Battle of the Ourcq 1914

On 5 September 1914, the Germans were at the gates of Paris and fighting was raging in the countryside around Meaux.It was on the plain between Chauconin Neufmontiers and Villeroy that Lieutenant Charles Péguy led his men to the rescue of their Moroccan comrades who were fighting the Germans a short distance away. The fighting was fierce and many men were killed. Today, many of them are buried in the "Grande Tombe" (Great Tomb), not far from where they fell. After the war, the bodies were not repatriated to the military cemeteries. The Great Tomb is thus one of the last mass graves in France, where soldiers and officers are buried.

On the night of 5 to 6 September 1914, the Germans retreated from the positions they had occupied the previous day and entrenched themselves in Chambry, where they captured the cemetery.They cut loopholes in its thick walls to try and repel, in vain, the counter-attack of the French army. Early in the morning, the French officers sent the Moroccans to attack Chambry. At 10am, the Turcos attacked the cemetery, where the Germans were entrenched. The reports mention that the Moroccans captured the cemetery in the afternoon, but that, crushed by German cannon fire, they had to retreat almost immediately... On 7 September, it was the Zouaves who finally seized the village from the Germans at around 4pm, but they too paid a very heavy price in this attack. The Germans' loopholes, evidence of the fierce fighting in September 1914, are still clearly visible today.

During the Battle of the Marne, this residence, owned by industrialist Eugène Boch, a patron of the arts and friend of many painters, served as a command post for several French generals.Villa "La Grimpette" was the home of painter and poet Eugène Boch, from a wealthy family of faience manufacturers. It housed the command post of General de Lamaze, commander of the 5th Group of French Reserve Divisions. From the upper balcony, the plains from Saint-Soupplets to Penchard could be seen through binoculars. General Gallieni visited the villa on 7 September 1914. He left in the afternoon to supervise the French attack on the flanks of the German army.

On the road that connects the villages of Barcy and Varreddes, and in the immediate vicinity of the national necropolis in Chambry, a small cemetery houses the remains of German soldiers who fell during the 1914 Battle of the Marne.Built in 1924, this cemetery houses around 1030 bodies in a small area. This is because 998 of those soldiers (985 of whom are still unidentified) are buried in a mass grave. What's more, two to four German soldiers are buried under each of the crosses that line the cemetery. Military cemeteries are national territories. In the aftermath of the Great War, it was therefore important not to give up too much territory to the Germans.

Built in 1920, this necropolis gathers together in one place the individual tombs dug right on the battlegrounds of the Meaux region in the aftermath of the First Battle of the Marne.Nearly 990 soldiers killed in 1914 are buried together here. 940 of them are still unknown. They have been buried together in 4 ossuaries. Half of the 341 individual graves are those of French soldiers killed between June and July 1918 during the Second Battle of the Marne in the north of the Seine-et-Marne department. Most of the men buried in the ossuaries are soldiers and officers from infantry troops, Zouaves regiments, and Moroccan and Algerian infantry regiments involved in the First Battle of the Marne. Many of the soldiers from mainland France who took part in the the Battle of the Marne, such as the men from Charles Péguy's regiment, the 276th Infantry Regiment, came from that region. Those of them who could be identified were then generally buried in a civil grave, in their village cemetery.

This historical landmark was the theater of violent battles between 6 and 9 September 1914. This important position, which had been taken by German general Von Kluck – who had installed his general staff there – had to be reconquered.After the First Battle of the Marne, Monseigneur Marbeau, bishop of Meaux, expressed his wish that the town of Meaux be spared and decided to build a commemorative monument on the very spot where the German advance was halted. This religious and patriotic monument was inaugurated in 1924 and was the site of numerous pilgrimages to celebrate the "Miracle of the Marne". The granite and cast-iron building depicts the Virgin Mary with the inscription "Thou shalt go no further".

On 5 September 1914, only a few hours after the first Battle of the Marne started, poet and writer Charles Péguy was struck in the head by a bullet as he gallantly led his men in an attack on German positions.At around 4.30pm, in scorching heat, the 276th Infantry Regiment to which he belonged set off towards the Monthyon hillock, to cover the retreat of Moroccan riflemen who were fighting against the Germans. Out in the open, in a field that offered no shelter whatsoever, the men fell one after the other under German machine-gun fire. This memorial stone pays tribute to this monument to French literature, who fell on the field of honour in the first moments of the battle. At the base of the cross, some verses remind us of the work of this great author and his patriotic sentiments. "Blessed are those who died for carnal earth. Provided it was in a just war. Blessed are those who died for four corners of earth. Blessed are those who died a solemn death. Blessed are those who died in great battles. Stretched out on the ground in the face of God. Blessed are those who died for their hearth and fire, And the lowly honours of their fathers' houses. Blessed are those who died, for they have returned Into primeval clay and primeval earth. Blessed are those who died in a just war. Blessed is the wheat that is ripe and the wheat that is gathered in sheaves." Charles Péguy – Eve (1913) – Extracts