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'America's deadliest battle ever'

3K views 19 replies 13 participants last post by  rice paddy daddy 
#1 · (Edited)
A battle on a large scale from a war that most Americans know little to nothing about.

US troops travel to France to commemorate 'America's deadliest battle ever' which cost 26,000 lives and saw more ammunition fired than during the entire Civil War - but helped bring an end to WWI
•Serving American troops were pictured at the Meuse-Argonne cemetery on Sunday for the commemoration
•The Meuse-Argonne offensive involved 1.2million American troops and was carried out in September, 1918
•During seven weeks of brutal fighting over 26,000 American soldiers and 28,000 Germans lost their lives
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6198037/100-years-ago-US-fought-deadliest-battle-France.html
 
#3 · (Edited)
I had both grandfathers participate in that hell. Both were gassed. The US Army Succeeded where the French had failed for four years. The American Expeditionary Force switched from one sucessfu all out offense to another in successive months. St Michael to the Meuse-Argonne. Something neither the French or British pulled off the entire war. I believe if they would have just followed up St Michael, it was a straight and short shot into Germany and perhaps ended the war sooner.
 
#4 · (Edited)
#5 ·
I always liked the story I heard some years back about one of our guys who went into the trenches as a replacement.

They could see the Germans come up out of their trenches putting on their gear, etc. and getting ready to assault their position.

Our guy took his bolt action 30-06, . . . adjusted his sights for the distance, . . . and started knocking them down at something like 800 yards.

After about 6 or 8 were laying on the ground bleeding, . . . the rest scrambled back into their trench and didn't come out until they were ready to assault our position, . . . no more coming up and hitching up, . . . they came up ready for battle.

The rest of the guys in the trench were amazed he could knock them down that far away.

May God bless,
Dwight
 
#6 ·
To be fair to the French, we got the bitter end of what was left of the German army whereas they got the full brunt of what was the best army in the world (and arguably some of the best soldiers the world has ever known). Germany had already lost 1.3 MILLION soldiers from combat deaths alone and nearly 4 MILLION more wounded before the first US grunt's boots hit the ground over there.

That 5.5 million casualties was a pretty good total by the French & English before we even arrived.

During our part of the war, they lost 350,000 more, and most of those were not killed by Americans.
 
#16 ·
#9 ·
If you ever get the chance, go visit the battlefield at Antietam. Stand in "The Bloody Lane" or The Cornfield" and look over the fields where 23,000 men were killed or wounded around you. It's a powerful place.QUOTE=GoneSouth61;1884539]In the Battle of Antietam there were nearly 23000 killed. In a day.[/QUOTE]
 
#10 · (Edited)
if you think that these WW1 - "over the top" - "out of the trenchs" - "let's finish this thing" - US Doughboy attacks were costly >>>> thank God that the US had an azz kicking general like old Blackjack Pershing to send over with the "boys" ....

the French and Brits already had the Yanks alllll parceled out between themselves for more trench meat for the slaughter - old Blackjack squared up his shoulders and said "**** that" - we're here to finish thing off and not play "Hun, Hun, Where's the Hun" ....

some of the meaner MFers that the US sent over were the new Irish coming into the country >>> some went from Ellis Island directly onto the troop transports - the Huns were scared to death of these "gangsters" .....
 
#14 · (Edited)
An army of survivors is an army of veterans. This was the German Army of 1918 that had fought the Russians, French and British as well as Italians. The American Army was mostly recruits. Pershing and his staff also took advantage of training from French alpine troops and managed to fight off crazy schemes of the French and British which likely would have resulted in slaughter of the dough boys without victory. Something both the French and British were good at. It was the American army that won where the Allies thought they would fail.
 
#15 ·
An army of survivors is an army of veterans. This was the German Army of 1918 that had fought the Russians, French and British as well as Italians. The American Army was mostly recruits. Pershing and his staff also took advantage of training from French alpine troops and managed to fight of crazy schemes of the French and British which likely would have resulted in slaughter of the dough boys without victory. Something both the French and British were good at. It was the American army the won where the Allies thought they would fail.
Both the French and the British were beaten in 1918.
The French overall commander wanted to throw the fresh Americans piecemeal into battle by attaching individual US units to existing French units as they arrived in Europe. General Pershing stood firm and steadfast in his order that American units would fight under the American flag, and he would wait until he had enough men in the theater to do so.

It has been recognized by both British and French historians that without the Americans, they would have lost WW1.
 
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