In the years 1920-1922, on the territory of Upper Silesia, which was then disputed between the Weimar Republic and Poland, German "irregulars" and Polish "volunteers" clashed. French soldiers and officers of the 27th Light Infantry Battalion and of the 46th Alpine Light Infantry Division were carrying out a peacekeeping and preventive mission there. They were killed in various circumstances. The best known of them was Commander Joseph Bernard Montalègre, at the head of the 27th Battalion; he was assassinated in front of the Beuthen casino in 1921, during a gathering of German demonstrators hostile to the Poles and consequently to the French troops that supported them. About thirty perished during the last days of the mission, in September 1922, in an explosion that occurred while they were moving to their vehicles explosive material hidden by the Germans in a cemetery. The soldiers' remains were exhumed and then moved to France.
The memorial of Gliwice, destroyed by the Nazis during the Second World War and then renovated in the 1960s, is dedicated to these soldiers. Its upkeep is still taken care of by the municipality.
The grey granite tomb, raised on three steps and covered with a sloping slab on which a cross is carved, is located in the present-day Starokozielski Park, dedicated to Franco-Polish friendship. On the front face of the tomb, one can read on a plaque the following inscription in gold letters: "To the soldiers who died for France. The 46th Alpine Light Infantry Division. 1920". On each side of the tomb is affixed a plaque with the names, ranks and dates of death of the soldiers; the plaque on the left side bears those of the 27th Light Infantry Battalion, headed by the name of its commander, "Montalègre Bernard, battalion commander, 4 July 1921". Finally, on a slab set into the steps, in front of the tomb, a plaque bears the following inscription, in French and then in Polish: "To the French soldiers, sons of a friendly people, who died for France, Poland and human dignity, the grateful Poles".