CHATEAU THIERRY: A Friendly Guide for American Pilgrims to the Shrines between the Marne and the Vesle

NEW copy. Historical facsimile edition of the original 1919 edition by The Lafayette Publishing Company, Paris. Maps, illustrations, 24 pages. ~~~ " . . . touring the battle sites at
Chateau Thierry, Vaux, Belleau Woods, Bouresches, La Voie du Chatel, La Loge Farm, Coupru, Bezu-le-Guery, along the Marne, Soissons, Berzy-le-Sec, Vierzy, Chavigny Ferme, Longpont, Juvigny, along the River Ourcq, Chateau de Fere & Fismes." ~~~ "This little book is designed as a friendly guide to accompany the American pilgrim on his journey among those landmarks in American history which the young troops from across the Atlantic left on the historic acres that lie between the Marne and the Vesle. ~~~ There is good reason to believe that Chateau-Thierry will always be the great American shrine in France --- not the old Marne city alone or chiefly, but rather the battlefield of which it became the tip when American machine0gunners met the Germans in its streets on the last day of May, 1918. ~~~ There are greater sights to see elsewhere, areas of greater destruction . . . But the Chateau-Thierry battlefield, that triangle of French soil which is marked off by Soissons, Rheims and Chateau-Thierry, is . . . the setting for a more dramatic story. There America made her first dramatic entry into the war. There American troops were braced to block the biggest and the last German thrust for Paris. And there American divisions played a superb part in the counter-offensive which marked the turning point of the world war." (from the Introduction, 1919). ~~~ Woolcott & Baldridge were two of the founding members of Stars & Stripes. In civilian life, Woolcott was theatre critic for the New Yorker, and would later be a key member of the Algonquin Roundtable.