The Meuse-Argonne Offensive, fought for 47 days from September 26 to November 11, 1918, remains the deadliest campaign in U.S. Army history. Its aim was to break the Hindenburg Line northwest of Verdun and cut the four-track railway hub at Sedan that fed the German army. Colonel George C. Marshall moved 1.2 million Americans into position, mostly at night, over three muddy roads straight after the Battle of Saint-Mihiel. The oversized AEF divisions of 12 battalions relied on French heavy artillery, aircraft and Renault tanks, while regiments of the 92nd and 93rd Divisions served under French command with Adrian helmets and Lebel rifles. At 2:30 a.m. more than 2,700 guns opened fire, about $180 million of shells, one battery commanded by Captain Harry S. Truman.
German defenders sheltered in dugouts 30 to 40 feet deep, and green divisions stalled at Montfaucon. The 35th Division outran its supplies and dissolved under counterattack. On October 1 John J. Pershing halted the attack, fired generals and split his force into a First Army under Hunter Liggett and a Second Army under Robert Bullard. Douglas MacArthur’s 42nd Rainbow Division found a seam in the wire and took Côte de Châtillon, anchor of the Kriemhilde Stellung. Liggett paused from October 27 to November 1 to lay roads and light rail, the French brought Sedan under artillery fire by November 6, and the armistice followed. For about 34 miles the Americans suffered roughly 122,000 casualties, including 26,277 dead.
- A contingent of Siamese troops served with French and American aviation and motor units.
- German divisions in the sector had fallen below 3,300 men but held reverse slope positions with every road presighted.
- Truman’s battery fired almost point blank to help save the shattered 35th Division.
- The French suffered about 70,000 casualties and the Germans 126,000, including 28,000 dead and 56,000 captured.
- The Spanish flu killed thousands of soldiers through pneumonia in the cramped, freezing trenches.
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