USA > Tennessee > Knox County > Knox County in the World War, 1917-1919 > Part 2
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52
The First Division had the honor of making the first distinctly American attack in the war. On May 28, it assaulted the German frontal positions in the Montdidier salient and swept forward to the capture of the town of Cantigny. They held it against all counter-attacks. This action, though local in its scope, had the electrical effect of stimulating the nerves of the weary French, who had waited so long for an active participation of the Americans in the van of the fighting. The Germans also were given an inkling of the American fighting qualities, which had been scoffed at in Berlin by the military party in order to minimize the importance of our participation in the war.
A few days later, the Second Division, including the Marines, was hurried up to help check the advance of the Germans in the Aisne-Marne salient. They not only held the best Prussian Guard divisions, but recaptured from them the town and railroad station at Bouresches. At Belleau Woods, which followed, the feats of the Americans amazed both friend and foe. The Germans were expelled from the woods with heavy losses and thrown back 900 yards on their front. Meanwhile, the Third Division had been in action on the Marne. its
17
UNDERWOOD & UNDERWOOD
THE BIG FOUR AND MARSHAL FOCH
In the group from left to right are President Wilson, M. Clemenceau, Premier Lloyd George, Premier Orlando and Marshal Foch
420
C JELIMOD R UNDERWOOD
AMERICAN PEACE DELEGATES
Left to right are Col. E. M. Ilonse, Robert Lansing, President Wilson, Henry White and General Tasker H. Bliss. The photograph was taken at the Hotel Crillon in Paris
18
machine gunners, brought up hurriedly from a training area, were thrown into the thick of the fray by assignment to the task of holding the bridge-head on the Marne at Chateau-Thierry. By the latter part of June, the force of the German drive had been exhausted in the Marne salient, and the enemy rested for the final spring he was preparing to make at Paris, the heart of France, and the center of her resistance.
The German plan to exhaust all resources and all men in a final huge effort to crush the British and French, capture Paris, and end the war before the full American strength could be brought to the rescue, had been evident for some time. The reserves on both sides were dwindling fast. Under the spur of neces- sity, a meeting of the allied premiers, together with General Pershing, was held at Abbeville, France, on May 2, at which the British agreed to place at the dis- posal of the United States all the ships necessary to transport immediately ten or more divisions. These were to be held in reserve while training, yet ready to be thrown into the line at any time necessity demanded. With this aid from the British, more than 500,000 first-class combat troops reached France from the United States in June and July.
The final offensive of the Germans was launched on July 15. The American troops, who had gone through their baptism of fire and had their mettle tested in the offensive of the previous month, were placed at the very apex of the German thrust in the Marne salient in the Chateau-Thierry district. They met charge after charge for three days, breaking wave after wave of attack. On the morn- ing of the fourth day, July 18, which marked the turn in the tide of allied fortunes, they sprung forward as a part of the great counter-offensive of Marshal Foch, which ended two weeks later in the complete reduction of the Marne salient and the capture of more than 25,000 prisoners, 750 guns, and large stores by the American troops engaged.
In this pivotal battle of the war, after which the glory of German arms waned and the sun of Hun military supremacy quickly set, eight American divisions, totalling about 225,000 combat troops, took part. They were the First, Second, Third and Fourth Regular Divisions, and the Twenty-sixth, Twenty-eighth, Thirty-second, and Forty-second National Guard Divisions. Without them the French could never have launched a counter-offensive. Without their inspiring courage and fierce initiative, it is doubtful whether Paris could have been saved. The aid of American troops in these crucial two months marked another of those periods, occurring more than once during the four years of the war, in which the fate of the allied cause hung by a thread and defeat was staved off by a hair.
Marshal Foch had delivered a master stroke in making the counter-offensive stroke on July 18. Not only was the impending danger averted and Paris saved, but the offensive had been wrested from the hands of the Germans. They were thrown back on the defensive, with tremendous loss of morale to their troops and to the people in Germany.
This stroke also enabled General Pershing to withdraw his veteran troops from the line and concentrate them, together with those divisions which had arrived in June and July, in the Toul sector for the forthcoming offensive against the St. Mihiel salient. The Thirtieth and Twenty-seventh Divisions only were left to cooperate with the British in Belgium and Flanders and to assist them two months later in the breaking of the Hindenburg line at its toughest and most vital point along the St. Quentin Canal.
The formal organization of the First American Army under the personal command of General Pershing was made on August 10. The sector allotted for the first offensive on a large scale by an independent American force extended roughly from a point southeast of Verdun, around the nose of the St. Mihiel
19
-
+
C UNDERWOOD & UNDERWOOD
THE WAR CABINET
Attorney-General ;
Seated around the table, from left to right, are: President Wilson ; William G. McAdoo, Secretary of Treasury ; Thomas W, Gregory, Josephus Daniels, Secretary of the Navy ; David F. Houston, Secretary of Agriculture ; William B. Wilson, Secretary of Labor ; William C. Redfield, Secre- tary of Commerce ; Franklin B. Lane, Secretary of Interior ; Albert S. Burleson, Postmaster-General; Newton D. Baker, Secretary of War; and Robert Lansing, Secretary of State.
20
salient, and thence east to the Moselle River. The front was about forty miles. The attack was to be in the form of a surprise, and all operations and prepara- tions previous to it, therefore, had to be made by night. They involved a tre- mendous amount of work of the most delicate nature. It was necessary to bring several divisions from their training areas in the western part of France, a dis- tance of several hundred miles. In addition to the fourteen American combat divisions, which were to be used directly in the operations or held in reserve, it was necessary to have thousands of corps and army troops, ambulance units, hospital sections, and other auxiliary parts of a complete army. The whole num- ber of men to be engaged in one capacity or another brought the total up to approximately 600,000 men.
The artillery concentration was especially noteworthy. With the guns loaned by the French, the Germans were notably outclassed in artillery of all calibers. Three huge naval guns, brought from the United States and mounted upon rail- road trucks, held Metz and all the strategic points in the rear of the German lines in their range. The superiority of the Americans in the air was quite as decided as in artillery. Both French and English contributed some of their best squadrons of bombing, observation, and scout aeroplanes.
The attack started at one o'clock on the morning of September 12, 1918, with a four hours' bombardment of towns, strong points, and shelters held by the Germans. At five o'clock the artillery laid down an intense barrage on the front line trenches of the enemy, lifting each four minutes and advancing about one hundred yards ahead of our infantry. The Germans, bewildered by the intensity and volume of our artillery fire, and astounded by the waves of fresh, young, and vigorous American troops, made but little resistance, except with machine guns. Within little more than twenty-four hours, the line had been advanced eight to ten miles at points, St. Mihiel had been retaken, the nose of the salient pinched off, and a new, straight line, running from Pont-a-Mousson through Thiaucourt, Vigneulles, and Fresnes up to Verdun had been formed. What the French had tried to accomplish unsuccessfully through four years of fighting at the loss of thousands of men, General Pershing with his new army had done successfully in little more than a day.
The booty was heavy. More than 16,000 prisoners were captured, about 450 guns of many calibers were taken, a great quantity of valuable material and supplies fell into our hands, more than a score of French villages and towns were released from German domination. Metz, the western hinge of the German army, was brought under the threat of our guns and put in danger of being flanked. The American losses were extremely slight, about 7,000, most of which were light casualties.
Upon the heels of this brilliant accomplishment, the Thirtieth Division, com- posed of the national guard troops of Tennessee and the Carolinas, and the Twenty-seventh Division, of New York, cooperating with the British and Aus- tralians, smote the Germans another decisive blow by breaking through the hitherto impregnable Hindenburg line where the St. Quentin Canal passes through a tunnel under a ridge near Cambrai. Preceded by a galling artillery fire and a strong array of British tanks, the guardsmen impetuously gained all their objectives and took thousands of prisoners. They continued their pursuit of the Germans until relieved on October 19 to recuperate and obtain replacements. Their advance covered about 18 miles.
Less than seventy-two hours after the opening gun in the St. Mihiel drive had been fired, General Pershing, leaving a thin defensive line to hold the gains he had made, began, under the cover of night and with the greatest secrecy, the withdrawal of the greater part of his troops for use in what proved to be the greatest battle in American history.
21
--
22
IC UNDERWOOD & BINDERWOOD
THE WAR COUNCIL
Seated, left to right: Benedict Crowell, William G. McAcoo, President Wilson, Josephus Daniels, Bernard Baruch. Standing, left to right: Herbert Hoover, Edward Hurley, Vance McCormick, Harry A. Garfield.
The main artery of supply for the German army on the western front south of the Sambre River was a four-track railroad line running through Sedan and Mezieres. It also joined with the network of lines around Metz, supplying the German troops in Lorraine. Over this they hauled, in a line almost parallel to the front, their supplies, artillery, ammunition, fresh divisions, and carried back to hospitals in the rear their sick and wounded. The mobility afforded by this system of railroads had given them a great advantage over the allies, because they could rush reserves on short notice from one sector to another, or quickly make a strong concentration of troops at any point for a mass attack.
To lose this vital artery of communication meant either that Germany must surrender, or that she must withdraw all her armies from French soil at a loss by capture of thousands of men and invaluable stores. To safeguard it, her army had built the Kremhilde Stellung, an almost impenetrable mass of barbed wire, trenches and concrete strong points.
The strategic advantage, therefore, of cutting and capturing this pivotal point of the German lines was almost incalculable. The difficulties corresponding were almost as great. The region to be penetrated in gaining the objective was, in part, a forest, in part wooded hills and valleys, admirably adapted to a sturdy defense by machine guns and artillery. Furthermore, there was little time to make adequate preparation for the attack. Between September 14, when the withdrawal from the St. Mihiel sector commenced, and September 26, when the Argonne drive began, there were but twelve nights to move several divisions more than 100 miles, bring up light and heavy artillery, establish hospitals, pre- pare ammunition dumps, assemble transport, and do the thousand other things that are necessary for a great attack. Only those who went through this stren- uous period can realize the strain and physical weariness that it entailed. To add to the difficulties of the task, the rains and the cold autumn nights had begun.
If the attack did not succeed, then General Pershing faced a campaign in the spring of 1919, with double the toll of dead and wounded. He also was con- fronted with removal from command if he made a failure. In spite of the diffi- culties he knew he must encounter and the heavy casualties he was certain his army must suffer, he seized the opportunity to deal a death blow at the heart of German resistance and put an end to the war before winter began.
The American line of battle extended from the Meuse on the east to near the western edge of the Argonne Forest. Nine divisions were in the line, while six were held in reserve. Of those to make the attack, only two had had much battle experience. The others were participating for the first time in a great offensive. The attack, preceded, as in the St. Mihiel drive, by a heavy artillery bombard- ment from hundreds of guns of all calibers, began in the early hours of Septem- ber 26. With the coming of daylight, the infantry went over the top behind a heavy shell and smoke barrage. After clearing the old German trenches, they made steady progress during the day, advancing to a depth of seven or eight miles at points. The bag of prisoners taken in this initial stage of the offensive amounted to about 10,000.
The enemy was caught off his guard and surprised. But when the scope of the blow became visible and he saw its true objective, reserve divisions, drawn from other fronts and amply provided with machine guns and artillery, were thrown in to stem the tide. They held for a few days after the initial force of the attack had exhausted itself. Time was necessary for the American command to make roads across the old trenches, bring up supplies, run artillery and ammunition forward to support the infantry, and prepare for a farther advance.
This second phase of the battle of the Argonne Forest began with an attack along the whole sector on October 4. New divisions had arrived to take the place of those which had suffered heavily in casualties or were exhausted in the primary drive. The next three weeks saw the most prolonged and bitter fighting
23
-
24
C. UNDERWOOD & UNDERWOOD
COMMISSION ON LEAGUE OF NATIONS AT PARIS
The members, from left to right sitting, are: Viscount Chinda, (Japan) ; Baron Makino, (Japan) ; M. Bourgrois, Britain) ; Signor Orlando, (Italy) ; M. Kramarz, (Czecho-Slovak) ; M. Venizelos, (Greece) ; Standing: M. Pessoa,
(France) ; Lord Robert Cecil, (Great ( Brazil) ; M. Yoshida, (Secretary to Japanese Minister Foreign Affairs) ; Colonel House, (U. S. A.) ; The Secretary of the Brazilian Legation ; M. Dmoski, (Poland) ; M. Vesnitch, (Serbia) ; The Secretary to the Belgian Legation ; General Smuts, (Great Britain) ; President Wilson ; M. Diamandi, (Roumania) ; M. Hymans, (Belgium) ; Major Vonsell, (U. S. A.) ; M. Wellington Koo, (China) ; M. Reis, (Portugal) ; M. Scialoja, (Italy) and M. Larnande, (France).
SWEDEN
NORWAY
V
4
S
CULP OF
F
RIGA
KA
N
0
R
T
H
N
MEMEL
S
INTERNATIONAL CITY OF DANZIG
A
SCHLESWIG PLEBISCITE
HELGOLAND
DISHANTLER
RUSSI - C
A
L .
1
BERLIN
LONDON
L
WARSAW
H
E
R
M
A
N
BPLCIUM
MORESNET
GER
CZECHO - SLOVAKIA
TI F
LORA
R
A
VIENNA
₹
0
Z
DUDA . PEST
1
A U
9
T
R. I
A
H
U
N
G
A
1
0
TRENTINO
EBISCITE
CEDED TO ITALY
M
m
*TAJESTE
7
O
ROUMANIA
SPAIN
-
-
MONTENEG
BULGARIA
o ROME
ALBANIA.
E
ISLANDS
ALCARIC
TYRRHENIAN
C
EE
IONIAN
SICILY
SEA
MAP of
EUROPE
ITUNISO
BOUNDARIES OF OLD STATES
BOUNDARIES OF NEW STATES
5º
5
E
A
A
RIA
-
Z
AUS
FRANCE
SWITZERLAND
JUGO
1
M
D
1
T
F
ALGERIA
N
PLEBISCITE
AXD
POLAND
E
SARRE BASIN
R
Y
H
VIA
TO GREECE
25
PLE BEJCITE
EAST PRUSSIA
MARSHAL JOFFRE AT TOMB OF WASHINGTON
The representatives of France as guests of the nation joined in paying homage to George Wash- ington, the father of the United States. Rene Viviani, French Minister of Justice, standing before the tomb of the First President, spoke with deep emotion of the common fight for freedom which France and America were taking part in. Marshal Joffre laid on the marble sarcophagus, a plain bronze palm wound with the French tri-color.
OUU.
"LAFAYETTE, WE ARE HERE!"
The American Commander-in-chief and his staff pay tribute to the great Frenchman who came to our aid in the Revolutionary War.
26
in which American troops ever engaged. Progress was made almost by yards, for by now the enemy had brought up the best of his divisions for the defense of this vital sector. They were drawn from the British and French fronts, thereby accounting for the very rapid advance of our allies in the last days of the war. Our losses in this second stage were extremely heavy, but when one division was exhausted, General Pershing shoved in another. On account of the scarcity of fresh troops, some divisions went in twice. More than a dozen were necessary to beat down the resistance on the high land between the Meuse and Aire Rivers and capture Grand Pre, Bantheville, and Brieulles.
The final and supreme phase of the attack began on the morning of November 1. The progress was much faster, due to more favorable terrain and the presence of an increased amount of American artillery. The pursuit became so fast that motor trucks were used to overtake the enemy and surround him before his escape. On the morning of November 6, the Forty-second, or Rainbow Division, was ready to enter Sedan, but waited a few hours to give this special privilege to the French who were on our left flank. The objective had been reached and the line of communication had been cut. The other units of the First Army, how- ever, drove on in a northeasterly direction toward Montmedy and Stenay, and all of them had crossed the Meuse when the armistice brought hostilities to a close on November 11.
Had the fighting not stopped at this time, the Germans would have been sub- jected to another blow at the hands of the Second American Army, formed under the command of Lieutenant-General Bullard, who launched an attack on a wide front on the morning of November 11, with the Briey coal fields as its objective. The First Army, under Lieutenant-General Liggett, was to continue simultaneously its advance toward Longwy. These operations were to be fol- lowed by an offensive which would have isolated Metz.
The end of the war found our forces well exhausted, our resources for further campaigning stretched to the utmost. Our casualties in the six weeks of the Argonne offensive were close to 150,000 men, while the number who were engaged at one time or another in its different phases was more than 1,000,000. The Germans did not have so many men, but they used their very best divisions. More than one-third of their total strength under arms was drawn upon and gradually exhausted in the attempt to stem the American advance.
Though our strength had been put to a severe test, there was an inexhaustible reservoir of men in America who were coming over at the rate of 200,000 monthly to fill the gaps from casualties. More than 1,000,000 men were in training camps at home, ready for service when needed. No resort had been made to the huge numbers of men available by the extension of the draft ages from 18 to 45. The machinery was in operation to call them to the colors as needed. The cessation of hostilities came before any of them was sent to camp.
Forty-two complete combat divisions were oversea on November 11, 1918. Twenty-nine of these saw service as units upon the battle front. They were the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th regulars, the 26th, 27th, 28th, 29th, 30th, 32nd, 33rd, 35th, 36th, 37th, and 42nd national guard and the 77th, 78th, 79th, 80th, 81st, 82nd, 88th, 89th, 90th, 91st, and 92nd national army divisions. Two divis- ions, the 34th and 38th, were in reserve behind the front. Nine other divisions, the 39th, 40th, 41st, 76th, 83rd, 84th, 85th, 86th, and 87th, were either used as depot divisions from which to fill the gaps at the front or to maintain the lines of communication and supply in the rear. Two divisions, the 8th and 31st, had just landed in France when hostilities ceased.
After the armistice, nine divisions were sent forward to the Rhine as a part of the allied army of occupation. They held the bridgehead and area around Coblenz, Germany. The remainder of the combat troops was sent back to train-
27
TIT
ing areas in the center of France, where military schedules to maintain military discipline were kept up until transports arrived to return them to the United States. Wounded and sick men were sent first, and the transportation of divis- ional units did not start until early in 1919. A constant stream, reaching a max- imum of 300,000 men monthly, flowed back across the Atlantic during the spring and summer months. Battleships, German liners, and leased tonnage speeded the American evacuation of France and the home-coming of the men as much as possible.
Whether or not American troops won the war is a mooted question. There has been a disposition abroad to belittle the military effort of the United States, in fact, the whole part played by this nation in the titanic struggle against the Central Powers. Yet when the end came, France alone had more troops upon the front or held more of the battle line. There were 200,000 more Americans than English engaged in France on the day of the armistice. Of this, at least, there can be no doubt-the decisive blow struck by the American armies in the Argonne Forest prevented the prolongation of the war another year. It was the stroke that brought the German military party to its knees and caused it to beg for and accept an armistice so severe in its terms that they were little short of those which would have been exacted under an unconditional surrender.
Great as were our achievements on land and sea in the last few months of the war, our army and navy would not have reached their maximum strength until 1919. Our varied war enterprises were just coming to fruition when the war ceased. Quantity production of artillery, ammunition, aeroplanes, tractors, machine guns, merchant vessels, and the numerous other necessities of war had merely begun. Our governmental machine, after many false starts, delays and mistakes, was just beginning to function properly. The giant of the western hemisphere had merely given a token of the latent strength that he possessed. This token, however, was sufficient to turn defeat into victory and to establish the supremacy of American democracy over Prussian autocracy.
28
THE PRICE OF PEACE
Twenty-eight nations of the world declared war and took part, either actively or in a small way, in the conflict which shook the fabric of civilization and tumbled down the pillars of government during almost four and one-half years. All of the great nations were engaged and the majority of the smaller powers were participants sooner or later in the struggle.
Below is given the approximate number of men who were under arms, the number of lives that were lost, and the total casualties to the principal combatant nations :
Men under arms
Lives lost
Casualties
United States
3,764,700
53,169
236,117
Great Britain
7,500,000
658,665
3,049,991
France
6,000,000
1,100,000
4,000,000
Italy
5,000,000
500,000
2,000,000
Russia
14,000,000
3,500,000
5,000,000
Belgium
350,000
50,000
250,000
Servia
300,000
150,000
200,000
Roumania
600,000
200,000
300,000
Germany
11,000,000
1,580,000
4,000,000
Austria-Hungary
7,500,000
2,000,000
4,500,000
Turkey
1,500,000
250,000
750,000
Bulgaria
1,000,000
50,000
200,000
58,514,700
10,091,834
24,536,108
The debts of the principal belligerents, as nearly as can be calculated by financiers and economists, were:
Before the war
After the war
Great Britain
$ 3,458,000,000
$ 33,000,000,000
France
6,598,000,000
26,000,000,000
Italy
2,792,000,000
10,328,000,000
Russia
5,082,000,000
25,383,000,000
United States
1,208,000,000
18,000,000,000
Germany
1,165,000,000
30,000,000,000
Austria-Hungary
3,985,000,000
21,738,000,000
Canada
336,000,000
1,172,000,000
Australia
93,000,000
1,212,000,000
29
Men
Per cent
New York
367.864
9.79
Penneylvania
297,891
7.93
Illinois
251.074
6.68
Ohio
200.293
5.33
Texae
161,065
4.29
Michigan
135,485
1 3.61
Massachusetts
132,610
3.53
Miseouri
128,544
1 3.42
California
112,514
2.98
Indiana
106,581
2.83
New Jersey
105,207
2.80
Minnesota
9,116
2.64
IoIva
98,781
2.63
Wisconsin
98,211
2.61
Georgia
85.506
2.28
Oklahoma
80.169
2.13
Tennessea
75,825
2.02
Kentucky
75.043
2.00
Alabama
74,678
1,99
Virginia
73.062
1,94
N. Carolina
73.003
1.94
Louisiana
65,988
1.76
Kansas
63,428
1.69
Arkansas
61,027
1.62
W. Virginia
55,777
1.48
Mississippi
54.295
1.44
5. Carolina
53,482
1.42
Connecticut
50,069
1.33
Nebraska
7,805
1.27
Maryland
47,054
1.25
Washington
45,154
1.20
L'ontana
36,293
.97
Colorado
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.