Charles Lecuve

Charles Lecuve (1857 - 1914), mayor of Allarmont (the Vosges), taken as hostage and shot by the German army at the beginning of the First World War.

Mayor of Allarmont

Born on August 20th 1857 with Vexaincourt (the Vosges) Charles Louis Lecuve is the son of Pierre Lecuve (1830 - 1869), teacher with Vexaincourt and of Marie Bart, originating in Bionville. Become operating forester and carpenter, Pierre Lecuve settles in Allarmont, of which he will become mayor.

Charles Lecuve and his Paul brother will continue and develop the activity of the family company, in particular creating a first sawmill with Neuveville, close to Raon-l' Étape (the Vosges) in 1888.

It takes part in the creation of the Company of the Railroad of the Valley of Those, which builds then exploits between 1907 and 1935 the Ligne of the valley of Those, to metric gauge track and a 24 km length railroad, which serves the valley of the Plain, between Raon-l' Stage and Raon-on-Plain; the line, exploited then by the Railroad company Secondary (CFS), firm in 1950.

Charles Lecuve is the brother of Alphonse Lecuve, rear-admiral.

Combat of August 1914

From the August 10th 1914, following the declaration of war of the Germany, the troops of the 13th division of infantry of the French Army occupy the collars of the Vosges. From August 14th to 19th, the French soldiers launch an offensive movement in direction of the plain of Alsace then occupied. They occupy Schirmeck (the Low-Rhine) on August 17th.

But, starting from August 19th, the army must be folded up. August 21st, it gives up the villages of the high valley of the Plaine, being withdrawn by the Donon and the valley of the Plain on the Meurthe, towards Raon-l' Étape. On August 23rd and 24th, of the engagements have place to Those and Badonviller. August 25th, the engagements are held towards Raon-l' Étape.

Part of the inhabitants leave the valley of the Plain (the Vosges and Meurthe-et-Moselle).

Hostages of 1914

With Luvigny, the abbot Pierre Buecher and the city council man Pierre Bolle are stopped on August 23rd and are shot in Raon on Plaine. With Vexaincourt, the Sayer mayor and Charles Batelot are shot in reprisals of discovered of a rifle in a barn; the village is set fire to and 63 houses out of 105 are burned.

In Allarmont, the mayor Charles Lecuve and the priest the abbot Alphonse Mathieu are stopped on August 24th under the pretext of shots drawn by the population; they are shot with That-on-Plain with the crossroads of Soye.

In other communes of Lorraine, the shot civil ones are also listed: 70 died with Nomény close to Nancy on August 20th, 11 died in Badonviller, 51 executions with Fresnois-the-Mountain on August 23rd, 24 with Longuyon. In the the Ardennes, one counts 12 shot with Maubert-Fountain, 10 with Thin-le-Moutier, 42 with Margny. In the Oise, the mayor of Senlis and 6 inhabitants are shot on September 2nd…

According to the Irish historians John Horne and Alan Kramer there would have been approximately 500 civilian victims in France.

Charles Lecuve was decorated, on a purely posthumous basis, about the Légion of honor. A street of Allarmont bears the name of Charles Lecuve.

Sources

Horne (J.) and Kramer (A.), German atrocities, 1914, has history off denial , Yale University Close (New Haven and London), 608 p., 2000.
Sadoul (Louis), the Dramas of the Valley of Those (August and September 1914) , the Lorraine Country, Nancy, 14 pages, 1928

See too

the Hostages , film of Raymond Bernard (1939), with Saturnin Fabre, Charpin, Dorville, Pierre Larquey.
Town hall of Allarmont (the Vosges)

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