The End of World War I

The Aisne-Marne American Cemetery.

Today is the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I. On the 11th minute of the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918, the Great War came to an end. Some now call it the Armistice Day, others the Remembrance Day, and others still Veterans' Day. Whatever you call it, the end of this most horrific war in human history to date had killed 10,000,000 young men and wounded an additional 6,000,000. Millions more civilians got caught in the fighting or died from starvation. Many of those who survived had lost their youth and dreams.

Earlier this month, I was privileged to visit some of the cemeteries, battlefields, and memorials to the American forces who fought in France. Since our president canceled his trip yesterday to one of the places I visited, I offer here some photos to show what he missed in his apparent disrespect to those fallen in battle.

Some of the 2,288 graves at the cemetery.

Inside the chapel at the cemetery are the names of the 1,060 of those men who died here but whose bodies were never found.

Above the cemetery, the Belleau Wood battlefield was where the 5th Marines rushed in to the stop the German advance on Paris in the summer of 1918. Over a month of fierce combat amidst relentless artillery and gas attacks, U.S. forces halted the German breakout and turned the tide of the war. 

German artillery captured in Belleau Wood.

After 100 years, the scarred landscape of the forest still show a bomb crater in the foreground and a hastily dug trench on the upper left.

The path through the woods skirts a trench dug in the summer of 1918.

Next week, I will post some more photos of my visits to the cemeteries and memorials to the U.S. participation in World War I.