ARTOIS - Neuville-St. Vaast - Souchez
- by Pierre Grande Guerre
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- 04 May, 2019
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Year of visit: 2008, 2014
Some 500 m. farther we stop at a modest monument for a young war hero, Augustin Leuregans, with an interesting inscription.
JUNIOR of the 236th INFANTRY REGIMENT
FELL HERE GLORIOUSLY
in his 19th YEAR
WHILE CALLING THIS APPEAL TO HIS COUNTRYMEN
COME ON MY OLD DADDIES
YOU WILL NOT ALLOW
YOUR CHILD TO DIE ALL ALONE
HERE
THE 53RD DIVISION OF XX CORPS
OF GENERAL BERTHELOT
AND THE SUPERIOR COMMANDER GENERAL BALFOURIER
HAS FOUGHT ENERGETICALLY IN MAY AND JUNE 1915
FOR THE CONQUEST OF THE LABYRINTH "
In the intermezzo below I explain the background to this site of the memorial.
The Second Battle of Artois and "The Labyrinth"
At Notre Dame de Lorette XXI Corps of Géneral Maistre attacked again upward the 165 m. high hill.
Maistre knew to conquer the summit of the hill at 12 May. But it would take another 10 days before the hill was cleared of Germans.
On 18 June 1915 the Second Battle of Artois came to an end. The French conquered Notre Dame de Lorette, Ablain-St. Nazaire, and Neuville-St. Vaast. A large part of Souchez and Vimy Ridge, however, including the surrounding lower levels, would stay in German possession until 9 April 1917.
"The Labyrinth"
One of the centre points of the fights was a mine crater near Trench Z, which the 19th Company attacked. The 17th Company attacked Trench Z from trench A3, A4, and A5.
At about 16.00 hrs, the 21st and 24th Companies attacked the “Boyeau d’Eulembourg” or Trench C, east of the Ecurie-Neuville road. The companies “seemed to have reached the German barbed wire and perhaps the trenches”, but including all officers “none of them reappeared”.
During the attack the 236 R.I. lost more men, a.o. 3 Captains, of whom two were mortally wounded, and one severely wounded.
To offer you a modest impression of these bloody fights I translated this fragment from the 4 and a half pages of the war diary of 30 May of the 236e R.I.:
“The Platoon of the 19th, they too attacked the defenders of the mine crater, occupied by the Germans and the bunker on the crossroads of the hollow road Ecurie-Neuville and it could not advance. Simultaneously some men of the 21st (Company), grenadiers, arrived on the east side of the mine crater and engaged in fighting launching hand grenades, during which, after having experienced significant losses caused by the enemy, they succumbed.
Here should be noted the fine audacity of the German soldiers and (Company) Viart, who, after this fight, have succeeded, after having fought like lions, to escape the German fire and who have returned next to our lines thanks to the night and who have departed again on their own initiative to search for wounded men on the terrain.”
The Fate of Augustin Leuregans
Being the commander of his section, mainly composed by older men of around 40 years old, the 19 year old Aspirant Officer Leuregans and his men were stuck in a semi-underground shelter under German fire. His older soldiers were reluctant to launch a counter-attack. To convince them to attack Leuregans turned to his men, speaking his last words: “COME ON, MY OLD DADDIES, YOU WILL NOT ALLOW YOUR CHILD TO DIE ALL ALONE!” After this appeal Leuregans was immediately killed. His act of bravery dissuaded his men from going on with the fight!
The Capture of the Labyrinth
The Deutsche Kriegsgräberstätte Neuville-St. Vaast (also called La Maison Blanche, after a farm opposite the road) was built by the French military authorities in 1919 to 1923 as a collective cemetery for German war dead from the area north and east of Arras. It is the largest German military cemetery of the Great War in France! From more than 110 municipalities in the department of Calais the reburial was performed of the German dead who had hitherto been buried in field graves or in small cemeteries. A high number of remains were found over the years of clearing and re-cultivation of the former battlefield. Even in this day and age the dead are found during construction works, often in larger quantities such as during the construction of the A 26 motorway (Autoroute des Anglais) on the battlefield of Vimy Ridge. The French military authorities buried the majority of the found but unidentified dead in a large communal grave on the second major German military cemetery in the area of Arras, St. Laurent-Blangy. From the former cemetery in Boiry-Ste. Rictrude the authorities transported the monument to the fallen of the Hannover Infanterie Regiment 164 to Neuville-St. Vaast. The memorial was created during the war by serving German army sculptors and stonemasons. Today the men resting in the cemetery belonged to more than 100 different divisions of infantry and artillery regiments and many other units as pioneers, airmen, mortar launchers etc. The soldiers and officers, buried here, lost their lives during the heavy fighting around Artois and the hill of Notre Dame de Lorette during the period of August 1914 until the end of 1915, the Vimy Ridge Easter Battle of 1917, and in the autumn of 1918, as well as by the struggle of "normal" days of trench warfare. The troops involved were from all countries and provinces of the former German Reich.
588 Of the 36,848 dead in individual graves remain unknown. 8,040 Fallen rest in a communal grave. The 842 names of fallen soldiers buried in the communal grave are mentioned on metal panels.
Some 2 km. north of La Targette we park our car to find on both sides of the road: a war memorial and a war cemetery.
Motivated by the occupation of Galicia by the Russian Imperial Army, these Polish volunteered in 1914 for the Polish Legion, "Le Légion de Galicie".
They were also involved in the attack on 9 May at the German stronghold, Hill 140, Thélus Mill, at Vimy Ridge.
On the other side of the road we visit: the La Targette Czechoslovakian Military Cemetery.
Source: “Mémoires de Pierre”
The Czechoslovakian soldiers, who are buried here, volunteered in the French Czechoslovakian Légions. These Czechs and Slovaks were inspired and motivated by their craving for their own Independence from Austria - Hungary. These Czechoslovakian Légions would finally grow into a force of 15.000 Czech volunteers, living in France and abroad.
The Nazdar Company
The first unit to fight under the French flag, was the Nazdar Company of 250 men, who enlisted already on 22 August 1914. The Nazdar company, originally named "Zdar", got its name from the original Czech greeting, "zdrobněle nazdárek", shortened in "Nazdar!". Nazdar developed to be a nationalistic equivalent of "Hello!"
On 9 May 1915, the Nazdar Company took part in the attack by the Moroccan Division at Vimy Ridge. The Company lost 50 men killed and 150 wounded out of a strength of 250.
In the Nazdar Company were two leading members of the "Sokol". The Sokol was a worldwide Czechoslovakian nationalist movement, members of which greeted one another with "Nazdar!" Among the fallen soldiers were the chief Instructor of the “Sokol of Paris”, Joseph Pultr, and the President of the “Paris Rovnost Socialist Association”, Josef Sibal.
The Czechoslovak National Council
In February 1916 Milan Stefanik, a Czechoslovakian aviator in the French Army, Thomas Masaryk and Eduard Benesj founded in Paris the Czechoslovak National Council. They lobbied and pressed for the foundation of an independent Czechoslovak Army in France. On 19 December 1916 Président Poincaré issued a decree to organize an independent Czechoslovak Army.
On 29 June 1918 France recognized officially the Czechoslovak National Council as the first basis of the future Czechoslovak government. After the war Masaryk became the first President of the First Czechoslovak Republic. Later Benesj succeeded him as the second President. Stefanik became the first Minister of War of Czechoslovakia.
In 1918 an independent Czechoslovak Brigade was formed in France. The Brigade returned to its own country in the autumn of 1919. It counted 9,600 soldiers. Some 650 Czech and Slovak legionnaires perished in France during the Great War.
Source
a.o.: “Czech Out”,
Michael Cox & Dr Graham Watson: "Pour la France - A Guide to the
formations & units of French land forces 1914-18" and Rian van Meeteren,
the Netherlands.
This monument is made by the sculptor Jaroslav Hrvska. The dying figure represents the legendary standard bearer of the "Nazdar Company", soldier Karel Bezdicek, originated from the town of Sezemice u Pardubic, who was killed on the first day of fighting. Karel Bezdicek fell, struck by a bullet in a German trench, his body wrapped in the Czech flag. He was remembered by his comrades as the first free Czech soldier to carry the standard of the Czech lion with the double tails.
Source a.o.: “Czech Out”
At the rear side of the Memorial:
On their return the Czechoslovakian units had 80% casualties. Vimy Ridge would stay in German hands until April 1917.
Cabaret Rouge British Cemetery - On 26 September 1915, Souchez was taken from the Germans by French troops, who handed the sector over to Commonwealth forces the following March. The Cemetery was begun by Commonwealth troops in March 1916, used until August 1917 (largely by the 47th (London) Division and the Canadian Corps) and - at intervals - until September 1918. It was greatly enlarged after the Armistice when more than 7.000 graves were brought in from the battlefields of Arras and from 103 other, smaller burial grounds in the Nord and the Pas-de-Calais. The cemetery now contains 7.655 Commonwealth burials of the First World War, more than half of them unidentified. There is also one Second World War burial. The Canadian, Frank Higginson, designed the cemetery.
But also many graves of soldiers from Indian units: 10th Ghurka Rifles, the 84th Punjabis, ...
On 25 May 2000, the remains of an unidentified Canadian soldier were entrusted to Canada at a ceremony held at the Vimy Memorial, France.
The remains had been exhumed by staff of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission from Cabaret-Rouge British Cemetery, Souchez, Plot 8, Row E, Grave 7.
The remains were laid to rest within the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, in a sarcophagus placed at the foot of the National War Memorial, Confederation Square, Ottawa, Canada.
We stop at the memorial next to it: the memorial for Général Barbot and his 77e Division d’Infanterie.
Notice the coat of the statue; the closure of the trench coat is on the wrong side.
Continue to the next chapter: "Notre Dame de Lorette".
Inleiding: Franz Von Papen & Werner Horn; schaker en pion
Onlangs stuitte ik in een oud boek (1) van 1919 op een opmerkelijk verhaal over een Duitse Luitenant, die in begin februari 1915 een half geslaagde bomaanslag pleegt op een spoorbrug over een grensrivier tussen de Verenigde Staten en Canada. Ook al staat de bekentenis van de dader, Werner Horn, deels in het boek te lezen, de naam van zijn opdrachtgever zal Horn blijven verzwijgen. Na wat verder zoeken vond ik ook de naam van Horn’s opdrachtgever, Franz von Papen, een van de aangeklaagden van het latere Neurenberg Proces in 1946.
In een Grote Oorlog als de Eerste Wereldoorlog is Horn’s aanslag op de brug uiteraard slechts een bescheiden wapenfeit. Toch vermoed ik dat dit relatief onbekende verhaal, dat de geschiedenis is ingegaan als de “ Vanceboro International Bridge Bombing ”, nog interessante kanten kent. Het is onder andere een spionageverhaal over hoe in een groter plan een sluwe schaker zijn naïeve pion offert.
Beknopte situatieschets Canada en de Verenigde Staten in 1915
This trip we start at the Léomont near Vitrimont and we will with some exceptions concentrate on the Battle of Lorraine of August-September 1914 in the area, called, the “Trouée de Charmes”, the Gap of Charmes.
After the Léomont battlefield we continue our explorations to Friscati hill and its Nécropole Nationale. Next we pay a visit to the battlefield of la Tombe to go on to the Château de Lunéville. There we cross the Vezouze to move on southward to the Bayon Nécropole Nationale. At Bayon we cross the Moselle to pass Charmes for the panorama over the battlefield from the Haut du Mont. North-west of Charmes we will visit the British Military Cemetery containing 1918 war victims. From Charmes we go northward to the battlefield of the First French Victory of the Great War, the Battle of Rozelieures of 25 August 1914. North of Rozelieures we will visit the village of Gerbéviller. From there we make a jump northward to visit the ruins of Fort de Manonviller to finish with an interesting French Dressing Station bunker, west of Domjevin.
During this visit, we try to focus on the day that the momentum of the battle switched from the French side to the advantage of the Bavarian side: the day of 20 August 1914, when the Bavarians rapidly re-conquered the territory around Morhange , being also the day of the start of their rather successful “Schlacht in Lothringen”.
We will visit beautiful landscapes of the "Parc Naturel Régional de Lorraine", memorials, ossuaries, and cemeteries. Sometimes we will divert to other periods of the Great War, honouring Russian and Romanian soldiers, who died in this sector. We start our route at the border village of Manhoué, and via Frémery, Oron, Chicourt, Morhange, Riche, Conthil, Lidrezing, Dieuze, Vergaville, Bidestroff, Cutting, Bisping we will finish in Nomeny and Mailly-sur-Seille, where the Germans halted their advance on 20 August 1914, and where they constructed from 1915 some interesting bunkers.
