Forgotten Dead? The Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery revisited.

In a follow on film to our recent episode about the Battlefields of the Meuse-Argonne Offensive in September 1918, we explore the American Cemetery at Romagne and ask are the American dead from the Great War forgotten? This is the largest US War Cemetery in Europe with over 14,000 graves, and despite the size and scale of cemeteries like these, are these men among the 'forgotten dead' more than a century after the Great War?
Podcast website page for this Vlog: oldfrontline.co.uk/2024/04/11...
Podcast on Apple: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast...
Podcast on Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/7AO6ihE...
Patreon: / oldfrontline
BuyMeACoffee: www.buymeacoffee.com/oldfront...

[@buzzybee8463]

It really hurts my soul that these men and women who gave everything for a better world and today the world is a mess 😥

[@OldFrontLine]

All the more important to remember them, I think.

[@SteveMikre44]

Outstanding video and a vital reminder on the importance of remembering all the fallen of the Great War...🕊

[@OldFrontLine]

Thank you!

[@michaelmalone9062]

Thanks for the excellent video about the Meuse-Argonne Cemetery. I learned about the battle from my Pennsylvania Uncle who survived and returned home. 79th Division

[@OldFrontLine]

Thanks, and nice to hear about your connection to those battlefields.

[@Jokso68]

Fascinating site indeed. Remember the feeling from when I was there last summer. Almost 1%, 134 of those around 14000, was soldiers and immigrants, born in Sweden. I have mapped them all in my database, and it is probably about those my next book will be about, from where they were born, and how they ended up in this cemetery. Thank you for your work.

[@OldFrontLine]

Thanks, Jocke! Look forward to your book on this!

[@Jokso68]

@@OldFrontLine Thanks Paul, I was checking my numbers again, it is actually 153 of them, when including the names on memorial of the missing. 🙏

[@brocklanders6969]

Thanks for the tour and your insight/knowledge.

[@OldFrontLine]

Glad you found it interesting!

[@keithfowler2013]

Well said, Paul.
RIP The Doughboys and Girls.

[@OldFrontLine]

Thanks, Keith.

[@historyinyourhand1787]

Great video Paul. Really learnt some stuff from this 👍

[@OldFrontLine]

Thanks, Rob!

[@georgegeyer3431]

As long as you can bring their story to us, they will live forever.

[@OldFrontLine]

Thank you, I hope so.

[@TheHampshireHopper92]

It’s a shame that there hasn’t been many films/tv series made about the Americans in ww1. Can only really think of the Lost Battalion film.
Maybe hanks/spielburg could do a series about the AEF as their next project? Help promote America’s involvement in ww1.

[@FilipDePreter]

Thanks for the vlog Paul. I found it, and still do, very ackward one can drive through the Cemetery.

[@OldFrontLine]

Yes, that aspect is a bit different isn’t it?

[@FilipDePreter]

@@OldFrontLine Totally.

[@davidhitchen8070]

Great video as usual

[@OldFrontLine]

Thank you!

[@CJ87317]

We visited in 2018. Like all American cemeteries, it was amazing. I think my favorite was Saint Mihiel American Cemetery an hour or two away.

[@OldFrontLine]

I’m glad you went and also to St Mihiel, too.

[@CJ87317]

Hell, I think we visited all of our WWI cemeteries in France (Brookwood, Aisne-Marne, Oise-Aisne, Meuse-Argonne, Somme, and St Mihiel). My wife and I hit most of the big American sites for the war while we were there.
There is a lot more to see for the American effort than people think, that's for sure. We're often told that we hardly mattered (and just the opposite for WWII when we typically claim way too much credit), but it's obvious when you're in France that isn't the case. There were a few different French villages where locals told us they wouldn't have won The Great War without us. It was humbling.

[@Jeffybonbon]

I always think the GIs buried in Europe are not forgotten a lot of GIs were repatriated back to the states and were buried in small cemetery's and for one reason or another familes who visited the graves of the GI have passed on and the graves have been forgotten and in some cases lost the ones who lie in France are lucky to have there graves tendered I think reparation has a double edged blade its a fine cemetery you have visited and every time i have been there was no other visitors for some odd reason

[@OldFrontLine]

Hi - these aren’t GIs though, this is the WW1 dead who don’t seem to be as well remembered in America compared to those who died on D-Day for example?

[@Jeffybonbon]

@@OldFrontLineyou called them Joes they are GIs The term GI originally meant galvanized iron and was stamped on trash cans and boxes. During ww1 and ww2 servicememebers started to refer to themselves as GI's stating that they are mass produced troops. It became slang among sevicemembers to say GI when
referring to American troops

[@CJ87317]

@@Jeffybonbon GIs didn't really take off till WWII. In WWI they were generally still called doughboys.

[@Jeffybonbon]

@@CJ87317 THe GI label was used in ww1

[@Bruce-1956]

Next time i'm in the Champagne I will take a trip there. #wewillrememberthem

[@OldFrontLine]

It’s well worth it!

[@edwil111]

I had never heard that French called them 'Sammys'.

[@OldFrontLine]

It’s interesting how these names develop!