Coulee City dispatch. [volume] (Coulee City, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1936-05-28

cemetery and the Aisne-Marne battle
field, with the Chateau-Thierry memo
rial and the Belleau wood graves. The
| st. Mihiel area was in Lorraine, that
section of eastern France which had
| been set aside by the French hlgh
command as the concentration area for
the American army.
At Thiacourt, the third largest
American military cemetery in France,
the 4,152 marble headstones CLEAN
white as the sun marks the time on
large stone sundial carved in the
form Of resting American eagle,
with the following inscription. "Time
will not dim the glory Of their deeds"
On the hill above Chateau-Thierry,
where Joan of Arc rode by in 1929
and where Jean de La Fontaine wrote
many of his immortal fables, now
stands a memorial to the glory of the
American troops. Commanding
sweeping view of the Marine valley,
the monuments twin rows of majestic
columns rise at the right and left of
two figures of symbolic size represent
ing France and America.
Down in the valley, not far from
the memorial, nearly 1890 American
soldiers rest in peace in curving rows
around the base of the Belleau Wood
hill while 5000 others sleep in honored
glory in the second largest American
cemetery abroad, at Fere-en-Tarde-
nois.
But the foremost chapter in the
history of the American participation
is written forever in the French sky,
above the Argonne forest and the
Montfaucon hill, in the form of
colossal rose granite Doric shaft
which towers the ruins of the war
time Montfaucon village by more than
175 feet.
There, between the heavily forti-
+! fed Argonne forest and the strongly
defended Meuse Heights, the battle
ragged from September &c to November
| IL, with more than 100000 Americans
participating at one time, slowly and
CALAMITY making Roadway until, on
November z, they held the heights
overlooking Sedan.
During the battle $4,000 were killed,
wounded or missing and little further
down, in the valley, at Romagne-sous-
Montfaucon, facing huge lily pond,
verdant hill and quiet trees, more
than 14,2OO white marble crosses and
stars of David for the Jewish SOL
diers speak for those who acted the
drama and saw not it's end.
There, undoubtedly, the most i'm
pressive of memorial ceremonies
abroad is justly taking place today, as
the Meuse-Argonne combat will go
down as one of the most glorious pages
of American military history.
There, among still waves Of graves
unfurling in endless wake, comrade
of those heroes, who constantly kept
the French high command in touch
with their doings, Gen. de Chambrun
evoked the glory of their deeds and
paid due tribute to those among the dead
whose name is known but to God"
"Was it not one of those very heroes
whom we glopify today" he said
fallen somewhere near Varenne or
Malencourt, in Belleau wood or in the
Bots DIES FORCES, whose obscure &C
ton and last drop of blood were the
decisive factors in the trend Of the
war?
'Is it then astonishing that each ma
ton, recognizing in the common sol
der the veritable victor. of the war
should have consecrated to his glory
it's most impressive monument?"
In Paris, this evening, if you wall
up the Champs Ulysses toward Ma
poleon's triumphal arch, at that time
when the sun sinks behind it's pillars
you will probably find that the i'm
perial arch opens against the sunse
like doorway to infinite beauty. Yet
there, in the center of Partisan activ
ity, an unextinguished flame burn
over bronze tomb and adds new
grandeur to the gigantic vault. AM
that permanent contrast between tn
constant flow Of Paris life and the I'm
known dead is one of the grandes
achievements Of man.
|