The Meuse-Argonne Offensive

By Brian McCandless

The American Expeditionary Forces (A.E.F.) was the expeditionary force of the United States Army during World War I and was established on July 5, 1917, in France under the command of Gen. John J. “Black Jack” Pershing. During the war, the A.E.F. fought alongside French and British troops against armies of the German Empire.

The Western Front, or Western Frontier, developed over the period from 1914 to 1917. By the time US troops took joined the allied forces, in the summer of 1917, it ran in a curved line from Nieuport, on the strait of Dover, through France, including Soissons, Rheims, Verdun, along the River Somme, westward to Metz, then south through the Vosges Mountains. The Meuse-Argonne battles were fought over an eighty mile long line in the vicinity of Verdun.

The Meuse-Argonne Offensive, also known as the Maas-Argonne Offensive and the Battle of the Argonne Forest, named after the regions of conflict, was a major part of the final Allied offensive of World War I. The offensive operation lasted 47 days, from September 26, 1918, until the Armistice of 11 November 1918. The Meuse-Argonne Offensive was the largest in United States military history, involving 1.2 million American soldiers, and was one of a series of Allied attacks known as the Hundred Days Offensive, which brought the war to an end. The Meuse-Argonne Offensive cost 28,000 German lives and 26,277 American lives, making it the largest and bloodiest operation of World War I for the A.E.F.. The large American losses were attributed to a combination of inexperienced troops and ineffective battle tactics.

To reach the front, American soldiers sailed to Europe from ports in New York, New Jersey, and Newport News, Virginia. The entry ports in Europe were at Bordeaux, La Pallice, Saint Nazaire and Brest, from which soldiers and supplies made their way by rail to the front. American engineers in France built 82 new ship berths, nearly 1,000 miles (1,600 km) of additional standard-gauge tracks and 100,000 miles (160,000 km) of telephone and telegraph lines. From arrival destinations near the front, troops marched from the train depots to their assigned posts.