These regions are home to the many sites that bear the scars of two world wars. The sites commemorate the selfless sacrifice of those who took part and now, thanks to the regional Remembrance Trails, you can discover them at your leisure along local cycling and hiking routes. Each route develops a specific theme and is accompanied by an illustrated guide. Consult the guide on your mobile (or download it) to discover the human side of these conflicts and learn about the region and its history in an original and compelling way.
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In the seventeenth century the town of Maubeuge, a strategic point on the northern border of France, was comprehensively fortified by celebrated French engineer Vauban. Porte de Mons dates from this time (1682) and was, along with Porte de France and Porte de Bavay, one of three gates leading into the town when the Germans invested it in 1914.
A plaque above Porte de Mons commemorates those who defended the fortified town of Maubeuge against the besieging German Army in the summer of 1914. It bears the portrait of General Joseph Fournier, then governor of the town and superior commanding officer of the entire group of military works that comprised the strong point of Maubeuge.
In 1914 General Fournier took command of the French units manning the thirteen forts and works that comprised the defensive perimeter of Maubeuge, a system devised by General Séré de Rivières in the late nineteenth century to strengthen the northern and eastern borders of France. Conscious of the shortcomings in the system’s capacity to hold off an attack, Fournier quickly set about evacuating civilians, installing defensive obstacles, and reorganizing the garrison. In late August 1914 the German Army encircled Maubeuge and, on the twenty-ninth, started shelling. The town suffered a brutal and relentless pounding which it could not expect to sustain indefinitely and on 7 September, persuaded by the considerable destruction and loss of human life, General Fournier hoisted the white flag. The fortified town of Maubeuge officially surrendered on 8 September 1914 at 8 o’clock in the morning.
In recognition of the bravery of the French during the siege, General Von Zwehl, commanding officer of the German force that invested the town, refused Fournier’s sword when offered him. But the rumour of a premature surrender soon began to do the rounds. Eventually, a court martial recognized that the defence of Maubeuge had been properly conducted and General Joseph Fournier was acquitted in 1919.
Later on the day of the surrender, the vanquished of Maubeuge paraded for the last time before General Fournier as they marched out of the town through Porte de Mons towards the prison camps of Germany.
During the German occupation Porte de Mons was used as a prison for ordinary offenders. It is one of the few buildings in Maubeuge to have survived intact the violence of the Second World War.
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Since the seventeenth century the fortified town of Maubeuge has had various buildings known as ‘casernes Joyeuse’ for quartering soldiers. They were named after Jean Arnaud De Joyeuse, marquis and officer to French kings Louis XIII and Louis XIV. The area of the town where the barracks once stood continues to bear his name.
Once the town had fallen to the Germans in 1914, a large part of the occupying army was quartered in the barracks. Political prisoners and civilians suspected of ‘acts of resistance’, such as sending information to the French Army or refusing to work or collaborate with the occupier, were held in the dungeons of ‘les Joyeuse’.
On the northeast side of the barracks, outside the ramparts, an area was set aside for the Kaiser’s forces to do military training, in particular close combat practice.
Maubeuge was also a major centre for artillery training. German officers went there for conferences and to study ballistics. Firing practice was held in the neighbouring town of Jeumont, in a quarry where dummy buildings were erected as targets.
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In 1794 the balloon Entreprenant took to the skies above Maubeuge. Commanded by Captain Coutelle, its mission was to observe the enemy forces threatening the nascent French Republic. This event marked the start of aeronautics in Maubeuge.
In 1910, more than a century after the first flight of the Entreprenant, a military aerodrome was set up on the northeast side of the town and an airship hangar was built on the site which is now home to the Pierre Forest secondary school.
Before the Germans invested the town in September 1914, the last personnel of the French flying corps based in Maubeuge destroyed all their equipment to prevent it falling into enemy hands. Under the occupation the hangar was enlarged to accommodate zeppelins.
Zeppelins were stationed in Maubeuge until May 1916 and carried out bombing raids on French towns and other Allied targets, in particular the ports used by the British Army (Margate, Calais, Boulogne, etc.). They even travelled as far as London and Paris, sowing panic among the civilian populations of those great cities.
On the highest part of Falize Bastion the Germans installed anti-aircraft guns to cover the airbase. The remains of these defences from 1915 are still visible today.
After the Armistice, the French Army converted Maubeuge aerodrome into a depot for a new type of fighting vehicle: the tank. The hangar was dismantled by soldiers of the Reich during the Second World War.
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The Arsenal is the last remaining building of the garrison barracks. It was built between 1678 and 1689 to store military equipment for the artillery corps of the French Army, and was used continuously up until 1914.
Situated on the banks of the river Sambre, the quays in front of the warehouse had always been an important factor in trade between the town and the outside world; but during the occupation they became crucial for bringing supplies into Maubeuge through the occupied zone. In that troubled time of shortages and crisis provisioning was an obsession everyone shared. Food was rare for the civilian population and prices rocketed. The authorities were obliged to issue ration cards, steadily reducing the quantities of bread and flour allocated per person. After lengthy negotiations with the occupier, Maubeuge Council secured permission to receive supplies from the Commission for Relief in Belgium (CRB), a charity set up by the engineer and future American president Herbert Hoover. The goods supplied by the CRB improved the precarious existence of the people of Maubeuge even if they did fuel the expansion of the black market.
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During the Battle of Maubeuge, in the summer of 1914, wounded soldiers were treated in the military hospital that once stood on Maubeuge’s Square Jourdan. Today the site is occupied by an apartment block. The hospital came through the shelling of the Great War unscathed but did not survive the destruction caused by the soldiers of the Reich in World War Two. The Chapel of the Black Sisters, a convent once part of the hospital, is all that remains of the original building.
After the surrender of the French troops in 1914, the occupying forces took over the hospital and converted it into a lazaretto for the wounded arriving directly from the front, in particular those who had been gassed or had contracted a contagious disease. Another treatment centre was set up in the Sous-le-Bois quarter of Maubeuge.
In 1916 a tramway was built to carry the increasing influx of wounded soldiers from the front directly to the hospital. At the end of the war, and despite the creation of other hospitals in Maubeuge, local figure Georges Dubut observed ‘the wounded are arriving at such a considerable rate the hospitals are overflowing and, in the rush, […] the church has been requisitioned and summarily converted.
All the patients were evacuated prior to the arrival of the British Army in November 1918.
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An occupying administration was set up in the town immediately after the French surrender, on 9 September 1914. On 11 November the districts of Maubeuge North, Maubeuge South, Bavay and Solre-le-Château were consolidated into a governorate. To the south of Maubeuge a frontier was strictly enforced, and that severely limited movement to the staging posts which provided support to the units fighting at the front.
Maubeuge’s governor Major-General Karl Von Martini, who resided at Place Verte (on the site of the mutual insurance company), communicated the decisions of the Governor- General of Belgium through notices written in French and German. For the most part they were requisition orders, as well as restrictions and bylaws on a myriad of subjects.
On 12 July 1916, under the direction of Major-General Friedrich Von Buddenbrock, the occupied territory of Maubeuge and district became a staging post. Thenceforth the town came directly under the orders of the German 2nd Army and the latter’s administrative departments were transferred from Saint-Quentin to Maubeuge.
News was strictly controlled. La Gazette des Ardennes, a propaganda tool, was the only newspaper authorized for distribution in the territory. Civilians were forced to work for the occupier. Machines and goods in the factories and farms were inventoried and requisitioned to support the war effort.
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The German Army in Maubeuge used Place d’Armes, a central square near today’s Place des Nations, as a venue for concerts and celebrations. Musicians from across the Rhine and propaganda agents from the culture ministry put on, for the most part, works by German composers. In particular, artists were brought in to celebrate the birthday of Kaiser Wilhelm II on 27 January.
On 6 November 1918, with the British advance progressively liberating the occupied territories, the German troops stationed in Maubeuge were given the order to move out. Before leaving they blew up the bridges leading into the town.
In the morning of 9 November, at around 9 o’clock, the British Army entered Maubeuge and were welcomed by an ecstatic population.
The official ceremony of liberation took place on 14 November 1918 in Place d’Armes. British general Sir Torquhil Matheson received a Flag of Honour as a mark of gratitude. Matheson was deeply touched by the gesture and subsequently commissioned a commemorative cup made in vermeil to symbolize the friendship and fraternity of two nations scarred by war. The cup was presented to the town of Maubeuge on 9 June 1919.
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