At the front end of a trip to speak at a conference at Nantes University (a talk titled “PLUS ÇA CHANGE, PLUS C’EST LA MÊME CHOSE–Manipulation Through the Ages”) I did a day trip to see American World War I battle sites along the Marne and in the Argonne.

With the exception of Belleau Wood, where German positions are still visible, for the most part there’s little physical evidence of the titanic battles. However, in the aftermath of the war the United States (and several individual states) created truly stunning, massive monuments, and the US established beautiful and haunting cemeteries.

Here are some photographs of them from my trip.

Chateau-Thierry is the biggest:

Chateau-Thierry was the site where the US Third Infantry Division (“The Rock of the Marne”) helped stop a German offensive in the Second Battle of the Marne.

Montfaucon:

Montfaucon was a dominating German position that was the objective for the American attack on the first day of the Meuse-Argonne offensive. It was taken, but at heavy cost.

Belleau Wood–a small memorial, but evocative.

This is where the Marines won eternal fame, and earned from the Germans the epithet “Devil Dogs.” In the background you can see captured German field pieces, displayed like trophies.

As for the cemeteries, here’s the chapel at Aisne-Marne. (All of the American cemeteries have elaborate chapels).

The chapel at the biggest cemetery (bigger than Normandy, in fact), the Meuse-Argonne Cemetery in Romagne.

It’s a challenge to photograph these edifices because they are all so damn large.

Chateau-Thierry and Meuse-Argonne have very tasteful and informative museums. Chateau-Thierry’s tells the story of the entire war, with a focus on the US involvement. Meuse-Argonne is more focused on the offensive bearing that name. Both are definitely worth spending a good amount of time at.

All of the monuments and cemeteries are in immaculate condition. The stone looks like it was quarried and finished last week. No graffiti or other defacements. They are very fitting memorials to those who fought. The American Battlefield Monuments Commission, established in the 1920s and responsible for stewardship of the sites to this very day, has done and continues to do a remarkable job to preserve and manage these edifices.

The US was heavily engaged in WWI for a matter of mere months. Virtually all US casualties were incurred between late-May and 11 November, 1918, a period of less than six months. This is quite remarkable when you consider the US total deaths in WWI were about 1/4th of those sustained in WWII, despite the facts that the latter war lasted over 7 times as long; US population was significantly smaller in 1918 than 1941-5; and that WWII casualties occurred across the globe, whereas those in WWI were concentrated in an area that I traversed by car in a couple of hours.

The casualty rates were sobering. The Chateau-Thierry memorial states that the US casualty rate in the Second Battle of the Marne was 33 percent. That is high for an individual regiment or division. It is extremely high for an entire army.

America was–for a time–proud of its contribution and its accomplishments, and deeply mourned its dead, and therefore found it fitting an necessary to honor its soldiers in stone. Hence these incredibly moving and imposing monuments and cemeteries. They dwarf anything the US did after WWII.

Thus, the monuments are as interesting as sociological and historical statements as they are as records of deeds that are, alas, largely long forgotten. They are a testament to American attitudes and beliefs in the era when the nation truly emerged on the world stage. The 1920s were an era of unbounded optimism and national pride, and 100 years later these monuments testify to that fact.

I also visited the area where one of my heroes, Alvin York, performed his incredible deeds during the Meuse-Argonne offensive in October, 1918. I took the “Alvin York Trail” leading from Chatel-Chéhéry. This trail purports to follow York’s route when he killed 28 Germans and captured 132 more.

I say “purports” because there is a bitter dispute over where he actually fought. Two teams have excavated the hills near Chatel-Chéhéry, and claim to have found evidence (e.g., cartridge cases, US unit badges, German unit badges) showing that THIS was where York was–but the sites are some distance apart.

Overall, I think that the claim of the Tennessee team, described in this book, is the more plausible. Unfortunately, the trail was marked by the other team, led by LTC (Ret.) Douglas Mastriano, and there is no equivalent route to the Tennessee team site.

But I can say that I was definitely in the neighborhood, and in the walk from Chatel-Chéhéry I could get an idea of the terrain traversed by the attackers from York’s 82nd Infantry Division, and a sense of the strength of the German position.

World War II eclipsed World War I in the American memory, albeit understandably. But it is good to remember America’s role in the Great War, and it is a blessing that it is possible to do that in the confines of a short November day in France, due to the monuments that a grateful nation erected in an effort to see that we would never forget.