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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

The Ruins of Villers Franqueux


morrisc8

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The photos i made from the original negatives from my collection. Villers-Franqueux suffered extensive distruction during the war. The village is between Reims and Hermonville.

The names of the peoples houses were put on the negatives.

   Here is a link to the photos.

     Keith

 

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An impressive series of images Keith.

They could have been taken yesterday couldn't they? Their quality is first class.

So easy to gloss over, when reading a military account where it will say something like "We shelled enemy positions in the village, and it was destroyed..."

This is what a single destroyed village looks like.

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Keith,

 

That is stunning, both in the photos and the presentation. To have the negatives indexed to that personal level is something else.

Presumably they were taken by a local photographer?

What is the music you used? It is haunting.

 

Phil

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Great set of photos, thank you for posting.  Makes you realise how much it affected the civilian population too.

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Thanks Keith, very emotive. Different war, different circumstances but I am immediately reminded of Oradour sur Glane.

 

Cheers Martin B

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These are very interesting indeed, and of fabulous quality. I know this part of the world a little, having lived and worked not far away in the late 1970s, when there was still a surprising amount of evidence of the Great War if you scratched about a bit. I was tempted onto google street view to look at the buildings now, which is interesting.

 

I note a recurring name as Duval-Leroy (or sometimes Leroy-Duval!). It caught my eye as it is the name of a major Champagne house, reputable in its own right and also a long-time source of some of our better supermarket own-label Champagnes. They are actually located some miles away in Vertus, but I am intrigued and wonder if there is a connection.

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2 hours ago, horrocks said:

These are very interesting indeed, and of fabulous quality. I know this part of the world a little, having lived and worked not far away in the late 1970s, when there was still a surprising amount of evidence of the Great War if you scratched about a bit. I was tempted onto google street view to look at the buildings now, which is interesting.

 

I note a recurring name as Duval-Leroy (or sometimes Leroy-Duval!). It caught my eye as it is the name of a major Champagne house, reputable in its own right and also a long-time source of some of our better supermarket own-label Champagnes. They are actually located some miles away in Vertus, but I am intrigued and wonder if there is a connection.

I was invited to the village by the mayor last year, i printed a few hardback books of the photos and gave them to him for the village.

I did go to the Leroy-Duval Champagne house in Vertus and gave them a free copy of the book, they had a warehouse in Villers-Franqueux and Duval had a house there..

There were only 12 houses left that you could live in, the rest were pulled down after the war and the village was rebuilt from 1923.
We found 5 of the original houses left as some of the others were pulled down, one of them just 5 years ago.
This is a link to a French website that i put some of the photos on, to get some more info

http://pages14-18.mesdiscussions.net/pages1418/photos-14-18/divers/photos-villers-franqueux-sujet_2146_1.htm#t16335

vf air recon ww1.png

nels map ww1 VF france.jpg

book vf ww1.jpg

Edited by morrisc8
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Great selection of slides and video Keith.

 

Andy

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21 hours ago, Phil Evans said:

Keith,

 

That is stunning, both in the photos and the presentation. To have the negatives indexed to that personal level is something else.

Presumably they were taken by a local photographer?

What is the music you used? It is haunting.

 

Phil

From the film The Last Samurai by Hans Zimmer 

   

 

Edited by morrisc8
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  • 3 weeks later...

I have a original German map dated 19 May 1918 of the area around Villers Franqueux, Thil, Courcy, Hermonville, Loivre, Cauroy.
Does anyone know what the legend / symbols on the map are for. h, i, g4, l, f, o2, g2, w3, g, m, k, ect. , you can see some on the air photo, they might be gun batteries?

Here are some of the map symbols. z1, m1, o4, qu2, k1,n1. Ect Ect. The symbol info is not on the map
Keith

vf map close up 4 .jpg

vf map close up 3.jpg

vf map kb.jpg

vf air photo 2.jpg

vf air photo close up 2 .jpg

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  • 5 months later...

Few more. photos  1 and 2 The Mairie after and before ww1.

                   photos  3 and 4 Station house before and now.

                    photos 5 and 6 house then and now.

       Keith.

 

french house 44 neg vf    jpg.jpg

vf  maire.jpg

vf railway.jpg

_152.JPG

_10.JPG

_1521.JPG

Edited by morrisc8
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MorrisC8, I am intrigued that in the 3 - 4th of your then and nows, (the tall house with the ivy growing up it's wall) the evergreen tree appears to have survived the passage of time.

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5 hours ago, horrocks said:

MorrisC8, I am intrigued that in the 3 - 4th of your then and nows, (the tall house with the ivy growing up it's wall) the evergreen tree appears to have survived the passage of time.

To the left of the post card with the stamp on, you can just see the tall house as well.

The card below has some of the houses i found with the XXXXX by them.

 Church before and during the war and how it is now, [new].

 Last photo is of the tall house from the other side.

All original photos  are from my collection.

   Keith.

vf village tall house.jpg

vf house 1.JPG

vf air photo 1950s.jpg

vf church 1.jpg

church vf 1.jpg

french  villers franqueux church ww1.jpg

_1542.JPG

_1561.JPG

_31.JPG

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Here are some more. The shop is now a house, photos of the park, A road in the village that i could not ID and one other photo of the church.

All photos taken by me and postcards from my collection.

  Keith

vf shop.jpg

vf shop 2.JPG

vf shop.JPG

vf  road railway.jpg

vf park.JPG

french Villers Franqueux 1917-18 ww1 street .jpg

Villers Franqueux Church PC.jpg

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  • 5 months later...
  • 6 months later...

more original ww1 photos, from my collection shows the French army HQ in a house in ruins taken in 1917 VILLERS FRANQUEUX.

261651156_ScreenShot2018-06-22at18_44_08.png.977202e5a2e357485cc405c9e4b62980.png

820948305_ScreenShot2018-06-22at18_45_26.png.4684ce150194848f4108d27cbdeb56f9.png

360363456_ScreenShot2018-06-22at18_42_48.png.ef6589405cd7028234c757f4998dc7b9.png

939719172_ScreenShot2018-06-22at18_41_10.png.424986e9a0db8cab680d02e97a9f2e4d.png

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  • 1 year later...

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