The Nazdar Necropolis

On the 10th anniversary of the battle of Artois, the Association of Czechoslovak Volunteers in France (“Association des Volontaires Tchécoslovaques en France”) decided to erect a monument in memory of all the Czechs and Slovaks who fell during the First World War. This monument, the work of sculptor Jaroslav Hrũska, was officially inaugurated on Sunday 31 May 1925. The members of the association raised the funds for its creation by selling postcards in the cities and towns of Czechoslovakia and to their compatriots exiled all over the world. Financial support was also granted by the Czechoslovak Foreign Ministry and by the resistance memorial in Prague. As the site started to become a place of pilgrimage, a cemetery gradually became necessary. However, the exhumation work to collect the remains of all Czechoslovak soldiers buried in different parts of France was interrupted by the Second World War. In 1958, the Association of Czechoslovak Volunteers succeeded in completing work on the cemetery, with the reburial of 206 fighters who had initially been laid to rest in 73 military cemeteries and in scattered municipal cemeteries in 38 French départements. This new memorial site was officially inaugurated on 19 May 1963. The last remains were transferred in 1970.

A copy of a “Cross of Bohemia” was erected in the centre of the future cemetery, as a symbolic reminder of the death of the King of Bohemia, John I of Luxembourg, who was killed in 1346 at the battle of Crécy, fighting alongside the King of France. In 1938, 24 lime-trees were brought from the Czechoslovak Republic and planted in the cemetery.

For the 50th anniversary of the creation of Czechoslovakia, a memorial was built to commemorate the victims of the two world wars. Funds were collected from all over the world. The work of architect Bernard Heger and sculptor Ṧumova, this monument was inaugurated in May 1968.

Czech volunteers in the First World War

The members of the “Colonie Tchécoslovaque” and the “Sokol” and “Egalité” organizations enlisted voluntarily with the French forces and made the ultimate sacrifice, guided by their determination to destroy the Austro-Hungarian Empire and create an independent Czech state. After training in Bayonne, the first 250 volunteers were incorporated in the 1st march regiment of the French Foreign Legion. This first unit received its emblem in December 1914 and was named the “Nazdar” Company, after the traditional greeting of the members of Sokol. After a stint in the Champagne area, the unit fought alongside the Moroccan Division at Viny (May 1915).

In 1917, Edvard Benès, with the agreement of the French government, was able to establish an independent Czechoslovak army. Almost 2000 volunteers were brought to Cognac for training and were then sent to join the fighting in May 1918 in Vouziers. As part of the Gourand army, they took part in all the major phases of the liberation of France.

The Nazdar site, an emblematic location for Czechoslovak remembrance in France

As a place of remembrance, like Darney, Vouziers, Cernay and the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris, the La Targette site is testimony to Czechoslovakia’s fight for independence and its struggle against the Nazi yoke. At the entrance to the cemetery is a monument commemorating the standard bearer Karel Bezdicek, killed on the first day of the battle in May 1915. He symbolizes the first free Czech soldier to bear the emblem of the Czech lion.

Opposite this monument is the Cross of the Polish volunteers, erected with the funds of the Polish citizens of Pas-de-Calais to pay tribute to those “fallen for the resurrection of Poland and the victory of France". Destroyed in 1940, damaged by a storm in 1967, this monument has risen again each time. It continues to bear the motto of these volunteers: “Za nasza wolnosc i wasza”, “For our freedom and yours”.

Polish 1st Armoured Division

With the consent of the British government, the Polish 1st Armoured Division was created on 26 February 1942, on the orders of General Sikorski, head of the Polish government in exile in London. It initially consisted of contingents that had fought in the Polish army in Poland and France, together with Polish volunteers from all over the world.

The division was integrated in the allied military forces that would later serve on the Western Front. Commanded by General Maczek, the division landed in Normandy at the end of July 1944 and was attached to First Canadian Army, II Canadian Corps.

On 8 August 1944, the Polish 1st Armoured Division joined combat when it was deployed to the south of Caen as part of the 2nd phase of  Operation Totalise, which aimed to take the city of Falaise. Since the losses were heavy, and the attacks ineffective, this operation was stopped and replaced by a new operation, codenamed Tractable. The aim of this second operation was to attempt to fully surround the German 7th Army by the combined allied forces in Normandy. From 15 to 18 August, the Polish 1st Armoured Division liberated several towns and villages in Calvados and Orne after heavy fighting.

From 19 to 22 August, the SS divisions tried to destroy the Polish units located on the ridge of Mont Ormel (“Hill 262”), in an attempt to force open an escape corridor from their encirclement. The Polish 1st Armoured Division also had to face the attacks of the 2nd SS Panzer Division, which had managed to escape the encirclement and was now attempting to assist the other German units trapped in the Falaise “pocket”. The Poles had to hold their position at all costs until the arrival of reinforcements. On 21 August, they were finally joined by the Canadian 4th Armoured Division. The “Falaise-Chambois pocket” was finally closed. This victory was won at the cost of bloody battles and heroic resistance.

During the Battle of Normandy, the Polish 1st Armoured Division lost more than 2,000 men, either killed or wounded. The division then took part in the liberation of northern Belgium, southern Netherlands and Germany.

Specific features of the Polish Military Cemetery

By decree dated 19 May 1945, the Prefect of Calvados permitted the Canadian authorities to create a Polish military cemetery on land belonging to the Grainville-Langannerie municipality. Up to 1949, the British Imperial War Graves Commission was responsible for maintaining the cemetery, before handing over to the French State.

The cemetery consists of eight plots containing graves aligned in rows. These plots do not all have the same number of rows, but each row comprises twelve graves. With the exception of two graves, on which three crosses symbolize the tombs of respectively seven and five bodies of pilots killed in the crash of their plane. Their remains could not be separated.

Originally, the crosses were made of metal. In May 1954, as the 10th anniversary of the Battle of Normandy was approaching, the French State decided to replace them with concrete crosses ornamented with plaques bearing the identity of the deceased, on the model of the French national cemeteries. The central monument was inaugurated in August 1954 in the presence of generals Maczek and Anders.

This Polish Military Cemetery is one of the seven foreign military cemeteries in France maintained by the French State.

The municipality is quoted at the French army order of September 1920 : « Totally destroyed by bombing, but always brave and worthy during hard times and hostile domination ».

The severity of these fights and the sufferings of the population during World War I are testified through this quote. 

Since 1922, the war memorial of the municipality is erected at the center of the necropolis. Nowadays, this place welcomes every year, during the first weekend of October, a ceremony to pay tribute to these French soldiers, anonymous or not, who fell on the municipality territory.

Three marble plaques bear inscriptions dedicated to the sacrifice of the Romanian prisoners: the first one referring to the agony suffered by all the prisoners, who died of “hunger, destitution and torture”, the second one to the tremendous work done by the Romanian monuments committee in Alsace, tasked in 1919 with bringing together the graves dispersed throughout the towns and villages of Alsace, and the third one bearing Queen Mary’s inscription honouring the memory of those who “far from your country for which you sacrificed yourselves, rest in glory”.

Today, the bodies of three thousand Romanians still rest in several national necropolises such as Strasbourg-Cronenbourg (Bas-Rhin), Effry (Aisne), Hirson (Aisne) and Dieuze (Moselle).

Apart from soldier Louis Darbas, they all died on 12 March 1918 during the explosion of an ammunition depot at the Bernagousse quarry. Among the others, Jean-Baptiste Monnery and Jean Cros were stretcher bearers at the infirmary set up nearby, some remains of which still exist today, with the inscription "Infirmerie Bonnery - Chavart; 215 RI (infantry regiment) who died for France".

Today, this national cemetery holds the bodies of 2 053 French soldiers, 2 037 of whom lie in individual graves. A collective grave brings together the remains of 16 soldiers. Alongside them lies one Russian, but also 201 Germans, including 31 in an ossuary. This cemetery comprises three plots: the 1914-1918 French plot, the 1914-1918 French Muslim plot, and the 1939-1945 French plot that contains 917 soldiers and resistance fighters from the Nord region and 14 Spaniards posted to workers' companies. A British military cemetery bringing together 177 bodies adjoins the Zuydcoote cemetery.

In August 1915, after having lost contact with his unit, the soldier Victor Schmitt was picked up by the 147th Infantry Regiment (RI). Tried and convicted for abandonment of his post in the face of the enemy, he was executed by firing squad as an example, in Florent-en-Argonne at the age of 34.

Within the national war cemetery rest the remains of Louis-François Lepenant. A native of La Mancha, he served with the 25th Infantry Regiment, with whom he fought at the Battle of the Marne, then in Artois. In July 2015, during a violent bombardment, he lost his nerve and left the front line. Considered a deserter, he rejoined his regiment where he had to stand trial.  Following a special council of war, he was executed by firing squad at Moiremont. His body lies in grave 1758.

In the communal cemetery of Florent-en-Argonne are the bodies of three men shot as an example, the soldiers Séverin Maurice who died on 24 October 1914, Benoît Louis who died on 4 October 1915 and whose name is inscribed on the Salviac (46) memorial, and Marcel Painsant who died on 21 December 1915.

Thanks to the commitment and determination of many people, this monument, built of stone from the same quarry as that used to build the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, was erected in just six months and brought here by river and then transported along two completely ruined highways. On 3 November 1920, attended by Mr and Mrs Farnsworth, the ossuary-monument, designed by architect Alexandre Marcel, was consecrated by the Bishop of Chalons, Monsignor Tissier. Two black marble plaques commemorate the sacrifice made by the Legionnaires who enlisted to defend Republican values.