Men from Henderson County who were killed in action during World War I were primarily involved in five major battles.

1. Battle of Cantigny. Cantigny is a small village north of Paris in the Picardy region of France. It was held by the German Army. On May 28, 1918, the First Division attacked and defeated the German forces in the village and held it against repeated German counterattacks, despite suffering more than 1,000 casualties.

2. Battle of Soissons was fought near the French town Soisson from July 18 to July 22, 1918. The French reinforced by Allied troops including eight large U.S. divisions under U.S. command, and 350 tanks, sought to stop the German threat aimed at Paris. The battle ended with the French and Allies recapturing most of the ground lost to the Germans in May 1918. America suffered about 12,000 casualties.

3. Battle of the Hindenburg Line occurred from Sept. 28 to Oct. 8, 1918. The Hindenburg Line was a German defensive position built during the winter of 1916–1917 on the Western Front. American and French armies began attacking Sept. 26 from the Rheims to the Meuse Rivers. The line was also attacked by Allies in the Flanders region of Belgium and by Allies in areas along the entire line. In nine days British, French and U.S. forces crossed the Canal du Nord, broke through the Hindenburg Line and took 36,000 prisoners and 380 guns.On Oct. 4 the German government requested an armistice and on Oct. 8 the German armies were ordered to retreat from the Hindenburg Line.

4. Battles in the Flanders region of Belgium and near the town of Ypres in Belgium occurred throughout the entire war. Ypres occupied a strategic position because it stood in the path of Germany’s planned sweep across the rest of Belgium and into France from the north. The region was fought over from October 1914 until practically the end of the war in November 1918.

5. The Meuse-Argonne Offensive, also called the Battle of the Argonne Forest, was a part of the final Allied offensive that stretched along the entire western front. It was fought from September 26 to Nov. 11, 1918, in France. The Meuse-Argonne battle was the largest frontline commitment of troops by the U.S. Army in World War I and the Army’s deadliest.

“In Flanders Fields” is a poem written during World War I by Canadian physician and Lt. Col. John McCrae. Inspired by the poem, American professor Moina Michael resolved at the war’s end to wear a red poppy to honor the men who died in the war. She distributed silk poppies and campaigned to have the red poppy adopted as an official symbol of remembrance by the American Legion.

“In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.”