THE WORLD’S GREATEST BATTLE
CONSIDERING the numbers engaged, the severity of the defense, the
difficulty of dislodging a foe entrenched with nature’s aid, and the
dash, energy and destructive work of the offensive, the fight for the
Argonne has no equal in the records of mankind. This has been the
verdict of many witnesses; not alone those with the desire to give
praise to their fellow Americans, but alien critics also have affirmed
it.
History has recorded many bloody encounters of modern times. Waterloo,
the Bloody Angle, Pickett’s charge--these are but a few instances
of the pluck and bravery that men will show when facing an equally
determined enemy. The greatest war has furnished innumerable evidences
that men are no less courageous than in former times.
As we have seen, it was a trick of the Germans, practiced over and
over again, to vacate a position under pressure and at night, when the
victors had paused to reinforce and count results, to come back again,
occupying much of the ground they had vacated during the day. But
the Americans soon discovered this ruse and looked for it; they also
followed the Huns more closely and held all of the ground taken from
them.
Greater dash, a more complete disregard for danger which amounted in
many cases to individual foolhardiness, causing at the same time the
enemy to feel that he was up against foemen that outclassed him in
that sort of thing, had much to do with the winning streak that the
Yanks maintained. The Germans fooled themselves into thinking that
they were above defeat where the great forest, its ravines and hills,
afforded them such protection, but this was the sort of thing that the
Americans--many of them hunters, sportsmen, woodsmen, mountaineers,
or with vacation experiences in such places and having the hereditary
instincts of ancestors who were pioneers--now welcomed.
This manner of fighting took from the Germans their natural
inclinations following their training as a body of men who depended
upon the spirit of comradeship and who were only at their best when
fighting shoulder to shoulder. But it was exactly according to the
American standards and training, showing clearly the superiority of
the latter method of making each man depend on himself. Moreover, it
was what is known as open fighting, differing from trench warfare and
though the opposing forces often fortified themselves behind natural
rock masses and within thickets and groves, they were not as fixed as
in the elaborate dugouts and fortresses beneath the surface of the
ground. In some instances, however, over officers had erected cabins or
stone huts.
The fighting in the Argonne occurred mostly in the daytime and except
where some few night raids were carried out with slight gain either
way, the opposing forces were content to lie in wait until early
morning hours, when they again leaped at each other’s throats, the
Yanks doing most of the jumping and the Huns getting the larger part of
the throttling. Then, until the fall of darkness again, the battle went
on uninterruptedly.
Naturally, slow progress was made in the forest. Between the Aire
River, which skirts the Argonne region on the east, and the Meuse,
an average of twelve miles away, the attacking Americans got on much
faster, taking village after village and compelling the Germans to
fall back continually. Units of other divisions cleared the immediate
valley of the Aire of Huns, but before all this was done the now famous
77th Division had penetrated into the very center of the forest and was
still going strong. After pausing to make good the ground and re-form,
the drive was resumed in the early morning of October 4th, the sounds
thereof conveying the glad fact to Herbert Whitcomb, Don Richards and
their brave little company.
The open farming section to the west of the Argonne was vacated by
the Germans after the St. Mihiel battle and the severe fighting on
the Vesle. The Huns knew they could not hold this section against the
combined French and Americans; therefore, they retired to within the
forest proper, believing that nothing could dislodge them there and it
became the job of the Americans alone to prove them wrong.
Where a successful offensive is conducted, even against open formations
or ordinary trenches, the attacking force necessarily outnumbers
the defenders and this was the case in the Argonne battle, but the
differences 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 isolated
fights, 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 greatly
outnumbered the attacking forces. Sheer inability to recognize the
possibility of being beaten or even seriously repulsed carried the
Yanks on to victory, compelling the foe to give way before their
terrific onslaughts.
This sort of fighting while it lasted did not surprise the American
commanders, but the English, French and Italian officers detailed to
visit the American command viewed with astonishment the result of
the battle. Never before had they seen such persistent energy and
cool determination shown by an army of such large numbers. Only the
Canadians and Australians, on certain smaller occasions, demonstrated
the more hardy purpose and tenacity of men from less densely settled
countries where the pioneer spirit still prevails.
May it be that, however advanced our country becomes in the niceties
and needs of civilization, however earnestly we come to adhere to those
finer traits of national integrity and purer manliness, we still
retain much of that pioneer spirit which made of our forefathers the
kind of men to gain the greatest nation on earth.