18+ Days in A.E.F.'s footsteps: Day 9, St. Mihiel Battle and Montsec Memorial

     St. Mihiel is a little town along a peacefully flowing river in eastern France. South of Verdun, the town was vital to that city and to all points west for its control of train traffic. When the German Army attacked the town and held it in a tight grip in 1918, General Pershing decided to attack their fortifications and open communications and transportation before attacking the Germans in the Meuse River-Argonne Forest region to the north.
     In only 3 days, the Americans fought fiercely taking the ridges and the valley near St. Mihiel.
Today, the area consists of small villages and many farms.

American engineers march into St. Mihiel after taking the area within 3 days fierce fighting in September 1918.

The Montsec Memorial to those AEF forces who took this ridge and the towns below within 3 days is a beautiful tribute to the men who fought here. With a commanding view of the valley that they struggled to take, this Memorial offers a panoramic view—and inspires you to marvel at the feat these men accomplished.
In these few photographs, I attempt to show you a glimpse into their efforts–and their victory.

Montsec Memorial to AEF's 3 day battle of St. Mihiel

A closer view

A panorama into the valley near Thiacourt

Inside the rotunda sits a relief map of the valley that the AEF had to take from entrenched German Army.

Official description of the Battle of St. Mihiel at Montsec Memorial. Do enlarge to read.

Army Medical Corps cadeusus. Atop each pillar of Montsec is the insignia of a corps unit
contributing to the AEF's victory in this valley.

Atop Montsec, this floor map shows the villages AEF soldiers took in the 3 day offensive.

Dedication on steps up to top of Memorial.

To show the irony of both world wars, this plaque details how this land was once again a battleground.

18+Days in the AEF's footsteps: Day 8, Traveling through Champagne, East to the extended American front line and City of Verdun

 

Town Center of City of Verdun
This statue symbolizes the resistance
of the people of Verdun
to the German advances north of the town
in the Ring of Forts

     As the First Division arrived in France in 1917 and more Divisions came to fill in the ranks and enlarge the battalions, the American front line became more of a reality, less of a concept.
 
     Remember that the American sector, such as it was defined, was a creation of General Pershing who refused to combine the American forces with those of the French or British. Those allies wished for more men to fill out their ranks, decimated as they had been by three years of bitter trench warfare.
 
    With the arrival of more and more American soldiers and Marines, Pershing foresaw that he could build a fighting force as strong or stronger than his allies'. He wisely engaged French and British instructors in every type of training from flame-throwing to grenade use to efficient medical procedures. Furthermore, Pershing was an advocate of aggressive tactics and refused to fight the inch-by-inch warfare that had stymied the French and British efforts to get out of the trenches and pierce the German lines.
 
    Driving east from Chateau-Thierry through the Champagne is a peaceful agrarian scene. Bright yellow with mustard plants or grape vines along the rolling hills, the land is a lovely vision. Pictures of the landscape in 1917-1918 show a stark contrast. Awed as we were by the huge expanses of crops and large number of privately held farms, my husband and I had to research the level of farm production in France. Sure enough, it is huge, producing 20% of all food for Europe. Although this French percentage to the food basket of Europe is larger today than in the war years, we saw the potential that Germany must have gauged. Germany, before the war, had a prosperous economy with a growing population. Given the emphasis on industrial production, fertile French land must have been a lure to feed their hungry people.

Along the banks of the River Meuse stand these five French soldiers of
La Grande Guerre. Ever-mindful of the enormous efforts of the French military
to save the City manning The Citadel and in the Ring of Forts,
the citizens prize this sculpture which represents
each type of soldier who served in the war.

 
     We chose to make our base the City of Verdun as we explored the areas of the American eastern front lines. We were happy we did. Why? The City is one of the loveliest and best preserved even from that period. Assaulted as it was from most sides, the City represents to this day the stalwart nature of the French who retained the land at the cost of hundreds of thousands of French poilus, the near-starvation of the City's populace and the Americans who came to help them save it.

  On Sunday along the west bank of the quai, we ate our dinner. Prosperous, the citizens shop, eat, take their children and walk their dogs along the River. (Enlarge this pix to see the 5 French soldiers situated near the pole here, but along the eastern bank of the Meuse.)

   We stayed in a hotel along the banks of the Meuse, within walking distance of The Citadel. (Return for my next post when I take you there.) Verdun today is a serene city along the River Meuse. There on a weekend, we strolled along the quai and ate in a riverside cafe. We marveled that this city was once the prize fought over by millions of men on both sides of the conflict. But nestled as it is along the ridge of mountains near the Alsace and German border, we see the town's vulnerability. Controlling it meant access to the other rivers and major cities west, including Paris.

   We marveled too at the influence of Americans and Germans. How did we gauge it? Everything—signs, brochures, menus and more—are most often given in triplicate: French, German and English. (A treat for this gal whose German-American family taught her the German language!)

Fighting with British at Cantigny, with French near Soissons, video, too!

   

American amputee and nurse, Walter Reed Army Hospital,
U.S. Government, public domain

 For a marvelous movie reel created by the American Signal Corps, please do click on the link to go to YouTube. This marvelous set of stills and reels, done in sepia tones of the period, shows you the American doughboys in the field.
     If you stick with the movie to its conclusion, you will see not only action by artillery and in trenches, but evacuation teams of stretcher bearers, as well as caissons drawn by horses and invasion into a small town, presumably Chateau Thierry.
Go here:
http://youtu.be/PusFK9U51LY

Historical fiction demands historical fact!

Postcard front, post-Battle of Chateau Thierry,
Postcard published by E.B.Remenson, Chicago, 1919
Copyright expired 

   As an author of 18 novels, historical and contemporary, plus a journalism career (and one non-fiction book soon to appear), I know first hand the value of fact. In fiction, it is even more vital, lest the entire book fail to convince the readership of the verisimilitude of the story.
   A writer can attempt to recreate a scene, for example, a dinner party, and cannot even begin without knowing the time of night, the place it's served, or the ordinary menu for that home, that family and their social class. A miner's family in Wales in 1890 will eat a much different meal at night than a banker's family in New York City or an English diplomat's in Shanghai.
   Historical novels demand just as much research, and perhaps more, than their non-fiction counterparts. Why?
   Because novels demand a suspension of disbelief and because they must be a parallel of the period, plus a microcosm of the mores and atmosphere, these books require minute attention to detail. And while many of the details an author collects in her research never show up in her pages, nonetheless, her research or lack of it will soon begin to speak for her. (Having written a few mysteries myself, I can also tell you that mystery readers absolutely demand correct police procedures and up-to-date forensics and analysis techniques in their novels. Failure to use them can mean readers send wild and crazy letters to the author and even the publisher!)
   Back to my topic of proper research for historical novels.
   To illustrate how vital fact is to the recreation of a period in fiction, I list for you a few popular entertainments. Here, I will show how the authors/producers did their homework and among other facts, used one to mightily increase the realism and value of the piece.
   What would popular DOWNTON ABBEY be without the fabulously rendered period clothing? The actresses have even discussed in interviews how the corsets felt so restrictive. Then when they were attired in garments of the 1920s and the corsets were withdrawn, how freeing they felt.
   What would WAR HORSE have meant had not the latter scenes shown the horror of the main character pulling the huge cannon through the muck of the battlefields? His perseverance, to say nothing of his strength of character and body, would have not been as meaningful when he gained his reward and was sent home to be with his original master.
   What would BAND OF BROTHERS have meant if Spielberg had not shown the landing on the French beaches and the struggle to gain every inch of sand? SAVING PRIVATE RYAN would have missed its tragic mark to show total devastation had it not shown the ruins of French villages and German, as well.
   In future weeks, I will bring you a few of my own hard-won facts about life along the American-French lines during World War One. From my years of research, I'll include my own photos along with the text.
   I hope you will return to relish them! Better yet, sign up to receive the posts in your email. You can do this by filling in your email addy at top right.

   Thank you!