11 km northeast of Charny - 16 km north northeast of Verdun.
Ornes was a real town, larger than the other villages destroyed, but in the end, after the Great War, is at the same point they or substantially under their rocks.
During its history, the castle of his lord suffered the same fate, in February 1653, when he was taken and destroyed by the troops of Lorraine Catholics, while he, firmly defended Protestantism as his ancestors since 1563. In 1587 already, a very bloody fight had occurred between his troops and those Catholics of the Duke of Lorraine.
In the mid-19th century, it has 1367 inhabitants, then falls to 750 inhabitants in 1914, mainly due to rural exodus which supplies labor to large industrial centers booming in the late 19th century. Yet this town has an industrial textile processing and well suited to local agricultural production and from the plain of the neighboring Woëvre.
But its location near the border with the Moselle attached and the front stabilized after the Battle of the Marne, do not favor because it would end very quickly on the front line in case of enemy attack.
It is therefore asked people to evacuate the village on 25 August 1914. But all do not go at their own risk, because the shelling and incursions by German patrols in the village are intensifying. In September 1914, two children were killed by shrapnel. In October 1914 some of the villagers on the move are captured and taken prisoner by the Germans ...
In 1915 and until February 1916, French troops held the village where the units are positioned in the second row facing the front, at the outbreak of the great German offensive.
But from February 21 to 24, the German thrust was so strong that the village of Ornes is taken by their infantry February 24, 1916, after violent bombings making down all houses and buildings of the village.
It is taken up by the hairy than August 23, 1917.
Classified as "red zone" at the end of the war, he can never be rebuilt. Its status as a destroyed village, however, authorizes the construction of a memorial in the old cemetery and the chapel Saint-Michel-shelter that was opened August 14, 1932.
Finally, moving the remains of his church, still standing, demonstrate both the existence of a prosperous past life and the bitterness of the battles that took place on this soil devastated ...
