The high number of visits on my post about Douaumont helped me to realize that there is a big interest from my English-speaking readers in French monuments and battlefields of the Great War, even if thery’re not linked to the operations of British Army, nor the US Army. Therefore, here’s a short post about the Bayonet Trench (Tranchée des Baïonnettes), a monument located a few kms away from Douaumont ossuary.

The Bayonet Trench is a monument built to remember the loss of a unit of the 137th Régiment d’Infanterie, on June 12, 1916. Supposedly men from this unit were waiting to attack when they were buried as they stood by an artillery barrage. The truth is more likely that they were simply killed and buried in a trench with their rifles as markers.

In 1919, Colonel Collet, Commander of the 137th Régiment d’Infanterie, returned to where his unit had fought in June 1916. He noticed rifles sticking out of the ground, some of which still had their bayonets intact.

He decided to build a small memorial on the site but then the press got hold of the history and it captured the public’s imagination. The monument,  financed by the American George Rand, was promptly built and unveiled on 8th December 1920 by the President of the French Republic.

This concrete construction is made up of a large entrance, a long flight of steps to evoke the communication trenches and the memorial itself – a gable decorated with a large cross in relief behind which stands a thick slab supported by simple columns.

If you’re interested in this monument and the legend it, if you’re lucky enough to understand french, please read the dedicated wikipedia page!

The bayonet trench monument photographed in the 30's

Sources: Verdun Tourisme & Western Front Photography