THE LAST SITES OF THE MEUSE-ARGONNE OFFENSIVE, THE MOST IMPORTANT BATTLE OF WORLD WAR I

Holiday Inn-Reims

Reims, France

August 22, 2015

This has surely been a serious blog! I appreciate Mike Hanlon of www.worldwar1.com /Valor Tours for his sincere interest in ensuring that we have had a great tour. His detailed knowledge of every site, including the ones we didn't see is phenomenal. Every day we pass a minimum of 15 villages, each with a story to tell. We have been in the Meuse-Argonne Sector the last three days covering mostly 1918 battle sites and stories, but some 1916 stories/sites as well. He is able to juggle all of that seamlessly. The Meuse-Argonne area  is mostly a "Hot Zone" because so many engagements took place there. Mike has also been able to point out some battle sites from the Franco Prussian War, Napoleon's battles, and Attila the Hun sites. France has seen its share of wars.

This morning Mike had breakfast with me to discuss the sites we would be going to today that would be Archie's 90^th Division engagements. He likes to review what the letters say and how he is going to intertwine Archie's letters with the specific area of the 90^th Division. He has done that with Kathy, John, and Larry too. Mike and I also talked about audience for my writing and a possible approach. He mentioned that he has seen many many Great War letters. Fortunately I already knew there were a lot, but every story is important.

We left Verdun at 8 a.m sharp and headed to the U.S. Meuse-Argonne Cemetery where 14,246 soldiers are buried, including 9 Medal of Honor recipients, 486 unknowns, 954 missing in action, and 18 sets of brothers. We met David Bedford, the superintendent of the cemetery, who told us that 26,000 American soldiers were killed in this sector in 6 weeks. He spoke of the history of the cemetery and the layout. The cemetery encompasses 130.5 acres.  This is the largest American World War I cemetery in Europe. The Meuse Argonne Offensive was the largest American battle in Europe and is still the largest conflict in U.S. history. 

David told us that 40% of Americans who died in this war were buried in Europe, 60% of Americans who died were repatriated to the U.S.  Six thousand Gold Star mothers visited the European cemeteries in the middle of the Depression. It was only right that mothers see where their beloved sons were buried.

(Note: the offensive took place between the Meuse River and the Argonne Forest. I need to add a disclaimer on every page of this blog.  I was taking notes while Mike was talking, plus I did a lot of reading in the past several years, but I am not a historian and some information may not be totally accurate. I will strive to correct discrepancies)

We laid the beautiful red, white, and blue floral spray that we ordered in Verdun at the gravestone of Harvey Tatum, 29^th Division, 116^th Infantry Regiment, Virginia. That was John's father's regiment and he was from Virginia. Our words, written on the spray's ribbon, were, “Remembrance from your Countrymen, 22 August 2015.” Susan, John's dear wife, beautifully read a poem by Siegfried Sassoon, “Aftermath.”

Maureen and Mary Jane with the floral spray for placement 

at the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery

We went on to the chapel and saw a few more graves. I noted that there were at least 4 men listed on the Missing in Action wall who were in Archie's Company K, 357^th Regiment, 90^th Division.

While we were near the jump-off site of Archie's  90th Division, I read two letters he wrote just after November 11.  He wrote on November 16, 1918, "The firing has stopped and it is indeed a great relief to all and I do hope it continues quiet."

In another letter, dated December 26, 1918, Archie wrote that he did not send a Christmas package coupon home so that the family could send him a package for Christmas, "as I expected to be pushing up daisies long ago."

After seeing so many cemeteries and memorials, the battle sites, the terrain, I can see why Archie felt this way. It is difficult to think about how much peril Archie and all the men were in, death surrounding them. 

This map, engraved into the marble at the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery, 

shows the sector that the 90th Division was in.

In the past, when I would read the names of the villages in France that Archie was in (like Stenay, Baalon, Montmedy) and saw action, I never imagined that I would actually be in those villages. Today when I read the letter sent to Archie by an officer describing the action near Baalon, we were actually looking at the ridge the officer was talking about. My fellow tour friends truly appreciate the connection we each have to this area.

Today we also visited the crash site of "Balloon Buster," Frank Luke, America's second highest scoring air ace during World War I.  Another site we saw was the burial site of Roland Garros, a French pilot killed in action in the Champagne. The French National Tennis Center is named for Garros, an amateur tennis champion. [information taken from material that Mike Hanlon provided]

We ended up in Reims for the night. Tim and I took a walk on the "boulevard" before dinner. We were so thirsty we had two large sodas at Burger King. After drinking those, we went back inside and ordered "la meme chose," the same thing all over again!

MJ on the boulevard near the Holiday Inn

We had an excellent dinner outdoors with our tour friends at Le Cafe de Reims.

Our Holiday Inn in Reims, France

TK's Takes: Tim has remarked about the vast farms we are seeing--huge farm equipment, fields of corn, bales of hay and straw already, other crops, seemingly endless in the battle fertile areas of France that we have covered.

Farmland in the Meuse-Argonne area

p.s. Thank you Writer Friend V, et al!