AEF Places: Then and Now

This is an article I put together about 2004 with contributions from the readers of my Doughboy Center website. MH

Wilson Avenue: Paris

The Marines passing in review on 4 July 1918, were honoring the naming of a Paris street after President Wilson. They are crossing the Place d'Iena, which is a few blocks from the Arc de Triomphe. The round building is currently the Guimet National Museum of Asiatic Art. (photo taken July 2004)

Contributed by Doug Gangler

Pannes: St. Mihiel Sector

Photographed on 26 September 1918. Located about 5 miles from Montsec and 3 miles from Thiacourt. Captured by the 167th and 168th Infantry, on 12 September.
The two Regiments were part of the famed 42nd Rainbow Division, MG Charles T. Menoher commanding. On the right is Pannes in July, 2003.

Contributed by Doug Gangler

Cochem: Occupied Rhineland

Cochem is 24 miles SW of Coblenz and situated on the Moselle River. It was designated on 21 December 1918 as the HQ of the IV Corps, Third Army, the American Army of Occupation. Caption with the U.S. Signals Corps photo of 1919 states: "SGT MAJ Owens, 12th Machine Gun Battalion, and Miss R.D. Holmes, YMCA Worker, at the town and castle of Cochem on the Moselle River." Current shot taken July 2004.

Contributed by Doug Gangler

Chaumont: Department of Haute Marne

General Headquarters of the AEF, located sixty miles south of Verdun. Soldiers walking on the town's main street are wearing the GHQ shoulder patch.

Contributed by Michele Christides who's mother Oleda was stationed as a Signal Corps Hello Girl [Telephone Operator] at Chaumont.

Exermont: Argonne Forest

Exermont is a small burg in the Meuse-Argonne, about two miles east of Chatel-Chéhéry and six miles west of Montfaucon, that was the scene of terrific fighting in early October 1918. The two period U.S. Signals Corps photos were taken in rapid sequence on 7 October, and show first Doughboys of the 18th Infantry 1st Division [left photo] examining a German casualty in the road, then moments later heading for shelter from incoming shellfire (the front line was about 3 miles north at this time).