Forest of Argonne
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The Forest of Argonne (Script error: No such module "IPA".) is a long strip of mountainous and wild woodland in northeastern France, approximately Script error: No such module "convert". east of Paris. The forest measures roughly Script error: No such module "convert". long and Script error: No such module "convert". wide filled with many small hills and deep valleys formed by water run-off from the Aire and Aisne rivers rarely exceeding more than Script error: No such module "convert". in elevation.[1] Following the First World War, the landscape of the forest was forever changed as trench warfare led to parts of the forest being riddled with deep human-made trenches along with craters from explosives. The forest is bordered by the Meuse River on the west and rolling farmland and creeks to the east. The forest is largely oak, chestnut, and pine trees, and ferns cover much of the forest floor. Common animal life consists of wild boar, red deer, roe deer, hares, rabbits, foxes, and wildcat.[2]
History
In 1792, Charles François Dumouriez outmaneuvered the invading forces of the Duke of Brunswick in the forest before the Battle of Valmy.
During World War I, the forest again became the site of intense military action. Bitter fighting between German and Allied units took place here in fall and winter 1914, summer 1915, and fall 1918. During the Meuse–Argonne offensive (1918), several United States Army soldiers earned the Medal of Honor there, including Colonel Nelson Miles Holderman, Major Charles White Whittlesey, Sergeant Alvin C. York, Corporal Harold W. Roberts and William Henry Johnson (a.k.a. "Black Death"), most of them part of the "Lost Battalion". The World War I Montfaucon American Monument consists of a large granite Doric column surmounted by a statue symbolic of Liberty. The monument is located Script error: No such module "convert". northwest of Verdun, not far from the Meuse–Argonne American Cemetery and Memorial.[3]
Points of interest
- Arboretum du Petit-Bois
- Chattancourt
- Lachalade Abbey
- Meuse-Argonne American cemetery
- Varennes-en-Argonne
See also
- Argonne Forest, an affluent neighborhood in Atlanta, Georgia.
- Argonnerwaldlied
- Argonne Forest park,[4] an amusement park in Dayton, Ohio built by a former U.S. soldier as a tribute to his fellow soldiers that never returned from the Argonne Forest in France during World War I
- Meuse–Argonne offensive
References
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- ↑ American Battle Monuments Commission: Montfaucon monument Script error: No such module "webarchive"..
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External links
- Template:Commonscatinline
- Militarymuseum.com
- Google Earth view of Argonne Forest area
- DaytonDailyNews.com
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