The Division's 319^th Infantry Standing Inspection

America’s 80^th “Blue Ridge” Division was constituted on 5 August 1917 as part of the National Army (draftees then, today’s Army Reserve), with headquarters at Camp Lee, Virginia. It consisted primarily of drafted men from Virginia, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania, or old Army Regulars like its commander, Maj. Gen. Adelbert Cronkhite, who was said to be “sturdy, thick-set, and cut out of sandstone.” When thrown into combat during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive of 26 September–11 November 1918, “America’s Greatest Battle,” the Blue Ridge Division was the only AEF division to participate in all three phases of the battle, the initial assault, the breaking of the Hindenburg Line, and the 1 November dash to Sedan.

All told, the 80^th “Blue Ridge” Division advanced some 20 miles across the most heavily defended place on the earth at the time, suffered over 6,000 casualties—over half of its infantry strength—and killed or captured thousands of German soldiers in order to achieve ultimate victory. Their actions so inspired their commander, General “Old Cronk” Cronkhite, to proudly proclaim: “The 80^th Division Only Moves Forward!” At the place where Cronkhite's men helped ultimately breach the vaunted Hindenburg Line, the Germans’ main line of resistance, now sits America’s largest military cemetery in Europe—a stoic reminder of the AEF’s desperate and heroic actions in smashing the near-impregnable German defenses in the sector and pushing to the outskirts of Sedan, the keystone of the German line of communication for the entire Western Front. There are, however, no commemorations of the division's first day in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive during which it advanced farther than any other American unit that day.

The purpose of this article is to study that first day of the battle for the division–the “first push,” which took it 5.4 miles from its starting line (blue star on the map below) to the base of German defensive line GISELHER STELLUNG (red star on map), built above the Heights of Dannevoux on the right side of Pershing’s assigned area of operations. To their right was the 33^rd (Illinois) National Guard Division, which was to secure the west bank of the Meuse River up to Sivry. To Blue Ridge Division’s left, was the 4^th (Ivy) Division of regulars, which was supposed to sweep behind dominating Montfaucon, one of Pershing’s main objectives for the first day. The assault on Montfaucon did not succeed on the first day of the offensive, and that set back Pershing's timetable considerably. However, both the 80^th and 33^rd divisions were remarkably successful on 26 September in achieving almost all of their objectives (map above) and securing the right flank of the First Army on the Meuse River as it advanced to the north.

German Defensive Lines Referenced by the Author
80^th Division Advanced from Blue to Red Star (5.4 miles) on 26 September

So how did the infantry platoons of the Blue Ridge Division actually make it to the foot of GISELHER when most other divisions of the AEF were still digesting HAGEN (see map above) by the end of the first day?

Luck, leadership, and training.

The Blue Ridge Division was blessed to have two outstanding officers at its helm: Maj. Gen. Adelbert Cronkhite and Col. William H. Waldron, its chief of staff. Although not physical specimens, they were smart. They were compassionate. They were mentors and trainers and not simple taskmasters. They didn’t simply bark orders like too many AEF officers, they helped subordinate officers understand how to do it while still allowing them the latitude to figure out tactical solutions for themselves. This is why so many Blue Ridge Division battalion commanders were noted in later histories or articles. Men like Jennings Cropper Wise, Charles Sweeny, and Hugh O’Bear were all cut from the same bolt of cloth, leading their men forward through one of the most heavily defended places on earth at the time.

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To the Front and Over the Top
By Gary Schreckengost

The Division Moving into Opening Position

The assault on September 26 surprised the Germans and disrupted their defense, but this situation was only momentary. From that day on the fighting was probably unsurpassed during the World War for dogged determination on both sides. Each foot of ground was stubbornly contested and the hostile troops took advantage of every available spot from which to pour enfilade and crossfire into the advancing American troops.

American Armies and Battlefields in Europe

Lt. Otto Leinhauser, the son of German immigrants from Philadelphia, PA, and a platoon leader in the division's 313^th Machine Gun Battalion remembered the preparations:

At Midnight the artillery opened up and such a night you never saw. We are opposite south of Béthincourt. The horizon, as far as you could see, was just one blaze or continuous line of flashes of every caliber, and the war was terrific. This continued until 0530. when the barrage started, and the infantry left the trench. Just multiply all that racket by about ten and then add more and you will have just the noise the artillery made. Our machine guns, of which there were 120, all opened up at 5:30 A.M. and then hell was let loose. You couldn't hear yourself think.

This epic opening bombardment was fired over a 20-mile front. Some 3,200 French and American artillery pieces delivered a rain of steel upon the German lines—far more than the German artillery preparation for Operation MICHAEL, the early-spring offensive that was to end the war before the Americans arrived in force. As the artillery roared, at 0330 hrs., the battalion commanders read the following message from General Cronkhite to their company commanders:

To the Members of the 80^th Division: For over a year we have been learning how to fight. Within the next few hours, we shall have a chance to apply what we have learned. We form part of a vast army, consisting of over 300,000 Americans and an equal number of our French Allies. No enemy can withstand you, men from Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Virginia. You are fighting for everything that makes life worth living, the safeguarding of your families and homes, and that personal liberty so dearly earned and so tenaciously maintained for over a century. Go at them with a yell, and regardless of obstacles or fatigue, accomplish your mission. Make the enemy know that the 80^th Division is on the map: make him know, when he faces you in the future, that resistance is useless.

80^th Division at H-Hour, 26 September 1918

At 0430 26 Sept, "H-hour-minus-one," just as the drizzle grew into light rain, sappers from the 305^th Engineers, reinforced by soldiers from the reserve battalions of the 160^th Infantry Brig. began by crawling forward into "no man's land" through the rusty metal briar patch and into the corpse-lain swamp that had separated the French and the Germans for almost a year now, with wire cutters, picks, and shovels, marking infiltration paths with white engineer tape for the infantry to follow at daylight. They were covered by the artillery, which was still firing interdiction, harassing, or counter-battery barrages north of the Béthincourt-Forges Road.

With the 75s now firing a standing barrage north of the creek, the Gas Regiment laying clouds of masking smoke, and the 155s and machine guns firing interdiction barrages on known or suspected Hun mortar or artillery batteries miles behind the front line, Majors O'Bear and Holt, the respective commanders of the lead attack battalions of the 319^th and 320^th Infantry blew their whistles to advance. They were echoed by the company commanders and the platoon leaders, who were all holding Browning .45 caliber automatic pistols over their heads and yelling either, "Over the top lads! Over the top!" (just like their British brethren and trainers had done in Picardy) or "Up and At "Em!" which was the American handle and the men climbed from Trenches (or Tranchées) "Alsace" and "Kovel" and advanced into the Forges bottomlands.

The Division's First Obstacle: Forges Creek

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William A. Livergood, 318^th Infantry, 80^th Division

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The Organization of the 80^th Division

Shoulder Patch,
80^th Blue Ridge Division

These are the main units of the 80^th division involved in the action of 26 September 1918. A full list, including supporting units can be found HERE.

159^th Infantry Brigade
  317^th Infantry Regiment
  318^th Infantry Regiment
  313^th Machine Gun Battalion

160^th Infantry Brigade
  319^th Infantry Regiment
  320^th Infantry Regiment
  315^th Machine Gun Battalion

155^th Field Artillery Brigade
  313^th Field Artillery Regiment (75 mm)
  314^th Field Artillery Regiment (75 mm)
  315^th Field Artillery Regiment (155 mm)
  305^th Trench Mortar Battery

314^th Machine Gun Battalion
305^th Engineer Regiment
305^th Field Signal Battalion

Source: AEF Order of Battle

At Bois de Borrus the Night Before the Meuse-Argonne

Before Action

AFTER THE MEN had had their coffee—I remember I drank a good swig of it, too—I gave directions that the men should get in shape to move out of the woods. Then followed one of the most horrible experiences of my whole life in the war and one which I hope never to have to go through again.

The Boche began to shell the woods. When the first one came over I was sitting under the canvas that had been still spread over the cart shafts. It fell on the up side of the woods. As I came out another one fell closer. I was glad it was dark because I was afraid my knees were shaking. I was afraid of my voice, too, and I remember I spoke in a loud voice so it would not tremble, and gave orders that Commanders should take their units to the dugouts which were less than a hundred yards away until the shelling was over, as I did not think it necessary to sacrifice any lives under the circumstances. Notwithstanding my precautions, some of the shells fell among the cooks and others who remained about the kitchens, killing some of them and wounding others.

In about twenty minutes I ordered the companies to fall in on the road by our area preparatory to marching out of the woods. They got into a column of squads in perfect order, and we had proceeded perhaps a hundred yards along the road in the woods when we came on to one of the companies of the Second Battalion which we were to follow that night. We were held there perhaps forty-five minutes while the Second Battalion ahead of us got in shape to move out.

One cannot imagine the horrible suspense and experience of that wait. The Boche began to shell the woods again. There was no turning back now, no passing around the companies ahead of us, we could only wait and trust to the Grace of God.

We could hear the explosion as the shell left the muzzle of the Boche gun, then the noise of the shell as it came toward us, faint at first, then louder and louder until the shell struck and shook the earth with its explosion. One can only feel, one cannot describe the horror that fills the heart and mind during this short interval of time. You know he is aiming the gun at you and wants to kill you. In your mind you see him swab out the hot barrel, you see him thrust in the deadly shell and place the bundle of explosives in the breach; you see the gunner throw all his weight against the trigger; you hear the explosion like the single bark of a great dog in the distance, and you hear the deadly missile singing as it comes towards you, faintly at first, then distinctly, then louder and louder until it seems so loud that everything else has died, and then the earth shakes and the eardrums ring, and dirt and iron reverberate through the woods and fall about you.

This is what you hear, but no man can tell what surges through the heart and mind as you lie with your face upon the ground listening to the growing sound of the hellish thing as it comes towards you. You do not think, sorrow only fills the heart, and you only hope and pray. And when the doubly-damned thing hits the ground, you take a breath and feel relieved, and think how good God has been to you again. And God was good to us that night—to those of us who escaped unhurt. And for the ones who were killed, poor fellows, some blown to fragments that could not be recognized, and the men who were hurt, we said a prayer in our hearts.

Such was my experience and the experience of my men that night in the Bois de Borrus, but their conduct was fine. I think, indeed, their conduct was the more splendid because they knew they were not free to shift for themselves and find shelter, but must obey orders, and obey they did in the spirit of fine soldiers to the last man. After that experience, I knew that men like these would never turn back, and they never did.

Major Ashby Williams, 80^th Division
Experiences of the Great War (1919)

The Division's 160^th Infantry Brigade attacked at 0530. Once O'Bear's 319^th Infantry on the right and Holt's 320^th Infantry on the left conducted a passage of lines with the engineers and were through the wire, they continued their advance in the fog and smoke about 1,000 feet to the barrage line along the road paralleling the creek. At exactly 0554, the barrage rolled forward at a pace of one hundred meters every four minutes, and "the 80^th Division infantry advanced beyond the Forges Creek as close to the barrage as possible…following the curtain of shells which kept the Boche down in his dugouts [shielding them] from German machine gunners and artillery observers. The counter-artillery fire of the enemy was not heavy and at this point, his rifle and machine gun fire were not especially effective. The attack swept on, up the rising ground beyond, to the enemy's first position around Béthincourt village, which was taken without difficulty. According to Oberstleutnant (Lt. Col.) Hermann von Giehrl, the Chief of Staff of the XVI Corps, "The attack of the American infantry was greatly favored by a thick mist, which remained until late in the morning."

Capt. Josiah C. Peck, the Regimental Intelligence Officer of the 319^th Infantry remembered the advance:

As the Blue Ridgers advanced farther up their axis of advance, they quickly came into contact with desultory 7.92mm German machine gun. and 7mm rifle fire from elements of German Reserve Division 7 who were posted in Tranchée CERVAUX-a series of inter-connected machine gun nests- which ran through the rubble field that used to be Village Béthincourt. . . As the leading assault battalions fought through and cleared Tranchée CERVAUX and headed north toward Tranchée BESACE and Hill 281 of Hagen Stellung, they were followed by machine gun sections that were supposed to help clear the way if/when they were held up.

We went forward with the road as our guide and I sent out runners to maintain contact with the troops ahead. Our course was due magnetic north. We reached the rear system of shelters in the ridge east of Cuisy, from which German prisoners had been taken. It was a smoldering ruin battered to pieces by our artillery. We passed up the ravine to the right of this system and halted in the hollow to await information of the troops ahead. While we were here, I remember, the fog and mist seemed to vanish as if by magic and the sun came out. I remember, also, that a Boche plane came over, flying low and firing at my troops with his automatic rifles. My rifles and machine guns drove him off.

From this ridge, also, I could see the troops ahead of us on the ridge along the Gercourt-Septsarges Road, working around the left flank of the Bois de Sachet. We could also see the smoke of the thermite shells bursting in the woods in the sector on our right. We passed down into the valley in front of us and halted and I went forward to see the situation, and watched from the crest of the ridge the movement of the troops on the left of the woods.

Author's Map, Zone of Operations for 80^th Division

Among the mistakes made by some of the men of Brett's 160^th Infantry Brigade (as well as the rest of the Army at this point) was that they either "walked ahead for the most part nonchalantly as though they were on route march" or they charged frontally against an enemy position before they had actually achieved fire superiority.

Meanwhile, there was the "mopping-up" to do, although the assault companies had pretty well finished the job themselves. We were supposed to work from left to right in our sector, but this beautiful theory didn't work in practice, for the rest of the detachment was now entirely out of my control, and I had to trust them to take care of the ground in front of them while my squad confined themselves to what was in our sight. To have attempted to go much to the flank with such a small group would have left us hopelessly behind and spoiled any chance of our making the way clear for our battalion. So we ran along the top of the trenches, heaving bombs into all dugouts that might contain hidden gunners or snipers, looking at scattered wounded Germans to assure ourselves that they were safely out of action, ready to kill them if they should show any signs of treachery, and making the prisoners who were not badly hurt run faster to the rear.

The old-fashioned way of "mopping-up" was to kill everything, and there is no possible doubt but that it was necessary for the days of closer personal combat and greater danger of treachery, but in the new open style of fighting, and with the Boche's general willingness to get safely to the rear as fast as he could, it was unnecessary and almost impracticable. Furthermore, we had been ordered to take prisoners whenever possible, because the Boche will stop shooting sooner to go to the rear than when he knows he is in for sure death.

Approach to Gercourt Village on the HAGEN Defensive Position

Back at Béthincourt, meanwhile, two companies of the 305^th Engineers and "500 pioneer infantry under Captain Kenney" were working "with excellent skill and speed against great odds to get that bridge [critical for bringing supplies and artillery] up." Once the component parts arrived to the bridge site, the Blue Ridge engineers had their "Single Lock Bridge" up by 0900. As the last plank was laid in position, the 313^th Artillery's first gun rolled across.

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Afternoon and Evening
By Gary Schreckengost

Division Machine Gunners Advancing in the Afternoon

The German Defenses

As per German Army tactical doctrine, HAGEN, being the initial Widerstandslinie (line of defense) of the German network in the Meuse-Argonne, wasn't all that heavily defended. In the Blue Ridge Division's zone, for example, perhaps 500 soldiers from German Reserve Division 7 manned its works. (See Zone Map above.) The men of German Reserve Division 7 were ordered to simply dispute the Blue Ridgers' advance and then fall back to join their brethren holding ETZEL in Bois Sachet, Juré, and Rond, and after that, fall back to GISELHER, where they were to hold out as long as possible.

One must understand that unlike the American Army, which was organized around the rifle and believed that the machine gun was simply "a weapon of emergency" or "opportunity", the German Army was organized around the machine gun. By 1918, pretty much every reduced infantry platoon in the Kaisers' armies (meaning the Kaiser of Germany and the Kaiser of Austria-Hungary) was converted into three machine gun squads in which every man fired, fed, or protected a machine gun. The Kaisers may have lacked men by 1918, but not machine guns. These machine gun squads were backed by a company or battalion equipped with light 81mm, medium 170mm (6.9-inch), or heavy 250mm (9.8-inch) Minenwerfer (mine thrower-mortars), as well as pre-plotted artillery. General von Ludendorff recognized that more machine guns, Granatenwerfer (grenade thrower-rifles) and Minenwerfer were needed to offset the ever-increasing numbers of Allied soldiers arrayed against the Central Powers.

Rolling On Through Afternoon and Evening

By noon on 26 September, the Doughboys had overcome resistance by enemy machine gun nests in Bois de Forges and Bois Juré and were approaching corps objective. According to Capt. Frank Crandall of the 313^th Artillery:

Beyond Hill 281 the terrain sloped away in open meadows to the Bois de Sachet. In this woods, in the Bois Jure on the right and the Bois d'en-Dela, and the Bois de Septsarges on the left, the enemy had an organized machine gun defense which slowed up the advance considerably. This line of resistance was admirably placed. It was beyond the barrage zone of our light artillery and cleverly located to take advantage of ground forms and cover. The attack against the position was carried on from the middle of the morning through the afternoon. It involved the employment of skirmish line tactics and advances by small elements under covering fire. The enemy was driven back into and in some cases through these woods during the early afternoon. Once the HAGEN trenches were breached, what was left of Village Gercourt was cleared of Germans by the 319^th Infantry through the use of “effective rifle grenade fire.” As the men poured into the blown-up town, it was clear to them that the Germans had used it as a headquarter with a field hospital and an engineering supply dump for the HAGEN trenches located there.

As the two regiments of the 160^th Infantry Brigade paused just north of HAGEN to wait for the artillery to shift fire onto position ETZEL ("wait thirty-five minutes while the barrage was again laid down ahead of us"). A battery of the 313^th Artillery, led by its mounted artillery liaison officers, scouts, and markers, was advancing north toward Hill 281 where it was forced to stop to fill in a captured trench with pre-fabricated fascines before it could roll its guns forward.

By mid-afternoon, though, the newly arrived supporting artillery fire allowed the breaching of both HAGEN and ETZEL by the 80^th Division in their sector (the only division to do so on the first day, by the way). The two adjoining American divisions helped secure the Blue Ridge's capture of ETZEL. On the east side, the 319^th Infantry was to punch through just west of Gercourt and then breach the ETZEL trenches in Bois Juré-Rond, adjoining with units from the 131^st Infantry of the 33^rd Division. To the west, the 320^th Infantry was to attack just south of Bois Sachet, breach ETZEL in Bois Sachet, and adjoin with the 47^th Infantry of the 4^th Division in Bois d'en-Dela and Septsarges before it took on GISELHER north of the Dannevoux Heights.

Dannevoux Village Captured in the Evening
GISELHER Behind the Heights in the Distance

Despite strong opposition developing about 1700, new attacks were mounted through the evening. The 319^th Infantry, the first American unit to breach HAGEN, was to take Village Dannevoux, which lies in a gentle valley along the Meuse. The 320^th Infantry was to cross the Septsarges-Dannevoux Road and complete the mission of capturing Bois Septsarges in conjunction with units from the 4^th Division, operating on their left. Both regiments were supported by elements of the 317^th Infantry of the 80^th Division. At 2000 hrs. battalions of the 319^th Infantry moved up through the trees south of Dannevoux, formed in front of its machine gun positions, and then made lots of noise. The Germans soon got wind of what was happening and up went the SOS signal to their artillery. In short order, a German barrage came down into the woods, but the attacking infantry had left the woods, and, in advancing across the open, captured Dannevoux.

By midnight, the officers and men of the 160^th Infantry Brig., as well as those from the light artillery regiments were pretty spent and "the situation was not stabilized." They had been up for over two days straight, had broken through the HAGEN and ETZEL trenches and had advanced some seven to eight km from Béthincourt to Dannevoux and had kicked in the door of GISELHER along Dannevoux Heights in Bois Moriaux. After posting sentries and gas guards (men who were to use their sniffers to give warning of a gas attack), the men in the rifle companies tried to get some shut-eye in the light drizzle and waited for further orders, which were certainly going to be "continue the attack north." In making the longest advance of any of Pershing's divisions on that first day of the Meuse-Argonne Offense, the Blue Ridge Division suffered 210 casualties, which is relatively light considering what other American divisions had suffered in the opening advance.

This video is an unchronological compilation of Army Signal Corps films of the 80^th Blue Ridge Division around the time of the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. Nevertheless, it is well worth a look. The actual battle scenes—less than a quarter of the film—are gripping. These include the troops moving through captured territory past disabled artillery and dead enemy soldiers (see image above), the destruction around the village of Béthincourt—an early objective for the division—and a machine gun unit cautiously advancing through a forest to set up their guns. A herd of mules interrupting the Doughboys' advance makes an amusing appearance.

The non-combat sequences are also surprisingly interesting. Live-fire training on machine guns, rifle grenades, and mortars is shown. The best episode involves a visit by General Pershing to Division Headquarters. He is clearly pleased with the performance of the Blue Ridge boys, not at all in his reportedly frequent kick-ass-and-take-numbers frame of mind. Overall, this is a film for real AEF connoisseurs; it has a gritty and authentic "You Are There" feel to it.

Sources: YouTube

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