Friday September 5, 1930

After a good night’s rest, Josephine and the other pilgrims were ready to visit the Reims Cathedral.  The cathedral lived up to its reputation for beauty.  It is a Bible in stone.  Medieval sculpturing adds to its beauty.  Built in the 13th century, it is noted not only for being the oldest cathedral in the world, but the most beautiful for its architectural structure.

On September 19-20, 1914, German shells struck the cathedral which then caught fire, causing massive damage. The wooden roof burned, statues were mutilated, and the precious glass windows were destroyed.  It became known as the “Martyred Cathedral,” a symbol of destruction during the Great War.  Its massive damage brought out strong emotions in the French.

Reims Cathedral still showed marks of the heavy bombardment when Josephine and the other pilgrims visited it.  John D Rockefeller donated $18 million to help restore the cathedral; Andrew Carnegie also contributed to the restoration project. 

After lunch at the Hotel Crystal, the group left at 1:30 pm and headed toward Chateau Thierry. 
It was on July 15, 1918, that the Germans launched their last violent attack on a line extending from Chateau Thierry to the western edge of the Argonne Forest, hoping to cross the Marne and break into Paris. As the group crossed the bridge and drove to the Hostellerie du Bonhomme in Chateau Thierry for a brief rest stop, Mrs. Fannie Fine wondered how in 12 years the town could have grown up.

The pilgrims stood where the enemy was met by the 3rd and 28th American divisions along with several French divisions.  This engagement with the enemy lasted only three days, but it was called by the French and the Germans the most cruel of the war.  The German divisions, made up of their best remaining shock troops, were cut to pieces. 

The 3rd division especially distinguished itself near Mezy.  The Americans repulsed every fresh assault and took 600 prisoners.  A thousand German bodies were found outside their lines.  General Pershing called this regiment the “Rock of the Marne.”

As the pilgrims journeyed from Reims to Paris, via Chateau Thierry, they passed many vineyards.  Above Chateau Thierry, they passed a monument erected by the Battle Monuments Commission on hill 204 (Monument Hill 204).  This monument commemorates the sacrifices and achievements of the Americans and French before and during the Aisne-Marne and Oise-Aisne offensives.  The inscription on the monument reads:  “This monument has been erected to commemorate the services of her troops and for those of France who fought in the World War.”  At the nearby cemeteries of Aisne-Marne and Oise-Aisne rest those Americans who gave their lives in the service of their country.

Note: The Army escorts made it a point to show the pilgrims not only the American cemeteries but also those of the French, the British, the Italian, and even the German.  The Italians had beautiful cemeteries.  The pilgrims noted that the French cemeteries were nicely kept, but nothing in comparison to the American cemeteries.  And they noted that in the midst of the battlefields were many shrines.

The German cemeteries had battered old black crosses, with weeds growing up around them.  These German cemeteries often made a deep impression on the pilgrims.  For the most part, the pilgrims did not make remarks of hate or scorn for the German dead.  There lay the men who probably had killed their own sons and husbands, yet these women had nothing but pity and respect for the German dead.

One pilgrim (not a member of Party R) was impressed by how good and kind the mothers of France had been to the American mothers and widows when they had met.  She then reported:  “. . . . the German mothers go there [German cemeteries] and kneel at the graves of their dead the same as we do at ours, and something tells me that the mothers of France show to the mothers of Germany the same tender sympathy they did to us on those hollowed grounds.”

After leaving Chateau Thierry, the group then travelled through Belleau Wood.  Belleau Wood was kept just as it was during the war.  It was maintained by the Belleau Wood Memorial Association, incorporated by an act of Congress at Washington DC, March 3, 1923.  The trenches, barbed wire entanglements, dugouts, helmets, machine guns, baronets– all these were still lying around.

There was not enough time for Josephine’s group to visit Compiegne, where the Armistice was signed.  They also did not get to see the grave site of Quentin Roosevelt, President Theodore Roosevelt’s youngest son, who was killed in the war.  Some of the mothers in Party R who did get to see Quentin Roosevelt’s grave site said it was very beautiful in its simplicity.  The inscription at his grave read, “He has soared above the darkness of our night.”

Quentin Roosevelt’s plane had been shot down behind enemy lines in 1918.  The Germans esteemed President Theodore Roosevelt as a great American and so the German military buried his son with full battlefield honors.  They buried his body and dropped a note in the American lines designating the location of his grave.

Note:    During World War II, Quentin’s eldest brother Ted died of a heart attack shortly after leading his troops in landings on Utah Beach on D-Day.  Ted was buried in a military cemetery in France also.  After the war, Quentin’s remains were moved to the cemetery where Ted is buried so that the two brothers would lie together in death.

The group reached Paris at 7:30 in the evening.  At the Ambassador Hotel, Josephine was reunited with Mrs. Duhon.  They must have had a long conversation during and after dinner, sharing all that they had seen, heard, and felt at the cemetery where their loved one was buried.  They had a shared grief and probably wanted to tell each other all that they had experienced.

The individual groups of Party R who had each gone their own way to the various cemeteries (starting on August 31) were now united in Paris for four more days of sightseeing and shopping before boarding the boat train to Cherbourg, where they would begin their ocean voyage home.




Source: written by Carolyn Ourso