6 and 7 September 1914, civilians were frequently required to bury the dead lying around the village. Over several days, they were buried in mass graves while the officers were buried in individual graves. Collective graves were used until 1915, but the use of individual graves also spread. Furthermore, the law of 29 December 1915 allowed soldiers who died for France to be buried in individual graves. The Courgivaux cemetery is typical of military cemeteries from the beginning of the First World War, and also of the way French military authorities dealt with death.

The remains of Sergeant Gustave Valmont lie in the ossuary. He was a student at the Lycée Condorcet in Paris, and went on to become a philosopher and poet, yet only wrote one volume of poetry, L’Aile de l’Amour (1911). At the time of the French mobilisation of 1914, he abandoned a novel he had begun to write, and joined the 274th Infantry Regiment. On 6 September, he died during a reconnaissance mission.

Sergeant K.H. Harris is also buried there, who was killed on 13 June 1940 at 23 years of age.

 

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Courgivaux
À l’ouest de Sézanne, N 4

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Eléments remarquables

Monument aux morts 1914-1918 et 1939-1945

Neuilly-Saint-Front national cemetery

La nécropole nationale de Neuilly-Saint-Front. © Guillaume Pichard

 

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This national military cemetery, that brings together almost 2,100 bodies, contains the remains of French soldiers who died in the fighting that took place in the region in 1918. From the Great War, 2,039 French soldiers buried in two ossuaries, 22 Britons including 11 who are non-identified, four civilians and a Russian lie there. The bodies of 29 soldiers who died for France in 1939-1945 also lie there.

One of the most emblematic monuments of this conflict is erected here, a place that symbolises the second French assault on the Marne: the ghosts of Oulchy-le-Château. The work by the French sculptor of Polish origin, Paul Landowski, depicts ghosts keeping watch over a landscape that today is at peace. Seven dead soldiers, with empty eyes, in the middle of whom appears the naked figure of a hero and martyr, are a reminder of the suffering of the soldiers who died in July 1918.

 

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Neuilly-Saint-Front
Au bord de la D4 avant d'entrer dans le bourg

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The "Les Chesneaux" national cemetery at Château-Thierry

La nécropole nationale Les Chesneaux. © ECPAD

 

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Located at "Les Chesneaux", this national cemetery contains the remains of 2,103 soldiers who died in the fighting that took place in the area in 1918. This cemetery was arranged in order to bring together the bodies of soldiers exhumed from isolated graves or various temporary cemeteries. Around 2,088 bodies from the Great War, including 698 in two ossuaries, are gathered here. Nine Britons including two unknown soldiers, a member of the British Red Cross assigned to the French army and four Russians also lie here.

In May 1918, General Foch turned to Pershing in order to quickly avail of military support from the United States, which had joined the war in April 1917. Two divisions were deployed in the Château-Thierry region in order to contain the enemy advance. For most of these men, it was a baptism of fire. On 4 June, at the cost of significant losses, the movement was halted and, on 6 June, the 2nd American division (DIUS) took over, in the Bois Belleau in particular.

At Château-Thierry, an imposing memorial, Rock of the Marne, was inaugurated in 1933, in memory of the offensive of 18 July 1918 during the second battle of the Marne. Built by the architect Paul Philippe Cret, assisted by Achille-Henri Chauquet, it is a reminder of the commitment of the Americans alongside the French during the second battle of the Marne, notably on Hill 204.

Only two soldiers from the Second World War are buried here: Charles de Rouge, officer cadet with the 1st tank battalion, who died on 10 June 1940 (grave n° 1378) and lieutenant Pierre Charles Pain (grave 585).

 

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Château-Thierry
Entre la rue Léon Lhermitte et la rue Massure-aux-Lièvres

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Eléments remarquables

Monument "le Linceul" œuvre du sculpteur Jacopin qui a représenté un soldat du 1er empire, abandonné aux corbeaux