le moulin

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First World War - 1914 - 1918


Click here for an overview of the Hhistorical WW I sites

Stenay is located at the northern side of the brutal battlegrounds of the First World War: Verdun, Morthommes and Argonne. After 80 years the forests and fields are still recognized as battlefield due to the trenches and craters. State-owned forests, tunnels, campsites and fortifications show now days the life of the soldiers who bodies are buried on the numerous fields of honour. 1914-1918

From Stenay you visit:

  • the crown prince's bunker in the Argonne forest.
  • the Kaiser's Tunnel, with a lenght of 425 meter.
  • the largest American cemetry in Europe in Romagne-sous-Montfaucon.
  • the remains of the shell and mortar battle of Vanquois.
  • Douaumont, the frech field of honour and osuarium.
  • villages annihilated, villages in memoriam.
  • Verdun and battlefields.
  • the german campsite at Azannes.
cemetry

The Americain Cemetery in Romagne-sous-Montfaucon

This is the largest American cemetery in Europe. A grandiose, 130 acre necropolis, property of the USA, some 14,256 soldiers are buried there, each with his own white marble cross. The Cemetery is in an attractive park with a lake, pavilions and a chapel.
Romagne-sous-Montfaucon

sacred way

The Sacred Way

At the height of the Battle of Verdun in 1916, only one road was available to resupply the French troops: it ran from Bar-le-Duc to Verdun. Throughout the battle, endless lines of trucks filled the road, a truck every fifteen seconds! They carried all sorts of supplies, fresh troops and reinforcements.
The road was regularly destroyed, worn to impassable ruts, virtually unusable, but always repaired. This critical lifeline was maintained. Maurice Barres christened it: "The Sacred Way". It became a National Monument, the only road in France that does not have a road number. Its milestones are topped by a French World War I helmet and marked with a martyr's palm. The Sacred Way Memorial is in Nixéville, at the place called the Moulin-Brûlé (Burnt Mill).

vauquois

Villages annihilated, villages in memoriam

On 21 February 1916, the devastating artillery barrages that marked the start of the Battle of Verdun, completely annihilated a number of villages. Beaumont, Bezonvaux, Louvemont, Haumont, Ornes, Douaumont, Vaux, Fleury, Cumières, Béthincourt, Forges-sur-Meuse, and Haucourt were erased from the map in the long months of shelling.
The German and French shells and mortar bombs invented a new lunar landscape. In the Red Zone, in nine villages in the canton of Chamy everybody was killed. After the War, so that they would continue to live symbolically, the Government Prefect's Office created Municipal Commissions with Presidents as mayors.
The Government would pay war damages to enable the Commissions to erect War Memorials and commemorative chapels on the sites of the former parish churches. Each municipality was given a few plots of land and a few roads leading there. Mr Sponville, Mayor of Vaux erected a War Memorial in 1924 and the other municipalities followed suit.


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