After the Battle of the Marne and on 13 September 1914, the 5th German Army went into retreat and retrenched east of Verdun on the Woëvre plain and at the foot of the "Heights of the Meuse" (the Hauts de Meuse).
In the 1914-1918 war, the ridge at Les Éparges at 346 meters high was to serve as a counterpoint to the Butte de Vauquois.