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Fernand-Joseph-Edouard Marche, born on 1888, belonged to the 130th Infantry Regiment in the Battle of Verdun, volunteered to carry a despatch message to the colonel, was killed on 1st August 1916 en route, his last thought is dedicated to his mission: they found his body, his arm extended upward and a fist holding the envelope he was carrying so someone could take it onward.
Marche's company was responsible for selecting the links in charge to take orders and phone messages from the quarries of Bras, where the handset (this could not be closer to the line was due to the bombardment that cut line) to the command post, some 1,800 yards away, through a sinister and dangerous terrain.
The track was lined with fallen bodies in fulfilling their missions links.
Any break in one of the craters could mean death or being buried by a shell.
On August 1 ther came a quarries on Bras a important sealed message. A lieutenant in charge of quarries Bras, asked for a volunteer from the available links to go there without stopping or resting at any time.
Without hesitation, Marche volunteer has. But he was traveling and dies on the way.
Later, another soldier will take that message should have brought Marche. It was wrinkled, stained with blood. The soldier told the officer: "Colonel, I found this message on the road. My friend Marche, died on the way, and had it in his arm closed fist in the air".
Monument in his hometown Bully-les-Mines
Marche's company was responsible for selecting the links in charge to take orders and phone messages from the quarries of Bras, where the handset (this could not be closer to the line was due to the bombardment that cut line) to the command post, some 1,800 yards away, through a sinister and dangerous terrain.
The track was lined with fallen bodies in fulfilling their missions links.
Any break in one of the craters could mean death or being buried by a shell.
On August 1 ther came a quarries on Bras a important sealed message. A lieutenant in charge of quarries Bras, asked for a volunteer from the available links to go there without stopping or resting at any time.
Without hesitation, Marche volunteer has. But he was traveling and dies on the way.
Later, another soldier will take that message should have brought Marche. It was wrinkled, stained with blood. The soldier told the officer: "Colonel, I found this message on the road. My friend Marche, died on the way, and had it in his arm closed fist in the air".
Monument in his hometown Bully-les-Mines