Lorraine comprises the "départements" of Meurthe-et-Moselle, Meuse, Moselle and Vosges and the principal cities are Nancy, Bar-le-Duc, Metz and Épinal.

Background Several battles occurred in Lorraine during World War I including the Battle of Lorraine, the Battle of the Trouée de Charmes, and the Battle of Grand Couronné. In addition, part of the Battle of the Frontiers was also fought in Lorraine.

Memorials of Morhange, Moselle Monument to the 15th Army Corps in Vergaville French Military Cemetery In the French Military Cemetery at Vergaville is a monument dedicated to the 15th Army Corps. It depicts within an arch, a Lorraine woman holding in her arms a dying soldier. The monument was organised by public subscription on the initiative of the parents of some of the victims of the fighting in the Morhange area in August 1914. It is the work of the sculptor Petit and was designed by the architect Pialat from Uzès, whose son was killed at Dieuze. The inauguration took place on 22 August 1926. The cemetery at Vergaville, which is 4 kilometres north of Dieuze, contains the bodies of soldiers killed in the 19 to 20 August fighting.Vergaville Genweb. Retrieved 15 February 2013

Monument at Bidestroff

This memorial is dedicated to the men of the 15th Army Corps, part of the 29th Division, and to 1,204 French soldiers who lost their lives in the fighting at Morhange. The monument is located between Bidestroff and Vergaville. The men of the 15th mainly came from Provence and were the victims of a particularly heavy artillery bombardment, when caught on the high ground at Bidestroff, which left 1,204 dead on the battlefield.

It was in 1935 and on the initiative of the parish priest and the Bidestroff mayor, that a committee was set up which led to the monument being erected. Most of the funds were collected from veterans in Toulon, and the Strasbourg sculptor Valentin Jaeg was commissioned to carry out the sculptural work involved. The monument is 12.5 metres high and at the top is the figure of the Archangel St Michael who raises his arms to heaven. St Michael is the patron saint of Bidestroff.

At the base there are groups of crosses on each of the monument's four faces, each inscribed with the name of one of the units of the 15th Army Corps. These surround the Cross of Christ. The inscriptions on the monument read and Bidestroff heritage-grandeguerre.fr. Retrieved 15 February 2013 The 15th Army Corps monument at Bidestroff Petit Patrimoine. Retrieved 15 February 2013

French Military Cemetery at Riche The Riche French Military Cemetery lies midway between Morhange to the north and Riche to the south.

There is a monument located in the Riche Military Cemetery that remembers the men who fell fighting at Morhange. Riche lies just to the south of Morhange.

The inscription reads

At the side of the cemetery is a small chapel dating back to 1928. This has been roped off from the public owing to falling masonry. This is a pity as there are some magnificent stained glass windows in the chapel, of which four tell the history of the 20th Infantry Division.

The cemetery contains the remains of 2,574 French soldiers, with 1,088 individual graves and two ossuaries containing the remains of 1,486 men. 577 of these were not identified. Most of those buried were killed in the fighting at Morhange. This particular cemetery contains the grave of the son of General Joseph Curières de Castelnau, who was killed on 20 August 1914. There are also 158 Russian graves of a later war period and a Russian mass grave with an unknown number of Russian soldiers buried in it.Riche Cemetery Petit Patrimoine. Retrieved 15 February 2013

Memorial to the Battle of Morhange This simple obelisk in granite remembers the soldiers who died in the battle of Morhange. Erected in the inter-war years, it was destroyed by the Germans during their occupation in the Second World War and rebuilt in 1964. Near to the obelisk there is a mounted map showing the field of battle so that one can visualise the events of the two days of the battle. The monument was inaugurated on 20 August 1921 and has a height of 10 metres. It carries the simple inscription Memorial of the Battle of Morhange Petit Patrimoine. Retrieved 14 February 2013

Franco-German in Frémery This comprises two ossuaries, one for German soldiers and the other for French soldiers. The German ossuary contains the human remains of 13 unknown soldiers while the French ossuary contains the remains of 176 French officers and soldiers of the 146th Infantry. All the men involved were killed nearby on 20 August 1914.Frémery Mémorial Genweb. Retrieved 16 February 2013

The German War Cemetery at Morhange

This cemetery holds the remains of 4,753 German soldiers. 1,965 soldiers have individual graves and there are two ossuaries containing the remains of 2,788 soldiers, of whom 72 men are unknown. The German War Cemetery of Morhange was created by the German military administration in August 1914, during the Battle of Morhange as part of the existing German garrison cemetery. After the war, the French military authorities exhumed the French war dead and took them to their own cemetery and the bodies of German soldiers were collected from many other locations in the area and re-buried in this cemetery. The soldiers buried here were fighting in the area during the period of 20 to 23 August 1914 and early September. Later additions to the cemetery were the bodies of men who had fallen during the trench fighting in the years 1915-1918 or who died of their wounds in the nearby military hospitals. The majority of the soldiers buried here belonged to military units from Bavaria but there were also soldiers from Thuringia, Brandenburg, Alsace, Lorraine, Silesia, West Prussia, Hesse-Cassel, Mecklenburg and Schleswig-Holstein and Hanover and Brunswick.The German War Cemetery at Morhange German War Cemetery Website. Retrieved 14 February 2013

In Lorraine there are also German Military Cemeteries at Bouillonville holding the remains of 1,368 soldiers, at Fey where 2,006 soldiers are buried with 500 unidentified. There is also a German cemetery at Thiaucourt with the remains of 11,685 soldiers. 2,980 of these are in an ossuary; 2,645 could not be identified. In Bertrimoutier the cemetery is a joint Franco-German one and holds the remains of 6,749 German soldiers and 950 French soldiers.

Memorials and cemeteries in Moselle The war memorial at Sarreguemines The Sarreguemines monument stands in the Place du Général Sibille, facing the Palais de Justice and remembers the victims of the 1914-1918 war. It was inaugurated in 1933. The architect Henri Giraud designed the monument and the sculptural work was carried out by Jules Déchin. At a later stage a plaque was added acknowledging the victims of the Second World War. At the base is an allegorical representation of the town of Sarreguemines and at the summit is a bronze depicting the "Angel of Victory"The monument at Sarreguemines Petit Patrimoines. Retrieved 14 February 2013

Lidrezing The French War cemetery here holds the remains of 549 French soldiers from the 53rd, 58th, 69th and 79th French Infantry (the 15th, 16th and 20th Army Corps). These remains were from burial plots in Lidrezing, Zarbeling and Wuisse. There are 116 individual graves and two ossuaries. 203 of those who lie in these ossuaries were unidentified.

Conthil The French War cemetery here was created in 1914 after the fighting of 20 August 1914. The cemetery contains an ossuary containing the remains of men from the 37th French Infantry regiment and there is also a monument dedicated to the 37th, inaugurated on 22 August 1922. Conthil French cemetery www.memorial-genweb.org. Retrieved 16 February 2013

Cutting The French Military cemetery here contains the grave of General Paul Émile Diou (1855–1914), who was a général de brigade.See * Du Maroc à Morhange : le général Diou (1855–1914) by Pierre Brasme

The cemetery is called "L'Espérance" and was created in 1914 after the fighting at Morhange. Bodies were also gathered in from Loudrefing, Bénestroff, Dieuze, Guinzeling and Lostroff. There is a monument in the cemetery with sculpture by Charles Petit dedicated to the men of the 15th Army Corps killed in 1914 fighting at Dieuze. This was inaugurated 1 July 1934. www.memorial-genweb.org. Retrieved 16 February 2013

Dieuze The French National cemetery holds a monument which remembers those French soldiers killed fighting at Dieuze on 19, 20 and 21 August 1914. This was inaugurated on 16 September 1934; the sculptural work is by Charles Petit, who was born in Dieuze.

There are also two ossuaries in the cemetery which contain the remains of both French and German soldiers who died fighting in the area and at the Dieuze military hospital.

There is also a monument dedicated to those Romanian prisoners of war sent to Alsace-Lorraine by the Germans in 1917 and 1918. 940 of these died in captivity and are buried at Dieuze. The inscription reads - 2,344 men were to die in captivity and the inscription adds a thank you to the kindness of the people of Alsace and Lorraine.

Also in Dieuze there is a memorial to those French soldiers who were killed fighting in Romania. The sculptural work here is by Remus Botar Botarro and the monument was inaugurated on 9 November 1998.Dieuze Cemetery www.memorial-genweb.org. Retrieved 16 February 2013

Monuments linked to the Battle of the Grande Couronné in Meurthe et Moselle

The Military Cemetery at Courbesseaux Courbesseaux in Meurthe-et-Moselle was the scene of fighting on 25 August 1914, and was totally destroyed during the war. The military cemetery here holds the bodies of 2,679 soldiers, many of whom had died at Grand-Couronné. 1,703 of the dead could not be identified and their remains lie in 2 ossuaries. There are two monuments in the cemetery. One by Eugène Gatelet was erected in 1924 and shows a young peasant laying a wreath on the tomb of a soldier and in 1964 a simple monument was erected in memory of Edouard de Castelnau,at Courbesseaux Petit Patrimoine. Retrieved 14 February 2013Courbesseaux Memorial Genweb. Retrieved 18 February 2013

The memorial to the 11th Division at Léomont The most south-easterly point of the Grande Couronné was at Léomont, where the ground rises to 377 metres giving excellent views over the surrounding countryside. It was an important hill to hold to protect Nancy. Fierce fighting took place here in 1914 between the French 11th Division and German units from Bavaria. Indeed, on the night of 25 to 26 August 1914 the area changed hands 8 times. The 11th Infantry Division, consisting of the 26th, 37th, 69th and 79th Infantry Regiments as well as gunners from the 8th and sappers from the 20th, was known as the "Iron Division". The citation on the monument reads

Apart from their efforts at Léomont, the 11th had fought at Lunéville and Friscati and had played an important role in protecting Nancy. The original monument, erected in 1922, was destroyed by the Germans in 1940 and reconstructed in 1950. It depicts a soldier mounting guard and protecting Nancy. The original sculpture was the work of Gaston Broquet and when the monument was rebuilt the sculptor, J. Sinapi, faithfully copied Broquet's original work. The memorial to the 11th Division at Léomont Petit Patrimoine. Retrieved 14 August 2013

War memorial at Samogneux The war memorial here features a sculpture by Gaston Broquet which depicts a terrified young soldier trying to put his gas mask on. The work is entitled "L'alerte aux gaz"Le monument de Samogneux moulindelangladure.typepad.fr. Retrieved 16 February 2013

Samogneux was involved in the Battle of Verdun and the French Infantry Regiments 112th, 173rd, 126th and 335th fought there.

The monument at Ste Geneviève