Ornes was a real city, larger than the other villages destroyed, but eventually, after the Great War, is at the same point that they or essentially disappeared under the rocks.
In the middle of the 19th century it has 1367 inhabitants. This number drops to 750 inhabitants in 1914, mainly due to depopulation of the countryside, which provides labor to large industrial centers booming in the late 19th century. Nevertheless, this city has an industrial textile processing and very suitable for local agricultural production and of the plain of the neighboring Woëvre.
But at the outbreak of the Great War August 1914, the location of the village is in the danger zone. It is quite quickly in the middle of the front line.
Residents were evacuated on August 25, 1914. This was not without risk under the continuous bombardments and raids by German patrols.
In September 1914, two children were killed by shrapnel. In October 1914 a number of villagers were captured by the Germans and murdered.
In 1915 and until February 1916 French troops held the village.
But from 21 to 24 February 1916 the German superiority was so strong that the village of Ornes was taken by the German infantry after heavy bombardments.
The village of Ornes was recaptured on 23 August 1917.
This memorial reminds passers-by of the tragedy of Ornes.
Translated by Google •
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