8/11/2019 French Ardennes Armistice Day

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French Ardennes remembers last Frenchman to fall in WWI

The French Ardennes will once again be marking one of the FirstWorld War most historic moment this Armistice Day - Tuesday,November 11 th.

Thats the date when Private First Class Augustin Joseph Trbuchonbecame the last French soldier to be killed in action, and who isburied in the cemetery of Vrigne-Meuse, where 18 white crossessurround a memorial in a small, in honour of the men of the 415thInfantry Regiment who died on November 11 th, 1918, while attemptingto cross the River Meuse in The French Ardennes.

Trbuchon - unmarried and childless, and mobilized at the outbreak of

the war, on August 4th

, 1914 - fought on all fronts and was woundedtwice before being killed at 10:45 on November 11 th, just fifteenminutes before his friend and solider-in-arms Delaluque had thehonour of sounding his bugle in The French Ardennes to mark the endof hostilities.

Recorded as being "a good soldier having always achieved his duty,of remarkable calm, setting the best example to his young comrades ,he was a part of the 163rd Infantry Division that was ordered to attackan elite German unit, the Hannetons.

Trbuchon was the last of the 91 French soldiers to die that day. Hefell near the railway line with his message still in his hand, which read"Rassemblement 11h 30 pour le ravitaillement ("Muster at 11.30 forfood).

His death was recorded as being "with a red hole in his right side".Most probably a figure of speech, it was also an amazing twist of fate,given that one of the best known of all French poets, Arthur Rimbaud(who hailed from The French Ardennes himself) had written that linein one of his best known poems Le Dormeur du Val (The Sleeper inthe Valley). The poem describes what the reader first believes is asoldier sleeping peacefully in a small green valley where a slowstream runs but who later turns out to be At peace. In his side thereare two red holes.

The tiny village of Vrigne-Meuse honoured the last French soldier tofall in the First World War on November 11 th, 2008, with theinauguration of Rue Augustin Trbuchon.

A full list of the Battlefields and Memorials of The French Ardennescan now be found at http://gb.ardennes.com/home/discovery-and-heritage/battlefields-and-memorials-major-places.aspx

For further information, visit http://gb.ardennes.com . Ends

For press information, contact:Djamila Daoud T: +33 3 24 56 67 77 E: daoud@ardennes.com

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