Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery

The following is from the American Armies and Battlefields in Europe, for this exact GPS location:

When the panorama opens, you’ll be facing north. After viewing the cemetery, turn south.
The famous German defensive position known as the Hindenburg Line ran along the ridge seen here, behind the chapel. It included the high wooded hill, Côte Dame Marie, the highest hill seen on the right over the buildings of the town of Romagne.
The jump-off line of the American First Army on September 26, 1918, was about 10 miles from here, beyond Montfaucon, seen in the distance to the left rear.
By the end of the third day, the Germans had been driven back in this direction to the outlying defenses of the Hindenburg Line, which were located about midway between here and Montfaucon.
On October 4 a second general attack was launched by the First Army and vigorously pushed, during the course of which many important gains were made. On October 7 the flank attack against the Argonne Forest near Châtel-Chéhéry was started and the next day the drive east of the Meuse was begun.
These were so successful that the Army ordered the V Corps on this immediate front to join in and to attack on October 9. This it did and, after some of the most heartrending fighting of the war, it gained a foothold in the Hindenburg Line.
The 32d Division on October 9 pushed forward part way up the slopes of Côte Dame Marie and to the ridge in rear of the chapel, where it established itself in a trench of the Hindenburg Line, called on French wartime maps the Tranchée de la Mamelle.
Romagne was reached in that attack but a strong German counterattack drove the advancing forces back. Isolated groups of the 3rd Division, whose zone of action included the ground upon which this cemetery stands, entered the valley which runs through the cemetery and also entered Romagne.
The hostile fire was so severe, however, that these groups did not attempt to hold on but took up a position in the Tranchée de la Mamelle alongside the 32d Division.
The remainder of the 3rd Division, to the left from here, made a substantial advance also, and after dark the 80th Division on the right of the 3rd entered Cunel, the village seen to the left when looking out behind the chapel.
Elements of the division were fighting in the town at midnight but it was not captured on that night.
The First Army ordered a general attack on the lOth and the fighting continued fiercely on that day all along this front. The 32d Division penetrated the trenches of the Hindenburg Line near the top of Côte Dame Marie.
A counterattack caused some withdrawal but at the end of the day the division had made a total gain there of about 1/2 mile. Romagne was attacked but not captured.
The left of the 3rd Division advanced at 7:OO a.m, but was held up by fire from the front and flanks. During the day elements of the division established themselves in German trenches, located to the left rear not far from this chapel, but they were withdrawn after dark.
The right of the division made two attacks which resulted in no permanent gains but in a third, begun at 9:45 p. m. and continued through most of the night, it advanced about 600 yards.
During the day, the 80th Division pushed its line forward about 1/2 mile nearer to Cunel. The general attack was pressed with great vigor on the llth, all divisions in line here taking part.
The 32nd Division made only minor gains, which were not held. The left unit of the 3rd Division attacked at 7 :15 a. m. but was stopped by hostile machine-gun fire from that part of this ridge to the left rear of the chapel.
Shortly after 1:OO p. m, it advanced as far as the valley in the cemetery and established a position about 100 yards to the right rear of the site of the chapel but withdrew after dark.
The right of the division repulsed a German counterattack at dawn, jumped off at 7:00 a. m. and made a substantial gain, attacked about noon with the 80th Division and captured Cunel but did not hold the town that night.
The 80th Division during the day advanced its lines about 700 yards. The 4th Division, in line beyond the 80th, captured this end of the Bois de Forêt, the wood seen above the right side of Cunel.
That wood, a highly-organized and strong part of the Hindenburg Line, extends to the valley of the Meuse River about 4 miles away.
On October 12 and 13 the divisions consolidated their gains. On the 12th Cunel was entered, though not held by a battalion of the 5th Division, that division having relieved the 80th.
On the 13th, the 3rd Division extended to the right, relieving parts of the 5th and 4th Divisions. During the day it was subjected to heavy hostile artillery concentrations on its front lines, particularly in the Bois de Forêt where a determined enemy attack was repulsed.
On the morning of October 14 the Army launched a general attack, the 5th and 42d Divisions having entered the line to take part.
The 3rd Division attacked from just beyond Cunel; the 5th from in front of Cunel and along the ridge in rear of the chapel.
The 32d from the front to the observer’s right of Romagne and Côte Dame Marie; the 42d from the line facing Côte de Châtillon, and the 82d and 77th from the front line beyond the 42d Division.
In this attack, the German defenses crumbled before the onslaughts of the terrifie American assaults.
The 5th Division captured Cunel and with the 3rd Division stormed the strongly fortified Bois de la Pultière, seen on the hill just to the left of Cunel. By that night, they had practically cleared it of the enemy.
The 5th Division just before jumping off suffered heavy casualties on the ridge behind the chapel from a two-hour concentrated enemy artillery bombardment and again from an intense concentration of hostile fire just after leaving its trenches.
The troops doggedly advanced, however, capturing this hill about 10:00 a.m. and, in spite of savage crossfire from machine guns located at the edge of the Bois de la Pultière near Romagne, stormed the ridge across the valley about 10:40 a. m.
Upon arriving at that ridge, which was devoid of trees at that time, their positions were so exposed and the sweeping cross-fire was so intense that the men could not dig in but secured what shelter they could in the shell holes and captured trenches until after dark.
The 32d Division, in spite of severe counterattacks, by a brilliant enveloping maneuver, captured Côte Dame Marie and advanced its front lines a total distance of approximately 1 1/2 miles.
It also captured the village of Romagne and held it through a heavy German gas bombardment during that night.
The day was a momentous one for the First Army, for by its close the Hindenburg Line was in American hands on all this part of the battle front.
In this immediate vicinity the American troops organized themselves that night on a line which included the village of Romagne and ran from there along the valley to a point near the pool at the center of the cemetery.
It then went diagonally to the right up the ridge across the valley and followed the top of that ridge to the Bois de la Pultière near Cunel.

Face north, towards the cemetery.
The Bois des Rappes, on the horizon to the right front, was the scene of terrific fighting for eight days before it was finally captured and cleared of the enemy on Octcber 21 by the 5th Division.
The 90th Division relieved the 5th on October 22 at the edge of the Bois des Rappes and on the ridge a cross the valley.
The next day it captured Bantheville, seen in the valley to the left of and beyond the reception house. The 32d Division made almost daily gains until October 20 on which date it was relieved by the 89th Division.
By that time it had driven a deep salient into the German lines by capturing most of the Bois de Bantheville, the very large wood which covers the tops of the hills to the left front, and which ends near Le Grand Carré Farm, seen just below the horizon to the left of front.
History records no more sustained and severe fighting than that on this front during October. The highly-organized positions of the Germans were defended with desperate tenacity by experienced troops.
The ground was ideal for defense, and that the necessity of holding it was evident to the Germans is clear from the following sentence of an order which the opposing German general issued to his men on October 1:
“The fate of a large portion of the Western Front, perhaps of our nation, depends on the firm holding of the Verdun Front.”
The American Army attacked incessantly and such lack of experience as existed in its divisions in the beginning was more than counterbalanced by the individual bravery and unbounded energy of its soldiers.
Their constant pressure gradually forced the enemy back so that by the end of October the First Army faced the last German line on this part of its front.
The bitterness of this fighting is attested by the 27,000 casualties suffered by the American 3d, 4th, 5th, 32d, 80th, 89th and 90th Divisions in the general vicinity of this cemetery.
On November 1, the First Army again drove forward, in what proved to be its last great attack, from a jump-off line which ran just this side of Le Grand Carré Farm.
The zone of action of the 90th Division included that farm near its left boundary. In line on its left was the 89th Division and then the 2d Division.
The immediate objective of the attack was Barricourt Heights, seen on the horizon to the right of the wood just beyond Le Grand Carré Farm, and the more distant objective was the lateral railroad running near Sedan.
The attack was a success and Barricourt Heights were captured by the 2nd and 89th Divisions on the first day. Hill 343, the wooded bill seen to the right of front was captured by the 90th Division on November 2.
By November 4 the German Army was in full retreat on this front, and by the morning of November 7 the troops of the First Army were on the heights of the river across from Sedan, 25 miles from here.
By November 11, the day of the Armistice, the Meuse River had been crossed in several places and the American Army was pushing rapidly on beyond it.
Thus the war ended with a glorious victory for the American Army. Those who sleep on this hillside and their comrades in death who now rest in the cerneteries of America had not fought in vain.