Transcripts For CSPAN3 American Artifacts World War I Battle

Brought to you today by your television provider. On september 12th, 1918, the American Expeditionary force under the command of general john j. Pershing launched First Independent mission of world war i. We travel to northeastern france with a story from Mitchell Yockelson to learn about the battle of saintmihiel. A bulge in the we were front that the germans had occupied since 1914. To begin the story, here is a portion of a 1960 u. S. Army film. It gives a brief sketch of the operation. In late july 1918, general pershing created the First United States Army under his command and immediate steps were taken to concentrate American Forces at one point on the line. That point was san my hel saintmihiel. It enabled to harass forces. They assembled for the task of krrk it out of existence. Fifteen infantry were moved. By the end of the day, the first army was ready for its First Independent operation against the enemy. At dawn on the 12th in the driz lipping rain the attack was launched. Drizzling rain the attack was launched. The enemy saintmihiel it was an unpleasant surprise. Within four days it was obliterated and americans were deployed along the new line. General pershing considered it a Birthday Gift to him on september 13th. In a statement to the man it said this striking victory has done more than any single operation of the war to encourage tired allies. Built on an isolated hill, this memorial commemorates the capture of saintmihiel by the american first army. Were standing at the memorial established by the American Battle Monuments Commission to commemorate the saintmihiel offensive. It was the first major battle by the americans as an independent force. It occurred from september 12th to september 16 of 1918. The battle itself strategically helped drive the germans from this area where they had been well in trenched since september of 1914. They created a bulge in the line, which was known as the salient. The attack was extremely important to american commander general john j. Per shin. Pershing had his sights set on saintmihiel since he brought americans over in the early summer of 1917 but it wasnt until more than a year later when he had enough forces to actually launch this attack. The organization of the attack began in august of 1918. Thats when general pershing formed american officials army, First Tactical unit independent of french sources. Pershing met with the commander of all the allied forces. Pershing had it in his mind to attack saintmihiel using an extensive force of american troops he originally agreed to it and started to plan a major offensive he saw taking place in september of 1918 which would involve armies on the western front. He wanted per shipping to either relinquish saintmihiel attack or reduce it. Pershing was livid. They went at it in a number of meetings. Finally the two of them compromised. It would be a reduced attack. The attack was set to take place september 12th of 1918. However, the major offensive, which would ultimately be the attack was scheduled for two weeks later. This meant as soon as pershing fought this operation he would have to turn around and get ready to fight a much larger operation less than two weeks later. Charged with planning of the saintmihiel attack was his g3 george c. Marshall. Marshall sat down with a stack of maps and created the operational orders. Ultimately 550,000 american troops launched the attack september 12th, four hours preceding the infantry were more than 3,000 french guns manned by both french and american gunners. They fired at the german positions, including where were standing, which is the high ground in saintmihiel. In front of me the commission when they established this entire monument here for the american offensive. Early Morning Hours of september 12th, you could follow the american advance. Directly in front of me is the monument were standing on. The americans swept through, drove germans from the high ground and continued further north. To the right is a swampy area called the plain of the word. It was sort of a flooded area that had actually seen American Fighting back in april of 1918 involving the 26 Division Troops from the new england area. In front of me are these red line zigzag, those are french trenches that the americans use for their jump off. It should be noted that the americans largely did not fight behind trenches. In this case the americans took over the trenches from the french. The french had been trying to attack the salient since 1914. Several major offenses in the area had failed, so the americans used these trenches. You can see the zigzag pattern typical of world war i trench. That way they were less in a target for the artillery. The americans jumped off early in the morning of september 12th and followed the northward advance pushing through one village after another, so by the end of the 13th they had occupied most of the salient. Germans who had withdrawn, stopped and fought rear guard action, so fighting actually continued through september 16th, but by that point the americans had been successful and probably could have gone on further where the germans had coal fields and mines they had used, the battle plan said for them to stop once the objectives because now they had to fight the larger offensive in the region. Also in the battle were more than 1400 aircraft, the largest concentration of planes during the war. The american flew many of them but also they included french pilots, british pilots, and italian pilots. Billy mitchell, who was now promoted to temporary Brigadier General would lead the air attack in this area. When the attack launched, pershing or no one else had any idea what kind of success the americans would have since this was their socalled baptism of fire. But the attack could not have gone off more beautifully. The weather was horrible. It was rainy. It was chilly. The americans launched the attack heading north in this direction of where we are standing. Unbeknownst to them, the germans who had occupied this whole salient had began a withdrawal and they were starting to move their troops but they didnt end them quick enough. By the end of the day of the 12th, the americans reached not only the main objectives for that day but many of the objectives for the following day. So by midmorning of september 13th, the whole salient had been liberated. Sporadic fighting on the 13th. On the 13th of september that general pershing turned 58 years old. When news of the Great American victory reached the newspapers, he was touted as a Great American hero. Headlines around the world talked about pershing the great liberator. The french people were ecstatic. Many of them had to flee their homes in the villages that made up the salient and live in barns outside with very little electricity. They had very little food. Many of them living by candlelight. Now they were free. You could see from the images that the civilians were allowed to come back to their homes. Many of them had not seen for the past three years. Now american soldiers moving to the beat of the muffled drums of history. Because they fought decisively as an american horse, they were moving in the long tradition of their country, a tradition stretching back across the flats of bjoyorktown through the roll hills of gettysburg up san juan hill. The man who had wielded them into this force and made his own unique mark on the history of his times. As a tactician seeking victory through fire and movement on a fluid battlefield, pershing was proving himself superb. To the men by the name of blackjack, he was no myth. The battle was his as well as theirs. He had confidence in them and they gave him their trust and respect. Were looking north from the high ground over the salient. It was important they take it first because the germans were in range and they would have been able had gone around and tried to liberate the villages first, they would have been decimated by german artillery and machine gunfire. Once it was taken it was a rapid progressi progression. For example looking ahead north is a village which was conquered by the 26th division, a new England Division made up of troops from connecticut and massachusetts and maine. Im standing in the village on rue miss skinner. The reason its named skinner is she was a wealthy socialite from massachusetts who took to heart this village that had been destroyed by the germans. The germans had occupied it for four years since 1914, and it was liberated by the american 26th division. The 26th division was made up of National Guard units from new england including massachusetts where bell grew up. She was a graduate of astor college, in fact, the class president. Her family owned a textile company with their name of skinner. She had a passion for france. She had a passion for france. She came here before the war, during the war, and back in 1919. Thats when she discovered this village and that it was destroyed. She decided she needed to help out. She raised money, gave some of her own money, including clothes to the citizens who had to move back after the war in decimated conditions. She helped rebuild the village including the school im standing in front of now, plus she set up a wash basin in town so the citizens could clean their clothes. Im now walking through the school. To my left here is a black honoring miss Belle Skinner. Of course it says she was called the godmother because she took care of the citizens of the village after the war. She was so concerned about the inhabitan inhabitants. Walking out into the courtyard, you get a magnificent view of the whole saintmihiel region or saintmihiel salient as it was known during the war. Directly in front of me is the monsac monument. Were west of the monument. It was placed by the commission to commemorate the activities of the americans who liberated the village and many others like it beginning september 12th of 1819. As the americans headed in this direction, they liberated villages one by one as the germans fled. Eventually 26th division new englanders reached where the germans had left but they were still fighting in and around the village. Much of it left totally in ruins, including the school im standing in that miss skinner would spend her own money to rededicate and rebuild after the war. Youre looking at a chateau that had been ruined during the war when Belle Skinner came to restore the village, she also bought and restored the chateau and she lived here for many years. Belle would die in 1928 in paris. [ bells ] youre looking at the ruins of a chateau here in the village right in the heart of the sany saintmihiel sal yen. Early in the morning the Rainbow Division jumped off and like other american divisions was pa rapid advance clearing out the villages in the salient as the germans fled. Major william donovan, also known as wild bill, was a Battalion Commander in the Rainbow Division. Later on we know him best as head of office of Strategic Services during world war ii. But during world war i, donovan was in the thick of the fighting in the salient. When he reached the village, he came upon this chateau, and this is where he established his headquarters. He would later write about what the experience was here coming to the chateau. Behind the manner house, which you see behind me, he found a cache of valuable paintings, porcelains and furniture in the courtyard. Apparently the germans were unable to carry it as they fled from the village. Donovan for the village in countered poor people for four years had been with the germans. The one i ate with on the 12th had not been out of the sight of germans for four years. Every night after she prepared the meals for officers guests she had to retire to her cellar. The night after she fed us she put on her best skirt and went out to visit her neighbors for the first time in four years. Chateau now is in horrible disarray. During the war inhabited by the germans it was one of the most elaborate in the region. You can see in front of the chateau that the chateau was beautifully and elaborately decorated. A chaplain with the 42nd division knew donovan quite well. He described him as a man in his middle 30s, very attractive in face and manner, the athlete that kept himself in perfect division. After the bant of saintmihiel, the division would play a significant role during the offensive. In fact in the middle of october the Rainbow Division during the operation tasked with taking one of the more difficult positios,s a major defensive line part of the hindenburg line, the battle would last for three days and many of the sonls ldiers in donovans battalion would be severely wounded or killed during the fighting. Donovan would be a recipient of the medal of honor a number of years after world war i ended. A few miles from the monument the saintmihiel cemetery was the final resting place of over 4,000 americans who died in the region in 1918 and 1919. We visited the cemetery with historian Mitchell Yockelson to talk to superintendent jeffrey hays, u. S. Government employee who manages the cemetery and the monsac american monument. Were actually on part of the saintmihiel battlefield . We are actually in the very middle of the battlefield. Behind you 89th division came to us and across the cemetery on the afternoon of the 12th of september, that front gate is where the 89th division dug their defensive positions for the night. The next morning, on the morning of the 13th, they continued their assault going north. We are actually on the land the 89th fought on. If you r here on tare here on t looked west you would be looking at 42nd division. If you look east youd be looking at the 42nd division. This area right here was definitely were in the middle of the whole battlefield. Men crossed the area and started the advance on the morning of the 13th. Left where that front gate is at. 4,153 soldiers lay here and are permanently buried here. Its basically a cemetery that was built, started after the war was over and basically as a concentration cemetery. What the soldiers actually did was we had soldiers in an area around here about 10 kilometers south, 10 kilometers north, 10 east, 10 west who actually did sweeps over the territory, sweeps over the area looking for our dead. When they would find our dead, they would bring them here and bury them in the temporary cemetery here. Thats how the cemetery started. It was laid out in march of 1919 and the first men and women were buried here in april of 1919. Thats the same combination of the time when the letters are going home to the families asking where they want them permanently buried. All that was conjunction, the period of time that created that temporary cemetery. If you look behind me in the area where plot b is at, that is actually to the left over there. It was actually where the temporary cemetery was first created. Okay . After the families got to choose where the soldiers would be buried, thats when the soldiers were put in the caskets, 65 roughly were taken back to the United States and the rest were buried here. They buried the soldiers in the pattern you see today. American battle monuments, amc for short is smallest. Everything here is paid for by the u. S. Taxpayer. It started in 1923. Its kind of a convoluted story, but the reason its not called the American Battle Cemeteries Association or administration is that we actually started to create monuments for the soldiers and how they fought in world war i. The cemeteries came under us at a later date, a later period when they actually started figuring out that these cemeteries were going to be permanent, who was going to look after them. They came folding under is. Melded into what we are today, amc, looking after cemeteries. General pershing was the father of amc. Hes the man that his hand pr t print, fingerprints are still here today. He basically put down a lot of rules and regulations that we still live by today that control what we do. One of the things with pershing was, you notice when you walk into a cemetery, theres no segregation of the troops. Theres no difference with males and females, no separation of the ranks. Everybody is spaced out in the middle of the cemetery. He did not allow any difference with having a plot for officers or plot for the africanamerican soldiers. He didnt allow that separation. Thats where you get these patterns today of everybody intermixed. We get that question a lot of where are the officers. Oh, you have women here . They are out there with everybody else. They are spread out. His footprint is there. Plus when we created world war i cemeteries, he was the final yes or no if something worked. So we have documents like a planting plan that actually tells where all these trees have to go. Every single tree is marked on this plan. To make sure youre looking at the proper planting plan you look at the top corner, youll actually see pershings signature on it. If pershings signature is on it, that is the golden rule. Thats what we look for. All the plans, especially with world war i, because it didnt work in world war ii, thats the rule. So his print, his name is something we go by every day theres a discussion about something when the cemetery if the tree dries, we go to the planting plan. If we discuss a wall coming apart, damage to it, we refer to the plan, the pershing plans, and look for his name and thats the one we look for. The cemetery, from what we understand, was purchased by the government for the transact of land where the cemetery is at today. The u. S. Government purchased that from the home owners and then they turned around and sold it back to the french government for one french franc. That gave the property, the ground is french owned territory. Thats misnomers, the ground is owned by the french government but everything on the ground or everything in the ground is owned by the u. S. Government. So its an interesting perspective to look at it in the context if we have u. S. Government ever chose to dis disinter these soldiers and take them back to the Un