The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1923-07-07
HONOR HEROES
IN CHAMPAGNE
Monument to Be Placed in Middle
of Sector Where Many
Soldiers Fell.

! Paris.-A war memorial in which
Americans will be deeply interested
for many American soldiers fought in
| the region ON which it is to be placed
is the colossal monument to be erected
on the Champagne front. 1t is to be
built in the middle of the Champagne
sector, on what was known in the war
bulletins as the Navarin Farm, ten
kilometers north of Suippes and six
kilometers south of Somme-Py.
The sculptor is Maxine Real del
Sarte, soldier who lost his left arm
on the battlefield. He has designed
heroic three-fgure group-one light
infantryman, one a grenadier and one
machine gunner (the last an Ameri-
can)-which will stand on pyramid
and be visible fifteen miles around.
The three soldiers are in posture OF
attack. The names of all the Cham
pagne regiments will be inscribed on
the sides of the pyramid.
General Gouraud in Charge.
The enterprise is in charge of Cen
eral Gouraud commander on this front
In 1915 The honorary committee is
composed of President Millerand, Pre-
mier Poincare, Minister Of War Magi-
not, Ambassador Herrick and all the
French marshals. On the main COM
mittee are all the generals who COM
manded in Champagne, the project of
the Marne the archbishop of Chalons
and all the former chiefs of staffs OF
the armies of Champagne.
General Gouraud recently addressed
to the public a moving appeal for sup
port of the memorial undertaking. In
it he said:
among the customs which all civ
iIized peoples, and even barbarous
ones, have observed, none is more gen
eral and worth respect than that of
honoring soldiers who died on the field
of battle
France has not failed in this duty.
Already from one end of the fighting
line to the other monuments are being
erected At Notre Dame de Lorette
and at urt-Bouchavesnes, for the
bloody battles Of the User, and of
Lorette and of the Somme; at the
Haute- Chevauchee, for the hard battles
of the Argonne; at Dornans, for the
two great battles which, in 1914 and
1918. checked the tide of invasion; at
Douaumont, for the heroic battle of
verdun; at Hartmannswiller,-opf, for
all the combats in the Vosges.
But in this immense line the part
called the Champagne front in the
communicates, and which ran from
Moronvilliers to the Bots de Gruerie,
is empty. 1t still awaits monument
worthy of the hundreds of thousands
of dead who watered 1t with their
blood.
Battles in Champagne.
mot only has the Champagne front
been marked by continuous and often
violent combats; not only were the
guns never silent there, but the fatal
gas waves were constant in their flow.
But five of the moM important battles
of the war were fought there: The
first battle of Champagne, of Febru-
airy March, 1915, the first offensive in
the grand style after the Battle of the
Marine; the second battle of Cham
payne, the big offensive of September
rs, 1915, leading US to hope so strongly
that we could capture the hills of Mo-
which was one of the most
brilliant successes of the offensive of
April, 1917; the third battle of Cham
payne, in which the Forty-second
American division took part, and which
on July IS. 1918, stopped short the last
German drive and was the turning
point of the war; finally. the fourth
battle of Champagne, carrying, on Sep
TENDER %, 1918, the old fortified front
Of the enemy to q depth of II kilo-
meters, and continuing its successes,
N which the Second and Thirty-sixth
American divisions took part, and
which. from September % to Novem-
Der II, 1918, carried our flags to the
Meuse. to Mezieres and to Sedan.
"Was it possible to leave this glorf- |
JUS Champagne front without mon |
lment worthy of the valor of those |
Who fell there and of their sacrifice?
MANY officers and poius who fought |
here do not think So