Somewhere East of Verdun: Some Forgotten Battlefields of 1914

 Nomeny War Memorial

By Christina Holstein

In France, the Grand Est,  the area between the eastern side of the St. Mihiel Salient and the Vosges Mountains is largely overlooked by battlefield visitors, and its rolling hills and quiet villages do not feature in many guidebooks. However, it is an area that saw fierce action in the early weeks of 1914, and although superseded in popular imagination by the later "great names" of the Western Front, the battles fought there set the stage for later events and were the scene of great casualties and destruction.

Nomeny Civilian Memorial

In Nomeny, for example, a little town on the salty River Seille, where four French infantry regiments barred the road to Nancy, losing 1,000 men as they did so, the town was plundered and burned by the Bavarians. A poignant memorial by the river commemorates the 73 civilian victims of the dreadful event, the youngest being a little boy of three. Just across the bridge, the town war memorial—which features a dramatic statue of a soldier clasping the French flag as he falls—lists another 58 men. It is hard to imagine today the effect of such losses on such a small place. Did it ever revive? [Its population today is 1,139.]

 Grand Couronné

That was 20 August 1914. Similar events occurred in a number of other nearby villages, and the fighting continued into September as the Germans pushed on toward the city of Nancy. The range of rocky hills to the north of Nancy is known as the Grand Couronné, and on them the French stopped the advancing Germans. The main monument to the fighting is to be found at Ste. Genevieve, a tiny hilltop place, obviously entirely rebuilt, with views that stretch for miles in all directions. It had to be held by the French, and it was. In those days, Ste. Genevieve was in France, but the border with German-occupied Lorraine was only a few miles away. 

Manhoué

At Manhoué, a traditional village that cannot have changed much over the years, stands a memorial to the first two Great War Frenchmen to fall on the soil of German-occupied Lorraine. On 7 August 1914, the 26th Infantry, a local French regiment, pushed across the border into Manhoué and in an exchange of fire, Soldiers Chretien and Ganayre were killed. The high-spirited inscription on the monument commemorating the event refers to them as "the first two lads" of the 26th Infantry to fall on the soil of Lorraine. It is an unusual word to use on a monument. Were they the wild boys of the regiment, always ready for a scrap, determined to be first on occupied soil? The regimental history does not mention the event, but their monument stands just a few feet inside the old border, and it is easy to imagine them racing toward it, yelling and cheering, their bright red trousers making them a perfect target for any German guns in the area.