The Battle of Arras Memorial was opened to the public on 1 March 2008. Erected in the former Wellington Quarry, it commemorates the Allied Engagement and the role this location played in the planning of the British offensive of April 1917 in Arras.

In spring 1917, the French General Nivelle, while preparing the Chemin des Dames offensive, requested that the commander of the British troops launch a diversion attack in the sector of Arras.

The main difficulty with this operation was gathering the troops in large numbers without attracting the enemy’s attention. The New Zealand fire brigade were commanded to dig tunnels beneath the enemy trenches in order to link together the old quarries used by stonecutters in the 15^th and 16^th centuries and create a huge underground network stretching 20 kilometres. It allowed the British troops to come out from nowhere, on the morning of 9 April, a few metres from the German front line.

This underground network was the biggest of its kind ever constructed by the British troops. The other purpose of these passages was to meet the basic needs of the 24,000 men billeted there prior to combat, the quarries providing a high level of security despite its close proximity to the Front with kitchens, showers and latrines installed as well as a military hospital. To facilitate their movements around the tunnels, the New Zealand and British troops named the quarries after towns and cities from their homelands. The main quarry was named Wellington.

A recent research programme carried out on these quarries by Arras’ archaeological department unearthed many traces of their former French and British occupants, the soldiers who lived and fought here during the war. In light of the interest these new-found testimonials hold in helping us to understand the everyday lives of the soldiers, a thorough inventory of the passages was made in the Wellington Quarry.

The town of Arras took the initiative to build this memorial, part funded by the Regional Council, the French Ministry of Regional Planning, the Urban Community, the General Council and the Ministry of Defence.

This place of remembrance comprises a remembrance garden and a wall dedicated to the British regiments who fought in this battle engraved with the names of all the soldiers. Documents about Arras dating back to the Great War are displayed in the half-buried reception hall.

Over 75 minutes, the tour pays tribute to the engagement of the Allied troops around Arras, focusing more on the soldiers’ everyday lives than the war itself. The quarry is open to groups of up to 17 people led by a tour guide. A glass lift takes the group 20 metres below ground to visit the 350 metres of tunnels that have been renovated.

This strategic network also housed the living quarters of thousands of soldiers billeted below ground. Drawings and graffiti, bas reliefs, crosses and other features can be seen on the walls, along with traces left behind by the soldiers such as helmets and rusted tins of food.

Each visitor is given an audio-guide that describes 10 sequences illustrated by visual projections and light shows on the surrounding walls: the discovery of the underground world; the traces left by the working quarry in the Middle Ages; the tunnel of history (the quarries up to 1916); the objectives of this unique military strategy in the context of the war; the tunnelling operation in 1916 and 1917; daily life in the quarries in April 1917; the construction of the network, and the Battle of Arras in April 1917. To conclude, a film about the Battle of Arras, based on archives from the Imperial War Museum, is shown in a room at the end of the tour. The memorial hopes to welcome 60,000 visitors a year.

Wellington Quarry

Rue Delétoile 62000 Arras

Tel: +(0)3 21 51 26 95

Office de tourisme d'Arras

Carrière Wellington

Located some twenty kilometres southwest of St. Mihiel Cemetery in Thiaucourt (Meurthe-et-Moselle department) and some fifteen kilometres from the town of St. Mihiel, the Montsec American Monument, built on a 270-metre hill, overlooks Madine Lake.

Produced by sculptor Egerton Swarthout, the monument, built with Euville limestone in 1930, commemorates the attacks carried out by the American Army from 12 to 14 September 1918 and from 9 to 11 November 1918 to take the St. Mihiel salient.

A large walkway leads to an open-air colonnade made up of fluted Doric columns supporting an entablature bearing the names of the towns, alternating with laurel wreaths.

At the centre of the colonnade is a bronze map illustrating the location of the St. Mihiel salient fronts. Damaged during fighting in 1944, the structure was restored four years later. Access to the monument is free.

Montsec American Monument Head toward Saint-Mihiel.

At Loupmont, continue toward Apremont-la-Forêt and then "Massif Fortifié de Liouville".

Montsec Town Hall

8 rue de l'Eglise - 55300 Montsec

Tel.: +33 (0)3 29 90 42 83

Le musée franco-américain du château de Blérancourt, unique musée consacré à des relations entre deux pays, et plus spécifiquement à la France et aux Etats-Unis d’Amérique, est situé à 120 km au nord de Paris et à 15 km de la gare de Noyon.

Construit en 1612 sur les plans du célèbre architecte Salomon de Brosse, le Château de Blérancourt fut la demeure de la riche famille des Potiers de Gesvres, avant démantelement pendant la Révolution. En ruines à la fin du19ème siècle, il est confié en 1917 par l’Armée française à Anne Morgan, fille du fameux banquier et collectionneur américain John-Pierpont Morgan. A la tête d’une association d’aide aux populations des régions sinistrées par la guerre, le Comité pour les Régions Dévastées, elle poursuit jusqu’en 1924 son action humanitaire et participe à la reconstruction de la région Picardie grâce aux missions suivantes : service d’infirmières-visiteuses, ravitaillement, aide à la lecture publique, foyers et jardins d’enfants, scoutisme, sports et fêtes. Grâce à,un parc automobile de Ford-T, les volontaires peuvent ainsi desservir 130 villages à partir de 5 centres établis à Blérancourt, Coucy-le-château, Anizy, Vic-sur-Aisne et Soissons. Au plus près des populations sinistrées, elles participent activement à une reconstruction morale et sociale et apportent la joie de vivre dans une région détruite à 90 % lors du conflit mondial.

Au lendemain de la guerre, Anne Morgan rachète le château (1919), fait restaurer en 1924 les deux pavillons d'angle pour y installer le musée de la coopération franco-américaine, puis en 1930 l'aile nord du Château, suivie par l'aile sud en 1938.

A l’origine dédié à la participation française à la guerre d’Indépendance et surtout à l’aide américaine durant la Première Guerre mondiale, le projet culturel du musée s’est ensuite étendu aux relations artistiques franco-américaines, présentées dans le pavillon Gould construit en 1989 par les architectes Yves Lion et Alan Lewitt.

Le musée fait actuellement l’objet d’un chantier de complète rénovation afin d’augmenter la surface d’exposition et de valoriser les vestiges archéologiques majeurs (maison-forte médiévale) découverts pendant les fouilles réalisées avant travaux.

Réouverture du musée franco-américain de Blérancourt après complète rénovation, automne 2017.

Visites et ateliers pédagogiques :

https://museefrancoamericain.fr/activites-pedagogiques

• Centre de documentation et contact(s)

Bibliothèque franco-américaine : La bibliothèque franco-américaine est consacrée aux relations entre la France et les États-Unis. Située dans le cadre exceptionnel d'un pavillon du XVIIe siècle, elle comprend plus de 6 000 ouvrages.

• Ouverte aux lecteurs sur simple demande écrite.
• Service pédagogique et contact(s)

Catherine Assous Tél : 03 23 39 14 72 mail : catherine.assous@culture.gouv.fr

• Visite gratuite : Uniquement lors des événements nationaux

https://www.coordonnees-gps.fr/communes/blerancourt/2093

Sources : ©Musée franco-américain du Château de Blérancourt

The project for a tower 300 metres tall was instigated during preparations for the World Exhibition of 1889. The two principal engineers from the Eiffel company, Emile Nouguier and Maurice Koechlin, had the idea in June 1884 for a very tall tower, designed like a large pylon consisting of four lattice-work girders, outspread at the base and coming together at the top, linked together by metal girders placed at regular intervals. On the 18th September 1884 Gustave Eiffel was granted a licence "new authorisation for the construction of metal structures and pylons over 300 metres tall". The curvature of the uprights was determined mathematically in order to provide the best possible resistance to the effects of wind. Erection of the supports began on the 1st July 1887, to be completed twenty-one months later. All the components were prepared at the factory in Levallois-Perret in the Paris suburbs, the head office of the Eiffel company: between 150 and 300 workers were involved in its assembly. The Tower was erected with the aid of wooden scaffolds and small steam driven cranes attached to the Tower itself. The assembly of the first level was carried out using twelve temporary wooden scaffolds 30 metres high and then four large 45 metre scaffolds. Started in January 1887, the project was completed on 31st March 1889. Gustave Eiffel was decorated with the Legion of Honour on the platform at the top.

A showcase for French industrial dynamism at the 1889 World Exhibition, the Tower would see more than two million visitors pass by during the event. Gustave Eiffel saved his work from demolition by promoting research into radio transmissions and suggesting that his tower could be used as an enormous radio mast. After the first radio signals were broadcast by Eugène Ducretet towards the Panthéon in 1898, Eiffel approached the military authorities in 1901 with a view to making the Tower into a long-distance radio antenna. In 1903 a radio connection was made with the military bases around Paris, and then a year later with the East of France. A permanent radio station was installed in the Tower in 1906, thus ensuring its continuing survival. During the Great War, the Tower provided many services by listening to enemy transmissions, which gave it the nickname "the big ear". It is thanks to the Tower that Joffre would be informed of the advance of von Klück's troops and decide to requisition all the taxis in Paris to send soldiers to the Marne. It was responsible, amongst other things, for the arrest of Mata Hari because, once again, the Eiffel Tower had kept an ear out and deciphered the spy's messages. In 1921 the first public radio broadcast in Europe would be transmitted from its aerials. The first television trials from the Tower date from 1925 and the first regular broadcasts from 1935. In May 1940, before the German troops arrived, a handful of patriots carried out acts of sabotage on the Tower, successfully enough to ensure that the lift did not work when Hitler came. A strategic place for commanding the city of Paris, the Tower was closed to the public between 1940 and 1945; it would not reopen until June 1946. Radio broadcasts were made from the centre at Allouis under the control of the occupying authorities, who took control of Radio-Paris. The top of the tower has been modified over the course of the years in order to accommodate ever more antennae. Today it accommodates several dozen antennae of all kinds, including a television mast that is 324 metres tall.

Le Linge ridge is located in the Alsatian Vosges mountains.

At a height of 1,000 metres, it separates the Orbey and Munster valleys, some twenty kilometres west of Colmar.

Designated a historic site by decree on 11 October 1921, it was one of the deadliest battlefields of World War I. During the conflict, the Germans had organised their defences along the crestline of Le Linge ridge to keep the French troops from advancing toward Colmar.

From 20 July to 15 October 1915, the Chasseurs Alpins, often between the ages of 19 and 20, launched an assault against this impregnable bastion. Gas shells and flamethrowers were used.

Some 10,000 Frenchmen and 7,000 Germans died during this period before the troops reached a standoff and remained facing each other until the end of the war in November 1918. The site that is visited today is a large rocky knoll, land with scattered shelters and crisscrossed by a network of fortified trenches, covered with heath and a few trees. The barbed wire of the period has not been removed and the whole is very well preserved.

It is hard to imagine that his superb site, with the northern tip of the knoll forming a rocky outcropping affording a magnificent view, was witness to such a slaughter. And yet hundreds of soldiers from both sides still rest here.

The Memorial Museum exhibits French and German objects found on the site: arms, munitions, relics and personal objects.

The showcases present of French and German fighters, models of the battlefield, period photographs, letters written by soldiers, and maps indicating tactical operations. Visitors can also view a video projection of period photographs.

Le Linge Memorial Association

86, route du général de Gaulle 68370 Orbey

Tel.: +33 (0)3 89 77 29 97

Fax: +33 (0)3 89 71 31 61

info@linge1915.com

Access

The Memorial Museum and the Le Linge battlefield at Orbey are located near the Col du Wettstein "Nécropole Nationale française" on highway D11V1.

Opening hours

From Good Friday to 11 November: 9.00 am to 12.30 pm and 2.00 pm to 6.00 pm

Admission price

Adults: €3

Group (over 10 people): €2.50 / person

Under 16 years of age (accompanied by an adult) and military personnel in uniform: free admission

Primary and middle school students: €20 per class: free for two accompanying adults

High school students: €2.50 / person, free for two accompanying adults

Reservations are required for school groups, and an educational dossier can be downloaded at www.linge1915.com

Tourism 68

Le Linge World War I Memorial Museum

Located at Bénerville-sur-Mer (Calvados), the protected natural site of Mont Canisy overlooks the sea from a height of 110 metres.

For centuries, the strategic position to the south of the Seine Bay occupied by this site has led it to be used successively as a seigniorial fief which was broken up in 1793, an anti-submarine defence post in 1917-1918, a coastal battery between 1935 and 1940 and then the largest artillery base of operations for the Atlantic Wall. In recent history, it has twice been used as a coastal artillery position: between 1935 and 1940 when the French Navy installed two batteries on the site to contribute to the defence of the estuary and Le Havre port, and between 1942 and 1944 when it became an important part of the Atlantic Wall defences, designed to repel any allied landing attempt.

Various installations from these two periods can still be seen (blockhouses, gun emplacements, fortified ouvrages linked by a 260-metre-long passageway housing an underground garrison, etc.).

Mont Canisy battery

Tel: +33 (0)2 31 87 91 14

Opening hours on Saturdays: 2.30pm to 5.30pm

Mont Canisy batteries website

In his collection of short stories, Solitude de la pitié (“The Solitude of Compassion”), Jean Giono evokes his friend Yvan Kossiakoff, who lies in this national cemetery (tomb 372). According to him, this fighter was shot in July 1917 at the Chalons camp. But there is no evidence that any Russian soldiers were executed at that time. In all likelihood, Jean Giono imagined this execution with reference to the Russian uprising in La Courtine (Creuse).

On 16 May 1937, the French Front Veteran Officers Association, founded in 1923, together with Veterans of the Moroccan Division, opened a memorial chapel dedicated to the 4,000 Russian soldiers who died in France and Salonika (now Thessaloniki). The chapel, designed in Orthodox style by architect Albert Benoît, was built near the cemetery, which also houses a monument in homage to the Russian infantry of the Second Special Regiment.

Marshal Joffree was born on 12 January 1852, in Rivesaltes. In honour of the soldier who was made a Marshal of France in 1916, the commune acquired Joffre’s birthplace and turned it into a museum.

It was officially opened on 10 January 1987, by the then state secretary to the Minister of Defence, Jacques Boyon.

On the ground floor, formerly the stables, cooperage and entrance hall, the display presents the key moments in Joffre’s life. There are two sculptures of the Marshal, 30 panels of 200 photographs charting his career and a display presenting the main battles of the First World War.

On the first floor of the family apartment, visitors can see Joffre’s study, complete with its original furnishings, together with historical paintings and gifts from Spanish and South American Catalans. On display in the antechamber are objects (kepi, sword and bicorn hat of the French Academy) and mannequins dressed as infantry soldiers from 1914-15, as well as the Marshal’s own uniforms. The kitchen and the bedroom in which Joffre was born have been recreated.

The top floor, which served as a hayloft, is devoted mainly to the Battle of the Marne, with an animated relief map and projections recreating the key moments. A 50-minute film charts the main events of the First and Second World Wars. Outside, at the edge of the path, is a statue of Marshal Joffre on horseback.

Musée Joffre

11, rue du Maréchal Joffre - 66600 Rivesaltes

Tel.: +33 (0)4 68 64 24 98 or (0)4 68 64 04 04

Fax: +33 (0)4 68 38 50 88

Opening times

Open daily, 8 am to 12 noon and 2 pm to 6 pm, except weekends.

June to September, 8 am to 12 noon and 2 pm to 6 pm; weekends, 2 pm to 6 pm.

Closed on bank holidays. Free admission.

From the beginning of the 16th century, the inhabitants of Toulon were heavily preoccupied with sheltering their town from an attack by sea. And although, with its fortified wall dating from the 14th century, Toulon could consider itself sheltered from a sudden attack from the land, its harbour remained entirely open to enemy fleets. Listening to the pleas of the province and alerted by the town council, in 1513 KIng Louis XII ordered the construction of a fortification in the form of a tower in the entrance to the port to defend its access. Originally called the Royal Tower, this fortification was immediately called the Great Tower or the Big Tower by the people, who were amazed at its size. In a municipal debate held on the 16th July 1513, the town council decided that this tower would be built on the cape known as la Manègue, in the entrance to the port, as the king had wanted. The execution of the work was under the supervision of an Italian engineer of great renown, Jean-Antoine de la Porta, who arrived at the port in early May 1514. The work was started on the 14th May, the date of the first excavations, to public rejoicing and would continue, often halted due to financial difficulties, for ten years. The Great Tower was completely finished and armed in May 1524. Command of it was entrusted to the unsavoury individual Captain Jehan du Mottet, famous for the cowardice with which he surrendered it to the Imperials, without a struggle, for 500 gold Ecus, when the latter invaded Provence in 1524. The enemy found 3 canons and 9 other artillery pieces there, which they drove to their camp outside Marseille, opening up the first route through the Ollioules gorges, in order to avoid the harsh climb up the Corps de Garde pass. Amongst the canons taken were the famous culverin, called Lézarde, which was later to cause so much harm to the French on the day of the Battle of Pavia (24th February 1525) and which was partly responsible for the victory. In 1529, the Great Tower was rearmed and as a result was able to resist in July and August 1536, when the fleet of Andréa Doria entered Toulon. It could not, however, prevent it from occupying the harbour during the new invasion of Provence by Charles Quint. During the persecutions suffered by the protestants in the province as a result of the Saint-Barthélémy massacre, about twenty Reformist families found asylum in the Great Tower.

It played no active role during the siege of 1707, but as it was powerfully armed, the ships of Admiral Showel's English fleet did not dare to break through the harbour. Towards the end of the 17th century, this fortress, which had for a long time provided the only defence of Toulon from the sea, was already no longer capable of providing a useful service. However, in 1746, it was still equipped with fifteen 24 canons, ten 18's, four 12's and two 6's, making a total of thirty one canons. From 1770 onwards, which was when Fort Lamalgue was finished, the Great Tower no longer played a major role in the defence of the harbour. The Revolution was to turn it into a jail; many victims were imprisoned and perished there. It had the same use during the counter-revolution of 1793. On the 19th May 1798, Josephine came to the Tower to say goodbye to Bonaparte as he set off on his expedition to Egypt. Although it was a pleasant prison in 1809 for the crew of the English frigate the Proserpine, captured off Sicié on the 27th February, for the duration of the First Empire it would accommodate in a more rudimentary fashion the many draft dodgers awaiting trial or their departure to the companies of pioneers. In 1825, the chapel was demolished and the small cemetery deconsecrated. The Tower had twenty-one canons in 1844. During the Franco-German war of 1870-1871, its basements were used to store the gold of the Bank of France. A project to install a battery of two 370mm canons there was abandoned in 1900. Since then, the Great Tower has been used as a store for naval construction, and to service torpedoes etc. In the 1914-1918 war German prisoners of war were interned there. During the 1939-1945 war it was occupied by the Germans and armed with various weapons, most notably anti-aircraft canons. It was hit several times and was badly damaged during the allied bombardments of 1943-1944. Between 1947 and 1948 it was cleared of rubble and a few minor repairs were carried out. Since the 11th April 1947 it has been listed as a historic monument.
A canon tower, almost circular in shape, 60 metres in diameter, with walls varying in thickness from 5 m to 3 m, it consists of a central nucleus, a low casemated battery with eight embrasures, a platform at access level with a drawbridge and an upper terrace protected by a solid wall forming a parados. It is surrounded by a wide moat. Several modifications have been carried out to the fort over the years: the addition of two low batteries at the end of the 17th century, whose embrasures are now blocked up; the establishment of a barracks on the platform and then a guard house; the development of the upper terraces to accommodate anti-aircraft artillery.
The central nucleus contains a collection of premises laid out on three levels, one above the other and linked by spiral staircases. In addition to two water tanks, there are vaulted halls used as storerooms and dungeons. It was all originally lit by natural light. The nine casemated cells are accessed by a circular gallery. A canon ramp links the stores with the upper terraces, allowing the transportation of artillery and ammunition.
This historic monument, managed by the Ministry of Defence, is covered by a Culture and Defence protocol, signed on the 17th September 2005. Click here to see the list of other buildings ...
Toulon Tourist Information Office Place Raimu 83000 Toulon Tel.: + 33 (0) 4 94 18 53 00

This cemetery is located beside the N44 towards Berry-au-Bac at La Musette. Of the 564 bodies in the cemetery (563 British and 1 from New Zealand, and additionally a British pilot and a French soldier from the Second World War), 413 have not been identified. The cemetery was constructed after the Armistice by bringing together the graves, isolated or in small cemeteries, of soldiers killed in 1918.

The village of La Ville-au-Bois was captured in April 1917 by French troops during the bloody Chemin des Dames offensive. The sector was held by the British 50th Division on 27 May 1918 when the Germans launched their third spring offensive, which brought them to Château-Thierry. During the battle, the 2nd Devons and the 5th battery of the 45th Brigade of the Royal Field Artillery were wiped out and received the Military Cross for their sacrifices.