The MP

 

"Argonne-Meuse 1918," World War I. Artist: Lester G. Hornby. US Army Art Collection

December 23, 1918. Wyoming Guardsmen of the 148th Field Artillery at the Château-Thierry and beyond.

The DI of the 148th Field Artillery.  Many of the Wyoming Guardsmen who served as infantry on the border were reassigned to this Field Artillery unit made up of Rocky Mountain Region and Northwestern Guardsmen during World War One.

If you'd been wondering what became of the men of the Wyoming National Guard, whom we started following with their first muster into service with the Punitive Expedition, the Wyoming State Tribune gave us a clue.

As readers will recall, quite a few of those men were put in to the 148th Field Artillery.  None of them deployed as infantry, which is what they had been when first mustered for border service with Mexico and then again when first recalled for the Great War.  Not all of them ended up in the 148th, but quite a few did, which was a heavy artillery unit of the field artillery.  Indeed, a quite modern one as it used truck, rather than equine, transport.  

Here we learned that the 148th was at Château-Thierry.

Another version of the distinctive insignia for the unit with additional elements for the western nature of the composite elements.

To flesh it out just a bit, the 148th at that time was made up of elements of the 3d Rgt of the Wyoming National Guard, the 1st Separate Battalion Colorado Field Artillery, and the 1st Separate Troop (Cavalry) Oregon National Guard. They were part of the 66th FA Bde.  They'd arrived in France on February 10, 1918, just prior to the German's massive Spring 1918 Offensive.  They were equipped in France with 155 GPF Guns and Renault Artillery tractors.

155 GPF in use by American artillerymen.

They went to the front on July 4, 1918 and were emplaced directly sought of Château-Thierry and began firing missions on July 9.  After that engagement, they'd continue on to participate in the St. Mihiel Offensive and the Meuse Argonne Offensive.  By the wars end, they'd fired 67,590 shells.

American Army Renault EG Artillery tractor with a GPF in tow.  Note the wood blocks for chalks.

The unit went on to be part of the Army of Occupation in Germany following the war, a mission with which it was occupied until June 3, 1919, when it boarded the USS Peerless for New York.  It was mustered out of service at Camp Mills, New York, on June 19, 1919, with Wyoming's members sent on to Ft. D. A. Russell for discharge from their World War One service.

We'll pick this story up again as we reach those dates, but as we made a dedicated effort to follow these men early on, we didn't want to omit their story later.  Wyomingites reading the papers in 1918 learned of their service, accepting censored soldier mail, for the first time on this day in 1918.  While news reporting done by the U.S. and foreign press during World War One was often remarkably accurate, one set of details that was kept generally well hidden was the service, and even the fate, of individual American servicemen and units.  Wyomingites now learned what role many of their Guardsmen had played in the war for the first time.

And it was a significant one.

Blog Mirror: Thunder in the Argonne

Thunder in the Argonne

Douglas Mastriano talked about the defense of the Argonne Forest and Meuse River Valley by Gen. John Pershing and his Doughboys during World War One.

Link 

Countdown on the Great War, November 6, 1918. Americans switch horses in the middle of the stream, Wyomingites vote to go dry, French and Americans take Sedan, the Kaiser urged to go.

1.  It happened the day prior, November 5, 1918, but on this day the news of the Republican landslide that swept the nation hit the press, including the Wyoming press, where GOP candidates swept the field.

The news was surprising in some ways.  Wilson had done nationally, as had the Democrats, in recent elections, following the Republican civil war that had caused the party to split.  But something about the war changed everything, as wars do, and even though Americans had solidly backed the war effort, or at least most Americans had, going into the peace they were rejecting the President and his party.

Even Robert Carey Jr. was benefiting from the Republican rise. Carey had been the subject of a lot of reporting in the Fall as Governor Houx had offered him the command of the Wyoming National Guard and he'd declined, and then belatedly accepted after that position had been filled (as it was, the Wyoming National Guard, like many Guard units, didn't not go to Europe as a single unit anyhow).  In an era in which people publicly shamed "shirkers" that Carey was able to politically survive this decision is really remarkable.  Indeed, as Carey was only forty years old in 1918, his declination is in fact somewhat inexcusable.  No matter, Houx went down in the election.

And this would matter in the upcoming effort to secure a peace. Wilson had outlined his vision in his Fourteen Points.  Would a GOP Congress support it?  As would be seen, it wouldn't.

And that wasn't the only big election news.

Wyomingites also voted to go dry, voting two to one in favor of the Constitutional amendment to bring in Prohibition.

2.  The leader of the Reichstag urged Kaiser Wilhelm II to abdicate, in favor of a new monarch, seeing the only alternative to be the success of a socialist revolution.

3.  The American and French armies took Sedan and the surrounding territory.  The French army too Rethel and Vervins. The Canadian army entered Belgium.  Foch assigns the American Army to advance into Lorraine.

4.  The Polish Soviet of Delegates, obviously styling themselves after the Soviets of the USSR, established the Provisional People's Government with Ignacy Daszynski as Prime Minister. As a body, it would exist only an additional week until it turned over its duties to Jozef Pilsudski, famous Polish revolutionary leader, who was newly freed from German imprisonment.  On the same day, polish peasants led by Communist Tomasz Dabal took control of Tarnobrzeg Galicia and proclaimed it an independent republic.

5. The Dutch cargo ship Bernisse struck a mine and sank.

6. The Kiel rebellion begins to spread wildly to various German cities. 

Countdown on the Great War, November 5, 1918. Heroism in the U.S. Army, Poland starts to form, German submarines hit again.

African American infantryman marching near Verdun, November 5, 1918.

1. The Allies inform Germany that negotiations may begin on the basis of President Wilson's Fourteen Points but that contact must be established through Marshall Foch.

2. Cpt. Marcellus H. Chiles engages in actions for which he would be awarded a posthumous Medal of Honor.  His citation reads:

When his battalion, of which he had just taken command, was halted by machinegun fire from the front and left flank, he picked up the rifle of a dead soldier and, calling on his men to follow led the advance across a stream, waist deep, in the face of the machinegun fire. Upon reaching the opposite bank this gallant officer was seriously wounded in the abdomen by a sniper, but before permitting himself to be evacuated he made complete arrangements for turning over his command to the next senior officer, and under the inspiration of his fearless leadership his battalion reached its objective. Capt. Chiles died shortly after reaching the hospital.

 Chiles entered the service from Denver Colorado.

 

Cpt. Chiles.

3.  The BEF cleared the Mormal Forest and the Canadians and British crossed the Grand Hornelle.

4.  The French take Chateau Porcien.

6. The Germans commence a retreat from the Meuse to Conde but order that the American Army is to be prevented from advancing north of Verdun.

7.  Enlisted sailors kill three officers and the captain of the battleship Koenig in the Baltic when they try to keep the sailors from hoisting a red flag as the sailors rebellion becomes increasing a radical Socialist one.  All German ships remaining in Kiel have the red flag hoisted on them on this day.

8.  The first Polish Soviet of Delegates meets to discuss establishing a Polish state. 

9.  The Lake Harris, an American armed merchant ship, was beached off of Lands End after a fire fight with a German submarine.  On the same day the Italian sailing ship Stavnos was sunk by the UC-74.

10.  Republicans win both houses of Congress by slim margins.  Due to the lack of instant reporting, however, you won't see any newspapers of today's date reporting that, as that would have to wait until the next day.

Countdown on the Great War, November 4, 1918: The last major battle on the Western Front and the Kiel Mutiny grows.

 New Zealanders scale the Sabre-Oise Canal wall in their last major action of World War One.  NOte that in this painting at least the officer at the bottom of the stairs is carrying a German P.08 and the one at the top appears to be as well.

1.  The British and French forces capture the Sambre-Oise, Le Qesnoy, and the towns of Guise  and Origney en Thierache in a series of abbltes known as the Battle of Sabmre, Second Battle of Guise and the Battle of Thierache.  Resistance was serious and heavy, but uneven, by the Germans and the British lost 1,150 men in the crossing of the canal.  Included in the causalities was the then unknown poet Wilfred Owen, whose poetry was actually not published until many years later.

The battles, featuring English, Canadian and New Zealand troops on the British side, French troops, and a few American troops, involved 28 Allied Divisions.  It was the last major battle for the Allies.  Following the battle Allied forces began to advance up to five miles per day.

This does not mean, however, that fighting had halted.  The Germans continued to resist, and sometimes stoutly.  And in the Meuse region the river had not yet been crossed.

2. American and French forces take Stenay and Dun sure Meuse

3. The Allies occupied the Tirol in Austria pursuant to the Armistice of Villa Giusti.  The Austrians further withdrew from Montenegro.

4.   German reservists were deployed to Kiel to put down the sailor's rebellion but large numbers of them joined the uprising upon reaching the city.  By the day's end the number of men declaring allegiance to the revolution number 40,000 and they issued fourteen demands upon the German government. The demands did not, interestingly, include the end of the monarchy, but they did demand that further defensive measures in the war not include bloodshed, which was tantamount to demanding a surrender.

5.  A massive late war dogfight over the western front occurred when forty German aircraft attacked nine British Sopwith Camels of No. 65 Squadron southeast of Ghent.  The British No. 204 Squadron joined the fight resulting in the loss of twenty two German aircraft.

6.  The Glacian region of Komancza (Eastern Lemko) declared itself a state with the intent of uniting itself to the West Ukranian People's Republic.  It would become part of Poland at the end of the Polish Ukranian War and today is part of Poland, Ukraine and Slovakia.

7.  The British ship War Roach collided with a mine and had to be beached off of Port Said, Egypt.

Countdown on the Great War, November 1, 1918. The Polish Ukranian War erupts, Prince Max polls his princely fellows, Allies continue to advance.

1.  Prince Maximilian of Baden wrote the various German princes to ask if they would accept the resignation of Kaiser Wilhelm II.

1.  French and American forces captured Buzancy and Le Chesne.

2.  The Serbian First Army took Belgrade.

3.  The Italian Navy attached Austro Hungarian ships at Pula, Croatia, in the last surface engagement of World War One.  The Austro Hungarian battleship SMS Viribus Unitis was sunk by Italian sabateurs during the engagement resulting in the loss of over 300 of her crew.

Polish youth organization fighting in the Lwow cemetary.

3.  Poles in Lemberg (Lviv, Lwow) rose up against the establishment of the West Ukrainian People's Republic in Galicia, igniting the Polish-Ukrainian War.

That this would occur at this point was emblematic of the mess that post war Europe would be.  The region surrounding Lemberg was in fact largely Ukrainian ethnically but the town itself was largely Polish.  The Austro Hungarians had moved Ukranian troops into the town late in the war and on this day Ukranian troops effected a coup against the Austrian government in the town and declared the region to be the West Ukrainian People's Republic, a name that had an obvious link to what was going on to the east in Russia.  Polish armed resistance broke out that very day, mostly via armed civilians (include Boy Scouts).

The incident resulted in the Polish Ukrainian War as the two very closely related peoples, separated by relatively slight linguistic differences but definite religious differences, fought out what their borders would be.  Lwow was under seige until November 21, but ultimately the Ukrainians withdrew but surrounded it.  The war would end with Lwow and Galicia solidly within Polish territory, which meant that Poland not only took in a largely Polish city but also took in a Ukrainian surrounding population.  Following World War Two Poland's eastern and western borders were massively redrawn and the city today, as well as the surrounded parts of Galicia, are within Ukraine.

4. The Banat Republic was formed within what is now Romania but which was then part of Austro Hungaria.

5. The Polish Scouting and Guiding Association was established. . . right in the midst of the Great War, an odd thought.

Countdown on the Great War, October 30, 1918: French reach the Aisne, Central Powers collapse in the Balkans, Revolution in Hungary, the war stops in the Middle East

1.  French forces reached the Aisne River.

2.  In the Balkans the Italians and French took Shkoder Albania, while the Serbs took Podgorica, Montenegro.

3.  Combat stopped in the Middle East with the formal surrender of the Ottoman Empire.

In Cheyenne they learned of the Ottoman's quitting. . . and also the residence problems of the former Governor Osborne.

They learned the same in Laramie. . . where nurses were being called due to the flu and the next conscription cohort was being notified.

4.  Hungarian revolutionaries seized public buildings and King Charles IV was forced to recognize the success of the coup.  Austro Hungaria as a political entity was effectively over.

Countdown on the Great War: October 27, 1918. Ludendorff out.

1.  On this day in 1918, General Erich Ludendorff resigned, and the direction of the war, if not already apparent, became very plain.

Hindenburg, Kaiser Wilhelm II, and Ludendorff.

Ludendorff was the Quartermaster General of the German Army during most of World War One. The title of that position was deceptive even at the time, and has nothing to do with provisioning of soldiers as the name would seemingly imply. Rather, along with Paul von Hidenburg, he was the leader of hte German Army.  His resignation was effectively a dismissal, and it expressed his falling out of favor by insisting that the German Army fight on.

During the war Ludendorff had come into immense power within not only the Army but the government as well.  He rose to prominence starting with the assault on Liege where, while he was an observer, he ended up in command when the senior German officer was killed.  Thereafter, he was assigned to the East, together with Paul Von Hindenburg, who was an elderly officer called back into service from retirement.  The two of them worked closely together although Hindenburg proved to have the more solid tactical mind.  

While in the East Ludendorff began to display traits that would later play out during World War One to the German's ultimate detriment.    During the 1915-16 winter he headquartered in the Baltics and operated to start colonizing the conquered area with German settlers with the aim of Germanizing it, given the East a taste of what German policy was to be in 1939-1945.  He anticipated the expulsion of Slavic populations in some of the conquered territory the Germans were advancing into and envisioned a future war against the United Kingdom and United States.  In short, his vision of Germany in the East very matched the one that was to be attempted some twenty five years later.

Following setbacks in 1916, Ludendorff was elevated to higher command and became Quartermaster General in the thought that the existing Army leadership was failing.  His first acts concerned the Romanian entry into the war, but his leadership may have been relatively inconsequential in dealing with that, or at least the local commander, August von Mackensen felt that they were.  During the same period Hindeburg was elevated to commander of the German Army overall, but he was subordinate to Ludendorff.  By 1916-17, his military role combined with his administrative role, given that the German government was subordinate to the civil service and the Army, such that he weilded immence power and was widely seen as a near dictator.

In 1917 Ludendorff was complicit in the German navy's desire to resume unrestricted submarine warfare in spite of the clear knowledge that it would bring the United States into the war.  He was brash and powerful enough to walk out of a meeting in which Kaiser Wilhelm II required his commanders to consider the views of German chemist Walther Nernst who was regarded by the Kaiser as an expert on the United States and opposed the move.  He was one of the German generals who opposed the German Reichstag when it passed a resolution for peace without annexations in the Spring of 1917.

Ludendorff was directly complicit in Germany's 1918 failures as he was one of the German figures who insisted on forcing huge territorial concession on Russia in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk which resulted in the necessity of Germany keeping 1,000,000 troops in the East, some of them engaged in wars that followed the Russian surrender, when they were clearly immediately needed in the West, something that should have been plain to all.

Ludendorff collapsed mentally when German fortunes turned in the summer of 1918.  As a result he temporarily stepped away from his office but returned after a month's rest.  On September 29, 1918, he had come to the realization that the war was lost and he and Hindenburg told the Kaiser that he must accept an Armistice with the Allies.  The new chancellor approached President Wilson with a diplomatic note but the resulting terms were unacceptable to the German leadership at first as they required that Germany become a democratic state, thereby essentially demanding the complete capitulation of the German government and the formation of a new one prior to the commencement of negotiations.

This prompted Ludendorff and Hindenburg to send a telegram to German commanders that the fighting must continue. While the German rank and file troops had not cracked, this was simply too much to expect of the German people and their army and when the contents of the telegram were leaked to the press, it caused a domestic uproar in Germany.

Prince Maximilian of Baden, the chancellor, soon approached the Kaiser and indicated that if Lundendorff was not removed he and his cabinet would resign.  He and Hindenburg were called in and both offered to resign.  Hindenburg's resignation was refused but Ludendorff's was accepted.  Ludendorff immediately snubbed Hindenburg by refusing to ride back to headquarters with him, claiming later Hindenburg had always treated him "shabbily".

He'd go on, of course, to be figure in far right wing movements in post war Germany and a co-conspirator with Hitler.  Indeed, he was a significant right wing figure whose views anticipated the Nazis in some ways before their rise, and even had back into World War One.  In 1920 he was part of the Kapp Putsch that attempted to overthrow the government.  He was later part of the Beer Hall Putsch attempted by Hitler in 1923 and was amazingly acquitted in a trial in 1924, a sign of how weak the German republican government really was. He was elected to the Reichstag in 1924 as well a part of a coalition of far right political movements that included the Nazis.

By that time he was descending into what we'd now recognize as a slow onset of dementia and his behavior became increasingly erratic.  He divorced his wife Margarethe, whom he had married in 1910 at age 45.  Showing the degree to which the Army was the exception to the rule, she divorced her first husband to marry him in an age in which divorce was disapproved of, and both families approved (she was the daughter of wealthy industrialist).  As he descended into madness he married Mathilde von Kemnitz who held radical religious views and he became a pagan and started worshiping Woton.  In this period he came to a radical hatred of Jews and Catholics.  He came to hold Hitler and Hindenburg in contempt and he refused a surprise personal attempt to promote him to Field Marshall in 1935.  He died in 1937.

2.  Americans take Gradnpre

3.  Canadian Thanksgiving was held in Denain.



4.  William George Barker, Victoria Cross

5. The HMT Calceolaria struck a mine and sunk, as did the Cuban cargo ship Chaparra.  The German U-boat U-78 was torpedoed by the British submarine HMS G2 in the Skagerrak, going down with all 40 hands.

Countdown on the Great War. October 14, 1918. Saying no to the Boche, Sinkings in the Atlantic, Americans resume the offensive in the Meuse Argonne and the British in Flanders.

Camp Funston, Kansas, which some believe if the locus of the origin of the Spanish Flu.

1.  The Battle of Courtrai commences in which the Groupe d'Armees des Flanders, made up of twelve Belgian, ten British and six French divisions under the command of King Albert I of Belgian attacked German forces in the hopes of continuing the Allied advance as far as possible before the oncoming winter made further advances impossible.  It was still anticiapted at the time that the war would drag into 1919.

British forces found, to their expectation, that the Germans offered much reduced resistance and they had achived all of their objectives, reaching the Scheldt, by the 22nd.

The Germans were basically collapsing while still offering resistance.  The nearness to a complete German disaster was not apparent, but it was coming.

2. The U.S. resumes the offensive in the Meuse Argonne with assaults near Montfaucon.

Senencourt (Muese) France. "Kamerad," a figure by the soldiers in the yard of the American Red Cross Canteen at Senencourt. The Red Cross girls are, from left to right: Miss Louise Adams of 10 Arlington Place, Brooklyn, N.Y.; Miss Alice Birdall, of 310 Third Ave. Reselle Ave., N.J.; and Miss Gertrude Nichols, #849 West Galen Street, Butte, Montana; Capt. Beverly Rautoul of #17 Winter Street, Salem, Mass., and Private Geo. St. Clair Preston, both of the American Red Cross Evacuation Hospital #8, are on the extreme left

3.  The air wing of the United States Marine Corps engaged in its first all Marine air action by bombing Pitthem, Belgium.  Marines Ralph Talbot and gunner Robert Guy Robinson won the Medal of Honor for heroism associated with holding off German air attacks on their Airco bomber when they became separated and had to return to attempt to return to their base alone.

Airco DH4, which was used in the tactical role.

4.  The provisional government for Czechoslovakia formed.


5.  The U-139 attacked the Portoguese steamer Sao Miguel and its escort the Portuguese Navy trawler NRP Augusto de Castilho on the Action of 14 October 1918.  The trawler was lightly armed and while it fought for several hours, it was actually outgunned by the submarine and surrendered to it, and was thereafter scuttled by the German submariners.  The engagement is regarded as the only high seas naval battle of the Great War to take place in the North Atlantic.

On the same day, German submarines sank the Bayard, a French fishing vessel, the Stifinder, a Norwegian barque, which was scuttled due an engagement with the U-152 and the British passenger ship Dundalk, with the loss of 21 lives.  The German minsweeper SMS M22 was sunk by mines.

6.

Countdown on the Great War. October 9, 1918. Cambrai Falls, Lost Battalion Rescued, UW Closes.

Private Thomas M. Holmes of the 82nd Division, East Aurora New York, receives chocolate from Lt. Burgess of the American Red Cross Field Hospital No. 328.  October 9, 1918.

1.  Cambrai Falls to Allies.

2.  The Lost Battalion rescued.

3.  UW closes its doors due to the flu.

4.  Landgrave Prince Frederick Charles of Hesse took a late war job opportunity to become the elected King of Finland. He'd occupy that role, designed to cement Finland to Imperial Germany, only until December 14 when the position ended in light of the end of Imperial Germany.  He never actually made it to Finland while he was King.

Countdown on the Great War. October 8, 1918: Sgt. Alvin York and the Battle of Hill 223. The Second Battle of Cambrai. A Scout Gets Through. The Desert Mounted Corps Takes Beirut. The Spanish Flu Closes Everything.

1.  On this day in 1918 Sgt. Alvin York preformed the deeds that would make him a household name in the United States and the most famous American veteran of WWI other than, perhaps, Gen. Pershing.

York was a from the Tennessee hill country and one of eleven children of a very poor family.  With virtually no education at all, he had been supporting his family for some time because of his father's early death.  A devout Evangelical Christian, York was a reformed drinker and fighter who had grown up in a family that depended upon hunting to put food on the table.  He was an extremely skilled woodsman and marksman at the time he reluctantly entered the Army due to conscription. He was also seeking conscientious objector status at that time, but reconsidered his position due to the urging of his military superiors.  He proved to be a good soldier and was assigned to the 82nd Division, seeing combat first in the St. Mihel Offensive.

On October 8 his battalion was assigned to capture Hill 223 north of  Chatel-Chéhéry, France.  During the battle Corporal York took on machinegun positions while the remainder of his party guarded captured prisoners.  York took those positions on first with his rifle, a M1917 Enfield, and then ended up killing six charging Germans with his M1911 pistol after his rifle was empty.  Ultimately a large party of Germans surrendered to York and York and seven other enlisted men marched to the rear with 132 German prisoners.  During the battle York killed 25 Germans.  His Medal of Honor citation reads:

After his platoon suffered heavy casualties and 3 other noncommissioned officers had become casualties, Cpl. York assumed command. Fearlessly leading seven men, he charged with great daring a machine gun nest which was pouring deadly and incessant fire upon his platoon. In this heroic feat the machine gun nest was taken, together with 4 officers and 128 men and several guns.

York would go on to be promoted to the rank of Sergeant before the war was over and he became the most decorated American soldier of World War One.  He was commissioned in the Signal Corps during World War Two and obtained the rank of Major, but his health had declined severely and he was used in a moral boosting role.  In spite of ill health he would remain in the Tennessee National Guard until 1951, retiring at the rank of Colonel.  He was famously the subject of a movie in which Gary Cooper portrayed him.

As noted, York was undoubtedly the most famous enlisted man of World War One, and he was truly heroic.  It's worth noting however that his accomplishments weren't entirely unique and there were several other instances of single American servicemen taking large numbers of prisoners under heroic circumstances, one of which we read about here just the other day.  In some ways the difference with York was that he was of very humble origin and not a career soldier, where as the actions by soldiers like Michael B. Ellis, whom we read about the other day, were accomplishments of men from the Regular Army.  These stories have a common aspect to them, however, in that they were undertaken by men who had extraordinary combat skill nearly singlehandedly, which was admirable but which also tends to show that the American Army was so green at the time that it proved to be necessary for extremely heroic men to undertake actions that were nearly suicidal in order to address the combat situation with which they were faced, rather than relying on coordinated unit actions.  In York's case, a lifetime in the woods had prepared him for battle in a unique way.

2.  On the same day that York's action earned the Medal of Honor, the same could be said of James Dozier.

Dozier started his military career in the South Carolina National Guard and had served on the Mexican boarder with that unit.  When it was called into service for World War One he was commissioned an officer and was a 1st Lieutenant on this day when he took over his company when its commander was wounded, even though he also was.  He commanded the unit over the next several hours, personally rushing one machinegun pit with the aid of a lieutenant.  The men under his command took 470 prisoners.

He stayed in the South Carolina National Guard becoming its AG in the 1920s and retired in 1959 as a Lieutenant General.

3.  On this day in 1918 British Empire forces launched a massive assault on the Germans near Cambrai.  In two days they captured the towns but the over matched Germans nonetheless slowed the advance to the point where it needed to be halted.

That says something about the tenacity of the Germans even at this late stage of the war.  The Germans had 180,000 men committed to the defense in this battle. The British Empire forces numbered 630,000. The British assault was a success, but the Germans none the less managed to require the British advance to halt.

Canadian troops on the Cambrai road, 1918.

4.  Pvt. Abraham Krotoshinsky made his way through enemy lines to inform the American Army of the situation concerning the "Lost Battalion".  He would lead troops back to the besieged soldiers.

Pvt. Krotoshinsky was a Polish Jew who had emigrated to the United States in 1912 to avoid service in the Imperial Russian Army. Following World War One he emigrated to Palestine but failed as a farmer and returned to the United States.  Like Michael Ellis, discussed the other day, he was rescued from unemployment by President Coolige who ordered that he be provided with a job in the United States Postal Service.

5.  The Desert Mounted Corps entered Beirut where they took 600 Ottoman troops without resistance.

6.  Laramie and Casper closed public meeting places of all types:

Countdown on the Great War: October 5, 1918.

1.  Vranje, Serbia, liberated from the Austrian control by French and Serbian forces.

2.  Australians capture Monbrehain.

3. Germans scuttle U-boats stationed in Belgium.

4.  Cpt. Eddie Grant killed in action.

5.  Sgt. Michaal B. Ellis undertakes actions that result in his being awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.

74, W.D., 1919.
Citation: During the entire day’s engagement he operated far in advance of the first wave of his company, voluntarily undertaking most dangerous missions and single-handedly attacking and reducing machinegun nests. Flanking one emplacement, he killed 2 of the enemy with rifle fire and captured 17 others. Later he single-handedly advanced under heavy fire and captured 27 prisoners, including 2 officers and 6 machineguns, which had been holding up the advance of the company. The captured officers indicated the locations of 4 other machineguns, and he in turn captured these, together with their crews, at all times showing marked heroism and fearlessness.

The Spanish Flu Claims Its First Casper Victim and The Danger of Even Home Guard Service Is Made Plain: October 5, 1918.

As the war raged in Europe, while peace feelers started to be sent out, the Spanish Flu claimed its first victim in Casper.

And Home Guard service proved lethal for Pvt. O. B. Duncan, who fell from a train and was run over it by it. Why Pvt. Duncan was riding on the train isn't clear, but at least as late as World War Two the Home Guard did guard the rail yards for a time in Casper, so presumably something similar was occurring.

Oddly, Thermopolis was a setting for both tragedies.

Countdown on the Great War: October 4, 1918

1.  President Wilson receives the diplomatic note composed by the newly installed Chancellor Prince Maximilian of Baden proposing peace based upon Wilson's Fourteen Points.

2.  The 100 Days Offensive, Meuse Argonne Second Phase: October 4 through October 28, 1918.

U.S. Marines, part of the U.S. 2nd Division, advancing during the Meuse Argonne Campaign.

 3.  The British occupy Tyre.

4.  The T. A. Gillespie munitions plant in New Jersey exploded killing approximately 100 people and injuring about the same number.

5.  Philadelphia closed its saloons, effective 7:00 p.m., due to the Spanish Flu.

The 100 Days Offensive, Meuse Argonne Second Phase: October 4 through October 28, 1918.

U.S. Marines, part of the U.S. 2nd Division, advancing during the Meuse Argonne Campaign.

We just read about the "Lost Battalion" yesterday. Could we really be on to a new phase?

Yes, while that drama was playing out, and would continue to, the American offensive would enter its next phase.

The second phase of the offensive began on this day.  All of the original divisions assigned the primary assault role in the first phase of the offensive were rotated out in favor of fresh divisions, the result being that the 91st, 79, 37, and 35th of the U.S. V Corps were replaced by the 32nd, 3d, and 1st Divisions.  These were not, of course, the only American divisions committed to the attack by any means, but rather the primary assault divisions.

The 1st Division, which we've read about here earlier, breached the German lines with a advance a little shorter of two miles (that being a big advance in the context of the conditions).  This gave rise in part to the Lost Battalion episode we've already read about, although as already noted the events that gave rise to that episode commenced on October 2. 

This phase of the assault was very bloody from an American prospect and it featured high American casualties.  The effort resulted in a breach of the local section of the Hindenburg line during the Battle of Montfaucon on October 14 through 17, resulting in the clearing of the Argonne Forest and an advance of ten miles. The French Army advanced even further, clearing 20 miles.

The second phase is well remembered by students of the American contribution to World War One.  The American Army was bloodied but showed itself of sustaining loss and advancing against stout German opposition. Having said that, there are real reasons to doubt that the American manner of fighting would have continued on had the Germans not ultimately collapsed in early November.  The loss rates sustained by the American Army were appalling and due, in no small part, to the troops being green and therefore willing to sustain them in a manner which the various European combatants no longer were.

Roads to the Great War: 100 Years Ago: Surrounded! Day One for the Lost Ba...

Roads to the Great War: 100 Years Ago: Surrounded! Day One for the Lost Ba...: Thursday 3 October 1918 Daybreak came, and we learned one of our men on outpost duty had bagged a prisoner. He was a surprised German w...

Countdown on the Great War: October 3, 1918

1.  Prince Max of Baden, head of the German government, sends his first note to Woodrow Wilson seeking peace.  It stated:

Berlin, October 3, 1918.
The German government requests that the President of the United States of America take the initiative in bringing about peace, that he inform all the belligerent states of this request, and that he invite them to send plenipotentiaries for purposes of beginning negotiations. The German government accepts as the basis for peace negotiations the program stated by the President of the United States in his speech to Congress of January 8, 1918, and in his subsequent pronouncements, particularly in his speech of September 27.
In order to avoid further bloodshed, the German government requests the immediate conclusion of an armistice on land, at sea, and in the air.
Signed: Max, Prince of Baden, Chancellor 

Price Faisal, the field head of the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire and later unfortunate King of Iraq.

2.  The Arab Revolt enters Damascus.

3.  The "Pursuit to Haritan" rapid advance in the Middle East commences.

4.  The U.S. Army's 2nd and 36th Divisions commence the Battle of Blanc Mount Ridge in the Champagne region of France which would lead to its clearing.

5.  King Ferdinand I of Bulgaria abdicates his thrown.

100 Days Offensive: Meuse Argonne, the drama of the "Lost Battalion". October 2-8, 1918.

 Members of the Lost Battalion following their relief.

The dramatic story of the "Lost Battalion" is one of the most remembered, and perhaps most mythologized, stories of the American participation in the Great War.

On this day the U.S. 77th and the 92nd Divisions launched an assault on the Argonne.  This was done under a series of orders that had issued earlier, with the issues for this sector of the Allied assault being subject to a fairly unrealistic no retreat order, which read:

It is again impressed upon every officer and man of this command that ground once captured must under no circumstances be given up in the absence of direct, positive, and formal orders to do so emanating from these headquarters. Troops occupying ground must be supported against counterattack and all gains held. It is a favorite trick of the Boche to spread confusion...by calling out "retire" or "fall back." If, in action, any such command is heard officers and men may be sure that it is given by the enemy. Whoever gives such a command is a traitor and it is the duty of any officer or man who is loyal to his country and who hears such an order given to shoot the offender upon the spot. "WE ARE NOT GOING BACK BUT FORWARD!" –General Alexander.

 Maj. Gen. Robert Alexander who issued the no retreat order to the 77th Division.  A naive order that was not followed by other units in this episode. . . nor should it have been.  Alexander had started off his service as an enlisted man after quioxtically enlisting in the U.S. Army as a private following obtaing admission to the bar in 1886.  He rose as an enlisted man rapidly before being promoted to the rank of lieutenant in 1889.

Units of the 77th Division ultimately involved in the episode were given their final order very early in the morning of this day, October 2.  Maj. Charles Whittlesey* and Spanish American War veteran Cpt. George G. McMurtry**, both Wall Street lawyers in the heavily New Yorker 77th Division were assigned tasks with the objective of the Binarville-LaViergette Road and ordered companies D and F of their unit, the 1-308th Infantry, to remain the along the western ridge along their advance to contain enemy opposition.  Two remaining battalions, the 1st and the 2nd of the 308th, were to proceed to Hill 198 and complete a flanking maneuver on German forces located there.

The fighting took place all day until French forces nearby were the recipients of a huge German counteract on Whittlesey's left flakn while the American on his right received a huge counterattack on his right.  This left the 308th outflanked unbeknownst to them as the continued to advance on Hill 198.  They took the hill and then realized that they were surrounded, in effect, through their advance.*  Whittlesey had no way to know what the situation was at that point  but surmised that either supporting units had not advanced as far as they had or had retreated, which he thought was contrary to the naive orders the 77th had otherwise been given.  By late night they were effectively surrounded.  Their situation was suspected by the surrounded unit but not fully appreciated, but hte failure of runners to return the following morning reinforced their slow realization that their situation had become desperate.  Efforts to inform higher headquarters through the use of carrier pigeons, a standard practice of hte time, was undertaken.  The unit fell under Allied artillery fire which was successfully called off by just that means, as a pigeon named Cher Ami, the surrounded units last, flew through and delivered the message about the unit being under friendly fire.

The surrounded men held off against fierce German attacks over the next several days.  German demands to surrender were not responded to.  Efforts of the 77th Division to relief the pocket were unsuccessful at great costs.  The U.S. ultimately shifted different divisions in to fight the relief effort, and the Germans responded in kind, ultimately even deploying Storm Troopers in the effort.  Finally, the 77th effected relief on October 8.

 Cpt. Eddie Grant.

The direct costs were enormous in context. Of the over 500 men who were part of the original  U.S. assaulting force only 194 came out without injury.  197 were killed. Huge losses were taken in the effort to relief the surrounded unti beyond that.  Eight Medals of Honor were awarded to members of the trapped formation, including those to Whittlesey, McMurtry and Cpt. Nelson Holderman.  Cpt. Eddie Grant, a former Major League Baseball player, was killed in one of the relief efforts resulting in a plaque in his honor in New York's Polo Grounds.***

 Lt. Col. Charles Whittlesey shortly after the relief of his command.

Whittlesey never really recovered from the trauma of the affair.  His performance while the unit was trapped was exemplary but psychologically it can be maintained that he was a fragile character unsuited for combat and perhaps for his career. He was a pallbearer for the Tomb of the Unknowns in 1921 and left for a cruise to Cuba only shortly thereafter.  After dining with the captain and being reported to be in good spirits, he simply disappeared, with the strong suspicion being that he jump overboard at sea.

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*Whittlesey as a Harvard educated lawyer with a patrician air but had been born to working class roots.  His father had been a Pennsylvania logger.  Perhaps for this reason Whittleseay was a member of the Socialist Party at one time early on, before that party had become fully radical, at which time he resigned in disgust. He was always a sensitive personality who had trouble to some extent with that even prior to the war in this early legal practice.

**McMurtry had been a member of the 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry, the Rough Riders, during the Spanish American War and would become a millionaire investor as well as a Harvard educated lawyer following that war.  He was one of the most experienced soldiers in the unit at the time of these events.

***Grant was yet another Harvard lawyer, having obtained a law degree in 1909.  He had retired as a professional baseball player in 1915 and had opened up a law practice in thereafter in Boston.

The Meuse Argonne, the Sacrifice of Col. Cavendar and the Spanish Flu. The news of September 27, 1918.

Death in various forms had front and center position on the newspapers of September 27.

Of course, the big offensive on the Meuse Argonne, the second really major American offensive and the one that would carry the American effort through to the end of the war, took front and center position.  In that readers of the various major Wyoming newspapers learned that a Col. J. W. Cavendar, a Wyoming attorney in peacetime life, had been reported killed in action while leading the 148th Field Artillery, which was a unit made up of Wyoming National Guardsmen in part, together with other National Guardsmen from the Rocky Mountain Region.

Col Cavendar's loss also appeared on the front page of the Laramie Boomerang.

Manpower shortages also did with the news that the government wanted men out of jobs that women could do.

So much for the claim that Rosey the Riveter first appeared in World War Two.

The more sedate Cheyenne State Leader apparently didn't have the news about Col Cavendar when it went to press.  It featured the largest headline on the looming flu crisis, which really says something about it given that this was day two of the largest American offensive of the war.  The Leader also informed readers that if they died, they better not expect a fancy casket.

In Casper, readers of the Casper Daily Press received a lot of war news, and other news, on its busy front page, but it also learned that the flu was now in New Mexico's military camps, contrary to the news that generally had it only on the East Coast.  And it received the most prominent position on front page here as well.

The Casper Daily Tribune didn't worry about being sedate, and apparently it wasn't as worried as the other Casper paper about the flu.  The advance of the American effort, which in truth was already meeting with problems, brought out banner headlines.

Readers were also informed that Chile was getting into action against the Huns, rather late in the day frankly, which is how such things tend to go.  And the pipe dream of a return of the Russians to the Allied side also showed up in large form.