Iron memorial fund

in honour of those that gave their lives

Iron, then and now

 

Iron is a village in the department of Aisne, France.  It lies about three miles to the south of Etreux and one mile to the east of the main road linking Landrecies with Guise.  This was a major artery for the British Army during the retreat from Mons to the Marne.  Below is an extract from a 1917 German Army map which shows its location.

 

 

Iron is near the great woods and forests of Nouvion and Andigny.  Both of these forests provided shelter for Allied soldiers behind the lines.  On August 27 1914 the Munsters held the line on the road from Bergues north to Chapeau Rouge, just off the map, and fell back to Etreux.  Le Grand Fayt, the scene of the Connaught’s disastrous encounter with the Germans the previous day, lies just to the north of the map; Guise just to the south.

 

Iron in 1914

 

Iron stands on the banks of the river of the same name, in a gentle fold in the valley.  Iron was home to about 500 people who worked the land, or in the silk-weaving factory.  Iron had been settled by the Huguenots and it was probably they who introduced silk to the village.  In late August 1914 it was in the front line of the fighting.  Many of its people left, but returned when the armies moved on.  A photograph of Iron in April 2009 is shown below.

 

 

Sites Associated with the Iron Twelve

 

Many of the minor sites are now lost, passed out of living memory.  We do not know where Vincent Chalandre met the nine soldiers on that fateful day in October 1914; the site of the hut in the fields where the soldiers were first sheltered is not known.  Le Pont des Veaux, Léonie Logez collection point for food and clothes for the soldiers, cannot be found on any existing map.  M. Maton’s brasserie, Bachelet lodged and where Clovis went to throw stones at his window cannot be found.  We are not sure if the brasserie was a bar-restaurant or a small brewery.

 

But we do know the location of the major sites.  These are shown on the map below.  The map was made by the British army in 1917.  The layout of the village is unchanged today.

 

Iron in 1917

 

 

 

The Logez’ Mill

 

This lay to the north of the village on the road to Etreux, beside the river Iron.  The mill was burned to the ground by the Germans as part of the reprisals against the Logez family.  It was rebuilt in the 1930s.  The mill building still stands, but it is disused.  It now forms part of an agricultural supplies depot.  A polite word with the depot manager is enough to ensure a visit.  In the photo below the new mill can be seen.  The river Iron lies just beyond it.  On the far bank is the copse in which the eleven were forced to hide following the German raid on December 15 1914.  There are plans to demolish the mill and redevelop the site as a retirement home.

 

 

 

On December 15 it was here, or hereabouts that the eleven forded the river to escape the Germans searching the mill for food supplies.  Reports of them wading waist-deep may have been exaggerated, but fleeing for one’s life through the water on a cold December day, and then hiding all day in the copse on the other side, wet and cold, cannot have been pleasant experience

 

 

Chalandre’s House

 

Chalandre’s house stood a little back from the road.  It was here that the soldiers were captured by Waechter on February 22 1915.  The house was burned down the same afternoon.  The house was never rebuilt.  Modern building developments have made the site inaccessible, but it can be seen  It lies under some cypress and other ornamental trees planted to the rear of some houses on the west side of the road as the village is entered from the Logez mill.

 

 

The Silk Weaving Factory

 

Not shown on map.  It is on the opposite side of the road to Chalandre’s house.  This was the economic mainstay of the village until its closure in the 1960s.  It was here that Vincent Chalandre worked.

 

 

The Church

 

The church cemetery is the last resting place of the four principal ladies associated with this tragedy: Léonie Logez, her daughter Jeanne, Madame Chalandre and her daughter, Germaine.  All four received prison sentences for helping eleven and, of course, Madame Chalandre and Germaine lost a husband and a father.  Their burial places are on the right hand side of the short path leading from the gate to the church.  Below is the Logez grave.  Jeanne’s name is engraved.  Her mother, Léonie, is buried in the same grave, but her name is not marked.  To the right hand of this tomb is the Delcher family grave.  Both Madame Chalandre and her daughter Germaine are buried here, but their names are not shown.