New-York tribune., 1919-05-30
$4,000 L. S. Dead
A road VII Be
Honored To-da,
By Frank H. Simonds

PARIS, May 29.-Memorial Day for
Americans in Europe this wear will
have new meaning. More than so 900
OF our soldiers are buried on French
battletields, and there is perhaps 20
detail in all american activities since
the war which Will more commend IT,
self to the American people than the
care and thought which have been ey-
pended in the direction of American
cemeteries in France
On this Memorial Day there will be
opened with appropriate ceremonies
the greatest military cemetery. so far
as our own country is concerned, in
the very heart of the Kriemhilde line
at the little town of Romagne, mem
orable for the many divisions which
fought in the Meuse- -Argonne battle
There will be dedicated a cemetery
where 26,000 Americans will be buried
For many months thousands of men
have been engaged in preparing thia
cemetery. In the great Meuse- -Argonne
battle of last year, which was fought
over an area of nearly 1000 square
miles. nearly 10000 Americans were
killed or subsequently, died of wounds.
They were buried hastily on the field
OF honor, and one may still find scat
tered over all this country American
graves. Going the other day from
Stenay to Narennes, across many miles
OF American front, saw scores and
scores Of these scattered graves, one of
the clear evidences of our victory and
of our sacrifice.
After the fighting was over the army
adopted the wise policy of concentrat-
ing its dead, and in the little town of
Romagne preparations were made for
gathering all Americans who had fallen
over the really vast area between the
Argonne and the Meuse. Within
few months the task will be completed
and on a pleasant hillside on the
ground which they won, and in the
midst Of what was for America the
greatest battle in her history, $4,000
soldiers will be buried
But this is only one of our military
cemeteries. Yesterday | visited an
other, in the centre of the Hindenburg
line, where are buried men of the 27th
and Both divisions, who with the Brit
lsh and the Australians shared honor
ably in the glorious success of Sep
tember 30 when the Hindenburg line
was broken in no small part by the
courage and devotion of the 9th and
Both divisions
This cemetery, which will contain
5000 bodies, the price to us of this
victory. lies east of Peronne, not far
from the ruined town of lie Catelet and
the equally destroyed village of Bonry
There remain two other fields where
American soldiers fought and died in
considerable numbers, that of the
Chateau Thierry fighting and of the
St Mihie! salient At the present mo-
ment nearly 10000 American soldiers
are buried in several score of little
cemeteries all the way from Chateau
Thierry to Fismes.
Around Belleau Wood alone there are
at least SIX clear evidences of how
desperate was the battle and how great
the cost OF victory.
1t is the plan and hope of Americans
in France that no grave or an Amer
lean soldier will ramaln undecorated
on this Memorial Day Thanks to the
French peasants, this result probably
will be achieved. But l know of no
more moving, or perhaps saddening, i'm
than one may still have rid
ing along the remote roads of the Ar
gonne and Meuse country and seeing
on the she'll torn hillsides the scat
tered graves of so many of our sol
diers. There is certain loneliness
almost impossible to describe, lone
lness which in no sense has been the
portion of the American soldier in
Europe from the beginning, loneli-
ness shared only by the Australians
and Canadians.
Copyright, 1919. by Mcclure Newspaper