The Meuse-Argonne Offensive began on September 26,
1918 and would be the United States’ biggest military engagement.[1] With
trench warfare dominating the battlefield for nearly four years of the war
American artillery, General Charles Summerall, searched to find a way to help
launch attacks between the trench lines known as “No Man’s Land.” This attack
led Summerall to perfect a new type of fighting technique known as the
“Creeping Barrage” which entailed the firing artillery, making their mark slightly
before the intended target, allowing the smoke from the shells to mask their
troops from the enemy. During the opening day of the offensive, the United
States launched an extensive artillery attack on German lines in hopes of
taking the railroads held by the Germans. Once the artillery began to die down,
American and French infantry led the attack to make a push to take and secure
the rail yards. One American soldier, William Triplet, talked about the
confusion of the battle on the 26th saying, “I was looking all around trying to
find some part of our battalion but everybody in sight seemed to be strangers.
Looked like we must be up in the middle of the 138th.”[2] Pushed back as the fighting continued, the
Germans would finally hold their position at a point known as the Giselher
Line. As the offensive seemed to turn into a stalemate in early October,
American General Pershing ordered an attack on the German lines. During this
advance, the 308th American Infantry Unit would lose contact with other American
companies on the flank and become lost in the Argonne.
For nearly a week, the 308th wandered in the Argonne until German units surrounded them. With their line of the communication cut off, the company used carrier pigeons in an attempt to make contact with headquarters. A few days later a plane spotted the battalion, reported its location, and they were rescued by the 77th Division. The story earned the battalion the name “The Lost Battalion.” As the American continued their thrust into the German lines well into mid-October, they stopped shortly to re-supply and to rest. One division commander William M. Wright wrote about potential gas warnings that the army faced during their rest in the early hours of the morning of October 15. “The night passed quietly except for a couple of gas alarms. Got up about six o’clock. About seven o’clock went over to the posts of command of Generals Winans and McCoy of Thirty-Second Division.”[3] The Germans being pushed by the British and the French on one side of their lines and the other by the Americans began to grow tired as they struggled to hold their lines at the beginning of November. After much artillery shelling, that included the use of sulfur mustard gas on the German lines, the Americans attempted to break through to cross the Meuse River. Expecting an assault, the Germans laid down mines and set explosives on the bridges. When parts of the American 77th and 89th Divisions reached these bridges over the Meuse, the Germans detonated the charges hoping to delay the American troops from crossing. American forces were able to take a higher ground after making a night attack on German machine gun positions, which broaden the Allied Front giving the Americans two other places to cross.[4] As U.S Marines engaged with German machine guns in the final days of the war, they continued to stab at the German lines in an attempt to force them back. All the same action, by November 8th most of the fighting on the front had died out as the rumors that a signing of an armistice between the Central and Allied Powers would take place. On November 11th at 11:00 A.M the rumor would come true as the Central Powers offered an armistice to end the greatest war the world had ever known. With the word of the war’s ending spreading throughout the ranks, the American troops found a sense of relief. Samuel Kent wrote as his division prepared for the end of the war, “We were prepared to go “over the top” again this morning, when word came that the armistice had been signed, and all hostilities and firing would cease at 11 o’clock a.m.-but not a minute before.”[5] With the war coming to an end the mind of the soldiers turning to the to the prospects of returning home. American aerial observer Mortimer Lawrence wrote home about the end, “I must take advantage of all opportunities now, for soon we will be so busy that I won’t be able to find any. But the dangerous part is over for good, I hope. It is just a question of time now before we will be home.”[6]
[1] Edwin H. Simmons and Joseph H. Alexander, Through the Wheat: The U.s. Marines in World War I (Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 2011), 219.
[2] William S. Triplet, A Youth in the Meuse-Argonne: A Memoir, 1917-1918, ed. Robert H. Ferrell (Columbia, Mo.: University of Missouri Press, 2000), 167.
[3] William M. Wright, Meuse-Argonne Diary: A Division Commander in World War I, ed. Robert H. Ferrell (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2004), 77.
[4] Ferrell, America's Deadliest Battle: Meuse-Argonne, 1918, 146.
[5] Martin Marix Evans, ed., American Voices of World War I: Primary Source Documents, 1917-1920 (London: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 2001), T83.
[6] Lawrence, Mortimer M. Lawrence, “Eyes Of The Army: The Life and Letters of World War I AerialObserver Lt. Mortimer M. Lawrence,” last modified June 6th, 2010, accessed September 1, 2014,
http://eyesofthearmy.dva.state.wi.us/.
[7] "Pigeon Message from Capt. Whittlesey to the Commanding Officer of the 308th Infantry." Accessed September
7, 2014, http://research.archives.gov/description/595541.
[8] "Lost Battalion Survivors Immediately After the Event." Accessed September 5, 2014, http://prosites
-johnrcotter.homestead.com/files/lostbattalion.jpg.
For nearly a week, the 308th wandered in the Argonne until German units surrounded them. With their line of the communication cut off, the company used carrier pigeons in an attempt to make contact with headquarters. A few days later a plane spotted the battalion, reported its location, and they were rescued by the 77th Division. The story earned the battalion the name “The Lost Battalion.” As the American continued their thrust into the German lines well into mid-October, they stopped shortly to re-supply and to rest. One division commander William M. Wright wrote about potential gas warnings that the army faced during their rest in the early hours of the morning of October 15. “The night passed quietly except for a couple of gas alarms. Got up about six o’clock. About seven o’clock went over to the posts of command of Generals Winans and McCoy of Thirty-Second Division.”[3] The Germans being pushed by the British and the French on one side of their lines and the other by the Americans began to grow tired as they struggled to hold their lines at the beginning of November. After much artillery shelling, that included the use of sulfur mustard gas on the German lines, the Americans attempted to break through to cross the Meuse River. Expecting an assault, the Germans laid down mines and set explosives on the bridges. When parts of the American 77th and 89th Divisions reached these bridges over the Meuse, the Germans detonated the charges hoping to delay the American troops from crossing. American forces were able to take a higher ground after making a night attack on German machine gun positions, which broaden the Allied Front giving the Americans two other places to cross.[4] As U.S Marines engaged with German machine guns in the final days of the war, they continued to stab at the German lines in an attempt to force them back. All the same action, by November 8th most of the fighting on the front had died out as the rumors that a signing of an armistice between the Central and Allied Powers would take place. On November 11th at 11:00 A.M the rumor would come true as the Central Powers offered an armistice to end the greatest war the world had ever known. With the word of the war’s ending spreading throughout the ranks, the American troops found a sense of relief. Samuel Kent wrote as his division prepared for the end of the war, “We were prepared to go “over the top” again this morning, when word came that the armistice had been signed, and all hostilities and firing would cease at 11 o’clock a.m.-but not a minute before.”[5] With the war coming to an end the mind of the soldiers turning to the to the prospects of returning home. American aerial observer Mortimer Lawrence wrote home about the end, “I must take advantage of all opportunities now, for soon we will be so busy that I won’t be able to find any. But the dangerous part is over for good, I hope. It is just a question of time now before we will be home.”[6]
[1] Edwin H. Simmons and Joseph H. Alexander, Through the Wheat: The U.s. Marines in World War I (Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 2011), 219.
[2] William S. Triplet, A Youth in the Meuse-Argonne: A Memoir, 1917-1918, ed. Robert H. Ferrell (Columbia, Mo.: University of Missouri Press, 2000), 167.
[3] William M. Wright, Meuse-Argonne Diary: A Division Commander in World War I, ed. Robert H. Ferrell (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2004), 77.
[4] Ferrell, America's Deadliest Battle: Meuse-Argonne, 1918, 146.
[5] Martin Marix Evans, ed., American Voices of World War I: Primary Source Documents, 1917-1920 (London: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 2001), T83.
[6] Lawrence, Mortimer M. Lawrence, “Eyes Of The Army: The Life and Letters of World War I AerialObserver Lt. Mortimer M. Lawrence,” last modified June 6th, 2010, accessed September 1, 2014,
http://eyesofthearmy.dva.state.wi.us/.
[7] "Pigeon Message from Capt. Whittlesey to the Commanding Officer of the 308th Infantry." Accessed September
7, 2014, http://research.archives.gov/description/595541.
[8] "Lost Battalion Survivors Immediately After the Event." Accessed September 5, 2014, http://prosites
-johnrcotter.homestead.com/files/lostbattalion.jpg.