Labry – War Cemetery and Military Hospital

In the northwest of the town is the site of the former Caserne Geslin, which housed the French 16th Chasseur Battalion (16e Bataillon de chasseurs à pied) from 1913 onward. The unit marched into battle immediately after the outbreak of war and did not return to Labry. The Germans gave the French Chasseur units the name “Black Devils,” while among the French they were called “Blue Devils,” both alluding to their deep blue uniforms.

In the Greslin barracks, German troops established a large military hospital in early 1915 after the area had been captured by units of the V. Armeekorps (V Corps). The hospital operated until the end of the fighting in November 1918.

In Labry, a German war cemetery was already established in 1915 by the units stationed there. Initially, deceased persons from the large military hospitals in Labry and Jarny as well as from the surrounding rear areas were buried in this cemetery. In addition, forced laborers who died in accidents or otherwise found their final resting place there, among them French, Russians, Romanians, and Italians. They were reburied in French military cemeteries in 1972. In 1918, several members of the Austro-Hungarian troops (35th ID) who had fallen in the retreat fighting near Verdun and in the St. Mihiel salient were buried there.

After the war, the military cemetery in Labry took in many fallen soldiers from the fighting in the greater St. Mihiel and Verdun areas whose remains were found during cleanup operations or during forest and field work on the former battlefields. Later, fallen soldiers from all over France were added. Unteroffizier (NCO) Paul Riedel also found a gravestone in the cemetery under the number 2/496. As a member of the 9th Company of the Brandenburgisches Infanterie-Regiment 64 (64th Brandenburg Infantry Regiment), he had fallen on February 22, 1916, in the Herbebois before Verdun in one of the first waves of attack. He was initially buried in a grave in the Herbebois. The original gravestone can still be found today in the Herbebois. The grave was opened in 1999 under the direction of the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e. V. and under very questionable conditions. It turned out that several soldiers had been buried at this location. The bones that were presented as the remains of Unteroffizier Paul Riedel were later transferred to Labry. The correct assignment, the identity of the remaining fallen soldiers, as well as the whereabouts of the remaining bones and various personal items from the burial site remain unclear to this day.