100 years ago today - the Meuse-Argonne Offensive of World War I

That artillary fire.. wow

Easy to understand how men cracked on the battlefield

quote:

---

the Meuse-Argonne Offensive

---

if you find being my meuse to be offensive, you argonne

quote:

---

I think they were still shooting shell shocked men then

---

quote:

---

At least 918 French soldiers were executed between 1914 and 1918, making it the army that shot the greatest number of its own soldiers, with the Italian Army, and placing it far ahead of Germany and the Anglo-Saxon countries, according to official figures.

The vast majority were not executed during the mutinies of 1917, but during the first year of the war, between September 1914 and October 1915.

The figure of 918 men executed to set an example may seem statistically inconsequential in comparison to the 1.3 million who “died for France”.

But this practice established by the General Staff constituted a permanent threat in the mind of the troops, even though recourse to capital punishment was never systematic.

Facilitated by the restoration of the courts-martial between 1914 and 1916, the death sentence was coldly regulated by a 1909 decree.

The regulation even specifies the method by which the deathblow should be delivered: “... with a revolver, the barrel of which shall be placed just above the ear and five centimetres away from the cranium”.

---

LINK

The Lost Battalion-Sabaton

quote:

---

1.3 million who “died for France”.

---

Jesus. No wonder Europeans are so afraid to even protect their own border.

I fail to see what you are confused about. The Meuse-Argonne Offensive cost the United States some 122,000 men killed, wounded, or missing/captured. There isn't a bloodier battle in the annals of American history.

quote:

---

think they were still shooting shell shocked men then

---

Probably preferable to the daily fear of being struck down by the hellfire from above in some seemingly random fashion like Zeus's thunderbolts

I, for one, applaud this very timely and informative thread.

This Offensive was contested by the Germans with the utmost determination and ferocity because it's objective was to outflank the entire northern France part of the German front line on the Western Front. Another objective was to capture the rail junction in Sedan, which was an extremely important main supply route for the German Army. This is the main reason why US casualties were so high.

Another reason for high US casualties is the fact that the US Army and USMC were using linear infantry tactics. The companies and battalions advanced in infantry line formation. Of course, the line broke up a bit once they approached the German positions, but, they used line formation and were little, if at all, trained to use fire and maneuver tactics.

"Come on, you sons of bitches, do you want to live forever?" Sgt Dan Daly, two time CMoH recipient.

It’s crazy the world fell back into war so quickly afterwards. With as ruthless as ww1 was you’d think war would be the absolute last thing anyone would want.