Chateau-Thierry — and American Memorials

Left Reims, backtracking a bit, to Chateau-Thierry to re-enter the battlefield scene once again. There is a pattern here.  pres - then Bruges, Somme- then Reims, now it is on to Chateau-Thierry and Verdun - then Metz, Strasbourg. The battlefield and memorials are heavy and are more than a bit introspective and despite the history and education and such, the personal nature of what we see and the terrible loss associated with the numbers it just gets to be a lot, but we are on a quest and near the end.  

But first to get there. Leaving Reims, as is custom, we said no on the GPS to toll roads and interstates and took the back roads, note below from the ridge top we got the view of where we had been, on the road between Fismes and Beugneux or two other similar towns, I can't remember, the northern France countryside is beautiful.

We have had a lot of overcast sky of late but occasionally the sun broke through lighting up a field.

crossed the same rail line a few times too.  

and once turned off the main road just to drive through town into one of the side streets to go by the church. It was one way in and back.

Riding through a forest we saw a sign saying what looked like castle ruins, backed up, turned down the dirt road and, lookout, right there was an old castle on a pile of granite surrounded by a dry moat.

we had come up on the back side of the old castle that was attached to a rather fancy hotel the Chateau de Fere. It was still cool. The castle, not so much the hotel. You can see it was windy on the hilltop.

Finding this monument to the men of the Alabama National Guard that was called into the 42nd Division - Rainbow Division - of the Army was cool. An Alabamian put up this monument of a soldier carrying a dead comrade off the field of battle at Croix Rouge Farm, the remnants of the farm structures are in the background.  

This was the site of a fierce fight between this unit of the 42nd Division and Germans who were in a line here. Apparently the site is relatively unchanged. The tree line is where it was then, the field is still farmed and it is far from any activity of any kind. We were by ourselves and not a single vehicle passed the site while we were there either.

American Forces participated with the French Army in holding off the German spring offensive of 1918 in this sector. Their timely and effective participation in French history is widely recognized.

A couple of miles away on another lonely quiet road near the small town of Oulchy-le-Chateau on top of a ridge known as Butte Claimant this huge carving stands out. It is a stone carving of seven soldiers of French, English, Italian and American nationalities, and of various branches of service, and of one young man rising into the sky, free of any identification.

This may have been one of my favorite of all the statutes and art works about the war that we have seen on this trip.  It is called Les Fantomes (the ghosts) by Polish sculptor, Paul Landowski. The soldiers, young and old, airmen, infantry, artillery, all have their eyes closed in death and their feet are not visible as they are shown rooted in the ground— the naked youth rising is free of the earth and the heavy accoutrements of war.

The sculpture looks out over the plain toward the east from which the recent of France's aggressors have come. At the bottom of the hill is a statue of a woman representing France. It is a powerful statement on the sacrifice required of making war. 

Below is the road leading to the sculpture — leading away looks the exact same.  The woman sitting beside the car was the person beside the statute in the first photo and is a student studying this particular piece of art. She was very interesting to talk with and seemed to enjoy our company. In the previous hour she said one other car had come by, stopped and someone got out, read the information tablet at the bottom of the hill and rode on. That was it. She was still there when we left. The site was one of the "high water marks" of the German spring offensive of 1918, which failure set up the allies final push to end the war.

Not far away is a large American Cemetery - L'Oise-Aisne - with a large memorial. This cemetery primarily contains graves of members of the 1st Division, the 42nd and 29th Divisions. The 42nd, or Rainbow Division, was especially heroic and contributed some acts of fierce fighting and perseverance that earned the division a great amount of praise. They also suffered severe casualties.  One of whom was the poet Joyce Kilmer, author of 'Trees', which was published in 1914.

Inside the above memorial is one of the walls with names of those unknown and unrecovered dead.  

There were several thousand grave markers here. American dead, while significant numbers did not compare to the totals of the French, English, or German simply due to the numbers of soldiers involved.

The contribution by American forces while not so large was certainly timely and well received and made some major contributions to significant operations to help end the war.  This memorial is to French / American cooperation in the war. It is huge and prominent on top of a hill overlooking a plain.

Nearby in Belleau Wood is another cemetery that is largely Marine. We were there as the day was winding down and the sky was especially pretty. This is the view from the hill behind the memorial carillon.

We were the last people there for the day and as we were preparing to leave we heard the Marine Corps hymn from the carillon followed by other songs. That was nice.

We were talking with the manager of the cemetery and he asked if I would help take down the flag.  "Of course", said I.  So I did, first time since Boy Scouts oh so many many years ago. I had not forgotten how to do this either. Came out pretty close to real good.

Then the carillon played taps. Whew, time to go now.

We did go up to the top of the hill into the forest where the Marine monument and some gear still stand where the Marines in the 1918 summer offensive helped take the St Michael salient.  

That's Patt outside the door of out 1600's bed/breakfast/hotel Les Jardin de Fables in Chateau-Thierry.  We were on the 3rd floor, creaky circular steps, roof beams about 10 X 10, did have modern shower, twin beds, toilet in next room, would definitely stay again even though breakfast only fair.  (also not a lot of choices).

View from bedroom window, street leads to main city square, hence excellent location, access to great dining, parking, city ramparts, . . .