MONUMENT MAGINOT

Contrary to the principle laid down at mobilization, many territorial units would work alongside their active-duty comrades in the same context. One regiment - the 44th R.I.T. - welcomed André Maginot, MP for the Meuse, into its ranks.

A Meuse deputy who volunteered in 1914, he quickly earned his sergeant's stripes and led patrols in hostile territory. This boldness almost cost him his life on November 8, 1914, in front of the Hayes wood.

Seriously wounded, he was narrowly saved by his comrades and nursed back to health for many months. After the Armistice, he resumed his parliamentary activities. He became Minister of Colonies in 1917, Minister of Pensions in 1920 and Minister of War in 1922.

On November 10, 1920, he presided over the famous ceremony for the Unknown Soldier within the walls of the citadel at Verdun.

Stricken with typhoid fever, he died in 1932, while working on fortifications in the east of France.

Three years after his death, French President Albert Lebrun inaugurated the Gaston Broquet monument on the Souville massif. Shaped like a shield, the scene depicts the heroic rescue of Sergeant André Maginot by his comrades on November 8, 1914.

DATAtourisme France