Couvonges () is a commune in the

Meuse The Meuse or Maas is a major European river, rising in France and flowing through Belgium and the Netherlands before draining into the North Sea from the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta. It has a total length of . History From 1301, the upper ...

department in

Grand Est Grand Est (; ) is an Regions of France, administrative region in northeastern France. It superseded three former administrative regions, Alsace, Champagne-Ardenne and Lorraine, on 1 January 2016 under the provisional name of Alsace-Champagne-A ...

in north-eastern

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

Couvonges massacre

In August 1944 German troops en route to

Saint-Dizier Saint-Dizier () is a subprefecture of the Haute-Marne department in north-eastern France. It has a population of 23,382 (2018 figure) and is a subprefecture of the department. Although Saint-Dizier is marginally the most populous commune in Hau ...

to face General

George S. Patton George Smith Patton Jr. (11 November 1885 – 21 December 1945) was a general in the United States Army who commanded the Seventh Army in the Mediterranean Theater of World War II, then the Third Army in France and Germany after the Alli ...

XII Corps 12th Corps, Twelfth Corps, or XII Corps may refer to: * 12th Army Corps (France) * XII Corps (Grande Armée), a corps of the Imperial French Army during the Napoleonic Wars * XII (1st Royal Saxon) Corps, a unit of the Imperial German Army * XII ( ...

killed a number of civilians and destroyed most of the town. This is also referred to as the '' Massacre de la vallée de la Saulx''. According t
Edward R. Koudelka

Special Agent In the United States, a special agent is an official title used to refer to certain investigators or detectives of federal, military, tribal, or state agencies who primarily serve in criminal investigatory positions. Additionally, some special ...

for the US Counter-Intelligence Corps, th
29th Regiment
of the 3rd Panzergenadier Division was camped near a wooded area on the edge of town when a German officer and several soldiers were shot on 27 August by French resistance fighters. In retaliation, Major General Hans Hecker, who was in command of the division, ordered the execution by

firing squad Firing may refer to: * Dismissal (employment), sudden loss of employment by termination * Firemaking, the act of starting a fire * Burning; see combustion * Shooting, specifically the discharge of firearms * Execution by firing squad, a method of ...

of twenty-six randomly selected Frenchmen. About sixty other civilians were killed in the neighboring towns of

Robert-Espagne Robert-Espagne is a commune in the Meuse department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. On 29 August 1944, the 3rd Panzergenadier Division of the German Wehrmacht massacred 86 inhabitants of this and the three neighboring villages of Beu ...

, Beurey-sur-Saulx and

Mognéville Mognéville () is a commune in the Meuse department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. On 29 August 1944, the 3rd Panzergenadier Division of the German Wehrmacht massacred 86 inhabitants of this and the three neighboring villages of Beu ...

. The bodies were buried in a

mass grave A mass grave is a grave containing multiple human corpses, which may or may Unidentified decedent, not be identified prior to burial. The United Nations has defined a criminal mass grave as a burial site containing three or more victims of exec ...

in a field near the town, but a local resident was able to obtai
a photograph of the bodies
before burial. According to Koudelka's informants, at 11 am on 29 August fifty-four of the town's sixty houses were burned, although the church was left standing. A total of 329 houses were looted and burned in the three towns.

Aftermath

Koudelka gathered evidence for use in the

Nuremberg Trials #REDIRECT Nuremberg trials {{redirect category shell, {{R from other capitalisation{{R from move ...

, however Major General Hecker was released in 1947 and never tried. The case was assigned to the Military Court of Metz, which identified eight German soldiers (out of about fifty who participated in atrocities). In 1950, the four officers, two warrant officers and two soldiers were convicted. The judgment was delivered on 28 May 1952 and the sentences were pronounced ''in absentia'': four received death sentences and four were sentenced to hard labor for life.

Memorial

Charles de Gaulle Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French general and statesman who led the Free France, Free French Forces against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government of the French Re ...

participated in a memorial service on 28 July 1946.Couvonges: La seconde guerre mondiale: le 29 août 1944
(in French) A memorial was inaugurated on August 29, 1949 by General

André Zeller André Zeller (1 January 1898 – 18 September 1979) was a French Army general. He served during World War I, the Franco-Turkish War, and World War II, and served as chief of staff of the French Army during the Algerian War. Zeller was one of the ...

, commander of the 6th military region. The monument is located in the town of Beurey-sur-Saulx. HOMMAGE AUX MARTYRS DE LA VALLÉE DE LA SAULX des villages de Robert-Espagne - Beurey-sur-Saulx - Couvonges - Mognéville - Trémont-sur-Saulx.
(in French)

References

{{authority control Communes of Meuse (department) Massacres in 1944 Massacres committed by Nazi Germany Massacres in France during World War II Nazi war crimes in France War crimes of the Wehrmacht

Couvonges massacre

Aftermath

Memorial

See also

References