[3] The French Army, embarrassed to have sent men into battle after the armistice with the Germans had been signed, recorded the date of his death as earlier by one day.

[4][5][6] Augustin Trébuchon was born at Montchabrier (near Le Malzieu-Ville in the Lozère) on 30 May 1878, with four younger brothers and sisters.

[7] General Henri Gouraud told his men to cross the Meuse and to attack "as fast as possible, by whatever means and regardless of cost".

Warfare had destroyed bridges across the river and sappers worked by night and in fog to build a plank footbridge across a lock.

The French sent up a spotter plane now that the fog had lifted and the artillery on the other bank could open fire without fear of killing their own side.

[5] The last of the 91 French soldiers to die was Trébuchon, "with a red hole in his right side",[7] probably a figure of speech as this expression comes from Arthur Rimbaud's very famous poem "Le Dormeur du Val" (The Sleeper in the Valley).

[8] Trébuchon remained unrecognised until a retired breeder, René Fuselier, began inquiring in 1998 into the identity of the last poilu to die.

[2] Speculation that the army was ashamed of sending men into battle knowing the armistice had already been agreed grew when the 415th Infantry Regiment was not invited to the victory parade through Paris on 14 July 1919.