Main de Massiges, War memorial in Massiges, France

Main de Massiges is a First World War memorial on a hill above the Aisne valley whose contour lines form a left hand, with deep ravines separating the fingers. Visitors walk through re-dug trenches with firing steps, shelters, hurdles and barbed wire, and see mine craters and a permanently flying flag.

German troops entrenched on this natural hill from their retreat in early September 1914, each finger forming a bastion. On 13 September 1914 the colonial army corps of the French 4th Army was stopped here during the counter-offensive after the First Battle of the Marne. On 25 September 1915 the 2nd and 3rd Colonial Infantry Divisions attacked the Index, Middle and Ring fingers after a three-day artillery preparation. The Germans were not dislodged until 1918.

Local volunteers maintain and restore the trenches, uncovering artifacts such as wine bottles, military equipment, and personal belongings that belonged to the soldiers.

Access is via the D.566, then a dirt track climbing to the plateau on the right. The site is marked by a flag flown permanently from a mast and has an orientation table. The re-dug trenches, shelters and barbed-wire networks follow uneven ground, so wear sturdy shoes.

The site had fallen into oblivion under brush before the Association de la Main de Massiges was created in 2008 to safeguard it. Volunteers found the bones of German and French soldiers, soldiers' everyday objects such as bottles and cartridges, shell fragments and rifles, and now work to consolidate the soil and walls of the goulet and the shelters along the route.