Le Monument aux Morts

Le Monument aux Morts. Edmond de Laheudrie (1861-1946), Sculptor. Edmond de Laheudrie was born in Trévières, France, where he served as mayor from 1896 through 1900. Classically trained as a sculptor, he studied at Paris under Pierre Jules Cavelier (1814-1896), Louis Ernest Barrais (1841-1905), and Marius Jean Antonin Mercié before exhibiting at Le Salon des Artistes Français and taking a second-class medal in 1901. A specialist in figures, bas-reliefs, and religious groups such as his Christ Entombed at Rouen, Laheudrie, a writer with medievalist leanings, also published several books on the history of Normandy., Installed upon a low pedestal outside the Church of St. Aignan, Le Monument aux Morts was dedicated on 16 May 1921 in memory of the forty-four men of Trévières who died in World War I. The sculpture, a conventionally draped Nike (or Victory), also wears the utility belt and helmet of a Poilu, the French counterpart of the American Doughboy of the First World War. Thematically linked to the Romanesque church's celebratory tympanum sculpture, which portrays St. Aignan (a.k.a. St. Anianus), the bishop who in 451 defended Orleans against Attila the Hun, and St. Exupère (a.k.a St. Exuperius), a fourth-century Bishop of nearby Bayeux in an attitude of thanksgiving before Christ, Laheudrie's Nike celebrates another successful defense of French soil against "the Hun.", A bittersweet reminder of both France's victory in the Great War and the blood spilt to secure it, Le Monument aux Morts stood for scarcely two decades before finding itself surrounded by a new generation of invaders. Shortly after the Allies came ashore on D-Day, Germany's 915th and 916th Infantry Regiments, 517th Mobile Battalion, and the Reconnaissance Battalion of the 352nd Division established heavily fortified positions in and around Trévières. On 9 June, the 9th and 38th Infantry Regiments and the 38th Artillery Battalion of the US 2nd Infantry Division assaulted the village, which for the two preceding days had been under fire from the 14-inch guns of the USS Texas., The bell tower of St. Aignan sustained major damage on 8 June, probably a result of the naval gunfire. Perhaps Laheudrie's sculpture took damage at the same time, or it may well have been damaged during the ground attack on Trévières, during which, for example, the 38th Artillery Battalion expended more than 3,600 rounds. German counter fire also may have been a factor. Whatever its source, shrapnel or a round struck the head of the figure and removed its face below the upper lip and most of its throat., Both in situ at Trévières and in this recasting undertaken with the support and cooperation of the Wildenstein Family, La Mairie de Trévières, and Le Conseil Général du Calvados, Le Monument aux Morts, preserved as transformed in battle, is a spectral testament to the destructiveness of war, evanescence of victory, and fragility of peace. Its presence at the National D-Day Memorial mutely and eloquently argues that peace is a consequence of vigilance and justice , not an accident of complacency or indifference. In bearing witness to that Laheudrie's ruined Nike is the Memorial's most powerful tribute to the valor, fidelity, and sacrifice of the Allied Forces whose rich legacy is our freedom.