The fallen from the final push by the US military to end World War I in north eastern France lay in the largest US cemetery in Europe – Meuse Argonne. Located north of Verdun and under an hour’s drive from the Belgian border, there are 14,246 headstones and another 954 missing with names inscribed on memorial walls.
It is amazing to think of how much World War I was fought for so long across so much territory before coming to an end here. When you visit, you can follow the front on the last days before the armistice. The fight involved over a million US soldiers and the dead and wounded counted over 117,000. The cost to end the war was terrible. Overwhelming strength was the only way to end the war and those that fought paid the price to bring the peace.
A pdf visitor’s pamphlet for the cemetery is available here.
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