The fighting of May 1940 in SAINT - MICHEL EN THIERACHE (France - Aisne), for 3 days, from the 16th to the 18th, in the heart of Thiérache, around their staff commanded by General Béziers-Lafosse, these few hundred soldiers from our western provinces, Brittany, Vendée, Toulousain, but also from Algeria, Martinique will resist, knowing they are surrounded, they will try to delay the enemy by a hopeless fight and 24 of them will die there.

The monument :

Motorists travelling from Hirson (Aisne) to Belgium via the D1050 (Charlemagne road) will now be surprised by the presence, at the crossroads of the Star, of a very beautiful blue stone monument of Thiérache in the form of an "open book," on a "rocked France," to which a French soldier, in 1940 uniform, clings desperately. If they take the time to stop a few minutes, they can read the names of 24 soldiers "Dead for France" during the fighting, on 16.17 and 18 May 1940, on the commune of Saint - Michel en Thiérache (Aisne).

Indeed, the forest of Saint-Michel contains forty blockhouses, unfinished by force of things, and which, instead of arresting the Panzer, were the tragic scene in which German mountain troops clashed, well equipped, shaded by the ongoing victorious offensive and a few hundred French soldiers, survivors of 2 infantry divisions, the 18th and 22nd D.I., demoralized by an exhausting retreat from the Meuse.

These two divisions between Rumigny and Rethel (Ardennes), had since the German attack of May 10, moved towards the Belgian Meuse, on foot, according to the Dyle plan.

But as soon as they arrived, they had suffered the assault of the Wehrmacht and the Luftwaffe and had retreated in disorder.

Six days later, only these few hundred soldiers from our western provinces, Brittany, Vendée, Toulousain, but also Algeria and Martinique remained organized. They will resist for 3 days, from 16 to 18, in the heart of the Thiérache, around their staff commanded by General BÉZIERS-LAFOSSE.

Knowing they are surrounded, they will try to delay the enemy by a hopeless fight and 24 of them will leave their lives behind. *

* It is to bring their sacrifice out of oblivion that this monument will give them the Honour due to them.