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AISNE-MARNE and BELLEU WOOD BATTLE MONUMENTS
American Military Cemetaries in France

"Over There...Over There..." When America finally answered the call of George M. Cohan’s patriotic melody of coming to the aide of France who had been bogged in the trenches with Germany for almost 5 years, one of the first meetings of the fresh Amercan forces and the battle hardened Germans was the brutal World War I Battle of Belleu Wood, which took place on a wooded hillside in the valley of the Marne River in East Central France in the country’s Champagne region outside the village of Belleu, about 10 kilometres northwest of the town of Chateau-Thierry near Reims.

The battle was a pyrrhic victory for the American-French side in which 2,289 dead were left buried in a cemetery at the base of the hillock on which much of the battle was fought. Another 1,060 were counted as missing. The Aisne-Marne Military Cemetary at Belleu Wood is maintained by the American Battle Monuments Commission which administers 24 cemeteries on foreign soil for 125,000 American dead from WWI, WWII and the Mexican-American War. The cemetary at Belleu Wood has both WWI soldiers from the Belleu Wood Battle and the suurounding Marne, as well as WWII soldiers. Many of the later WWII soldiers once buried here were later returned to the United States, but about a third remain in hollowed ground in France. A chapel on the grounds of the cemetery commemorates the missing in action with names inscribed on the walls inside.

About 3 miles away from the cemetary a massive concrete monument to American action in France with names of military divisions and a map showing the ground captured by American soldiers of the battles of the Marne after July 1918 stands powerfully majestic on a hill overlooking the valley between the Marne and Aisne rivers, with a view of the town of Chateau-Thierry. These sites are on either side of the A4 autoroute halfway between Paris and Reims. The Aisne-Marne cemetery is open daily from 09:00 to 5:00 (17:00) except Christmas Day and New Year. It is open on French national holidays, because it is officially considered American soil. A staff member is on duty in the Visitors’ Building to answer questions and escort relatives to graves and memorial sites when the facility is open and a guest book offers an opportunity to leave a simple “Thank You” in the guest book. ©Bargain Travel Europe

More War Cemetery Sites see also

WWI - BATTLEFIELDS OF THE SOMME- France

FLANDERS FIELDS IN "THE GREAT WAR" - Belgium

"BATTLE OF THE BULGE" WWII WAR SITES - Belgium

Normandy D-Day Tour From Paris 

American Battle Monuments Commission
www.abmc.gov

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SEE ALSO:

EVERYTHING'S FINE ON THE MAGINOT LINE
History’s "Magnificent Blunder" in Alsace

WALKING FIRST CLASS ACROSS GERMANY AT 160 KPH

GORGE-OUS LUXEMBURG

SECRET WAR FACTORIES OF ESSEN

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