Name/Title
StereographEntry/Object ID
2023.055.3.0128Description
A black and white stereograph. Image is of a desolate landscape, several dead trees litter the ground, a uniformed man stands in the foreground while two other men stand in the midground. Above the image "W94 (Star)" is printed, below the image "V18834 Desolate Waste on Chemin des Dames Battlefield, France." is printed, to the left of the image "Keystone View Company Copyrighted, Underwood & Underwood, Inc. Manufacturers MADE IN U.S.A. Publishers" is printed, to the right of the image "Meadville, Pa., New York, N. Y., Chicago, Ill., London, England." is printed. On the reverse the following is printed:
V18834
DESOLATE WASTE ON CHEMIN DES DAMES BATTLEFIELD,FRANCE
Nowhere on the Western front was there more terrible fighting or more utter desolation of a once levely countryside than on the plateau lying northeast of Soissons, which has come to be known in hsitory as the Chemin de Dames. "Scarred beyond recognzition, the earth churned over a thousand times by the bursting shells, this rolling country-side will not regain its beauty for generations."
Because its southern crests, rising above the Aisne dominated the country for a long distance southward, the British fought hard to conquer the plateau in the latter half of September, 1914, after the first battle of the Marne. They succeeded in getting up the hills at some points but not in gaining the main ridge. Then in January, 1915, after the British army had removed to the left flank of the battle line near the sea coast, the French attempted again to conquer the plateau, but were forced back futhet than ever by a pwoerufl German counter-attack.
The plateau was now covered by the Germans with a vast network of trenches, gun emplacements and undergournd shelters, upon which the French made no further serious attempts until April, 1917, when two great armies attacked them. In this attack and another, made in the autumn, the French, at awful sacrifice of life, drove the Germans clear north of the Ailette. The following winter among the divisions which at differente times held the famous ridge was the 26th America, the "Yankee Divisision." But the Germans came back and were not driven out until OCtober, 1918, a few weeks vefore the close of the war.
Copyright by The Keystone View CompnayCollection
Photograph Collection