Bettignies

Gognies-Chaussée (French pronunciation: [ɡɔɲi ʃose]) is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. It lies on the border with Belgium, adjacent to the Belgian village Gœgnies-Chaussée.

Mairieux (French pronunciation: [mɛʁjø]) is a commune in the Nord department in northern France.

Bersillies is a commune in the Nord department in northern France.

Gœgnies-Chaussée (also spelled Goegnies-Chaussée) is a village of Wallonia and a district of the municipality of Quévy, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. The border between Belgium and France runs right through the village, separating the Belgian Gœgnies-Chaussée from the French Gognies-Chaussée.

Aulnois (Walloon: Ônwa) is a village of Wallonia and a district of the municipality of Quévy, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium.Aulnois was an independent municipality until the municipal reorganisation of 1977. The village is on the border with France and on a 96 km long railway line, with a railway station that used to serve as a border station.

Quévy (French pronunciation: [kevi]; Picard: Kévi) is a municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. On 1 January 2006, Quévy had a total population of 7,734. The total area is 65.16 km2 which gives a population density of 119 inhabitants per km2. The municipality consists of the following districts: Asquillies, Aulnois, Blaregnies, Bougnies, Genly, Givry, Gœgnies-Chaussée, Havay, Quévy-le-Grand, and Quévy-le-Petit. It is on the former main rail route between Brussels and Paris, and it was the virtual tariff border between the French SNCF and Belgian Railways SNCB.

Villers-Sire-Nicole is a commune in the Nord department in northern France.

Élesmes is a commune in the Nord department in northern France.

The canton of Maubeuge is an administrative division of the Nord department, northern France. It was created at the French canton reorganisation which came into effect in March 2015. Its seat is in Maubeuge. It consists of the following communes:

The Hôtel de Ville (French pronunciation: [otɛl də vil], City Hall) is a municipal building in Maubeuge, Nord, northern France, standing on Place de l'Hôtel de Ville.

The siege of Maubeuge took place from 24 August – 7 September 1914, at the Entrenched Camp of Maubeuge (le camp retranché de Maubeuge) the start of the First World War on the Western Front. The railway from Thionville (Diedenhofen, 1871–1919) to Luxembourg City, Arlon and Namur into Belgium had been cut by the demolition of the rail bridge over the Meuse at Namur in Belgium. During the siege, the German armies in the north could use only the single-track line from Trier to Liège, Brussels, Valenciennes and Cambrai, which could accommodate a maximum of forty trains a day. At the end of August the garrison made several sorties but the third was a costly failure, after which the French prepared to receive the German attack. The German bombardment began at 1:00 p.m. on 29 August, assisted by agents in the Entrenched Position who passed reports on the fall of shot, greatly increasing the accuracy of the German guns. The forts and infantry shelters (ouvrages) were wrecked by the German and Austrian super-heavy howitzers; German medium artillery proved unexpectedly effective. Parts of Maubeuge were set on fire, causing an exodus of civilians and deserters to the village of Hautmont to the south-west. From 1 to 7 September, the French were forced out into the open and infantry attacks from the east gradually overran the French defences on both sides of the Sambre, forcing the survivors back level with Maubeuge. Brigadier-General Joseph Fournier, the governor of Maubeuge, surrendered to General Hans von Zwehl on 7 September, effective at noon the next day. The French suffered 5,000 casualties and up to 49,000 troops went into captivity, along with several hundred guns and machine-guns; German casualties were 1,100–5,000 men. The garrison had withstood bombardment by heavy and super-heavy artillery, air raids and infantry attacks for fifteen days, longer than any other besieged fortress in Belgium or France, leaving the German 2nd Army short of troops as it pursued the Franco-British Armies southwards towards the Marne.

The siege of Maubeuge (30 September – 16 October 1793) was a siege of the city of Maubeuge by an Austro-Dutch force of 60,000 men: 58  under Prince Josias of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld during the War of the First Coalition. Maubeuge was defended by a 24,000-strong garrison under the French Republican generals Desjardin and Mayer.: 66  The Prince was aiming to clear his march on Paris, but he had to raise the siege after the Republican victory at the battle of Wattignies and the prospect of the armée de la Moselle coming to raise the siege. The French representative on mission, Jean-Baptiste Drouet, was captured by the Austrians during the siege, and only returned to France in December 1795 through a prisoner exchange.