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".

The French assault tank, a new armoured motorised weapon mounted on caterpillar tracks, was used for the first time in the offensive launched by General Nivelle at Chemin des Dames (Ladies' Way). The models used were the Schneider and Saint-Chamond from Mazel's army.

During the first offensive on 16th April 1917, 128 Schneider tanks, divided into two groups, were tasked with piercing the eastern sector of the front, between Corbeny and Berry-au-Bac. Being too heavy, they quickly became bogged down and as their fuel tanks were not sufficiently protected, they were easy targets for the German artillery. This was a cruel and bloody day for these pioneers of assault artillery. Of the 720 officers and men of the crews, 180 were killed, wounded or reported missing. Among the dead was the commander of this brave group of men, the much admired leader, Pierre Bossut, whose tank was hit by a shell. He was buried by his men on 18th April in the small cemetery at Maizy. 52 tanks were hit by enemy artillery (35 of these caught fire): 15 were direct hits and 37 indirect. Plus 21 machines were immobilised by breakdowns, either mechanical or due to the terrain (sinking). Used once again in October, in the Bohéry quarry sector, these tanks cleared the trenches at Casse-Tête and Leibnitz as well as the Vaudesson ravine. Tank Memorial
Erected at the Le Cholera Crossroads, a crucial point in the attack of 16th April 1917, on land acquired in 1921 by the assault artillery veterans' association, this granite monument is the work of Maxime Rél del Sarte, himself a veteran. The memorial was inaugurated on 2nd July 1922 by General Estienne, the father of the tank, alongside Marshal Foch, Marshal Pétain, General Mangin and General Weygand. In 1965, the site was given to the commune of Berry-au-Bac. Tanks from the 1950s can be seen there today. The body of Commander Bossut of the 151st infantry regiment, who fell at the start of the offensive in 1917, was found some hours after the events and brought back by his brother, adjutant Pierre Bossut of the A.S. 2. It was carried in a tank to Cuiry-lès-Chaudardes, where General Estienne, French "inventor" of the tank paid tribute before his funeral on 18th April 1917 at Maizy and his burial in the family grave at Roubaix. On 12th April 1992, on the 75th anniversary of the fighting in 1917, his ashes were reburied at the tank monument by General Woisard, President of the National Armoured Weaponry Union, alongside the Minister for Veterans. A commemorative plaque, behind the monument, pays tribute to him; "On 16th April 1917, after seizing the Le Cholera position in one blow, the 151st Infantry Regiment, under Colonel Moisson, continued its advance as far as the Béliers woods, supported by the tanks of Commander Bossut ."
Location: crossroads of the D1044 and D925 before entering Berry-au-Bac when approaching from Lanon on the A26

Soupir German Cemetery

Soupir German Cemetery was set up on the site of a field hospital to group together the Imperial soldiers who had fallen in the sector running from Soissons to Reims (Chemin des Dames, Vesle, Marne) and buried at 143 sites in a radius of 30 kilometres around the commune of Soupir. The operation was completed in 1924.

This place of remembrance holds the bodies of 11,089 German soldiers. 5,134 of them are buried in individual and collectives graves, including 19 unknown soldiers, and 5,955 others lie in an ossuary, only 794 of whom have been identified. After the first work was undertaken by the Volksbund in the 1930s, the cemetery was refurbished by the German authorities who, starting in 1972, replaced the old wooden crosses with stone crosses. The Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e.V, association, created on 19 December 1919 to protect and preserve war graves and to provide information to families for the main sites of World War I, ensures the site’s upkeep.

Soupir Cemetery

La Direction Interdépartementale (D.I.) Chef du Secteur Nord-Pas de Calais

Cité Administrative Rue de Tournai 59045 Lille Cedex

Tel.: +33 (0)3.20.62.12.39

Fax: +33 (0)3.20.62.12.30

E-mail: diracmetz@wanadoo.fr

On 17 October 1920, the commune of Ly-Fontaine - witness to the combats of the battle of Guise in 1914 - was commended by the army and awarded the French Croix de Guerre (War Cross).

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.

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).

The area was further developed between December 1914 and May 1915 and reinforced with trenches, dugouts and shelters. In Spring 1915, the gunner Roland Dorgelès, author of the novel Croix de Bois, was stationed there, as was Lieutenant Charles de Gaulle.

In March 2016, the Germans took control of the wood. On 10 March, along the River Aisne, the enemy opened artillery fire on the French positions on the Chemin des Dames ridge from the hamlet of Troyon around 10 kilometres west of Craonne through to Berry-au-Bac. On 17 March 1916, during one of these battles, the poet Guillaume Apollinaire received a shrapnel wound to the head  and was evacuated and trepanned. Weakened by his injury and the operation, he died of Spanish flu in November 1918.

The soldiers buried at the cemetery include the body of Jules-Gérard Jordens, who died two days before his 31st birthday. Born in Nice in1885, this French poet was called up to the 246th Infantry Regiment (IR) as a stretcher bearer. He was moved to the Aisne and then to Artois and was killed at Bois-de-Buttes in 1916. The name of this man of letters figures in the Pantheon in Paris, along with those of the 560 writers who were officially awarded the ‘Died for France’ distinction. Moreover, Robert André Michel, a well-known archivist and palaeographer, died on 13 October 1914 at Crouy.

A dedicated square plot contains the graves of 67 British soldiers killed in October 1914 and from May to October 1918. These remains were exhumed from neighbouring French military cemeteries. At the end of the Marne counter-offensive, the British Expeditionary Force engaged between the French 5th Army and the French 6th Army, where it was deployed in the direction of Laon between Soissons and Craonne. However, due to enemy resistance and troop fatigue, the German forces could not be dislodged. At the end of these exhausting battles, the British, at the request of their command, moved to Flanders. In Spring 1918, a few contingents returned to this region.

At the end of the war, the village of Pontavert was in ruins. Commended in the Army Order on 17 October 1920, Pontvaert was aided by the Cantal region to rebuild its village.

In Spring 1940, war once again wreaked havoc on Pontavert.

Pursuing the defeated enemy on the Marne, the French and the English crossed the Aisne region on 13 September 1914. However, the Germans got a hold of the Chemin des Dames plateau very quickly. After heavy fighting, the enemy managed to remain the sole master of the plateau in November 1914. This progressively turned into a fortress that was only definitively liberated in October 1918 by French and Italian troops.

The Craonnelle National Cemetery was built during the war near an aid station. It includes the bodies of soldiers who died in battle for France along the Chemin des Dames from 1914 to 1918. After the war, the cemetery was developed to accommodate other soliders buried on the Plateau de Californie and the Plateau des Casemates, or those buried in temporary cemeteries at the aid stations of Flandres à Oulches, Vassogne, Jumigny, Craonne, Moulin Vauclair. This cemetery is home to nearly 4,000 French bodies nearly half of which are in two ossuaries. In addition, 24 British soldiers and two Belgian soldiers are also buried there.

A regimental monument was erected in memory of those who died from the 163th infantry regiment in August 1917, including 58 soldiers who are buried on the site. Among the French soldiers, in a communal grave, lie François and Emile Texier. These two brothers from the Puy-de-Dôme died respectively on 20 September 1914 in Vic-sur-Aisne and 16 June 1917 next to Cuissy.

A nearby German cemetery contains 4,346 soldiers (3,993 in ossuaries). Major commemorative ceremonies are held at the Chemin des Dames memorial chapel, which is on the other side of the road. On the square in front of the edifice stands a “lantern of the dead” preserving the memory of the soldiers who died during the conflict. The memorial is completed by a British monument to the British Expeditionary Forces’ engagement in the sector, notably the first battalion of the North Loyal Lancashire Regiment, which in September 1914 fought around the old sugar factory overlooking the plateau.