Transcripts For CSPAN3 American Artifacts The Lost Battalion

Battlefield guide and historian who explain what happened and show us century old trenches and a memorial to the lost battalion in the forest. Where are we standing . We are inside the argonnes forest. We are near a mine crater. Its probably a century after the war and still around 25 feet deep and Something Like 80 feet wide. It was a huge mine exploding here. We have to imagine ground up in the air, probably 50 meters high. You could probably see and feel the earth trembling miles around. Where are we on the front . What troops would have been here that wouldve suffered from the mine explosion . That mine exploded in 1916. At the time, the position was stabilized and the french were right there. The german line is very close by. Around 60 or 70 yards from us. The french and german fought here side by side for around three years. When the americans come here in 1918, they will see this mine crater. Of course there is no grass at the time. There were no mine explosions when the americans attack. They just see the landscape from previous explosions. They start the offensive Early September 26th. Towards the german first line, second line, third line and finally into the Argonne Forest for several days. This is a french tranche for three years. Later on it will be one of the americans starting lines for the beginning of the offensive september of 1918. Every 30 yards more or less in the trench, we have entrances for mine tunnels like this one. That is the entrance for a french mine tunnel. It is heading north. North we will find the german trench. Soldiers realize they could not go over top and cross no mans land. They got the idea of digging under the enemy line to place explosives and provoke explosions from a distance. As the enemy was killed or wounded in the trenches, they would try to cross no mans land to capture the trench. This is no mans land here. You see the disturbed ground everywhere. Just if you want to see how small. We have the german trench 30 meters from here. We cross the no mans land which is like 80 meters wide and now we are inside the german trench. The german first line. I already see barbed wire that was all along the trench. We have some barbed wire left that remains everywhere within the forest. That tranche is still very deep after one century. We are very close by the french tranche but from there we cannot see the german one. Same here, we cannot see the french trench even if it is close by. A zig zag shape is quite typical of a trench. Crossings from times two times that leads to a second line and third and fourth. These are the first trenches american troops had to make their way through. They needed to then make their way further north. They could not have been that many german troops at the time right . Only a small reserve, infantry or whatever. Yes. This part of the argonne was pretty quiet for the last year and a half or two years. Germans were probably not expecting such a big battle on the first day. This went quickly because the new yorkers moved fairly fast. Yes. They broke through the alliance as quickly as possible and then they have supplies coming. It probably took a few minutes. Here is a bullet that was fired by a rifle. Right here you can see that it was shot and hit something. So these are the kinds of remains we still find a lot, especially after heavy rains. Here is one more. This one was not shot, it is complete as you can see. It is german. So that is a mauser we can see from the part of the bullet. Its very narrow. This part is quite wide compared to the bullet itself, it is a german one. This is a french trench. It is still quite deep. It is probably still around five or six feet deep. A bit of a zigzag shape. So guillaume we are standing on the front lines were the new yorkers jumped off on september 26th 1918. Yes. In fact that trench was dug by the french when its stabilized here. It was used by the french and several allied troops. The last ones to use this tranche to jump on the line were the americans from the 77th. They are heading north breaking through several german trenches and make theirway through the forest. Of course the famous story is, during the first week of october, part of the 77th division, the socalled lost battalion, comes cut off from the Main Division. Which direction with that have been . Same. North about six miles away from here. So they make their way through several german lines. Of course the no mans land we were facing was practically without trees because they were damaged by the constant fighting. As soon as they progressed several miles in the forest, they were in deep forest like we are seeing right now. That is where the events of the lost battalion took place. A wound six miles from us. All right lets head there. Yes. You are looking at the memorial for the lost battalion. A story we will detail right now. We are in the middle of the Argonne Forest and we have moved a few miles north of our location when we were on the starting line. German physician was just facing us in the area that is sunny right now and american troops came from the south. They are coming from south to north. When we look at the Argonne Forest from a distance, it looks like a plateau, but what it is it has steep valleys when you are inside. The germans fortified everything. 77th Division Start on september 26th and made their way breaking through several german lines to end up in this position. Michel will give us more details about what happened here. The 77th division is what they called a National Army division which was made up of drafted troops and enlisted troops. They were mostly out of the state of new york with many of them from new york city. They were in this area and a battalion as they were noted later on became cut off from the main body of the division. The Main Division is around 27,000 officers. In this case they are 554 men who are cut off. They are cut off from the main body of the division. They are from two different regiments. The 307th and 308 infantry. They are mixed companies. They are led by major charles well see, an attorney from wall street. He had been with a group of men a few days before who had also been cut off. But this time they came trapped. The germans are surrounding them from the hills and firing. His men take cover in an area that we will walk down in a moment near what they call the charlottesville milk. Meanwhile the rest of the division cannot reach them. On their flank our french troops. The germans are firing down with machine guns and artillery and the situation becomes perilous. It is also an embarrassing moment for the army at this point because things are not going well. It is october 4th and the battle has slowed down and the weather is horrible. It is windy and chilly. Men are getting sick. The casualty numbers are raising. The general is frustrated and heres about this group of men that are trapped and cut off. Hes also hearing a news paper reporter is also hearing about this who is looking for an angle. Some of them were embedded with the army at that time. The 77th was part of the first core, one of the tactical course under the first army. The newspaper reporter sends word back to his editor in the United States. He coins the name the lost battalion. The truth of the matter is that 554 men were not lost. They knew where they were. The division commander, Major General alexander knew where they were. They were not really a battalion, they were a conglomeration of men. It was a difficult situation. Over the course of almost six days, they are losing men daily. The germans are firing on them. Some of the men leave to try and get water and encounter germans who give one of the men a note to bring back to major whittlesey, asking them to surrender. Whittlesey refuses. He wants to hold out. Meanwhile, the 77th division is trying to get into the forest but you can see it is very dense and difficult terrain. It is rocky. There are ravines and small streams going through it. So when idea that alexander has is to send relief by airplane. He commissions the 50th to fly over and drop supplies. The first day they fly over. They drop the supplies. Its cloudy, its rainy. The pilots cant exactly see where the men are and end up dropping supplies over the german lines. Finally, a plane flown by a 50th arrow squadron gets over the site where the lost battalion is to get them some supplies. As he is heading back near the seventh Seventh Division headquarters. Machine gun wrecks wrecks the plane and it crashes killing both the pilot and his observer. Herald get lure and irwin blakely. They become heroes of this event and are awarded the medal of honor. Meanwhile, at first court headquarters, first core is commanded by Major General hunter. They conceive an idea on how to rescue the lost battalion. They start bringing in troops surrounding the germans. Eventually, penetrate through the woods and get to whittle sees men on october 6th. At out out of the 554 men, less than 200 have survived. All the others are either killed in action, or have been taken prisoner. The event itself takes on a life of its own as one of the important stories of the news archive battle and for the American Experience in world war one. The story does not end there. The lost battalion continue on with the 77th and fight their way through the Argonne Forest. It was an extremely dramatic event, because after the war, he is inundated with letters from some of the survivors of the loss battalion to seek his help financially, and trying to get benefits from the government. Also this event the fact that he lost so many men weighed heavy on him whittlesey himself would receive the medal of honor and he was selected to go on in november of 1921 in to carry the unknown soldiers at arlington cemetery. After that event, he boarded a ship on its way to cuba and was seen one day at the bar drinking and talking. Later on, he was noticed to be missing and never found. It was assumed he went on uptick and jumped over the ship. Meanwhile, many books have been written about the lost battalion and one of the true heroes of the event was a man by the name of halfway through the ordeal, as the 77th division is trying to rescue whittlesey, they are firing artillery, but the ranges something is wrong with the citing and his men are getting hit by fire and killed. He cannot send a runner back because they would get killed themselves or captured. They relied on carrier patients which the used heavily during the war. They used it as part of their arsenal. He takes the message and writes on, telling the commander that the 77th division, to reaim basically, you are killing my own men. He puts the message in one pigeon, the pigeon flies away not in the direction of where the Division Headquarters is. He tries the same thing with the second pigeon, same thing happens. The pigeon goes in another direction. Finally, he has got one last pigeon left. He takes the note and puts it in a metal canister and places it, straps it on jeremys leg and they lift the pigeon up. The pitch and flies around and lands on a tree. At least it is in the area. Whittlesey and some of the other commanders are getting excited, screaming at the poor bird. They get the bird to fly away and they notice that jeremy is heading in the direction of the Division Headquarters which is about 18 kilometers away. Later on, about an hour or two later, the firing stops. The big question of the story is, was it jeremy who did make it back to the Division Headquarters where the pigeon coop was . Was it because jeremy the pigeon made it there and gave the no or did the division firing stop on time . That story has never been completely told and we never know the real issue. What we do know is that jeremy was badly wounded. He lost a wing and one of his legs. Thankfully not the leg that was carrying the message. At least she got that. Her life was celebrated after the war when she passed away, she sits gracefully and the collections of the Smithsonian Institution in the washington area. Here is the immortal journey here on this monument that is relatively recently placed in tribute to the lost battalion. Why dont we take a walk down the path and see mostly where whittleseys men were captured and we can explain what happened. Those are the people who fought and were in the pocket for six days. I think there was a famous baseball player, no . Yes, eddie grant who is what we call in america was he was on a number of baseball teams, including the cincinnati reds. He was among the men at whittleseys who were killed during that time. His body was recovered and he was immortalized. Another soldier who died was private henry chin who was a chinese descent. I dont know the exact number of chinese, either Chinese Americans or direct immigrants who were in the u. S. Army, but it was certainly rare. He was very much honored by the Chinese Community after the war, certainly as a war hero. We are now inside the pocket in the valley. The pocket is a location of the socalled lost battalion for six days, surrounded by the germans. When we look at the ground that was covered by the americans right there, these slopes are coming from the south. This is where the american soldiers came from, making their way up here, then lying down along the slope and getting into that valley. They never expected that they would face very strong and heavy german resistance on the other hill which is as steep as the one we have around. Eventually, they were hearing germans facing them north which is normal. This is direction of the open seat. But the germans were also on their west and eastern borders. At the end of the day, they were all around it. You can imagine being there at the same location we are. We can imagine how it was. Cold october, wet and rainy. A bit more than what we are having this year. In the Argonne Forest with no possibility of being reached by your comrades. Up next, historian Rudolph Daniels talks about his book, the Great Railroad war. The United States operations during world war one. He says the tragedy of musing troops and equipment helped allied forces to win the war. The National World War One Museum and memorial in kansas city, missouri hosted this event. It is just over an hour. Hello and welcome everyone. To your National World War One Museum and memorial. I am camille, Public Program specialist and thrilled to have everyone joining us here this afternoon, whether you have braved the rain, congratulations, you have made it. Whether you are a warm at home watching through our live stream, today we have the pleasure of hosting doctor rudy daniels who is going to present his lecture, a great r