Month: July 2019

Episode 56: Meuse Argonne – l’Homme Mort, or, the Small Pocket

The 77th Division continues its grind through the Argonne Forest in the last days of September 1918. Under orders to advance without regard to flanks, US Army MAJ Charles Whittlesey and his 1st Battalion, 308th Infantry Regiment find themselves cut off and surrounded on a hill named l’Homme Mort. 

 

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Check out this episode!

Operational map of 77nd Buffalo Division in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, 19 SEP-16 OCT 1918. Map provided by Griffin Group Photos collection on www.meuse-argonne.com.

The Small Pocket – 1st Battalion, 308th Infantry

That red circle ⭕️ in the middle of the map will be the focus of the next BFWWP episode. This was the Small Pocket, where US Army MAJ Charles Whittlesey and men of his 1st Battalion, 308th Infantry were surrounded on 28-30 SEP 1918. Before Whittlesey and his men became the Lost Battalion, they experienced the very same thing due to orders telling all American units to ignore their flanks and advance. Episode coming out tonight!

The streambed where MAJ Charles Whittlesey and his 1st Battalion, 308th Infantry formed a hollow square defensive perimeter from 28-30 September, 1918. In the center left of the photo, the concrete bunker used as the perimeter command post. Photo taken January 1919.
The German bunker in the Small Pocket in January 1919.
The Small Pocket’s German bunker 90-some years after the end of WW1. Photo taken by Robert Laplander.
Up close to the German bunker on l’Homme Mort. Photo taken by Robert Laplander.