CHAPTER XVII
THE WORLD’S GREATEST BATTLE
CONSIDERING the numbers engaged, the severity of the defense, thedifficulty of dislodging a foe entrenched with nature’s aid, and thedash, energy and destructive work of the offensive, the fight for theArgonne has no equal in the records of mankind. This has been theverdict of many witnesses; not alone those with the desire to givepraise to their fellow Americans, but alien critics also have affirmedit.
History has recorded many bloody encounters of modern times. Waterloo,the Bloody Angle, Pickett’s charge--these are but a few instancesof the pluck and bravery that men will show when facing an equallydetermined enemy. The greatest war has furnished innumerable evidencesthat men are no less courageous than in former times.
As we have seen, it was a trick of the Germans, practiced over andover again, to vacate a position under pressure and at night, when thevictors had paused to reinforce and count results, to come back again,occupying much of the ground they had vacated during the day. Butthe Americans soon discovered this ruse and looked for it; they alsofollowed the Huns more closely and held all of the ground taken fromthem.
Greater dash, a more complete disregard for danger which amounted inmany cases to individual foolhardiness, causing at the same time theenemy to feel that he was up against foemen that outclassed him inthat sort of thing, had much to do with the winning streak that theYanks maintained. The Germans fooled themselves into thinking thatthey were above defeat where the great forest, its ravines and hills,afforded them such protection, but this was the sort of thing that theAmericans--many of them hunters, sportsmen, woodsmen, mountaineers,or with vacation experiences in such places and having the hereditaryinstincts of ancestors who were pioneers--now welcomed.
This manner of fighting took from the Germans their naturalinclinations following their training as a body of men who dependedupon the spirit of comradeship and who were only at their best whenfighting shoulder to shoulder. But it was exactly according to theAmerican standards and training, showing clearly the superiority ofthe latter method of making each man depend on himself. Moreover, itwas what is known as open fighting, differing from trench warfare andthough the opposing forces often fortified themselves behind naturalrock masses and within thickets and groves, they were not as fixed asin the elaborate dugouts and fortresses beneath the surface of theground. In some instances, however, over officers had erected cabins orstone huts.
The fighting in the Argonne occurred mostly in the daytime and exceptwhere some few night raids were carried out with slight gain eitherway, the opposing forces were content to lie in wait until earlymorning hours, when they again leaped at each other’s throats, theYanks doing most of the jumping and the Huns getting the larger part ofthe throttling. Then, until the fall of darkness again, the battle wenton uninterruptedly.
Naturally, slow progress was made in the forest. Between the AireRiver, which skirts the Argonne region on the east, and the Meuse,an average of twelve miles away, the attacking Americans got on muchfaster, taking village after village and compelling the Germans tofall back continually. Units of other divisions cleared the immediatevalley of the Aire of Huns, but before all this was done the now famous77th Division had penetrated into the very center of the forest and wasstill going strong. After pausing to make good the ground and re-form,the drive was resumed in the early morning of October 4th, the soundsthereof conveying the glad fact to Herbert Whitcomb, Don Richards andtheir brave little company.
The open farming section to the west of the Argonne was vacated bythe Germans after the St. Mihiel battle and the severe fighting onthe Vesle. The Huns knew they could not hold this section against thecombined French and Americans; therefore, they retired to within theforest proper, believing that nothing could dislodge them there and itbecame the job of the Americans alone to prove them wrong.
Where a successful offensive is conducted, even against open formationsor ordinary trenches, the attacking force necessarily outnumbersthe defenders and this was the case in the Argonne battle, but thedifferences were not by any means as great as might have been expected,considering the terrain and the decisiveness of the defeat.
In many separate actions, or what might be termed somewhat isolatedfights, where bodies of Americans were separated from their fellows,though the Germans managed generally to keep in touch with each other,the defenders also decisively beaten at these points, often greatlyoutnumbered the attacking forces. Sheer inability to recognize thepossibility of being beaten or even seriously repulsed carried theYanks on to victory, compelling the foe to give way before theirterrific onslaughts.
This sort of fighting while it lasted did not surprise the Americancommanders, but the English, French and Italian officers detailed tovisit the American command viewed with astonishment the result ofthe battle. Never before had they seen such persistent energy andcool determination shown by an army of such large numbers. Only theCanadians and Australians, on certain smaller occasions, demonstratedthe more hardy purpose and tenacity of men from less densely settledcountries where the pioneer spirit still prevails.
May it be that, however advanced our country becomes in the nicetiesand needs of civilization, however earnestly we come to adhere to thosefiner traits of national integrity and purer manliness, we stillretain much of that pioneer spirit which made of our forefathers thekind of men to gain the greatest nation on earth.
The Brighton Boys in the Argonne Forest Page 18
