Meuse-Argonne Offensive

Background

By the late summer of 1918 the German offensives of the spring had failed, and the Allies under Marshal Ferdinand Foch were attacking along the Western Front. Foch planned a series of converging blows for the end of September. The American part was a drive north from the area of Verdun, between the Meuse River and the Argonne Forest, toward the railway through Sedan and Mézières that supplied much of the German army in France. The French Fourth Army would attack on the Americans' left.

General John J. Pershing's First Army had just fought its first large battle at St Mihiel, from 12 to 16 September. In about ten days it had to move hundreds of thousands of men and their guns some 100 km to the new front, mostly by night, a transfer planned largely by Colonel George C. Marshall. The ground favored the defender. The Argonne was a tangle of wooded ridges and ravines, the heights east of the Meuse gave German gunners a view across the American right, and the hill of Montfaucon stood in the center. The Germans had fortified the sector for four years in several belts, the strongest of which was the Kriemhilde Stellung.

The Battle

The attack opened on 26 September after a bombardment by about 2,700 guns. Nine American divisions, several with little or no combat experience, advanced with French-built Renault tanks and several hundred aircraft in support. They gained ground on the first day, but Montfaucon did not fall until 27 September, and the Germans rushed in reserves. Within days the advance stalled amid congested roads, supply failures, rain and machine-gun fire.

Pershing brought in veteran divisions and renewed the attack on 4 October. In the Argonne, troops of the 77th Division under Major Charles Whittlesey were cut off in a ravine from 2 to 7 October. Of roughly 550 men, fewer than 200 walked out unhurt when they were relieved. On 8 October, near Châtel-Chéhéry, Corporal Alvin York of the 82nd Division took charge of a patrol that had lost most of its leaders, silenced a line of German machine guns and helped bring in 132 prisoners. The forest was cleared by about 10 October. On 14 October American troops broke into the Kriemhilde Stellung around Romagne and the Côte Dame Marie.

In mid-October Pershing handed the First Army to Lieutenant General Hunter Liggett, who rested and reorganized it. The last phase began on 1 November with a well-prepared assault that broke through the final German line. The Americans then pursued the retreating Germans to the Meuse, and by 7 November they held the heights overlooking Sedan. The Armistice of 11 November ended the fighting.

Weapons

Most American infantry carried the M1917 Enfield. Regular Army units had the M1903 Springfield, and officers, machine gunners and many sergeants carried the M1911 Pistol. The usual automatic rifle was the French Chauchat, which jammed readily in the mud. The new M1918 BAR reached some divisions from September. Much of the Americans' heavy equipment was French, including the Hotchkiss M1914 machine gun and the French 75 field gun. American soldiers wore a steel helmet copied from the British Brodie Helmet.

The German defense rested on the machine gun. Crews with the MG 08, the German form of the Maxim Gun, fought from concealed nests that covered one another, backed by artillery firing high explosive and gas. German riflemen carried the Mauser Gewehr 98.

Aftermath

About 1.2 million Americans took part over 47 days. American losses were roughly 26,000 killed and 95,000 wounded, more dead than in any other battle in the country's history. German casualties are less certain. They are often put at around 100,000 or more, including some 26,000 prisoners. Historians have criticized the First Army's early tactics and supply arrangements, and have also noted how quickly it learned. Together with British and French attacks farther north and west, the offensive helped force Germany to seek an armistice. More than 14,000 of the dead lie in the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery at Romagne, the largest American military cemetery in Europe.

On Screen

Sergeant York (1941), directed by Howard Hawks, stars Gary Cooper as Alvin York and gives its last part to the action of 8 October 1918. It follows the outline of the event, including the ambushed patrol and the 132 prisoners. It arms York with a Springfield rifle and a Luger P08; he most likely carried an M1917 Enfield and certainly used an M1911 pistol. It also plays down the part of the other men in the patrol. The Lost Battalion (2001), a television film directed by Russell Mulcahy, has Rick Schroder as Major Charles Whittlesey and covers the five days in the ravine, including the American barrage that fell on the position by mistake and the carrier pigeon that carried the message to stop it. The unit was in fact a mixed force from several battalions, and its location was known throughout.