Bathelemont Monument

Serge Husson

During the First World War, the American intervention began in this sector of Lunévillois and the first three American soldiers killed in France died near the town of Bathelémont. A first commemorative monument, designed by Louis Majorelle, stood opposite the old destroyed church of Bathelémont in November 1. Symbolically inaugurated on November 1, 1918 in the Town Hall of Nancy, because the proximity of the front did not allow a solemn inauguration on site, the monument was destroyed during the Second World War in October 3. A new stele was erected and inaugurated on May 1918, 2. Then, this monument was moved on August 1940, 9 near the municipal cemetery, where it still stands. The Americans JB Gesham, TF Enright and MD Hay did not die on the territory of Bathelémont and they were never buried under the monument; but this commemorative stele, in honor of these first American soldiers killed, has had a turbulent existence for such a monument.