Overview
The logistical prelude to the Meuse attack was planned by then-Colonel George Marshall who managed to move US units to the front after the St. Mihiel salient fighting. The big September/October Allied breakthroughs (north, centre and south) across the length of the Hindenburg Line - including the Battle of the Argonne Forest - are now lumped together as part of what is generally remembered as the Grand Offensive (also known as the Hundred Days Offensive) by the Allies on the Western front. The Meuse-Argonne offensive also involved troops from France, while the rest of the Allies, including France, Britain and its dominion and imperial armies (mainly Canada, Australia and New Zealand), and Belgium contributed to major battles in other sectors across the whole front. The French and British armies' ability to fight unbroken over the whole four years of the war in what amounted to a bloody stalemate is credited by some historians with breaking the spirit of the German Army on the Western Front. The Grand Offensive, including British, French and Belgian advances in the north along with the French-American advances around the Argonne forest, is in turn credited for leading directly to the Armistice on November 11.
On September 26, the Americans began their strike towards Sedan in the south; British and Belgian divisions drove towards Ghent (Belgium) on the 27th, and then British and French armies attacked across northern France on the 28th. The scale of the overall offensive, bolstered by the fresh and eager but largely untried and inexperienced U.S. troops, signaled renewed vigor among the Allies and sharply dimmed German hopes for victory.
The Meuse-Argonne offensive, shared by the U.S. forces with the French 4th Army on the left (as shown on the accompanying map and armistice), was the biggest operation and victory of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) in World War I. The bulk of the AEF had not gone into action until 1918. The Meuse-Argonne battle was the largest frontline commitment of troops by the U.S. Army in World War I, and also its deadliest. Command was coordinated, with some U.S. troops (e.g. the Buffalo Soldiers of the 92nd Infantry Division (United States) and the 93rd Infantry Division (United States)) attached and serving under French command (e.g. XVII Corps during the second phase).
On September 28, the French General Mariano Goybet commanding the 157 Red Hand Division sent his troops in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. He broke with his troops the front face Monthois. Two of his regiments were African Americans: 371st and 372nd detached from the 93rd Infantry Division (United States).
In their first nine days of fighting in the Meuse-Argonne sector, the 372nd can be credited with progressing through 4.8 miles of heavily organized defenses. In the process, they took 600 enemy prisoners, captured 15 heavy guns, 20 Minenwerfers, and approximately 150 machine guns, as well as securing an enormous quantity of engineering supplies and artillery ammo. The 372nd played a key role in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive and suffered casualties of 500 men killed, wounded, or gassed in action. They fought gallantly at Verdun, Bussy Farm (where all officers of Co. I were either killed or wounded), and Sechault to name a few of their accomplishments.The regiment was then taken out of the line and thrown into the great September 1918 offensive in the Champagne.
The 371st regiment in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive took Côte 188, Bussy Ferme, Ardeuil, Montfauxelles, and Trieres Ferme near Monthois. The regiment captured many German prisoners, 47 machine guns, 8 trench engines, three 77mm. field pieces, a munitions depot, many railroad cars, and enormous quantities of lumber, hay and other supplies. It shot down three German airplanes by rifle and machine-gun fire during the advance. During the fighting between 28 September and 6 October 1918, its losses, which were mostly in the first three days, were 1,065 out of 2,384 actually engaged. Corporal Freddie Stowers distinguished himself in the assault on the Côte 188, near Bussy Farm.
The main U.S. effort of the Meuse-Argonne offensive took place in the Verdun Sector, immediately north and northwest of the town of Verdun, between 26 September and 11 November 1918. However, far to the north, U.S. troops of the 27th and 30th divisions of the II Corps AEF fought under British command in a spearhead attack on the Hindenburg Line with 12 British and Australian divisions - and directly alongside the exhausted veteran divisions of the Australian Corps of the First Australian Imperial Force (1st AIF). With artillery and British tanks, the combined three-nation force, despite some early setbacks, attacked and captured their objectives (including Montbrehain village) along a six-kilometre section of the Line between Bellicourt and Vendhuille, which was centred around an underground section of the St Quentin Canal and came to be known as the Battle of St. Quentin Canal. Although the capture of the heights above the Beaurevoir Line by October 10, marking a complete breach in the Hindenburg Line, was arguably of greater immediate significance, the important U.S. contribution to the victory at the St. Quentin Canal is less well remembered in the United States than Meuse-Argonne.
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