Maarten Otte - The Meuse-Argonne 1918: The Right Bank to the Armistice

The American Expeditionary Forces in the Great War

The Meuse Heights to the Armistice

This book is dedicated to Eric Mueller, Matthew Young, Todd Rambow and Paul Osman, who keep the history and memory of the US 26 th , 29 th and 33 rd Divisions alive, and to Tom Gudmestad who over the years has provided me with invaluable information in the form of books, photographs, general advice and, dare I say it, friendship.

The Meuse Heights to the Armistice

Maarten Otte

First published in Great Britain in 2021 by

Pen & Sword Military

an imprint of

Pen & Sword Books Ltd

Yorkshire Philadelphia

Copyright Maarten Otte, 2021

Maps B. Metselaar, 2021

ISBN 978 1 52679 617 2

eISBN 978 1 52679 618 9

The right of Maarten Otte to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

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On a sunny day in June 2020, recently or at least partially liberated from M Macrons Covid-induced house-arrest, I found myself standing on a concrete bunker, part of a modern water reservoir system, just east of Haraumont and more or less on the Kriemhild Line, part of the so-called Hindenburg system. The views obtained from here to the south and to the west, well across the left bank of the Meuse, are magnificent; for example, Montfaucon, getting on for thirteen kilometres away, is clearly visible. Although the AEF got close to the Kriemhild Line on the Right Bank or the Meuse Heights they did not occupy it until after the Armistice.

What was quite apparent from my perch is the view that German artillery observers all along the right bank of the river had over much of the ground across which Pershings First Army was advancing. After some initial impressive gains on the 26th and 27th September, the Americans were finding it increasingly difficult to make much meaningful progress. The situation was not improved by much until General Liggett took command of the First Army in mid October, Pershing having abandoned his quixotic, untenable attempt to be both Commander in Chief of the AEF and the field commander of the USAs (then) only Army, a huge formation, vastly bigger than any other Army formation on the Western Front.

As Maarten points out (and as was clear to me from my first visit to the area with the Meuse Argonne Offensive as its object), the German artillery on the Meuse Heights, an area known as the Right Bank during the Battle of Verdun 1916, had wonderful fields of fire across the river. A place like Montfaucon, for example, would be well within range of their bigger calibre guns; whilst these guns would be pretty well immune to counter battery fire, protected by the topography, with its ravines, its folds in the ground and good reverse slope positions. Any advance, particularly on the right of the First Army, would have to take place under the gauntlet of this fire. The Germans also had good artillery coverage of the American attack on the left, from the high ground to the north of the Argonne Forest; but that is a different story.

One of the hardest lessons that the German army learnt from the Battle of Verdun came early on in that offensive. If things had gone very well, the problem of the French artillery on the far side of the Meuse, the so-called Left (or west) Bank, might not have been too significant. As things worked out, the initial counter battery fire was quite inadequate and the reinforced array of French artillery on the Left Bank became of such significance that the Germans were left with but little alternative than to extend their offensive to that side of the river as well in early March.

In September and October 1918 the situation was comparable: this time the advance would be on the Left Bank and the Right Bank would be covered by the French XVII Corps (under American command), not by an infantry attack but by what turned out to be a rather pathetic display of counter battery fire.