Meuse-Argonne Travelogue, Part Two of Two

Traveling around this part of France, the terrain often felt like my native Fayette County in southwest Pennsylvania. This part of France would have felt familiar as well for George Marshall, a native of Fayette County's Uniontown, who was a key planner of the Meuse-Argonne offensive. There are no deep river gorges, and the hilltops even in the Argonne Forest are nowhere near as high as the ridges east of Uniontown. Nevertheless driving in the Argonne Forest felt like being on a shady lane up the mountains east of Uniontown. East of the Argonne Forest there are two rivers, the Aire in the west and the larger Meuse in the east. Both rivers flow generally from south-southeast toward north-northwest. The high ground between the two rivers is chopped thoroughly into ridges and hilltops separated by valleys that drain mostly east or west. As a result, the American troop advance was repeatedly up and down, over hill and dale.

Maarten guided me to Hill 304. On top of that hill (cote, in French military parlance) is a memorial to the French who fought there in 1916 and 1917. By the time the Meuse-Argonne offensive began on the morning of September 26, this hill was barely inside allied territory. According to the ABMC maps (see previous post for reference), the starting front lines for the American 79th and 4th Divisions were about one kilometer to the northwest and to the north. Maarten and I walked north slightly downhill to where there was a good view of the panorama of ridge and dale. I didn't think to take a picture until we started back up. I asked Maarten to have my thumb pointing to Montfaucon, which is about six kilometers (about 4 miles) northwest from here. It took American troops two days to get there.

Although most of the area is farm fields, interspersed are large tracts of woodland. A few kilometers southwest of Hill 304 (not sure exactly where, but somewhere near Avocourt) Maarten had me park the car along the side of a dirt road, and we walked into the woods. There trenches, bunkers and shell craters have been left as they were, to be covered with 108 years of forest growth. Apparently the craters can be located from airborne lidar imagery. It had been a dry year, so the various bottoms were not wet. Much of the metal has been scavenged for recycling. But here we're in a trench and Maarten is indicating barbed wire that was left behind.

The rest of my pictures don't really do justice to walking through the old trenches and craters. You have to be there. (In the backroom of his museum in Montfaucon, Maarten has recreated the experience of living in the trenches.) Back to the advance toward Montfaucon.

Instead of being in a forest, this bunker has been preserved in the middle of a farm field. It is close to the top of one of the ridges, not quite to Montfaucon. Besides the wide opening for their guns aimed south at the American advance, there is a small opening on the back aligned with Mountfaucon, so that the soldiers inside could signal American locations to their command post. After 1916 the Germans had had two years to prepare their defense lines.

Since Mountfaucon was an enemy command post it was a key objective. After the war, America built a memorial column on top of that hill. It is known locally as the American monument. If you follow that link you can read that there are 234 steps to the observation platform near the top. It is a spiral staircase inside, and I was slightly splayed out, holding on for dear life to the handrail at the center, while my big feet found the wider part of each step toward the outside. I would not have tried it by myself, but Maarten was keeping an eye on me. Their are about 11 landings, and some of them have benches if I had needed a rest. Below is a view from the observation platform looking west.

The original village of Mountfaucon was centered around the top of the hill. After the war the village was rebuilt at the foot of the hill. On the horizon is the eastern edge of the Argonne Forest. Just below the horizon from center and slightly to the right, reverse-silhouetted and barely visible in this image are three wind turbines. Apremont is near those windmills. Next is a view to the northwest.

Down below are the ruins of an abbey that had been part of the old village. As the deck label indicates, it is 7 kilometers to the American Cemetery. So that brings us back to the beginning of the previous post.

There are many other memorials in the area. Maarten guided me to the memorial for the 316th Infantry Regiment of the 79th Division. Their hilltop memorial, where the 316th was when the war ended on November 11, is on the east side of the Meuse River. It took awhile to get there from Montfaucon, but it was worth it. The hill provides another panoramic view of the Meuse-Argonne battlefield, seen from the east extending south to north. Fortunately French locals and some Americans take care of the monument.

The Pennsylvania Monument/Memorial was erected by the State of Pennsylvania in 1927. It is located in the town of Varennes, slightly uphill from the town center, a block west of the road south to Clermont. Varennes is in territory assigned to the 28th Division (Pennsylvania National Guard), but the memorial honors all of Pennsylvania's troops in the Great War. So that includes my grandfather's service in the All American 82nd Division. This memorial has been criticized as too grandiose, and I agree. But the best part is that the memorial is open on the back side. You can step forward, putting the grandiose columns to your right and left rear, and contemplate the Aire River valley. (The river makes a few 180 degree loops as it passes through the town.) In the background are the hills at the eastern edge of the Argonne Forest (especially difficult to advance past in 1918).

Since Varennes is only about 15 kilometers north of Clermont (exit 27 on the A4 autoroute), the Pennsylvania Memorial is a relatively accessible place to pause and remember the sacrifices made 108 years ago.