The Washington Times
  • Subscribe
  • Times News Services
  • RSS
  • Mobile Headlines
  • e-edition
  • E-MAIL ALERTS
  • REGISTER
  • LOG IN
  • E-MAIL ALERTS
  • WELCOME
  • Your Profile
  • Log Out
  • Front Page Image
  • Classifieds
  • Autos
  • Real Estate
  • Jobs
  • Special Sections
  • Customer Service
  • Home
  • News
  • Opinion
  • Sports
    • NFL
    • NBA/WNBA
    • MLB
    • NHL
    • Tennis
    • Golf
    • Motorsports
    • Soccer
    • NCAA
    • Olympics
    • Outdoors
    • Other
  • Culture
    • Home & Living
    • Family & Kids
    • Fashion
    • Food
    • Travel
    • Health
    • Washington Visitors
    • Books
    • Military History
    • Life
    • Auto
    • TV Listings
    • Movie Listings
    • Death Notices
    • Entertainment
  • Themes
  • Communities
  • Marketplace
    • Autos
    • Jobs
    • Real Estate
    • Classifieds
    • Shopping
    • Dining Out
    • Education
    • TWT Store
  • Videos
    • Two Guys
    • Birnbaum on Washington
    • Liz Glover
    • Amanda Carpenter
    • Morning Briefing
    • Documentaries
    • Joe Giganti
    • Video Game Minute
  • Podcasts
    • About Headlines
    • Audio and Radio
    • America's Morning News
  • Local

    Court refuses to halt sniper's execution

  • National

    DAVIS: Yankee hater finds love for team

  • National

    Gulf Coast preps as Ida weakens to tropical storm

  • Politics

    Abortion a main issue in health debate

  • Sports

    Redskins still going south

  • World

    Ex-Soviet Union struggles with democracy

  • Politics

    Health bill faces roadblocks in Senate

Home » Culture » Travel

Monday, May 26, 2008

White markers of American valor

Rate this story

Average 0.00
after 0 votes
Login or register to rate this story

  • Font Size -+
  • Print
  • Email
  • Comment
  • Tweet this!
  • Share
  • Article
  • Comments ()
  • Click-2-Listen
  • Videos
Please stand by, images loading!
  • With 14,246 graves in its 130 acres, the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery is the largest American cemetery in Europe. It is 26 miles northwest of Verdun, where a memorial commemorates the military and civilian casualties of the battle fought for that city in 1916. (Photographs by Corinna Lothar/Special to The Washington Times)
  • Verdun's Tour Chaussee was  built in the 14th century as a gateway in the  wall around  the city on the Meuse River.
  • Meuse-Argonne cemetery
  • The Montsec American Monument dominates the landscape from its site on an isolated hill about 12 miles southeast of the St. Mihiel American Cemetery and Memorial.
  • A golden angel stands atop the Sube Fountain in Reims, the city where  Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower accepted the German surrender in World War II on May 7, 1945.
  • Serge Tourovsky, a retired French soldier (left, with his son, Joffrey), is a volunteer guide at Camp Moreau. He wants to remind his son's generation of what happened in this forest almost a century ago.
  • ADVANCE FOR SUNDAY, NOV. 8-- A view of the so-called London trench from World War I, located near Verdun in eastern France, is seen Oct 19,1998. The Battle of Verdun, a fruitless 300-day attempt by Germany to seize the initiative in 1916, wiped nine villages off the map and killed 162,000 French and 143,000 German soldiers. The Verdun mausoleum, cemeteries, preserved trenches and razed villages are powerful reminders of the Great War. (AP Photo/Christian Lutz)
  • A memorial comemorates the milityary and civilian casualties of the battle for Verdun fought in 1916.
  • The 40 acres of the St. Mihiel American Cemetery and Memorial (above) contain the graves of 4,153 Americans, most of them killed during fighting there in 1918 to prevent the Germans from reaching Paris.

More Travel Stories

  • KRALEV: Hilton devalues its loyalty program
  • KRALEV: Continental shows new transparency
  • NTSB: Pilots distracted by laptops
  • KRALEV: Breezing through U.S. immigration

By Corinna Lothar

VERDUN, France.

A soft rain falls as we tramp through the mud of Camp Moreau — Lager Moreau to the men of the German 9th Landwehr division. Nine decades on, only angry ghosts haunt an abandoned power station, tunnels, showers and sleeping caves, all left as they were when the doughboys of the 368th U.S. Infantry wrested this camp from the enemy in early autumn 1918.

On a spring morning in the Argonne Forest, when winter has not yet loosened its bitter grip on the countryside, we imagine for an instant the misery that World War I — the Great War, "the war to end all wars" — made of the lives of the millions of soldiers who fought and died here.

Serge Tourovsky, a retired French soldier who volunteers as a guide at Camp Moreau, accompanies us, along with his 10-year-old son, Joffrey. He says he's here to remind his son's generation of what happened in this forest.

Mr. Tourovsky dons a German uniform to escort us through the camp, pointing out the tunnels through which the Germans moved men, supplies and arms to the trenches; 1,600 men occupied the camp, rotating between the trenches and the confines of the camp for rest and recuperation.

When we shake hands in farewell, tears come to the old soldier's eyes.

"Many Frenchmen haven't forgotten," he says. "With the heart, we are with you. God bless America."

•••

With 2008 marking the 90th anniversary of the end of World War I, a visit to the places where American soldiers fought and died evokes memories of that war. The names are familiar to an older generation: the Marne, the Meuse, Argonne Forest, Verdun, Champagne, Lorraine.

Begun in 1914, the war by 1917 had reached stalemate, with soldiers on both sides weary of the senseless killing, the horrific living conditions and, above all, the criminal irresponsibility of the generals who presided and plotted strategy. French deserters routinely were shot by their officers. Disease, hunger and despair were the daily portion.

12345Next »

Post a comment

There are comments on this article, submit your opinion!

Please login or register to post a comment

Ask a Question

You Report

Do you have another point of view, photos, audio, video or more information about a story?

Top Stories

Most Read

  1. EXCLUSIVE: Rare virus poses new threat to troops
  2. Parents buying homes for kids at college
  3. EDITORIAL: Too scared to recognize terrorism
  4. Inside the Beltway
  5. House OKs health reform bill
More Top Stories »
  1. KELLNER: New Apple mouse really is 'Magic'
  2. Sniper's ex-wife speaks out on abuse
  3. Annandale man killed in hit-and-run
  4. Sunshine vitamin stirs new debate
  5. Aborted fetus cells used in beauty creams

Most Shared

  1. EDITORIAL: Too scared to recognize terrorism
  2. EXCLUSIVE: Rare virus poses new threat to troops
  3. Deer dies after leap into D.C. zoo lion exhibit
  4. KELLNER: New Apple mouse really is 'Magic'
  5. Parents buying homes for kids at college
More Top Stories »
  1. Sunshine vitamin stirs new debate
  2. Federal Reserve opposed as big bank savior by odd allies
  3. EDITORIAL: President Obama causes more unemployment
  4. The enemy at home
  5. Patent case goes to Supreme Court

Most Commented

  1. House OKs health reform bill
  2. EDITORIAL: Too scared to recognize terrorism
  3. Army chief wary of backlash against Muslim soldiers
  4. EDITORIAL: Mr. Obama, stay away from this wall
  5. Health bill faces roadblocks in Senate
More Top Stories »
  1. Obama: It's Senate's turn on health care
  2. Israelis unsure of U.S. support
  3. Lieberman vows probe of Hood rampage
  4. Obama urges House to pass health care bill
  5. Obama praises those who ended Fort Hood violence

Listen to Washington Times Radio

  • America's Morning News

    with John McCaslin and Melanie Morgan

Question of the day

Now that the House has passed the health reform bill, do you think the Senate will try to kill it?

Blogs & Columns

  • POTUS Notes

    New Dem talking point on Obama approval doesn't wash

  • The Back Story

    12 arrested at Pelosi's office

  • Belief Blog

    Washington goes Greek this week

  • Out of Context

    Foods that might kill libido

  • Technology

    Facebook wins round against phishing spammer

  • On the Fly

    United lifts some 'award' blocking

  • Redskins 360

    No Portis/Bailey grudge match?

  • Tara's Two Cents

    On their way to summer vacation..

  • SNOBlog

    Beyond 'Woody'

Videos

Advertising Links
TWT Store
  • e-edition
  • Print Edition
  • Weekly Washington Times
TWT Affiliates
  • Middle East Times
  • Golf
  • UPI
  • Arbor Ballroom
  • Washington Times Global
  • About TWT
  • Press Room
  • F.A.Q.
  • Work for TWT
  • Advertise
  • Sponsors
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Site Map

All site contents © Copyright 2009 The Washington Times, LLC.