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Origin and history

The Baionnettes Trench is a memorial erected in 1920 on the battlefield of Verdun in Douaumont-Vaux (Meuse). He paid tribute to the soldiers of the 137th Infantry Regiment of Fontenay-le-Comte (Vendée), buried on 12 June 1916 during a German bombing. This site, classified as a historic monument in 1922, symbolizes French tenacity and the violence of the First World War.

On 12 June 1916, after days of intensive shelling, some 60 soldiers of the 137th RI, short of ammunition, surrendered to the Germans. They lit their rifles in tribute to their fallen comrades. In December 1918, Abbé Louis Ratier, a former brancardier, discovered guns of emerging rifles, suggesting hasty burials. A first monument was erected thanks to a gift from the American George T. Rand.

The 1920 excavations revealed 21 bodies, 14 of which were identified and transferred to the cemetery of Fleury-devant-Douaumont. The 7 unknown rest on site, under a concrete slab designed by architect André Ventre. The wrought iron gate, the work of Edgar Brandt, and the broken rifles recall their sacrifice. Inaugurated in 1920 by President Alexandre Millerand, the monument became a national memorial in 2014.

The heroic story of a standing buried company, bayonet to the cannon, was popularized by Jacques Péricard ("Standing the Dead!"). However, veterans such as Jean Norton Cru denounced this legend, judging burial by unrealistic shells. Despite controversy, the American epitaph ("sleep standing, rifle in hand") perpetuated the myth, anchoring the site in the collective imagination.

Ranked a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2023 among 139 sites of the Great War, the monument illustrates the memorial scar of Verdun. It embodies both national mourning, glorifying narratives from the back, and debates about historical truth. Today, there remains a place of pilgrimage, symbol of the sacrifices of 1916.

The 137th RI, composed mainly of Vendéens, lost 37 officers and 1,387 men during the fighting of June-July 1916. Their resistance to Thiaumont, despite a dominated position and failing connections, marked military history. Fontenay-le-Comte paid tribute to them by naming a Tranché-des-Baionnettes street.

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