This text was translated automatically from French.

Great War / memory today1784 (register) — 2004 (returned)Verified

Did you know? The parish register saved from the ruins

An 18th-century document, the destruction of 1916 and the safeguarding of memory today

A story preserved by the Somme departmental archives gives a vivid picture of the village’s destruction. A Combles parish register dating from 1784 is said to have been recovered from the ruins of the town hall during the war by a lieutenant of the 110th Infantry Regiment. The document later turned up in Belgium before being returned to the Somme archives in 2004. This story links an 18th-century archive document, the destruction of 1916 and the safeguarding of memory today.

Sources

Archives départementales de la Somme.

https://archives.somme.fr/document/combles

Further reading

Today

Combles today

The population of Combles never returned to its 19th-century level. Today the commune has around 750 inhabitants.

Second World War

Combles in the Second World War

The history of Combles does not end with the reconstruction: the village was once again under German occupation from 1940 to 1945.

Reconstruction

Reconstruction and remembrance

After the Armistice, Combles was among the hardest-hit villages of the Upper Somme. The reconstruction of the 1920s reshaped the village, including Saint-Vaast Church and the war memorial.

Great War

Combles 1914–1918

In 1916, Combles was part of a major German defensive system before falling to the Allies on 26 September 1916, almost entirely destroyed.

First World War remembrance sites around Combles

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