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A bit late, but 100 years later

Marvin the Martian

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I met to submit this last week on the 100th anniversary of the battle, but the bright light that was the Kavanaugh Hearings made it a bad time to bring up anything else.

100 years ago this past September 26, the US launched the Meuse-Argonne offensive. 1.2 million Americans attacked German positions in this WWI battle. It was the first battle that the Americans planned and mostly carried out. Though the French and Siamese would add troops (enough so that the French would sustain 70,000 killed/wounded/missing/captured.

But the attack was mostly American. For scale, the current US active duty military is roughly 1.3 million. So almost every soldier, sailor, marine, and airman today would make up the force we used in this one battle. More for scale, the US committed about 700,000 men to the Battle of the Bulge. Meuse Argonne was the deadliest US battle in history. Over 26,000 Americans would die. By comparison, the US deaths in the Bulge were just over 19,000 and about 12,500 in Okinawa.

Pershing had been working hard for a US battle. He firmly believed in the men under his command, and he wanted to prove to the British and French that he was right. Our allies wanted US troops folded into their commands as opposed to fighting under an American flag. Undoubtedly Pershing was right on this front, who can imagine Americans fighting well under a French or British flag.

At the same point, we made some real rookie mistakes caused by our belief we knew better. We tried tactics the allies had long given up on, based on the thought the American soldier was superior. We actually lost ground in some locations on day one. But we learned. And as the battle went on, we started making really impressive gains. The war would end on November 11. Pershing was pushing hard to get as much ground as he could right up until the end. It seems Pershing had a belief we needed to convincingly defeat the Germans or they would come back again.

The only reason I am writing this is that this was a defining battle for the US military. Though it started poorly, it gained momentum. Fresh, enthusiastic Americans were a real problem for the tired German army. I believe this offensive greatly hastened the German surrender. Most experts expected the war to end mid-1919. This was our first battle on the European continent, against the militaries of old.

All that said, the size and the importance, there was very little coverage of the battle’s anniversary. For many reasons, WW1 is unknown to Americans. In Europe WW1 is still widely known, almost on par with WW2. In America though, WW1 and Korea were massive wars that occupy part of a shelf in the local library. Perhaps fewer books on both than on D-Day alone. But the US suffered 116,000 killed in WW1 and 36,000 in Korea. I don’t think the veterans of those two wars have ever received their due. Of course there are no WW1 veterans left alive. But in their memory, below is the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery. It did not turn out to be the war to end all wars, but that failure is on humanity's flaws and not on them.

938000819_4.jpg
 
My grandfather was shipped to the US in 1903 as an 11-year-old, together with his brother who was 14. My great-grandparents couldn't feed him anymore. He first worked on a farm in Illinois owned by an older brother who had immigrated earlier. His brother worked him like a slave, paid him little and had him sleep year round in the loft of an unheated barn. He hid all the money he earned and when he had enough for a one-way bus ticket to Minnesota, he left to join another brother who hired him as a house painter.

When we he 21 he volunteered to fight in WWI.
 
My grandfather was shipped to the US in 1903 as an 11-year-old, together with his brother who was 14. My great-grandparents couldn't feed him anymore. He first worked on a farm in Illinois owned by an older brother who immigrated earlier. His brother worked him like a slave, paid him little and had him sleep year round in the loft of an unheated barn. He hid all the money he earned and when he had enough for a one-way bus ticket to Minnesota, he left to join another brother who hired him as a house painter.

When we he 21 he volunteered to fight in WWI.

My grandfather served as a teamster in WWI. I was 11 when he died, I don't remember much of what he told me. I always had the impression he worked moving artillery in France.

Long ago IU did a conference on America in the Home Front, about WWII. I met a man named Maurice Evans. I would interview him for BCAT (Bloomington Public Access TV). He served in WWI, he would try to re-enlist for WWII but was told he had already done his part. He had some interesting stories, made more so because he was black. For example, they trained at Fort Dix. Well, they trained outside Fort Dix because blacks were not allowed on base. They weren't given very many supplies, to get heat they would hop on passing trains and throw coal off the coal car until the railroad crews would throw them off. Then they would walk back to their tents, picking up the coal they had thrown off along the way.

He stopped in a drug store in France and they were selling bottled water from French Lick. He thought that was really neat. And he knew Jim Thorpe the year that Thorpe worked as an assistant football coach for IU. Which was the first I had ever heard of Thorpe coaching. He said to make enough money, Thorpe walked part time as a bellhop at the "colored hotel".
 
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I met to submit this last week on the 100th anniversary of the battle, but the bright light that was the Kavanaugh Hearings made it a bad time to bring up anything else.

100 years ago this past September 26, the US launched the Meuse-Argonne offensive. 1.2 million Americans attacked German positions in this WWI battle. It was the first battle that the Americans planned and mostly carried out. Though the French and Siamese would add troops (enough so that the French would sustain 70,000 killed/wounded/missing/captured.

But the attack was mostly American. For scale, the current US active duty military is roughly 1.3 million. So almost every soldier, sailor, marine, and airman today would make up the force we used in this one battle. More for scale, the US committed about 700,000 men to the Battle of the Bulge. Meuse Argonne was the deadliest US battle in history. Over 26,000 Americans would die. By comparison, the US deaths in the Bulge were just over 19,000 and about 12,500 in Okinawa.

Pershing had been working hard for a US battle. He firmly believed in the men under his command, and he wanted to prove to the British and French that he was right. Our allies wanted US troops folded into their commands as opposed to fighting under an American flag. Undoubtedly Pershing was right on this front, who can imagine Americans fighting well under a French or British flag.

At the same point, we made some real rookie mistakes caused by our belief we knew better. We tried tactics the allies had long given up on, based on the thought the American soldier was superior. We actually lost ground in some locations on day one. But we learned. And as the battle went on, we started making really impressive gains. The war would end on November 11. Pershing was pushing hard to get as much ground as he could right up until the end. It seems Pershing had a belief we needed to convincingly defeat the Germans or they would come back again.

The only reason I am writing this is that this was a defining battle for the US military. Though it started poorly, it gained momentum. Fresh, enthusiastic Americans were a real problem for the tired German army. I believe this offensive greatly hastened the German surrender. Most experts expected the war to end mid-1919. This was our first battle on the European continent, against the militaries of old.

All that said, the size and the importance, there was very little coverage of the battle’s anniversary. For many reasons, WW1 is unknown to Americans. In Europe WW1 is still widely known, almost on par with WW2. In America though, WW1 and Korea were massive wars that occupy part of a shelf in the local library. Perhaps fewer books on both than on D-Day alone. But the US suffered 116,000 killed in WW1 and 36,000 in Korea. I don’t think the veterans of those two wars have ever received their due. Of course there are no WW1 veterans left alive. But in their memory, below is the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery. It did not turn out to be the war to end all wars, but that failure is on humanity's flaws and not on them.

938000819_4.jpg

I HIGHLY recommend PBS's "The American Experience: The Great War."

Three 2-hour episodes.

As to this specific battle, it opens the third episode.

The American artillery alone fired more shells in the first 4 hours of this battle than the Union army fired in the entire Civil War.

Wilson gave Pershing very little advice overall, but he made it clear that Pershing could never turn over US troops to Allied authority. That pissed off Petain, and delayed the main US involvement for over a year, but both sides basically knew that once the US threw its weight into the front line, the war would end. The Germans were spent. And THAT is what Wilson wanted too - he wanted to be able to say "we ended the war - we get a HUGE seat at the Peace Table - we're gonna make the world safe for democracy - what the hell were you people thinking?"

Also an amazing fact - Pershing built up the army from about 200,000 to over 2,000,000, and then shipped our whole Expeditionary Force over without the loss of a soldier.

This series has a large focus on the Home Front too.

Civil rights took a beating - public opposition (or even failure to vocally support) to the war could get you beaten and jailed.

The flu won BIG.

The CDC estimates that about 500 million people/one-third of the world’s population became infected

The number of deaths was estimated at 50 million worldwide - with about 675,000 in the United States.

I'm getting my flu shot at 3:30 today
 
I HIGHLY recommend PBS's "The American Experience: The Great War."

Three 2-hour episodes.

As to this specific battle, it opens the third episode.

The American artillery alone fired more shells in the first 4 hours of this battle than the Union army fired in the entire Civil War.

Wilson gave Pershing very little advice overall, but he made it clear that Pershing could never turn over US troops to Allied authority. That pissed off Petain, and delayed the main US involvement for over a year, but both sides basically knew that once the US threw its weight into the front line, the war would end. The Germans were spent. And THAT is what Wilson wanted too - he wanted to be able to say "we ended the war - we get a HUGE seat at the Peace Table - we're gonna make the world safe for democracy - what the hell were you people thinking?"

Also an amazing fact - Pershing built up the army from about 200,000 to over 2,000,000, and then shipped our whole Expeditionary Force over without the loss of a soldier.

This series has a large focus on the Home Front too.

Civil rights took a beating - public opposition (or even failure to vocally support) to the war could get you beaten and jailed.

The flu won BIG.

The CDC estimates that about 500 million people/one-third of the world’s population became infected

The number of deaths was estimated at 50 million worldwide - with about 675,000 in the United States.

I'm getting my flu shot at 3:30 today
I got my flu shot today.
I read the other day that 80,000 people in the US died from the flu last year.
 
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