On June 20th, 2026, at the top of Vauquois hill took place a ceremony in front the memorial dedicated “to all the brave men who held the enemy at bay on this position after the victorious attacks of the 10th Infantry division under Brigadier Valdant, 5th Corps, in March 1915 – a grateful nation – to the combatants and the dead of Vauquois ” (inscriptions on the North face of the light tower).
It was erected thanks to a subscription initiated by a committee chaired by Maj Gen Valdant and the combined work of the architect Edouard Monestès and the sculptor Marius Roussel, himself a veteran of Vauquois in the 31st Infantry Regiment. The official reception of the work took place on October 18th, 1925, but the inauguration was delayed until June 20th, 1926. It took place in the presence of the former President of the Republic Raymond Poincaré, and Lt Gen Gouraud, the popular commander of the 4th Army in Champagne, but especially the predecessor of Valdant as the commander of the 10th Infantry division during the operations in the Argonne forest in early 1915, when he was wounded on January 7th and had his right arm amputated. Thousands of veterans attended the ceremony at the top of the hill, whose control had cost the lives of about 14,000. Most of them had experienced the development of the awful mine warfare.
One hundred years later, the monument still stands above the craters that engulfed the church, the cemetery, and the chestnut tree whose leafless silhouette so deeply affected the soldiers that Marius Roussel depicted it on the South face of the light tower. The crowd was somewhat smaller on this hot day, but the heat did not diminish the public’s attentiveness during the various speeches given before the wreath-laying ceremonies.
