To keep the AEF in the fore, Pershing made several counterproposals to Foch. While insisting on conducting the Saint-Mihiel operation, Pershing also offered to use the First Army to break through the frontlines between the Argonne Forest and the Meuse River. In other words, he committed at least 14 divisions to two major offensives 60 miles apart within the span of three weeks. In accepting the dual challenge of Saint-Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne, Pershing boasted that no other troops possessed “the offensive spirit” of the Americans.
Beginning on September 12, Pershing ordered the Americans to attack along two flanks of the Saint-Mihiel salient. With almost 3,000 guns blasting German targets, a brief artillery bombardment softened the defensive positions. A ruse by the skeletal VI Corps fooled a handful of enemy officers, who prepared for a strike to the southeast at Belfort. At 5:00 a.m., Liggett drove I Corps and Dickman steered IV Corps northward to Vigneulles. Because the British declined to furnish heavier tanks, Lieutenant Colonel George S. Patton commanded a light tank force in support of the advancing infantry. Three hours later, V Corps under General George H. Cameron penetrated the western flank of the salient and rolled southeasterly. The Germans abandoned guns, wagons, and supplies while fleeing to the north and to the east.
In two days, the First Army captured 15,000 German prisoners at a cost of fewer than 9,000 casualties. However, most German troops escaped to the Hindenburg Line to fight another day. An American brigade commander, General Douglas MacArthur, spied Metz through his binoculars but fumed that he was not permitted to smash the emplacements. Despite rain and fatigue, the Americans raced to their main objectives and sealed off the Saint-Mihiel salient on schedule.
The Americans pivoted to the northwest and began shifting their operations to the western bank of the Meuse River. General Hugh A. Drum, Pershing's Chief of Staff, assigned responsibility for planning to Colonel George C. Marshall, a staff member of the First Army's operations section. In a matter of two weeks, almost 600,000 men, 4,000 guns, 90,000 horses, and a million tons of supplies needed to move 60 miles across three dirt roads and light railways without detection by the Germans. “The only way to begin is to commence,” Marshall sighed while spreading a battlefield map on a table. Ostensibly, the Meuse-Argonne offensive of the First Army constituted the biggest logistical undertaking ever attempted by U.S. forces.
In the coming days, the First Army moved through the cover of darkness. With traffic jams at most intersections, the military police tried to keep the vehicles rolling while breaking up fistfights. Pedestrians slept in roadside tents, as the German shelling grew more intense by the mile. Assembling in the trenches after relieving French troops, units marked their attack lanes with white tape in the mud. Assigned to the 35th Division, Captain Harry Truman with Battery D of the 129th Field Artillery marched 200 men almost 100 miles in one week to his new position. “I'd rather be here,” the bespectacled officer announced before the operation commenced, “than be president of the United States.”
The First Army's area of operations stretched across a frontline nearly 20 miles wide, which placed Americans against an enemy occupying formidable defensive terrain. Four miles into the “outpost zone,” Montfaucon rose 1,122 feet above a series of lateral hills and ridges. In conjunction with their French counterparts to the west, the U.S. commanders of I, III, and V Corps prepared to thrust northward to break through the “in-depth” defenses. They would advance 10 miles in less than two days, or so Pershing predicted with optimism. Outflanking the German troops along the Aisne River, their main objective was the rail line between Carignan, Sedan, and Mézières.
At 5:30 a.m. on September 26, nothing was quiet on the Western Front. Whistles blew in the trenches, as determined officers ordered the rank and file “over the top.” Advancing almost shoulder to shoulder in a dense fog, the American infantry crossed the first line of German defenses behind a deadly artillery barrage. They pressed onward through repeated shelling, barbed wire, machine-gun fire, and aerial strafing. Despite confusion and delay, they assailed the high ground and captured Montfaucon a day later.
Slowed by congested roads and mechanical breakdowns, the First Army slogged through the mud but made little progress. Holding strong positions south of Cunel and Romagne, German machine guns mauled the American divisions at every turn. In addition, German artillery poured enfilading fire onto them from the heights of the Meuse and the Argonne Forest. As the bodies hit the ground, sinister puffs of yellow smoke announced the onset of a gas attack. The living and the dead remained motionless in ditches, craters, foxholes, and dugouts, while the stragglers streamed to the rear in search of food, water, and shelter. “Hell can hold no terrors for me after this,” one “doughboy” scribbled in his diary. Unable to advance any more than 8 miles in the onslaught, Pershing reluctantly suspended operations on the battlefield.
Elsewhere on the Western Front, the European armies of Foch's “Grand Offensive” also slowed. The French troops in Flanders stalled in stormy weather, while others in the center of the Allied formation tarried before attacking. Along the Somme, British forces penetrated the Hindenburg Line with the help of two American divisions. Their penetration cut a deep gap in the German defenses, but they paused to improve their interior lines of communication and supply. Logistical chaos not only denied advancing units the support necessary to push forward but also rendered many divisions vulnerable to German counterattacks.
Pershing assigned the 369th Infantry Regiment, the first African American unit of the AEF, to the French Army. Known as the “Harlem Hellfighters,” they attained a distinguished record in a number of sharp engagements. They spent more days in combat than any other regiment from the U.S. Within the Meuse-Argonne region, they outpaced the French troops on their flanks. In late September, they captured the town of Séchault.
While Pershing tended to the chaos in the First Army, the 77th “Liberty” Division from New York remained on the attack in the Argonne Forest. Mostly composed of urban conscripts without experience fighting in the woodlands, they endeavored to gain ground on September 28. Major Charles W. Whittlesey led the 1st Battalion of the 308th Regiment, which German infiltrators isolated and besieged for 72 hours. Rescued and resupplied by a relief party, he pushed ahead with 700 men through a ravine the next day. Once again, enemy forces closed the gap in their advance pocket and separated them from their divisional command. “Our mission is to hold this position at all costs,” Whittlesey announced to the “lost battalion.” Sending out carrier pigeons, he communicated day after day with other battalions trying to locate them. German artillery, mortars, grenades, rifles, and flamethrowers took a toll, winnowing them down to 231 men. On October 7, the 77th Division finally pressed forward and found the “lost battalion” still holding their position.
With growing acrimony among the Allied commanders, Pershing rotated his divisions and renewed the Meuse-Argonne offensive in early October. He ordered officers to cease frontal assaults against machine guns while directing them to seek flanks wherever possible. His staff resolved a number of supply and communication problems, but the lack of training and equipment continued to undermine operations. While Liggett's I Corps faced the Argonne bluffs near Exermont, Cameron's V Corps and Bullard's III Corps confronted the heights of Romagne and Cunel, respectively. By the time Pershing restarted the offensive, the German high command had successfully reinforced their principle defensive line at the Kriemhilde Position.
To silence the guns of the Argonne, Pershing expected a miracle from the First Army. At Liggett's behest, Summerall's 1st Division edged past Exermont and proceeded along the Aire River. In a daring maneuver, the 82nd Division moved behind them to storm the heights across the waterway. The hapless defenders encountered an “All-American” named York, while Summerall's troops continued to roll northward. In six days, the 1st Division gained 4.5 miles of ground previously held by eight German divisions.
On the western flank, American divisions provided crucial assistance to the French
Fourth Army. Under the command of Marine Corps General John A. Lejeune, the 2nd Division reached the slopes of Blanc Mont ridge just south of the Aisne River. With the timely arrival of the 36th Division, the ridge fell on October 10. Consequently, the First Army helped to clear the loop while driving the outflanked Germans from the Argonne Forest.
Goaded by Foch, Pershing sent the First Army against the main line of the Kriemhilde Position on October 14. On the far left, the 77th Division reached the outskirts of Grandpré in two days. Weeks later, the 78th Division finished the job and captured the town. Three divisions sliced into the hills and forests of Romagne, which fell to the Americans four days later. On the western edge, the 42nd “Rainbow” Division hurled unsupported infantry against intimidating fortifications near Côte de Châtillon. “If this brigade does not capture Châtillon,” bellowed MacArthur, commander of the 84th Brigade, “you can publish a casualty list of the entire brigade with the brigade commander's name on top.” While eventually successful in capturing the hill, his battalions suffered 80 percent casualties. General William G. Haan, commander of the 32nd Division, sent National Guardsmen from Wisconsin and Michigan to the top of Côte Dame-Marie. In fact, a patrol of seven men used rifle grenades to knock 10 machine guns out of action. After weeks of hammering the German lines, the Americans breached the most critical point on the Kriemhilde Position.
With more than a million Americans in action along an 83-mile front, Pershing sensed that victory was within their grasp. Because the AEF grew unwieldy and uncoordinated, he created the Second Army under the command of Bullard to conduct operations east of the Meuse Heights near Toul. While making himself the “group commander,” he relinquished control of the First Army to Liggett. Furthermore, he elevated Dickman to command I Corps and Summerall to command V Corps. To replace Bullard at III Corps, he tapped General John Leonard Hines. Approaching the last phase of the Meuse-Argonne offensive, Pershing handed over operations to his best generals in the theater.
The Armistice
As the American generals endeavored to punch through the Kriemhilde Position, the commander-in-chief remained preoccupied with “the only possible program” for ending the Great War. Based upon the counsel of Colonel Edward House, his key advisor, Wilson presented the Fourteen Points for lasting peace to Congress on January 8, 1918. Most dealt with terms for open diplomacy, freedom of the seas, removal of trade barriers, reduction of armaments, adjustments of territory, and self-determination for various nationalities. The last point called again for a “general association of nations,” which promised to replace the old system of power balances in Europe. If the world embraced his vision, Wilson concluded, then the “culminating and final war for human liberty has come.”
In a series of notes with the Wilson administration that October, the German chancellor offered his “unqualified acceptance” of the Fourteen Points as a basis for negotiating peace. While threatening to pursue separate negotiations with Germany, Wilson sent House to meet with British and French officials. The Allied governments accepted the Fourteen Points in general, albeit with caveats.
In response to a request from the Allied governments, Wilson decided to deploy American troops to Russia. Beginning in the fall of 1918, they secured stockpiles of Russian supplies at Arctic ports and rescued the Czechoslovak Legion on the trans-Siberian railroad. They also assisted the “White” Russians, who continued to oppose the revolutionary government of the “Red” Bolsheviks. The 339th Infantry Regiment and supporting units of the 85th Division – about 5,000 men in total – served as the American North Russian Expeditionary Force. To thwart Japanese ambitions to expand into eastern Siberia, the 27th and 31st Infantry Regiments of the 8th Division arrived in Vladivostok with 8,000 men. By 1920, all U.S. forces had withdrawn from Russian soil.
Freed from directing U.S. forces in the Meuse-Argonne offensive, Pershing focused on the coalition strategy for defeating the Central Powers. On October 25, 1918, he met with French and British commanders to discuss the terms for a possible armistice. Foch and Pétain wanted to punish Germany, but Haig preferred a lenient settlement. Speaking last, Pershing indicated that “there should be no tendency toward leniency” and insisted upon the surrender of German U-boats and bases to the Allies. A few days later, Pershing extended his remarks in a note to the Supreme War Council. Rather than granting any terms, he preferred “continuing the war until we force unconditional surrender from Germany.” Because only the U.S. possessed enough reserves and resources to reach Berlin, he expected the First Army to gain “the full measure of victory.”
A “big man” in every sense of the phrase, Liggett found the First Army in deplorable shape after weeks of combat. While providing replacements for decimated divisions, he insisted upon the return of the stragglers to their units. He built up stocks of ammunition and other supplies, although deficiencies in tanks and trucks remained. Aerial photographs enhanced the detail of battlefield maps, which revealed the locations of enemy dumps, batteries, nests, trenches, and roads. While limiting the number of hasty attacks, he reshuffled the lines of soldiers to concentrate their mass and firepower on the German center. Thanks to the strategic pause in the Meuse-Argonne offensive, he retooled the First Army in order to release “our full weight” in a concerted blow.
On November 1, the guns of the First Army began shelling the Kriemhilde Position with high explosives and chlorine gases. With the 2nd and 89th Divisions in the lead, Liggett's troops pushed through the village of Landres-et-Saint-George and captured the heights of Barricourt on the first day. By nightfall, they advanced at least 5.5 miles. While III Corps broke through the right, I Corps absorbed greater losses on the left.
As the casualties on all sides mounted, the center of the Kriemhilde Position collapsed. Soaring through the skies, Rickenbacker flew his plane over the battlefield and watched the “retreating Heinies” scramble over the roads in a rout. Over the next several days, the advancing columns of the First Army moved along the heights overlooking the Meuse River and placed the railroad from Sedan to Mézières under artillery fire.
As American divisions crossed the Meuse, the German military began crumbling. The First Army pushed onward to Sedan, although I and V Corps commanders allowed French troops to occupy the historic city. At the same time, the Second Army pressed against Metz to achieve another breakthrough. With the Hindenburg Line unhinged, Pershing's generals steered their armies toward the Rhineland. Before Liggett and Bullard reached their final objectives, however, the armies of the Central Powers largely ceased firing.
The relentless hammering from the Allied armies left the Central Powers thoroughly beaten. The collapse of Bulgaria, Turkey, and Austria-Hungary followed crucial Allied victories in Salonika, Syria, and Italy. With defeat imminent, German leaders faced civil unrest and naval mutiny. In early November, the Kaiser abdicated and fled to Holland. After sending a secret delegation to meet with Foch in the forest of Compiègne, the new German Republic agreed to the armistice. They promised to surrender most of their arsenal as well as their ships. Moreover, Allied forces prepared to occupy their territory as far as the Rhine River. Signed at 5:10 p.m. on November 10, the armistice suspended all fighting the next morning. At the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, the guns in Europe fell silent.
The Americans achieved most of their objectives by Armistice Day, even though they paid a terrible price. From September 26 to November 11, they counted 26,277 dead as well as 95,000 wounded. They forced 43 German divisions to retreat over 30 miles through difficult terrain and fortified positions. In addition to capturing 468 guns, they inflicted over 120,000 casualties on the enemy. While making the U.S. a decisive power in the war, the Meuse-Argonne offensive represented one of the costliest operations in American military history.
According to the terms of the armistice, the Allied governments convened a peace conference at Versailles on January 18, 1919. French Premier Georges Clemenceau insisted on dealing with the Germans harshly, while Britis
h Prime Minister David Lloyd George downplayed the Fourteen Points. Vittorio Orlando, the Italian prime minister, demanded the Austrian province of Dalmatia in the spoils of war. Wilson leaned forward with a covenant for the League of Nations, which pledged collective security to all members in Article X. Making concessions to his counterparts, he permitted a “war guilt” clause that assigned blame to Germany and required it to pay reparations to Allied governments. The German delegation protested but signed the Treaty of Versailles.
With the Treaty of Versailles completed, Wilson returned to the U.S. that summer. In the Senate, the debate over ratification elicited “reservations” about mandates for collective security in the League covenant. On two occasions, the ratification vote fell short of the necessary two-thirds majority. Although the armistice kept the armed forces at bay, peace treaties among the belligerents were not ratified by the U.S. until October 18, 1921.
To uphold the armistice, a number of U.S. soldiers remained in Europe. Under the command of Dickman, the Third Army marched eastward and occupied parts of Germany. Other divisions lingered in Belgium and France, where disciplinary infractions and training accidents multiplied. As weeks turned into months, everything that sustained morale seemed to disappear. By the beginning of 1919, the War Department had returned 800,000 “doughboys” to the U.S. Eager to receive their discharges, the rest boarded transport ships before the summer. At re-embarkation camps, medics inspected military personnel for venereal diseases in addition to other maladies. Spanish influenza followed many units home and killed more than 43,000 service members. While the hostilities ceased “over there,” the horrors of the Western Front seemed endless.
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