12 replies to this topic

[SteveMarsdin]

Good afternoon,

My in-laws recently bought me "Bataille des frontieres,Bataille de la Marne". by Lt.Col.Jean Charbonneau then chief of the machine-gun section of the 7e RIC during their action at St.Vincent and their fighting retreat. Of particular interest to me were the specific descriptions of locations, which has allowed me to "follow his tracks" back across the Chiers and Meuse.

On my journey, out of curiosity I followed a sign to "Monuments 14-18", near the village of Luzy. Hidden in a forest was a "disused" cemetery which had contained the bodies of French and German soldiers, since re-interred elsewhere. Built by the Germans during the war, it has been renovated, also at German expense.

With the temperature in the thirties I arrived at the site and could just make out the old entrance at the edge of the forest, up a field track:



At the entrance of the forest the small circular cemetery could be seen





A real oasis of cool tranquility where it was easy to gather your thoughts and remember.....

[roel22]

Wow, what a nice find! Thanks for sharing.

Roel

[Ken Santa Fe]

A veritable citadel of death. Interesting report.

[SteveMarsdin]

Thank you, it was good to see that those who had died in the bitter fighting to cross the Meuse in 1914 had been buried together:

[SteveMarsdin]

The old cemetery had been restored with help from (I think) the Fire Brigade Union of Limburg. All credit to them.

[SteveMarsdin]

Within 200 metres there are the remains of another old cemetery, with views across the Meuse valley to Stenay:

[SteveMarsdin]

In a WW1 context many people associate this area of the Meuse valley with the HQ of the Kronprinz (Stenay) during the fighting at Verdun to the south, or the attacks by the Americans at the end of the war in November 1918 but it is important to remember that there was bitter fighting here at the beginning of the war too, in August 1914. The monuments at Luzy help remind us of this.

[ph0ebus]

Great photos....thanks for sharing them!  Quite beautiful.

-Daniel

[Duiker]

Thanks for sharing this nice find.

Anton

[Chris_Baker]

Excellent. Thank you.

[roel22]

Nice to see some of the original German cemeteries still survive today.

Just checked the Volksbund-site. It appears the Germans named on the memorial have no known graves today. According to the explanation in post #7 their remains were re-interred in the German cemetery in Brieulles. This cemetery has three large massgraves, containing the bodies of 5325 men of whom 4764 are unknowns. I assume the Germans named on the memorial are now buried anonymously in these massgraves.

Roel

[egbert]

Thanks for sharing these beautiful pictures

[DavidB]

They did make an attractive cemetery.Thanks for taking the time to post those photos.