Belgian War Graves Chassepierre

Rue Derrière la Tour, 6824 Chassepierre (Florenville)

Belgium Luxembourg Chassepierre (Florenville)

The cemetery in Chassepierre contains the graves of military victims of the First and Second World War.

THEODORE Désiré: died for the fatherland in Oud-Stuyvekenskerke (Houthulst) on
April 6, 1918, he was 21 years old.
He was a Private 2nd Class, Engineer, P.P.C. with the "Special Contingent 1916".
In 1916, the need for additional manpower in the Belgian army became acute. All 18 to 40 year old Belgians outside occupied Belgium were called up in the "special contingent 1916".

HEBRANT Raoul Hervé Joseph: died for his country in Houthulst on September 28, 1918, when he was 23 years old.
He was lieutenant 23rd Line 2nd Company. After doing his duty brilliantly throughout the campaign, he was hit in the heart by a machine gun bullet during the battle in the Houthuls Forest in September 1918. Received several decorations.

ALEXANDRE Vital, hero and martyr of Chassepierre.
After his priestly studies at the Major Seminary in Namur, he became a supervisor at the Collège Saint-Joseph in Virton. In 1902 he became parish priest in Robelmont, later on March 19, 1909 in Mussy-la-Ville.
In August 1914, Belgium was invaded by the Germans.
On August 21, they were present throughout the region and the French army also advanced in that area, fighting broke out and many people were injured.
Vital Alexandre organized a branch of the Red Cross in his parish to help the wounded. He took part in the collection and care of the wounded.
After the first fighting on August 21, twelve wounded Frenchmen and one Uhlan were rescued and transferred to the Mussy nun school, which had been converted into a field hospital. At dawn three men died, including the Uhlan.
On August 22, Father Alexandre celebrated morning mass. The fighting continued fiercely, the Germans accused the villagers of using their weapons and took the mayor as a hostage. The priest intervened to offer his person.
Ultimately, he, along with the mayor, a teacher and some residents of the village were taken as hostages on the way to Signeulx.
The situation of so-called "snipers" attacking the Germans was repeated a second time and again the hostages were mistreated.
Priest Alexandre was locked up in the German camp for the night and very early on he was forced to follow a convoy crossing the French border at Ville-Houdlémont.
The journey was long, he was abused, exhausted and given no food or drink.
During the night of August 23 to 24, the convoy bivouacked in the forest beyond Saint-Pancré and arrived at Tellancourt on Monday morning.
It was in this village that the priest Alexandre was tied to a tree behind a small chapel dedicated to Notre-Dame de Walcourt, without food.
Finally the soldiers locked him in the chapel for the night and after a night of agony the priest was shot at dawn in front of this small chapel.
Vital Alexandre's remains were thrown into a nearby well. In mid-September 1914, two parishioners of Mussy went looking for their missing pastor.
In Tellancourt they heard that a priest whose identity was unknown had been buried there. After their preliminary exhumation, they were able to identify the body from some personal belongings. The body showed two gunshot wounds, one under the right eye, the other in the heart. He was placed in a coffin and buried there temporarily.
After the war, on May 7, 1919, his remains were transferred to Mussy-la-Ville for an official funeral. The next day he was buried in Chassepierre, his native village, after a mass and an address by the dean of Florenville.

HUSSON Jules: resistance member, shot by the Germans in Banel on the day of the maquis attack on June 18, 1944. He was 19 years old at the time.
Banel was located on the French-Belgian border, on the road from Florenville to Carignan.
In the same grave lies his mother SERVAIS Régina, political prisoner who spent 37 months in the Ravensbrück camp.

LEJEUNE André : worked as a clerk at the Municipality of Chassepierre
Maquisard at the Banel group (French-Belgian border). Shot by the Germans in Banel on the day of the maquis attack on June 18, 1944, he was 20 years old.