Send the Alabamians: World War I Fighters in the Rainbow Division

8. From Sint-Mihiel to the Argonne, September 12-October 11, 1918

8 From Saint-mihiel to theArgonne, September 12–october 11, 1918 moving Forward the rainbow men knew nothing about their next mission for a simple reason: when they began marching to battle on August 28, the French and American generals had not yet finished planning the battle or negotiating which military’s officers would lead. the 167th departed its bases at Colombey, breuvannes, and damblain, hiking at night and sleeping during the day to preserve secrecy from enemy aircraft. the weather was hot in the beginning, and the night moves were cooler as well as safer from aircraft observation. men made the best of their sleepless nights on the road, filling the darkness with ribald songs “as bawdy as the collective imaginations of 3,000 horny men could conceive.”1 After marching for around forty-five minutes a bugler at the rear of the column sounded “halt,” and the troops flopped to the roadside for fifteen minutes’ rest before the bugler called “Forward march.” before dawn the column would scatter under trees to pitch pup tents and wait for the company kitchens. marches went well,though men resented not being able to smoke because of the blackout.the regiment stopped at Saint-Paul until September 4.While there it practiced assaulting a fortified farmhouse, just as it had done at Croix rouge Farm, and seizing a railroad, which it expected to do soon.2 When the rains set in, men struggled over choppy roads covered with soupy mud that sometimes reached the axles of the trucks, wagons, and artillery pieces.the column made back-to-back night marches in the rain from Saint-Paul toAllain,which was near Uruffe and Gibeaumeix, the 167th’s first home in France.3 inAllain the regiment held rifle and grenade practice during the day.4 Preparation for battle made the general climate tense. if, when cleaning his rifle, a Saint-mihiel to theArgonne, September 12–october 11, 1918 / 147 soldier accidentally fired a shot into the ground, men would shout claims to his belongings,implying that someone had shot himself in the foot,choosing a relatively minor, self-inflicted wound rather than risk the Germans doing something worse.5 on the night of September 7, the regiment leftAllain and arrived at Forêt de la reine in the predawn hours of September 9.6 From that mud hole in a forest, Station map 3. Saint-mihiel stations:August 18–october 1, 1918. (1st battalion headquarters) 148 / Chapter 8 where it was almost as dark as night during the daytime, they slogged in driving rain totoul, an ancient cathedral town.7 outsidetoul the trucks and muledrawn cannon congested traffic so much (see fig.19) that the column repeatedly halted, causing everyone to become restless during the delays.8 many marchers slipped and fell in the mud throughout the long and miserable night.they welcomed the chance to drop their rain-soaked packs when finally arriving at the assembly area at 4:15 A.M.9 the men pitched shelter half-tents in the dark before wrapping themselves in wet blankets.toul resembled a swamp.every road and trail was a bog.French renault tanks,some manned byAmericans,occasionally shimmered through the mist and rain as they made their way to the front, but oneAlabamian “was only half-jesting when he drawled that the attack was doomed‘unless the high Command used submarines for tanks,ducks for carrier pigeons and alligators for soldiers .’”10 the miserable conditions allowed men’s minds to wander, turning to anxious thoughts about the battle to come.11 logistics and Planning the 1st USArmy attack at Saint-mihiel promised to be the largestAmerican operation the war had yet seen.the attack targeted “a well entrenched position, covered by many bands of barb-wired entanglements” Germany held since “the last ten days of September,1914,when theArmy of the Crown Prince of bavaria had made this salient.”12 in four years of occupying the salient,the Germans had resisted allAllied attacks. theAmericans at Chaumont included some of the USArmy’s best minds— including Pershing’s plans expert, lieutenant Colonel George marshall. other army command and staff school graduates were familiar with the Saint-mihiel region .Some planners had studied the 1870 Franco-Prussian battles so thoroughly that they knew the area well enough to sketch maps from memory.it helped substantially in constructing complicated orders. hugh drum, 1st US Army...