Among the 76 civilian victims is Estelle Allain, née Berhamelle, aged 49, who died on 24 June 1915 in Soissons (grave n°15). She lived in an apartment in Soissons, rue Sainte-Eugénie, and her building was bombed by the Germans in June 1915. She did not have time to hide in the cellar, which had become a shelter, and was seriously wounded. She died as a result of her injuries, and was recognised as having died for her country.

In 1954, the bodies of 561 French soldiers who died for France during the Second World War were also brought here.

The combatants include several soldiers from the combined Pacific battalion. These men from French Polynesia died during the fighting to take Vesles, Caumont and the farm of Le Petit Caumont on the Marlois plain in the Aisne.

The Battles of the Oise, 1914-18

In August 1914, as set out in the Schlieffen Plan, German troops entered Belgium and marched on Paris. They crossed the Oise and the Aisne before being stopped by the French counter-offensive on the Marne. The two armies then established a front from Verdun to Dunkirk; the right bank of the Oise was occupied by the Germans, while fierce fighting took place on the left bank, with the zouave regiments particularly distinguishing themselves.

For three years, from September 1914 to March 1917, the front didn’t budge. Noyon came under one of the strictest occupations, and the Oise saw no major military operations; it was a “quiet” sector. The French and German troops consolidated their positions, occupying underground quarries, which they decorated and carved.

At the end of 1916, the German command wanted to strengthen the front, and therefore decided to abandon the Noyon sector. Applying a scorched earth policy, the Germans retreated to the Hindenburg Line, which they had just established, thereby limiting the effects of an Allied offensive in this sector. By mid-March 1917, the area was liberated, but in ruins: the houses had been dynamited, the fields flooded, and the bridges and junctions destroyed.

However, the respite was short-lived. Less than a year later, 27 German divisions broke through the British front across 80 km and swept towards Noyon which, on 25 March 1918, found itself occupied once again. Entrenched on Mont Renaud, overlooking the town, the French drove back 23 German attacks, and for over a month shelled the enemy positions. Spared up until now, Noyon was completely destroyed.

On 9 June 1918, the German command ordered a fresh offensive. The Oise then became the scene of a bitter struggle, known as the Battle of Matz, during which the two enemy armies employed heavy artillery and tanks without reserve. Over the first few days, the German army made rapid progress. But due to major losses, their advance was halted at Compiègne. Led by General Mangin, the French army regained the initiative, liberating the Thiescourt massif and crossing the River Divette. On 30 August, Noyon was liberated for good.

The first department on the front line to come back under French control, the Oise has preserved the memory of that bitter fighting and, with the signing of the Armistice on 11 November 1918 in the forest of Rethondes, it became one of the symbols of the Great War.

Catenoy, military hospital no 36

For the duration of the war, the village of Catenoy was a key site for the stationing of troops by the French Army. The writers Roland Dorgelès and Charles Péguy stayed here before going to the front. 

However, in January 1918, the 3rd Army, which had its command in Clermont and the headquarters of its medical service in Nointel, decided to install a military hospital there.  Ever increasing numbers of wounded were arriving each day, and required triage, treatment and evacuation to more appropriate care facilities. From 8 April 1918, the village was home to a military hospital with 1 500 beds (900 for the wounded, 400 for the gassed and sick, and 200 for the lame). The proximity of the N31 road and the Beauvais-Compiègne railway line made for the efficient treatment and rapid evacuation of the wounded who flooded in from the front. By the end of May, the hospital was up and running. Within less than ten days, it had received some 2 500 sick and wounded men, and contributed to 15 ambulance trains.

During the Battle of Matz, from 9 to 14 June, Catenoy hospital, with its 12 surgical teams, received a continuous stream of ambulances from the battlefield. Stretchers piled up in the triage shelters. Surgical staff worked tirelessly, attending to each of the wounded in turn and carrying out more than 700 serious operations in the two operating wings. Over 5 000 soldiers passed through the hospital, which was the 3rd Army’s largest. Owing to the dedication of chaplain Père Fonteny, some of the soldiers who did not survive their wounds are laid to rest in Catenoy National Cemetery.

Ten French soldiers who died during the Battle of France in June 1940 and one Russian were also laid to rest at Cuts National Military Cemetery.

At the entrance to the village, the La Pommeraye calvary monument commemorates the fighting in 1914 and the destruction in 1917. Nearby there is a monument paying tribute to the Somalis who died for France at Douaumont in 1916, Chemin des Dames in 1917, La Malmaison in 1917, Mont de Choisy in 1918, Longpont in 1918 and Pointe de Grave in 1945.

These civilian victims include, notably, the remains of women and children, some of them very young, such as Madeleine Beaujeux aged 4 years (grave 157) and Louise Questroy aged 12 years (grave 89). Two sisters from Origny-en-Thiérache, Yvonne (aged 24) (grave 79) and Noëlla (aged 20) (grave 77) who died on 25 May and 7 June 1917 respectively, are buried there along with a father and his son from Colligies, Eugène Grenier (aged 21) and Ernest Grenier (aged 49) who died on 12 and 17 October respectively (graves 162 and 163).

This war cemetery contains 1,333 French soldiers including 571 in an ossuary, 727 Germans, 25 Russians, two Italians and a Romanian who all fell between 1914 and 1918.

There are the bodies of three French servicemen and two civilians buried here from the Second World War.

Among the soldiers buried here, are the remains of a lieutenant of the 71st Infantry Regiment, Pierre de Raguenel de Montmorel, who died on 29th August 1914. Three of his brothers, also officers, also lost their lives during the conflict.

On the German side, also buried in this cemetery is Friedrich von Bismarck, Oberstleutnant, grandson of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, who died on 5th November 1916.

The cemetery has several monuments in memory of both German and French regiments.

Also, 428 French soldiers and one Soviet soldier who lost their lives in the Second World War are buried here. The site lies next to a German cemetery containing the bodies of 2,332 soldiers, 911 of whom are buried in a collective grave.

A commemorative monument in the form of an obelisk stands in the French section, bearing the inscription Dulce Et Decorum Est, Pro Patria Mori (It is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country).

At the beginning of 1916, there were riots in towns in the north caused by shortages in supplies. In April, the German authorities responded by sending workers to neighbouring areas. Faced with international criticism, this deportation was soon stopped. Some of the workers, including Arthur Jaspart, lost their lives. He was a worker from Valenciennes who died, aged 21, on 9 July 1918 in the isolation ward at the German military railways workshop in Guise. He is buried in Guise cemetery (Grave No.1236).

The Saint-Quentin national cemetery - created in 1923 - was set up by the French military authorities in order to bring together the bodies of soldiers who had died during the battles of August 1914 and those of 1918, who had initially been buried in temporary cemeteries in the area.  Today, this cemetery contains almost 5,000 French soldiers including 1,319 - most of whom are non-identified - lying in two ossuaries. 117 Russians and two Romanians lie in individual graves. Many Indo-Chinese infantrymen and Tonkinese workers are also buried at this site, as well as 60 soldiers from the 173rd infantry regiment - the only active French army unit of Corsican origin.

With regard to the Second World War, 207 Frenchmen are buried here. One of these men is Henri Blondeau, staff officer with the 9th army, who was killed on 18 May 1940 when the headquarters of the 9th army - moved from Bohain to Le Catelet - was attacked by a line of German tanks from the VIIth Panzer division. Twenty French soldiers died during these violent combats. Alain Blondeau, the officer's son and a squadron helicopter pilot, died in Algeria on 26 November 1956. They were buried together (grave n° 3820).

A German cemetery located to the west of Saint-Quentin - which was created in 1914 during the German occupation and inaugurated by Emperor Wilhelm II - today contains the bodies of over 8,000 soldiers.