The Meuse–Argonne offensive begins

On 26 September 1918 at 5.30 a.m. nine divisions of the American First Army of General John Pershing went over the top between the river Meuse and the wooded ridge of the Argonne, north-west of Verdun. Five minutes earlier, west of the Argonne, in Champagne, the French Fourth Army of General Henri Gouraud had begun its attack. So began the offensive that the Americans called the Meuse–Argonne offensive and the French the Battle of Champagne and the Argonne. It was the first of a series of powerful blows that Marshal Ferdinand Foch had planned for the last days of September along the whole front from the Meuse to the sea. In the course of the day the surprised Germans gave up the whole of their first position, and in the best places the Americans advanced about 8 kilometres. They failed, however, to take the hill of Montfaucon, the key point of the German defence.

Two weeks of preparation

Only two weeks earlier the First Army had fought its first battle, at Saint-Mihiel. Even before it was over, divisions, artillery and depots set off by night for the new sector, about 60 kilometres away. By the evening of 25 September some 600,000 Americans had reached their jumping-off positions, while the French soldiers who had held the front line until the last moment, so that the Germans would not notice the change, withdrew only during the night before the attack. Pershing wrote that tactical surprise had been achieved.

The task was very difficult. The front had stood here since 1914, and for four years the Germans had been building a belt of fortifications more than ten kilometres deep. To the east it was dominated by the heights on the far bank of the Meuse, to the west by the dense forests of the Argonne, and in the middle rose the hill of Montfaucon with the ruins of its village, from which the Germans could see the whole area. The attack was to drive into this belt on both sides of the hill and force its defenders to abandon it. V Corps of General George Cameron was to bypass Montfaucon from the west and, without regard to its neighbours, push on towards Romagne; III Corps of General Robert Bullard on the Meuse was to cover the right flank and bypass the hill from the east; and I Corps of General Hunter Liggett was to advance up the valley of the river Aire along the Argonne. The first objective was the third German position, about 16 kilometres from the start line. On the eve of the attack Foch reminded the Americans in a special note that they must not stop at any intermediate lines and were to go as far as possible towards Buzancy.

The divisions had very different experience. Only five of the nine assault divisions had attacked before. The most experienced divisions, which had fought at Saint-Mihiel, had not had time to move to the new sector or were in reserve, and four of the first-wave divisions had been allotted artillery with which they had never fought. They were supported by about 2,700 guns, 189 Renault light tanks, 142 of them with American crews, and 821 aircraft, including 604 American ones. The French supplied a large share of the guns and aircraft and all of the tanks.

Bombardment and assault

At 2.30 a.m. about 2,700 guns opened fire along the whole front. For three hours they shelled German trenches, batteries, observation posts and roads. Among those firing that night was Battery D of the 129th Field Artillery Regiment, commanded by Captain Harry Truman, the future President of the United States. At about 5.30 the lighter guns lifted to new targets, forming a creeping barrage in front of the infantry. At 5.25, after its own artillery preparation, the French Fourth Army began its attack, and five minutes later the American infantry went over the top.

The morning was foggy. The fog hid the attackers from German machine guns, but it also broke up their formations. The soldiers had to struggle through fields of barbed wire, a belt of craters left by four years of shelling, deep ravines and shattered woods. Many units lost their direction, and communications with headquarters quickly broke down. Even so, on most of the sector the Germans, weakened and surprised, put up a feeble defence.

The course of the day

Things went best on the flanks. III Corps on the Meuse got through the first position, and by early afternoon its left wing was one and a half kilometres beyond Montfaucon. At about 10 a.m., when the fog lifted, soldiers of the 4th Division appeared near Septsarges and captured an intact German battery there, which they then turned on its former owners. The 80th and 33rd Divisions occupied the ground along the Meuse, and the corps’ right wing wheeled round and established itself on the high bank of the river to cover the army from the east. By the evening the III Corps line reached Dannevoux.

On the other side of the hill the 91st Division from the western states advanced more than 5 kilometres, and at about 11 a.m. the 37th Division emerged from the Montfaucon wood and occupied the German trenches beyond it. In the Aire valley I Corps broke deep into the German positions. The 35th and 28th Divisions took Varennes, and the 35th Division also took Cheppy. Near Cheppy, before noon, Lieutenant Colonel George Patton, commander of the American tank brigade, was seriously wounded. When the attack stalled under machine-gun fire he rallied scattered infantrymen and led them forward behind the tanks, and, wounded in the leg, went on directing the fight for an hour from a shell hole. On the left flank the 77th Division, in the Argonne itself, in dense forest full of German machine-gun nests, advanced only about one and a half kilometres.

In the centre the attack stuck. Montfaucon lay in the zone of the 79th Division, made up of draftees from Pennsylvania, Maryland and Washington, D.C., which had never attacked before. The division quickly took Malancourt, but then got stuck in the valley and in the wood in front of the hill. German observers on the hill directed the fire of artillery that also struck from the flank, from the heights on the east bank of the Meuse. Only at about 6 p.m. did the 79th and 37th Divisions, supported by tanks but without artillery, attack across ground swept by machine-gun fire. They reached the slopes of the hill, but darkness was falling and the attack was called off. Historians still argue whether the 4th Division, which had passed Montfaucon to the east around noon, should not have turned and attacked the hill from the rear, as the plan had foreseen. According to many accounts the division halted on its assigned line and waited for orders, and the Germans gained a night to strengthen their defence.

The French in Champagne

West of the Argonne the French Fourth Army attacked on a front from the river Suippe to the edge of the forest, along the road from Châlons to Mézières. Gouraud commanded the same army that in July had smashed the German attack in Champagne. Now his divisions advanced across the hills around Tahure and Navarin, for which the French had bled themselves white in the autumn of 1915. According to Foch, that day both armies took the German front line along the whole front and in places went further, with average advances of 3–5 kilometres. Fighting as part of the French IX Corps was the 369th Infantry Regiment from New York, one of the black regiments of the American 93rd Division, which moved into a gap in the line and took the village of Ripont.

The day’s balance

By the evening of 26 September the whole of the first German position between the Meuse and the Argonne was in American hands. On both sides of Montfaucon the Americans had advanced about 8 kilometres and taken several thousand prisoners, many guns and huge stores. According to the American Battle Monuments Commission, they achieved more than had been expected, and at relatively small cost. The line ran from Dannevoux on the Meuse through the Septsarges wood, curved in front of Montfaucon and continued through the area of Épinonville to Varennes. The hill, however, which according to the plan was to have been quickly surrounded and taken, was still held by the Germans.

During the night the German command began bringing up reserves to the threatened sector, while behind the Americans the traffic jams grew. Only four roads, almost completely destroyed, led across the former no man’s land, and along them had to pass artillery, ammunition, food and ambulances with the wounded. The engineers rebuilt them under fire. The next day, in the rain, the 79th Division took Montfaucon, but surprise was over. The heavy fighting that was to last until the armistice was beginning.