Jasper County Democrat, Volume 21, Number 88, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 February 1919 — THE ARGONNE BATTLE [ARTICLE]

THE ARGONNE BATTLE

The account of the Argonne battle from the pen of Colonel Repington, the British military expert, printed in the Stars and Stripes, throws some light on certain features of it recently criticised by Governor Allen of Kansas. He charged that our men went into the fight without proper artillery support, and that this was due to a lack of horses strong enough to haul the guns. We were, too, it was said, unprotected by adequate airplane service. Much of this is admitted by Colonel 'Repington. But his explanation is at least interesting. In the first place, however, it should be said that he pays th* highest tribute to our men and their Commanders, to the plan of canfpaign, and to the staff work. Speaking of a shift of the armies, he says “no other staff could have done it better?’ But the trouble began long before the battle. After the British defeat at St. Quentin

on March 21, the British government, as Repington says, "prayed America for aid, implored her to send in haste all available infantry and machine guns.’’ We quote from the article; The American government acceded to this request in the most loyal and generous manner. Assured by their allies in France that the latter could fit out the American infantry divisions on their arrival with guns, horses and transport, the Americans (packed their infantry tightly in the ships, and left to a later occasion the dispatch to France of guns, horses, transport, labor units, flying service, rolling stock, and a score of other things originally destined for transport with the divisions. If subsequently—and indeed, up to the day that the armistice was signed—General Pershing found himself short of many indispensable things, and if his operations were thereby conducted under real difficulties of which he must have been only too sensible, the defects were not due to him and his staff, nor to. the Washington 'administration, nor to the resolute General Marell and his able fellow-workers, but solely to the self-sacrificing manner in which America had responded to the call of her friends. * * * The program; of arrivals, 4*peeded up and varied in response to the appeal of the allies, involved him (Pershing) . in appalling difficulties. But he and his army triumphed over< them. Even the "difficulty of

supply," says Colonel Repington, “was successfully overcome despite the poverty of communications.” This is the phase of the subject which no ■ doubt will not be overlooked in the course, of any investigation that may be decided on. The Repington article incidentally gives some impression of the ferocious fighting in the Argonhe. We now know where the frightful casualty list cbmes from. Colonel Repington says: , In that terrible month of combat with bullet, bomb and bayonet, and especially from October 1 to 18, the Americans must have suffered not less than 160,000 casualties, though the exact figure I do not know. They fought silently, but grimly, doggedly and fiercely. Our own Rainbow regiment took a noble part in this conclusive battle, as did the Ist, 2d, 3d, sth, 29th, 82d, 92d and other divisions in which there were many Indiana men.—lndianapolis News.