Un Lorrain au cœur des deux guerres is the autobiographical account of Colonel Adrien Henry (1888–1963), written in his own hand after the Liberation. Born in Lacroix-sur-Meuse, a peasant who became a colonel of the gendarmerie, he tells the story of the war as he lived it — without self-indulgence or false modesty.
Mobilised as a sergeant with the 161e RI at Saint-Mihiel from July 1914, Adrien Henry fought through the great battles of the war: the frontier battles at Xivry-Circourt, the Saint-Mihiel salient on his own native soil, the attack in Champagne on 25 September 1915 where 35 of his 38 men were killed, the Argonne, Verdun, the Chemin des Dames. Wounded on multiple occasions, he refused each time to abandon his men and returned to the front as soon as possible.
Having become an adviser to the prefect of the Indre department at Châteauroux, Adrien Henry led a double life under the Occupation: civil servant in appearance, resistance fighter in reality. Forging false papers, intercepting correspondence, sabotaging German requisitions. Hunted by the militia and the Gestapo, he was forced to flee just in time on 30 May 1944, after burning all compromising documents.
Adrien Henry writes as he speaks: with frankness, sometimes with humour, often with indignation. He spares neither cowards nor profiteers and pays tribute to the brave. His testimony is also a valuable historical document, of such accuracy that the locations described can still be found on the ground today.
The current edition, published in 2017 by Éditions YSEC, is enriched with notes, illustrations and maps.
I am currently reading Colonel Adrien Henry's memoirs. Fascinating and full of humanity — more than the testimony of a courageous and virtuous hero, it is a precise, technical, intelligent and uncompromising account of the harsh reality of men, and a message of hope!
(Bruno C)