DESCRIPTION OF THE TOUR.
(See outline map, p. 39.)
The following itinerary includes practically all the places in the battle area where the troops of the 1st and 3rd American Army Corps distinguished themselves.
In May, 1919, deeply moving traces of the fierce fighting were visible all along the road, and will probably long continue to exist.
The ruined villages are as the shells and bombs left them. Everywhere are branchless trees and stumps, shell craters roughly filled in, trenches, barbed wire entanglements, and shelters for men and ammunition. Thousands of shells, shell casings, rifles, gun-limbers, and machine-guns lie scattered about.
Corpses are occasionally seen.
Before the War this part of the country was one of the prettiest and most interesting in France. In nearly every village there was either an old church, a castle, or ruins of archæological interest.