France

Statues - Hither & Thither

Histsory

This pyramid_shaped monument, an impressive commemorative site, was built near to the former farm of Rougemont (built between 1827 and 1836), afterwards known as "Navarin Farm" from ther end of the 19th century.
Navarin, a central point of the front in Champagne, is on a line of high ground (the hills of Souain, Tahure, Le Mesnil, Hill 193, Mont Tétu and Main de Massiges to the east, Monts de Champagne to the west) in front of which the French offensive of the autumn of 1915 failed. The farm disappeared in the ferocious fighting. On 27th February 1916, German troops consolidated their positions and approaching the ruins of Navarin Farm. The front in Champagne enjoyed relative calm until 1917. On 15th July 1918, Germany, bled dry, wanted to bring things to an end, and led a final grand assault called Friedensturm (Peace Offensive). General Gouraud, commanding the 4th Army of Champagne, applied a judicious defensive tactic on the line passing to the east of Reims at La Main de Massiges, thus breaking any hope of victory for the enemy. From these heights, he launched the Franco-American offensive on 26th September 1918, which freed the north of the Marne and pushed back the line of fighting towards the Ardennes.

Construction

Built on the initiative of Général Gouraud and his companions in arms, the Navarin monument was inaugurated in 1924. 0n top there is an imposing group of three soldiers in stone, facing an attack from the north-west. The sculptor was Maxime Real del Sarte, and he gave:

• the soldier in the centre the features of General Gouraud,
• the solder on the right the features of Quentin Roosevelt, son of the President of the United States Theodore Roosevelt, who died in the skies of France on 14th July 1918 at Chamery (in the Department of Aisne),
• the soldier on the left the features of his brother, killed on the Chemin des Dames in 1917.