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Chapter 20 The Second Phase of the Meuse-Argonne On the night of September 19, the foot troops moved by trucks and the mounted troops by marching to the area near Verdun and were placed in reserve in the Third Corps. The First Division received orders to attack a very strong Austrian division in front of Verdun, and we prepared accordingly. The great Meuse-Argonne offensive of the First American Army began early on September 26. On September 27, just as the First Division on the right of the line was about to execute the assault in front of Verdun, it was transferred to the First Corps on the left of the line. The division proceeded across the rear of the army in two night marches. It then transferred to the Fifth Corps and relieved the Thirty-fifth Division on the night of September 30. This division was badly disorganized, with no defined line.1 The First Division advanced with regiments in line and in column of battalions until the leading troops came under enemy machine -gun fire. The different echelons then occupied positions for attack. The artillery arrived the following night. During the night advance of the infantry, a staff officer asked to which division and corps the troops belonged. Avoice from the ranks replied: “We don’t belong to any corps. We go where we are needed most.” Although the First Division had received orders to attack at once, the orders were countermanded, and the troops remained for three days under heavy enemy fire, during which time we lost five hundred men and officers. The terrain, broken by deep ravines and woods with high hills and knolls, gave the enemy commanding positions. Patrols sent out by orders from the corps sustained heavy loss and exposed us to the possibility of having the enemy learn our intentions. Because we knew the enemy’s dispositions from the contact of our lines, patrols were needless. At 5:25 A.M., October 4, without any preliminary fire, the barrage dropped two hundred yards in front of our jumping-off line and 138 THE WAY OF DUTY, HONOR, COUNTRY stood until the infantry advanced to the line of the bursts. It then moved forward, closely followed by the infantry. When resistance was intense, our men passed over the ground from which the Thirty -fifth Division had been driven and where many dead still lay on the field. The left brigade gained the Exermont Ravine and Fléville, which the troops were ordered not to occupy. Enemy artillery intensely bombarded the area, but this was the only spot on the Western Front where we gained the objective that day. The troops dug in at once. The right brigade met very heavy resistance, advanced two kilometers, but did not gain its objective. The left brigade advanced four kilometers. Because the troops on our flanks did not advance at all, we were exposed to flank fire. Forty-seven French tanks, distributed along the line, gave great assistance until most were disabled. On October 5, the first objective was to bring the right brigade in line with the left. All remaining tanks accompanied the right brigade . At 6:15 A.M., divisional and corps artillery fired in front of the right brigade, using many smoke shells to screen the troops. The barrage advanced at 6:30 A.M., closely followed by the infantry. The exposed right flank suffered from enemy fire. Although the fighting was desperate on both sides and the losses heavy, the line was gained on schedule. The barrage then fell along the entire line to the second objective. This was gained and the line extended through the Bois de Moncy. A patrol discovered that Hill 269, several hundred yards to our right and in the rear of the enemy’s line facing the division on our right, was unoccupied. A detachment was sent to occupy it, but this was driven away after several hours. Then a battalion of engineers was sent to recapture it and was, in turn, driven off. But it counterattacked and held the hill. On October 6, in conformity with corps orders, the division organized its position and sent out patrols. During the night of October 6, the Eighty-second Division moved into the ground occupied by the First Division and at daylight of October 7, faced to the left flank and attacked the north of the Argonne Forest, crossing the Aire River Valley. The guns of the...

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