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.
Stuffed and put on display? Man, don't let your imagination go too far with this one...
Good Morning SAM, you've been very busy already!
It's interesting to see how many bomb craters still mark the European countryside...