Lost Battalion Tours is a collaboration between WW1 author and historian Robert J. Laplander, and Mike Cunha, master of ceremonies of the Battles of the First World War podcast and battlefield explorer.
Our inaugural tour will be an 8-day trip to the Argonne region August 8-15, 2020. Those of you who have traveled with Robert in the Argonne before know this is no sight-seeing bus trip; this is down in the dirt, where it happened stuff! Now YOU can join us for a trip you won’t soon forget!
You will stay IN the Argonne, at a small French hotel, as part of your Argonne immersion experience. You’ll see all the important spots concerning the battle, including a first hand tour of the whole story of the Lost Battalion with the #1 LB guy in the world.
On top of that, each tour can be tailored to fit almost any special request visit by guests. And all of this for a one time, all inclusive price of just $1200.00 per single guest, or $1000.00 per guest in groups of two or more (this price does NOT include air fare).
Space is limited to just 14 guests though, so don’t wait – contact Mike Cunha or Robert J. Laplander today for more details. More information is coming this week so stay tuned, but if you’ve been thinking that you’d like to experience the AEF in France, THIS is your chance!
This makes a FABULOUS Christmas gift, at a very affordable price that your significant other will treasure forever! Don’t miss out! Contact us today and join us – We are along the road parallel 276.4… waiting for you!
This announcement was so exciting that not only did I use my excited voice, but Robert Laplander’s two dogs, Buddy and Rebel, immediately started wrestling each other for a spot on the tour–true story!
Any questions, comments or concerns please contact me through the website, www.firstworldwarpodcast.com. Follow us on Twitter at @WW1podcast, the Battles of the First World War Podcast page on FaceBook, and on Instagram at @WW1battlecast. Not into social media? Email me directly at verdunpodcast@gmail.com. Please consider reviewing the Battles of the First World War Podcast on iTunes.
Any questions, comments or concerns please contact me through the website, www.firstworldwarpodcast.com. Follow us on Twitter at @WW1podcast, the Battles of the First World War Podcast page on FaceBook, and on Instagram at @WW1battlecast. Not into social media? Email me directly at verdunpodcast@gmail.com. Please consider reviewing the Battles of the First World War Podcast on iTunes.
Operational map of 35th Santa Fe Division in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, 26 SEP-03 OCT 1918. Map provided by Griffin Group Photos collection on www.meuse-argonne.com.
The 28th “Keystone” Division (Pennsylvania) both slugs it out with the Germans in the Argonne Forest over Le Chène Tondu ridge, and pushes its way up the River Aire Valley through Montblainville and Apremont. The Germans fight hard for both Le Chène Tondu and Apremont, and the Pennsylvania Doughboys struggle to hold their hard-won gains.
Any questions, comments or concerns please contact me through the website, www.firstworldwarpodcast.com. Follow us on Twitter at @WW1podcast, the Battles of the First World War Podcast page on FaceBook, and on Instagram at @WW1battlecast. Not into social media? Email me directly at verdunpodcast@gmail.com. Please consider reviewing the Battles of the First World War Podcast on iTunes.
Operational map of 28th Keystone Division in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, 19 SEP-25 OCT 1918. Map provided by Griffin Group Photos collection on www.meuse-argonne.com.
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.
Any questions, comments or concerns please contact me through the website, www.firstworldwarpodcast.com. Follow us on Twitter at @WW1podcast, the Battles of the First World War Podcast page on FaceBook, and on Instagram at @WW1battlecast. Not into social media? Email me directly at verdunpodcast@gmail.com. Please consider reviewing the Battles of the First World War Podcast on iTunes.
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.
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.
As the American 1st Army launched its attack on the Meuse-Argonne on the 26th of September, the 368th Infantry Regiment of the segregated 92nd Buffalo Division launched an attack on the left flank, west of the Argonne Forest. Despite several catastrophic stumbles, the regiment eventually succeeded in capturing the ruined village of Binarville. Their reputation, they quickly found out, was also in ruins as a result.
Any questions, comments or concerns please contact me through the website, www.firstworldwarpodcast.com. Follow us on Twitter at @WW1podcast, the Battles of the First World War Podcast page on FaceBook, and on Instagram at @WW1battlecast. Not into social media? Email me directly at verdunpodcast@gmail.com. Please consider reviewing the Battles of the First World War Podcast on iTunes.
The AEF 3rd Corps attacks with three divisions on the right of the attack front. The 4th “Ivy” Division attacks the German lines and supports the attack on Montfaucon. The 80th “Blue Ridge” Division attacks through Forges Creek and pushes up to Brieulles-sur-Meuse. The 33rd “Prairie” Division also pushes through Forges Creek, clears Bois de Forges, and then aims for Dannevoux village. Across the River Meuse, the French 17th Corps launches a supporting diversion for the AEF 1st Army.
Any questions, comments or concerns please contact me through the website, www.firstworldwarpodcast.com. Follow us on Twitter at @WW1podcast, the Battles of the First World War Podcast page on FaceBook, and on Instagram at @WW1battlecast. Not into social media? Email me directly at verdunpodcast@gmail.com. Please consider reviewing the Battles of the First World War Podcast on iTunes.
The AEF 5th Corps launches its three divisions in the center of the Meuse-Argonne attack front. The 91st “Wild West” Division thrusts up towards the ridge on which sat Épinonville. The 37th “Buckeye” Division supported the 79th “Cross of Lorraine” Division’s attack on the German bastion on Montfaucon.
Any questions, comments or concerns please contact me through the website, www.firstworldwarpodcast.com. Follow us on Twitter at @WW1podcast, the Battles of the First World War Podcast page on FaceBook, and on Instagram at @WW1battlecast. Not into social media? Email me directly at verdunpodcast@gmail.com. Please consider reviewing the Battles of the First World War Podcast on iTunes.
I never tire of looking at the Vauquois monument on the French side of the hill. It apparently has a red beacon light that shines in response to the Douaumont Ossuary’s own red beacon several kilometers away. I have never seen the light at work, so a future evening trip is in order. The detail in the sculpture though is startling–in the trench lies a corpse, already incorporated into the trench wall while the living guard remains at the alert.
Getting into the tunnels was something truly remarkable. Through Randy Gaulke of meuse-argonne.com I connected with the Les Amis group and got into a tour in the summer of 2018 with my stepson Lee of the Viking Age Podcast, my Army brother Chuck, and my good friend Michiel.
Getting inside Vauquois was one extraordinary afternoon in a trip of extraordinary days. It was an experience that I will never forget, and it’s right up there with being at LTC Driant’s command post at the Bois des Caures at the exact minute of the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Verdun, and it’s up there with being able to stand in the foxholes of the Lost Battalion near Charlevaux Mill.
We entered the tunnels through a small 4ft by 4ft doorway at the end of one of the German trenches, and you had to enter hunched down and backwards in order to step down into a damp passageway.
Once inside this first tunnel we entered a dimly-lit world of hand-hewn tunnels that had wiring along the walls for lights and German street names at the corners.
Hand-hewn tunnels on the German side of the hill. The rock walls are gaize, a siliceous rock that is stable and flexible for digging through when damp.
My man Michiel touching the walls. It’s a moving experience to be where men a century ago lived and died.
The tunnel height makes taller folks have to stoop. It was also an instinctive thing for me to do–not that I’m that tall. But my brain said, “Tunnels. Stoop.”
Single light bulbs illuminate the passages. It’s a dim world down there.
Wiring along the walls. I’m not sure that much has changed since the Great War.
Chuck moving through ahead of me. Now he is much taller and definitely had to hunch down.
A passage leading to another hallway.
The signs are new, but the names are not. The Germans named their tunnels with street and place names from back home to help with getting around.
Remnants of German tar paper put up to make some of the underground rooms more comfortable.
Monsieur Guy Bigorgne led us through a tour of tunnels and rooms where bunks and tables sat, along with equipment and gear collected. In some of the rooms it looked like the bottles and tools were as the French and Germans had left them a century before.
Some of the bottles and utensils are from the time of the war.
Wartime photo of French officers sitting in one of these underground rooms.
On the French side, the tunnels were supported.
Wartime images of life on Vauquois.
Duty on “Les Mont des Morts.”
A mine gallery on the French side.
Vauquois village before the war.
A French light rail tunnel leading outside.
A German engineer in a mine gallery.
A Frenchman listening for mining noises from the enemy.
Schematic of the various tunnel systems inside Vauquois.
Heading back outside after a couple of hours underground.
What it must have been like for the men who had to live in that hill. At regular temperature the tunnels were about fifty degrees Fahrenheit; a little chilly for just a t-shirt and fishing shirt. During the war, the air inside the underground complexes would have been the same chilly norm with pockets of hot air in rooms where pumps and other machinery worked. The air would have been stale with earth, exhaust fumes, sweat, and human waste. The air must have been nauseating at times. The French tunnels featured wooden supports, along with low tunnels that supported a light railway cart system for the removal of earth and rock from the mine galleries. On either side of the hill though, the accommodations shed light on the dark troglodyte world these men endured for years on end.
Michiel walking through the French trenches.
Lee walking through the French trenches.
Supported trench works.
It’s hard to tell, but under the corrugated metal is a set of steps–this was where a building of the ancient hilltop village was incorporated into the trench lines.
The construction helmet provided by Les Amis de Vauquois and mandatory for underground tours.
It was a wonderful tour, and Guy Bigorgne said himself that he is a talker and thus his tours are generally longer than those of the other guides. I could have listened to him for days, he has a remarkable wealth of knowledge and his passion for the subject of Vauquois is evident.
From left: Chuck, Lee, Michiel, myself, and Guy Bigorgne.
If you ever visit the Verdun and Meuse-Argonne battlefields, do make a stop at Vauquois. This is a site left largely untouched since the end of the Great War, and the ground stands in silent agony there. Even a walk across the tortured summit is well worth it. You’ll feel the war up close.
So…the only way to finish this post is with my man Chuck’s words down in the tunnels:
“Man, you go through all this shit and still lose?”
