US Ground Divisions in Meuse-Argonne

[stephen]

On the opening day of the Meuse Argonne drive, my map show 9 divisions of the American First Army on the front and ready for the attack:

I Corps: 77th, 28th, 35th divisions
V Corps: 91st, 37th and 79th divisions
III Corps: 4th, 80th and 33rd divisions

But weren't there a total of ten US divisions involved in the initial assault? Which one am I missing? Or am I reading the whole thing wrong? I thought the XVII French Corps was on the American right and the Fourth French Army was on our left, with ten US divisions in between.

If anyone can straighten me out on this it would be appreciated. Thanks.

[Rick]

Perhaps one division was held in reserve at the disposal of headquarters?? Wrong dimension of the war for me. R.

[Barrett]

The 34th is entitled to Meuse-Argonne battle honors though the division site doesn't say why.

http://www.milhist.net/34/34battles.shtml

According to Stallings' excellent "The Doughboys" the division was never committed to combat; used as a replacement pool.

[stephen]

Okay, I found it. Turns out that the 92nd Division was the westernmost US unit deployed on the line... so far west, in fact, that they were actually west of the Argonne forest outside of the American sector of the front and under the command of the French Fourth Army.

I checked into reserve divisions, too, as Rick suggested. Each Corps had one division in reserve, plus three divisions of the First Army in general reserve. The 34th was apparently among them.

[Shooter]

Notes on the 92d Division:

The 92d Division, less the 368th Inf Reg and the 167 Art Bde, was in the I Corps reserve on 26 September, at or about the start of the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. The missing units remained under French command with Groupement Durand at the start of the offensive and attacked on the extreme right (the eastern flank) of that formation.

The 92d Division was the division composed almost entirely of black soldiers. They were equipped with French weapons and equipment and were somewhat ignored or neglected by Pershing's headquarters, allowed to remain under French control for much of the war. This I gleaned from the history of the 92d Infantry Division http://www/grunts/net/afamerican/92ndid.html

While there were ten divisions in contact with the enemy in the Argonne up to the end of October, several other divisions were added to the mix on 1 November, after most of the major objectives had been seized but bloody fighting still continued for the last eleven days. The original ten divisions had been sufficiently bled white in the fighting to make them combat ineffective by then.

It is interesting to note that the majority of the casualties (approaching 40%) suffered by the battalions that slogged through the prepared German defensive lines in the sector were from chemical agents. It would seem that as late as September 1918 the US 1st Army had still not stressed enough chemical warfare training to prevent those losses.


Shooter sends

PS: It is interesting to note that the US Army had around sixty divisions involved in the Great War, most of which served in France in one capacity or another. Most of them saw actual combat during the war. While the fighting was on going in the Meuse-Argonne region, there were other battles being fought still by US regiments.

[Barrett]

Speaking of offensives: I think that Doughboy.com had a copy of the US Army manual on capturing bunkers. It's dated October 1918!

Stephen;

For what it is worth my father served in the 89th Division, AEF,and his victory medal had a clasp for the Meuse-Argonne offensive.

Bill

[stephen]

Thanks for the details, Shooter. I don't understand why the two missing units of the 92nd D were fighting on the complete opposite flank of the First Army. That means they were actually just east of the Meuse, driving north through Consenvoye and Sivry-sur-Meuse, over 30 miles away. I guess Pershing didn't give a hoot about keeping them intact? A racial thing?

Bill, did your father leave a diary or memoirs of any sort? I assume he must have been in one of the reserve divisions. Can you confirm? I've been snooping around on this for several days and can't verify the reserve divisions. Its got to be somewhere, but I can find it from my own library or web materials yet.

[Shooter]

Stephen, I believe the divisions that were held in reserve and later committed were the 1st, 3rd and 32d Divisions, who joined in the fighting on 3 October, according to Doughboy Center. Interesting to note that all divisions assigned to V Corps on 26 September 1918 were relieved on 3 October, so great were their losses--on that day, only the 3rd and 32d Divisions were assigned to V Corps.

The 2d Division (my favorite outfit) was committed to the fighting in the Meuse-Argonne sector on 1 November.


Shooter sends

[fsbof]

According to my copy of "American Armies and Battlefields in Europe," on page 172, it states that 3rd Div was III Corps reserve; 32nd Div was V Corps reserve; Fr 5th Cav Div and US 92nd Div (less 1 regt) were I Corps reserves; 1st, 29th, and 82nd Divs were 1st Army reserve (each of which, interestingly, would achieve immortality in WWII!).