Armistice Day 11:11:11

    Armistice Day celebrates the eleventh hour, on the eleventh day, of the eleventh month of 1918, when the Germans declared a cease fire in a railroad car in Compiegne, France.  For most people, Armistice Day doesn’t have that much meaning because they have no connection to it, but my grandfather was in World War I.  Donald Cheyne Strachan joined the 106th Infantry (L) as a 1st Lieutenant and then transferred to the American Expeditionary Force in May, 1918.  He had previously served in the National Guard Mexican Border service and later was in World War II as a member of the Judge Advocate in North Africa.  He received an honorable discharge as a major in October, 1942.

   No one seems to know much about the American battles in WWI so I have written a short primer on the topic.  In “Operation Michael,” Hindenburg was the commanding German general and in 1918 he planned one last great offensive to take over Paris.  The Second Battle of the Marne shattered the trench deadlock that had gripped the opposing armies for three years.  The offensive was stopped at the key battle of Reims.  The objective had been to capture the railroad junction, separate the Allies, and send the British packing.  It was a desperate thing to do but the Germans were starving and needed to end the war quickly.  The offensive failed. 

   The first battle for the American Expeditionary Force was at Saint Mihiel, which we won, but it was anti-climatic because the Germans claimed that they were already retreating from the place.  Our first clear victory was when we stopped the German advance at Chateau-Thierry, which was a main railroad line on the Marne River that led to Paris.  Our final participation in “Operation Michael” was to push against the German line at Belleau Wood, where the Germans had sidled to after Chateau-Thierry.  The Americans were replacing the French, who were beaten and running away while yelling, “Retreat!”  A member of our Marine Corps famously yelled back, “Retreat Hell!  We just got here!”  It was the first battle where the odds were even and the Americans beat the Germans fair and square.

   After Belleau Wood, our attention was turned further east to the Meuse-Argonne Offensive.  The Americans crossed the Meuse River to get to Sedan, severing the German rail links that supplied the rest of their front.  Situated in the Argonne Forest, this battle was a stalemate at first, but the Americans eventually forced the Germans to retreat.  A little known battle was at Montfaucon, or Falcon Mountain.  Its importance was being the “Little Gibraltar” of the Argonne Forest, lying northwest of Verdun and Metz, and as part of the Meuse-Argonne Offensive.  The Americans eventually took this fortress at the southern edge of the western front but only with great effort and loss of life.

   I think that no one knows about World War I because there were no epic battles like Normandy or Guadalcanal.  Also, after Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan, we as a society have become anti-war and don’t want to celebrate our victories.  My grandfather lost his youth in World War I and his health in World War II and I think that he, like all veterans, would like to be remembered on this one day of the year.