So it was, after six days of combat, on October 2 nd Major Whittlesey was in command of a mixed force of 554 men, consisting of the remnants of nine companies. But only one of the four rifle companies sent into the pitch-dark woods to help Whittlesey managed to find him early the next morningCaptain Nelson Holdermans Company K from the 307th Infantrys Third Battalion. How the discovery of a long-forgotten trunk inspired an artist to spend years recording the quiet remnants of a wrenching military career. Consider the nature of war, the soldiers, the outcomes, the death toll, etc. Thus its nickname stuck in the public psyche as well as in history. But with each attack, these efforts grew weaker and weaker as the combat power of the 77th ebbed. For 70 years, American Heritage has been the leading magazine of U.S. history, politics, and culture. Why does the German officer want to send a message to Major Whittlesey? He was sure that it could happen again. But the losses for the Nisei unit were devastating, with at least several hundred wounded or killed. Another 190 were seriously wounded, 107 were dead, and 63 were missing. That afternoon, after the men in the pocket had eaten their last scraps of food, the Germans blasted them with mortar fire and grenades and made the first of many attempts to send riflemen crawling into the enclosure. The next German battle line, referred to as the "Hagen Stellung-Nord" ("Hagen position-North"), was "basically a machine-gun-covered, pre-sighted artillery target. A group of twenty survivors managed to crawl back to the pocket later in the morning, reporting that the runner posts leading to the rear had been broken up and scattered. So during the night the Germans rushed all available forces from all of their armies in the Argonne to the sector occupied by Whittlesey, to be ready to meet a big offensive the next day. Cher Ami had been shot through the breast, blinded in one eye, and had a leg hanging only by a tendon. haileebissell1015. While the direct cause is unknown, the American artillery unfortunately started shelling Major Whittlesey and his men instead of the opposing forces. The Lost Battalion Movie Worksheet Name: _____________________________. Whittlesey wrote a message and handed it to Richards: We are along the road parallel 276.4. Krotoshinsky acted as a guide to lead this group to help rescue the trapped company and establish a route for further fresh troops to come into the pocket. On Armistice Day in 1921, Whittlesey, McMurtry, and other Medal of Honor winners attended the dedication of the new Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery. Even many of the unwounded men were too weak to join in the work of digging graves. Over the years, the Germans had pre-sighted every square inch of the area in case of a hostile takeover. It included the liberation of Bruyres and Biffontaine, the rescue of the "Lost Battalion," and nine days of driving the Germans through the forest. Whittleseys dwindling survivors in the isolated pocket endured the most frightening ordeal of the week the next day, Sunday, October 6, when Germans carrying flame throwers advanced into their lines of defense. What did Whittlesey decide to do? My Grand uncle was Frederick Staats. A United Press correspondent, Fred S. Ferguson, had filed a dramatic report on the trapped force of Americans that was headlined at home as the story of the Lost Battalion. Pershing was embarrassed by the widely publicized account of his armys failure to save the small band of brave survivors. The big push started on the morning of September 26 after a 24-hour artillery bombardment dropped forty thousand tons of explosives on the German linesmore shells than all of the cannon ammunition fired by the Union Army in the Civil War. After it was cut off by the Germans, two failed attempts were made . He believes this can help end the war What happens after the bombing begins? Theyre more worried than we are.. [1] Battle [ edit] When word of the surrender offer spread through the pocket, it lifted the spirits of the exhausted survivors. At one point in the siege, a German yelled to the Yanks in a voice with an apparently British accent, I say, you chaps! Far from their land, as they made their stand. The assault of 26 September, Pershing wrote later, surprised the Germans and disrupted their defense, but this situation was only momentary. Sometime during the night of November 26, 1921, three years after his actions that earned him the Medal of Honor, Charles W. Whittlesey jumped into the sea between the U.S. and Cuba. 25 terms. Whittlesey had most likely given up hope that Abe Krotoshinsky, a volunteer who had tried to make his way out of the pocket in search of help that morning, was still alive. The plan was to have the first battalion lead the assault, led personally by Whittlesey. The unit was saved by another pigeon, Cher Ami,[2] delivering the following message: We are along the road paralell [sic] 276.4. our artillery is dropping a barrage directly on us. They assumed that Whittleseys men were an advance scouting party that would immediately be followed by a big American attacking force. For the next few days, the Pocket held firm and the powerful American attacks started to push the Germans back and the 77th Division was now trying to infiltrate troops into the pocket. The more time that passed without any messages the more Whittlesey was coming to the conclusion that they were actually surrounded. He says he was . document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); hbspt.enqueueForm({ He was killed in action on 12 October 1918 in the Argonne Wood, Ardennes, France. Major Charles W. Whittlesey and the Lost Battalion By: Kris Cotariu Harper, EdD While universally known as the "Lost Battalion", this force actually consisted of companies from 4 different battalions A, B, C Companies of the 1st Battalion 308th Infantry Regiment (1-308th Inf); E,G, H companies of the 2nd Battalion 308th Infantry (2-308th Inf); K Company of the 3rd Battalion of the 307th Infantry Regiment (3-307th Inf); and C, D Companies of the 306th Machine Gun Battalion. Overcoats and blankets had been left behind when the offensive started, and food and cigarettes were scarce; the officers learned that two of the infantry companies had brought no rations with them. Early on October 2, with the American 28th Division on their right and parts of the Corps of the French 4th Army on their left, Major Whittlesey and his men entered the heavily wired and entrenched position in the Argonne forest, with Hill 198 as their goal. The Americans had suffered many casualties, but inflicted similarly heavy losses on the attacking Germans. A head count showed that after the casualties of the morning there were only 550 men left in the pocket, including some who had been severely wounded. (1951) and Only the Brave (2006). Fact-based war drama about an American battalion of over 500 men which gets trapped behind enemy lines in the Argonne Forest in October 1918 France during the closing weeks of World War I. If you believe you have been subject to retaliation for protected whistleblowing you may contact either of the following offices: The Consumer Product Safety Commission Office of Inspector General: Telephone: (301) 504-7906 or 866-230-6229. Johnson, a 57-year-old brigadier with thirty-six years in the Regular Army, gave Stacys regimental command to a captainhe had no lieutenant colonels or majors leftand then personally led a company of eighty-five riflemen up the ravine toward Whittleseys position. He did not know that about one hundred men from the two companies still in action had made an attempt to reach him the previous day but had been beaten back under fire from La Palette and Hill 198. The camp was located a half mile from the town of Yaphank, New York. Read more >>, The magazine was forced to suspend print publication in 2013, but a group of volunteers saved the archives and relaunched it in digital form in 2017. Whittlesey had little to say to anybody and seemed ill at ease. Although the engagement of artillery forces was successful, their aim as not. Whittleseys unit had also brought a heavy roll of white cotton sheeting, which was spread on the ground inside the perimeter of their defensive pocket to display the location of their position to any Allied plane that might fly over it. He led a battalion of over 550 men that became trapped; they encircled by German forces for several days before rescue. (p343)[clarification needed] The Germans also sent an elite battalion of "Storm Troopers" reinforced with flamethrowers to aid the German Infantry attacking Whittlesey. Assigning riflemen to duty as runners seriously depleted the fire power of his infantry companies, but the major considered human messengers more reliable than the carrier pigeons that were his only other means of communication. The biggest flaw in their position was that their holes were dug too close together, and too many men were occupying the holes at the same time. 3. Although many had been killed or captured, the unit still remained intact, but morale was low and sickness was setting in. What US city did most of the soldiers in the battalion come from? The officers felt encouraged; it was the first plane they had seen since they had been trapped. While legend has it that the major shouted to the German forces to Go to Hell, both the after-action report and Major Whittlesey himself stated that he did not reply at all, instead treating the surrender request with the silent contempt it deserved. Philip "Zip" Cepaglia, 1Lt. The Department of Labor is here to protect your rights. (National Archives Identifier 301662) Later, a released American prisoner gave Major Whittlesey a message from the German commander asking the American forces to surrender. The railway was crucial because it would cut off one of the Germans major supply routes. Whittlesey himself led the way, close behind the forward scouts, his pistol in one hand and a pair of barbed-wire cutters in the other. The movie is a real movie based on some Soldiers fight against the German Army. Then they were given the order to attack. For almost a week they suffered heavy casualties and multiple counterattacks. The pigeon delivered the message, but Major General Alexander, who already knew that Whittlesey had been cut off, could do nothing for him. This created easy targets for mortars and snipers. When the German commanders had first heard, early the previous evening, that Whittleseys small force had broken through their defense line, it never occurred to them that his detachment was an isolated group with no support behind it. Upon learning of their predicament, Major Whittlesey knew he had only two options: to hold or retreat. The barrage thundered on for another two hours, until Cher Ami reached the pigeon loft and a telephone message from the division headquarters finally put a stop to it. General Evan Johnson, the commander in charge of the Argonne part of the offensive, had a "no retreat" command for his divisions: It is again impressed upon every officer and man of this command that ground once captured must under no circumstances be given up in the absence of direct, positive, and formal orders to do so emanating from these headquarters. Then the exploding bursts of fire moved slowly toward the pocket and into the middle of the American position, knocking down trees and throwing up showers of turf and foliage. It is believed that the demons that followed him after the war caught up with him. 5. There were only two pigeons left in Omer Richards cage. "[11] At this time, Captain Holderman, an officer working with Whittlesey, realized the predicament that the men were in. When Pershings order to renew the attack came down through channels to Major Charles Whittlesey, commanding officer of the First Battalion, 308th Infantry, in the Seventy-seventh Division, the major looked at it with dismay. Earlier in the morning, patrols had found Germans on the left flank of the pocket, where the French were supposed to be advancing, and there were more Germans on the right. . Whistleblowers generally state that such actions are motivated by a commitment to the public interest. But during the German assault, which went on for more than two hours, a few Americans and two of their machine guns were captured and several more of Whittleseys men were killed and seriously wounded. While this was happening, to the rear of the main action George W. Quinn,[10] a runner with the battalion, was killed while attempting to reach Major Whittlesey with a message from Whittlesey's adjutant, Lieutenant Arthur McKeogh. Major Charles Whittlesey and Captain George McMurtry led men of New York City's own 77th Division, made up of draftees from the mean streets of Manhattan and Brooklyn, as they were . Whistleblowing matters are those that are about unlawful conduct, financial malpractice or dangers to personal health or safety or the environment. Joseph Friel, Pfc. A few days earlier one of them had been found calmly smoking behind some shrubbery during a battle. Shortly after daybreak, when the ambulances were arriving, Corporal Baldwin, the message clerk, saw an officer with two stars on his cap walking along the old Roman road toward the pocket, swinging a malacca cane. "[1], While Whittlesey and his men tenaciously defended their position, their parent 154th Brigade and the entire 77th Division launched a ferocious series of attacks to get to them. At least one surrender demand carried by an 18-year-old soldier, captured by the Germans and then released to carry the message, said "the suffering of your wounded men can be heard over here in German lines, and we are appealing to your humane sentiments to stop.please treat (the messenger) as an honorable man. The rest of the first and second battalions would continue along a prominence known as "Hill 198" to complete a flanking maneuver on the enemy. The men of the Lost Battalion helped keep the Meuse-Argonne Offensive alive. Is it possible to locate the personnel rosters, Morning Reports, for the units involved? On Saturday, February 18th we released a 3rd edition; an updated version of the book in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of America's entry into the war. "[7] This was a very well entrenched location utilizing both natural and man-made barriers. The same memoir states that Whittlesey wrote in his official Operations Report in capital letters, "No reply to the demand to surrender seemed necessary. Troops occupying ground must be supported against counterattack and all gains held. Private Abraham Krotoshinsky undertook this mission and skillfully left the pocket by a circuitous route to the north which ultimately led to an infiltrating company of the 307th Infantry. The Americans learned later that the fortifications on Hill 198 had been manned by older enemy soldiers, men in their late forties and early fifties, who had been without food for two days. The nature of war, the soldiers, the unit still remained,. [ 7 ] this was a very well entrenched location utilizing both natural and man-made barriers Whittlesey and men... Movie is a real movie based on some soldiers fight against the German.. As not want to send a message to Major Whittlesey knew he had two. 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