Is there documentation of World War 1 ruins happened upon by World War 2 soldiers?

by 500dollarsinprizes
OhGodMoreRoadRash

Yes, there is. The US 5th Infantry Division not only encountered the Verdun and Meuse-Argonne battlefields, but even occupied and fought over several positions and fortifications that had been dug or used during the First World War. To quote several passages from the division history:

“During this period [31 August through the first week of September, 1944] the Fifth Division was entering the area over which some of the most bitter battles of the First World War were fought. Military cemeteries became an increasingly frequent sight. American, French, and German crosses covered several of the hillsides. The woods to either side of the road were crisscrossed by trenches and zig-zag fortifications. Mounds of earth in circular or semi-circular formation marked the location of half-forgotten batteries of artillery, and powder-white craters marked the scene of barrages hurled across the hills that were seeing their second great war in a quarter of a century.

During the action near CLERMONT a small [German] delaying force set up their weapons in a grass-covered emplacement, dug sometime in 1917, and succeeded in holding the advance of our elements for a considerable period of time. As the Division moved deeper into the hallowed battlefields, the names of many well known battle sites flashed before them, MONTFAUCON, MEUSE, MEUSE-ARGONNE, CHATEAU-THIERRY—surely the ghosts of the first AEF [American Expeditionary Force] were watching as the dusty columns poured down the roads after the fleeing Boche.”

The history pauses in its description of the battlefields to inform us of the state of the enemy at this time before continuing:

“VERDUN- that name will live forever in the hearts and minds of all who participated in or even heard about, the heroic defense made thereby the beleaguered French Armies from 1916 to the close of the Great War. It was here that the immortal phrase: ‘They shall not pass’ had been born. As the Tenth Combat Team [10th Regimental Combat Team, built around the 10th Infantry Regiment] approached the town, they encountered the scars of the conflicts that raged there over 26 years before. Great stretches of untilled land stretched away from the roads on either hand; signs in English, French and German stated that the waste lands were still dangerous to the careless wanderer, still laden with deadly hand grenades, and mines. Now and then one could see in a litter of rusty equipment, helmets, bayonets, barbed wire, and canteens. Trenches zig-zagged in every direction; the hills were pock-marked with shell holes until the whole area resembled nothing so much as a heaving sea. Limited reconnaissance by personnel of the Division yielded views of deep dug-outs and command posts, some with the musty furniture and rotten blankets lying where the former occupants had dropped them. Stories were brought back of the discovery of bones, shoes, and great shell cases strewn over the desolate area. It was at once an eerie and awe-inspiring sight.

       The Tenth Infantry Command Post was set up in the historic FORT DE DOUAUMONT. It was this famous fortification that repulsed assault after assault by the grey-clad German hordes in 1917. From here the charge by two battalions of Senegalese and French One Hundred Thirty-Seventh Infantry Regiment began that ended in the tragic TRENCH OF BAYONETS that resulted when German mines and artillery blew up a captured trench and buried alive practically the entire attacking force. The trench has been made into a monument by the French Government. One can still see the rifles and bayonets thrust through the ground as though still held by the decayed hands of their owners.”

The history again returns to the war currently at hand, describing harassment and bombing by German aircraft at Verdun and the movement of division elements east of the city. It briefly makes passing mention of occupying defensive positions in First World War vintage emplacements and then moves onto the topic of the logistical problems experienced by Third Army at the time, before returning for final comments on the old battlefields:

“The Fifth Division was immobilized in the VERDUN area from 1st of September to the 6th of September. All around the battalions stretched the wastes of another war, a war in which it took months to make a move of from 1000 yards to two miles. There were all the signs of the terrible struggle to take or hold a hill, a woods, or a line- the trenches, the wire, heavy with the rust of a quarter century, the mustard gas deposits, the personal debris, all there, all undisturbed.

It was a soldier’s museum; there stood the Ossuary, housing the remains of 40,000 solders picked up from the battlefields. In the cemetery outside of the Ossuary were the markers of 17,000 graces faced toward the East as if still on guard against the German Armies. In other areas there were level stretches of land completely devoid of rubble, with monuments like the one reading: ‘Here was the village of Fleury, destroyed in 1916.’”

The above is taken from The Fifth Infantry Division in the ETO, the 5th ID’s official history published at the end of World War II. The 1st Infantry Division’s history, Danger Forward, makes mention of encountering monuments around Mons; I’m not at home at the moment so I can’t quote from it, but I will check it and the histories of a few other divisions that ran over First World War battlefields during August of 1944. If I find anything worth adding onto what I’ve provided above I’ll tack on a part two.