VILLAGE DÉTRUIT DE HAUMONT PRÈS SAMOGNEUX

Before it was even a village, Haumont près Samogneux was first a Gallic place where the Sun God was celebrated through an altar erected on its heights in the 1st century AD.
Later, the Roman army established an entrenched camp there.

Towards the end of the Thirty Years? War between Catholics and Protestants, the village found itself totally ruined by the incessant passage of troops, ransoming and even torturing inhabitants unable to satisfy them.
From 300 inhabitants in 1850, its population had fallen to 139 by 1914.

The town was evacuated shortly after the outbreak of war, due to its northern location, too close to the Front, which had stabilized just a few kilometers away thanks to the success of the Battle of the Marne.
Nevertheless, on February 7, 1915, the town was bombed for the first time, damaging part of the church.

But this was a far cry from the bombardment it would suffer a year later, on February 20, 1916, at the very start of the great German offensive on Verdun.
On February 22, 1916, the valiant defense of the village by the 362nd infantry regiment forced the German assault troops to retreat?

This brief respite for the poilus ended with a rain of iron and fire from the powerful German artillery.
During this violent bombardment, the village literally collapsed, burying 80 brave poilus under its stones and rubble.

The German advance on the French lines kept the village out of the intense fighting further south, until October 1918, when the French army returned to its sector.

Its ruins were recaptured on October 8, 1918, by the 67th Infantry Regiment and the 66th and 68th Senegalese Rifle Battalions, just over a month before the end of hostilities.

Between the wars, Haumont près Samogneux was declared a "destroyed village" in 1919, a unique status shared by eight other Meuse villages.

On March 15, 1921, Haumont près Samogneux was named to the Army Order, in recognition of the supreme sacrifice made by the commune.

On August 28, 1928, its war memorial was inaugurated, and in 1932, its Saint Nicolas chapel-shelter was built, then furnished and decorated in 1933, demonstrating the determination of its former inhabitants, the "Sachots", to make it a respected place of remembrance.

In 1940, the outbreak of the Second World War saw further fighting in the area, as the German army pushed forward against the few remaining French troops desperately trying to hold it back.

The ensuing occupation of the country saw the effective abandonment of the upkeep of this memorial site, from 1940 until 1968. As nature reclaimed its rights, the chapel even disappeared under the vegetation?

But in 1971, under the impetus of its mayor, Charles Renversez, a major clean-up and restoration project was undertaken.
From then on, Haumont près Samogneux and the "Sachots" continue this vital work of remembrance, so necessary for future generations.

Worth seeing
- The Saint-Nicolas chapel (triptych painting by Lucien Lantier, depicting the village in 1914, 1915 and 1916);
- The war memorial;
- Vestiges of the village.

DATAtourisme France