VILLAGE DÉTRUIT DE VAUX DEVANT DAMLOUP

Vaux-devant-Damloup is a destroyed village in a class of its own, as it lies on the edge of the "red zone" and has been able to rebuild, over the years, a new small village very close to the old destroyed village, with the same characteristics as its eight fellow villagers. Belonging to the Verdun Chapter before the Revolution, it has always been a prosperous village throughout its history. The presence of the nearby Fort de Vaux has always had an impact on the course of the village?s history. As soon as it was built between 1881 and 1884, the village was called upon to provide accommodation for the many workers who took turns there, as it was during the major reinforcement work carried out on the Fort between 1888 and 1912. In 1915, the General Staff?s decision to partially disarm all the forts meant that the defensive effort was transferred to the villages in particular. Vaux, located to the north of the Fort and in contact with the Woëvre plain, naturally became an important point in the defense of the entrenched camp at Verdun. During the great German offensive, launched at the end of February 1916, it was one of the Germans' main objectives, after the capture of Douaumont, which fell on March 2, and before that of the Fort de Vaux. After bitter fighting within its walls, the village fell to the Germans on March 31, 1916. French bombing raids in April followed German bombing raids in March, further destroying the village. After the fall of the village, the German 50th Division rushed to capture Fort de Vaux, which held out heroically from June 2 to 7, 1916, under the command of Commandant Raynal. This tragic episode became an ever-famous feat of arms, as the garrison, short of drinking water and fighting in the Fort?s galleries for days, finally surrendered to the Germans who, admiring the valour of the surviving poilus, decided to pay them military honours as they left the Fort. In 1918, the village of Vaux-devant-Damloup fell within the boundaries of the notorious "red zone", which forbade any reconstruction. In 1919, Vaux-devant-Damloup was also included in the list of destroyed villages, and during the inter-war period, like the other eight destroyed villages, it was the site of the war memorial and the chapel-shelter of Saint Philippe and Saint-Jacques. However, its position at the edge of the area and the presence of the railroad line belonging to the Eastern Railway Company (Compagnie des chemins de fer de l'Est), which obtained permission to house its ten service agents on the Vaux-devant-Damloup site, enabled the village to regain, over the years and from the interwar period onwards, a new life, now very active and looking to the future, particularly the Internet, without denying the tragic past of the former destroyed village, still present on its doorstep and in the memory of its 70 inhabitants. What to see : - The chapel-shelter of Saint Philippe and Saint Jacques; - The monument to the dead in honor of the Poilus who died at Vaux (it bears the inscription: "On ne passe pas"); - Vaux fort; - Vaux pond; - Monument to the dead of the 1st Battalion of Chasseurs à Pied, near the pond; - Stele in memory of aviator Dussumier-Latour, shot down on June 2, 1916 on the pond dike.