While the last “Poilu” (French, World War 1 soldier) has just passed away, the "Conseil Général de la Meuse" has decided to commemorate the 90th Anniversary of the Franco-American Offensives in the Meuse and the Armistice, for several reasons..

The Battle of Verdun in 1916, marked a climax in the clashes between the French and the Germans. This horrendous massacre made the Meuse into an international symbol of the Great War. The Unknown Soldier was chosen here, and since the Armistice, numerous heads of state and ambassadors have come to pay homage to him on the battle field.

It must be remembered that it is in the Meuse, that two gigantic American offensives took place in the autumn of 1918. Already before the United States officially entered the war on 6^th April 1917, a number of voluntary American ambulance drivers had come to transport the wounded French soldiers. Then, in June 1917, the first troops of the American Expeditionary Force arrived in the south of the department for training.

On 12th September 1918, with the help of the French, the first great American offensive began, in order to recover the Saint-Mihiel Sailient, a sector to the south-east of the department, occupied by the Germans since the beginning of the war. The sector was re-conquered in only three days. Ten days later, 500 000 Americans, 100 000 Frenchmen, 2 780 pieces of artillery, 380 tanks and 840 planes, engaged in the Meuse-Argonne offensive. 

Despite heavy casualties between 26th September and 10th November, their victorious progression pushed the Germans back to the north of the department. This massive American engagement with approximately one million soldiers passing through the Meuse, including Patton, Marshall & Truman, precipitated the end of the war. It is here that the Americans fought in the first great battle outside their own country.