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Over 84 years ago, the men of the 77th Division AEF launched an attack along its front in the Argonne Forest. During the attack 6 companies from the 308th Inf. along with parts of 2 companies from the 306th MG advanced deep into an unoccupied part of the German line. Meeting little to no resistance, they ended up on the slopes of a ravine and by 1800 hours held a position well in advance of the rest of the division.

During the evening attempts were made by a battalion from the the 307th Inf. to join up with them. Only the lead company made it close enough to be in contact with them. As fate would have it the German closed the gap in their line and cut the American off.

Early on the 3rd, the 77th Div. tried to rejoin the men of the 308th, without success. The position organized by what was now called the Lost Battalion, was an elongated oval 350 yards long by 75 yards wide. The men dug in on the steep slope and prepared for a siege. Homing pigeons were launched with great success and their position and status was reported to the rear.

In the mean time the German had surrounded the Lost Battalion and harrassed them with machine gun and mortar fire, as well as small arms and grenades. There was even a unit of flame throwers available.

The food and medical supplies were in short supply and air drops were attempted to help the men. One of the planes was shot down and both occu[pants killed For the most part the air drops were not successful, the supplies ended up landing well within the German lines.

A captured American soldier was sent to meet with the commander of the Lost Battalion. With him was a message that aked for the surrender of all the men, and the sign that would be looked for was anything white. Quickly the commander ordered all the white signal flags to be put away as to not seem to accept the terms of surrender.

The German attacked after receiving no answer but bitter resistance from the men of the Lost Battalion repulsed them. As luck would have it, the American 1st Corps launched their own attack along the flank which caused the German to shift their position away from the Lost Battalion. The balance of the 77th Div. was then able to link up with the lost men.

The Lost Battalion had gone from an effective strength of 600 men to 194 men who for the majority were in weakened condition. 3 Medals of Honor were awarded to men from the Lost Battalion. The last homing pigeon, "Cher Ami" survived the battle and later after its death was stuffed and put on display as a hero.

Today, a road cuts through the Argonne Forest almost on top of where the Lost Battalion was. There is a stone marker to commemorate the events and to show the location of the Lost Battalion, you can still see fox holes and rifle pits as well as shell holes.

Thanks for the ping. I enjoyed this one, as your others.

I haven't studied WWI other than reading popular histories. I have been studying the 1909-1913 period intensely. I thought I'd share a bit about airplanes with you, as this topic brings up their usefulness during WWI.

The great achivement of manned, powered, heavier-than-air flight by Wright brothers was no sensation when it happend for a couple reasons. First, the brothers didn't want it known, for they were concerned with patents and commercial success. Very savvy. Next, flying was no big deal. In 1903, balloons were commonplace, and the German Zeppelins (sp?) were famed. The Zeppilin's great advance was the application of the internal combustion engine to ballooning. The aeronaut was no longer dependant upon the winds. He could make his own. With balloons, stuntment parachuted from them, or hung from trapezes. "Aeronaut" was firmly in the vocabularly. Langley's rocket and airplane expiriments in Washington, D.C. were well-known.

Without getting into the particulars of the Wright brothers' innovations in aerodynamics, which I don't altogether understand, one of their primary feats was the development of a lightweight, high-power, aluminum engine to power the craft. As ever, the engine was the heart of the aircraft.

Into 1905, the brothers went public with their invention. America wasn't ready to listen. While the brothers were feted at the January, 1906 NYC automobile show, their achievement was slow to take. So they went to Europe. France and Germany were most curious about their machine. By the time the American scientific community finally decided to look into the Wrights, a French company had already offered them $100,000 for the patent rights. Germany, being Germany, took the end-run, and went directly after the patent, claiming it invalid in Germany. It all gelled into 1907 and 1908, by when the Wrights were olympian heroes in Europe. Back in America, they were barely heard.

Why?

America, you see, had no place for the automobile. It was a rich man's toy. It destroyed the farmer's roads. It killed his chickens. It was all about millionaires and oppressing the poor. Europe didn't suffer this egalitarianism. The rich of France were free to motor about, and the nation was the world's greatest exporter of automobiles up to 1909.

What this meant to the Wright brothers was that Europe was more welcoming to their flying automobiles.

In 1909, President Taft gave the long overdue official endorsement to the automobile by purchasing four machines for the White House. That Spring he celebrated the Wright brothers and set his government to promotion of their technology. For a time, Washington, D.C. was the airplane capital of the nation.

The jumpstart of the Germans and the French was apparent come WWI. Americans could manufacture just about anything and in unreal quantities, but their engineering and design skills were less than the Europeans with automobiles and airplanes.

America would catch up, but not after a hard lesson.