Now all roads lead to France and heavy is the tread
Of the living; but the dead returning lightly dance.
Edward Thomas, Roads

Sunday, October 16, 2016

Those Old Michelin Battlefield Guides, #2 The St. Mihiel Salient



When I first started Roads to the Great War, I recommended the original Michelin Battlefield Guides as a great source of  battlefield images. Immediately after the war, these guides – produced by the Michelin Tire Company – were state-of-the-art helpers for tourists. Today, however, they would just get you lost. The roads, visual landmarks, and signage today are quite different from those of the 1920s. Nevertheless,  their historical summaries photos are still superb and quite unique. I promised to share some of their images with our readers but forgot (temporarily for three years) about it. Here are a dozen images for you from the St. Mihiel Salient, which, even today, has such an amazing collection of interesting sites to see that it is in effect an outdoor museum of the Great War.

I've selected some images I've never seen in other works with their original captions. They can be found in the guide titled The Americans in the Great War, Vol II: The Battle of Saint Mihiel.




























3 comments:

  1. So, what map would you recommend for today's tourist?

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  2. I have a handful of the guides and absolutely love them.

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  3. Couldn't agree more about how special these guides are.

    ReplyDelete