Forest of Argonne

The Forest of Argonne (French pronunciation: [aʁɡɔn] ⓘ) is a long strip of mountainous and wild woodland in northeastern France, approximately 200 km (120 mi) east of Paris.

The forest measures roughly 65 km (40 mi) long and 15 km (9 mi) wide filled with many small hills and deep valleys formed by water run-off from the Aire and Aisne rivers rarely exceeding more than 200 m (650 ft) in elevation.

[2] In 1792, Charles François Dumouriez outmaneuvered the invading forces of the Duke of Brunswick in the forest before the Battle of Valmy.

During the Meuse–Argonne offensive (1918), several United States Army soldiers earned the Medal of Honor there, including Colonel Nelson Miles Holderman, Major Charles White Whittlesey, Sergeant Alvin C. York, Corporal Harold W. Roberts and William Henry Johnson (a.k.a.

The World War I Montfaucon American Monument consists of a large granite Doric column surmounted by a statue symbolic of Liberty.

Location of Forest of Argonne in northeastern France
Forest of Argonne in 1915
Forest of Argonne in a valley near Chatel-Chéhéry , France, where Sgt. Henry Johnson , known after his heroic battle as the Black Death, and Sgt. Alvin C. York fought in World War I
U.S. soldiers in the Argonne Forest resting in a trench, 1918