September 25, 1918: War correspondents move to Bar le Duc as American offensive begins

           The time had come for Marshal Foch to launch his grand counteroffensive, the battle to break the Hindenberg line – three, and in places four, lines of fortifications, named after characters in Richard Wagner’s Ring Cycle: Hunding, Brunhilde, Kriemhilde, Giselher. In preparation, over ten days, some 428,000 men, 90,000 horses and mules, 3,980 guns, and 900,000 tons of supplies and ammunition were moved from the St. Mihiel sector to the Meuse-Argonne sector. All that was to be accomplished in secrecy. On September 21 General Pershing moved his headquarters to Souilly to be closer to the front. The war correspondents waiting in Nancy didn't know about all that.

          The American army was to attack on a twenty-mile front about twenty miles north of Verdun in the difficult Meuse-Argonne sector, where for three years the Germans had ben improving the defenses. General James Harbord referred to these as ”the most comprehensive system of leisurely prepared field defense known to history.” Pershing massed three corps in the American sector: I Corps under Hunter Ligett, III Corps under Robert Lee Bullard, and V Corps, first under George H. Cameron, subsequently under Charles P. Summerall. Pershing’s plan was bold and overly optimistic. He hoped to plow through the first three German lines, about ten miles, in one leap.

On September 25, the war correspondents were moved from Nancy to Bar Le Duc. Don Martin stayed the first night at the simple Rose d'Or hotel. Under a new policy, a comprehensive briefing was given to the American correspondents on the Meuse-Argonne offensive “in a small store up a cobbled side street” by Captain Arthur E. Hartzell and Major General Fox Connor.

     Starting with a three-hour bombardment at 11:30 p.m. on September 25, on September 26 French and American forces attacked between the Suippe and Meuse Rivers. The infantry began their attack at a walk one hundred meters behind a rolling artillery barrage. From the start, there was confusion. Fog and a smoke screen obscured the field and it was nearly impossible to coordinate the movements of the assaulting infantry. Nevertheless, the troops initially made good progress. The III Corps plunged ahead five miles. The V Corps was halted by the elaborate defenses of Montfaucon, a 300-meter high elevation. They managed to take Montfaucon the second day but were cut off for three days. Over the first few days, American troops drove forward and penetrated from three to seven miles and captured some 10,000 prisoners.