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| At His 2nd Division Command Post |
Part I was presented yesterday's Roads to the Great War
Lt. Gen. John Archer Lejeune, 75, ex-commandant of the Marine Corps (1920–29); [died] in Baltimore. Chunky, lion-headed, seam-faced, barrel-chested, he joined the Marines in 1890 later commanding the Second Division (a regular Army brigade and the 4th Brigade of Marines) from late July 1918 to August 1919. Under him the division captured 3,300 prisoners in the St. Mihiel offensive of Sept. 12-15, broke the Hindenburg Line in the stubborn Blanc Mont sector, and was in the forefront of the battle in the last days of the Meuse-Argonne offensive.
Off to France
Until America's entry into the war in 1917, Lejeune remained uncomplainingly in Washington. But now, as one regiment after another shipped out, he fought his own campaign to get sent overseas.
Finally, in June 1918, he reached France. The 4th Marine Brigade was fighting now in Belleau Wood, had stopped the Germans, Paris was saved, and the globe-and-anchor was suddenly familiar to the world. Although General Pershing would have preferred to assign Lejeune to rear-area duty, the superb action of the 4th Marine Brigade, combined with Lejeune's own professional reputation among senior Army officers, forced the c-in-c to change his mind. After a short tour as observer in a frontline division, Lejeune took command of the 64th Brigade. Three weeks later Pershing gave him the Marine Brigade. He had no more than taken over when General Harbord, commanding 2nd Division, was [appointed to command the critical Services of Supply]. With that, Brig. General Lejeune was given the division and another star.
The artillery bombardment continued for four hours on that 12 September night in 1918. Then at 0500 the barrage rolled forward, a tight computation of 110 yards every four minutes, the signal for attached tanks to roll out and hit the barbed wire that over years had been groomed into hideously effective defenses, but the tiny tanks failed to cross the trenches. As their sprockets clanked aimlessly beneath their stranded bodies it was up to the infantry, as it generally is, and the infantry moved on in front of the armor.
Success in Battle
Soldiers and Marines of the 2nd Division smashed against the wire, flung themselves on it while others clawed their way through. They surprised the German, captured and killed him, and sent him running until by early afternoon they had reached the second day's objective. They were out in front but not yet finished. For two days, battle surged fiercely around them. Then in a final effort they pushed through to their last objectives, altogether a superb fight accomplished with remarkably light casualties.
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| 2nd Division Battle Marker, Blanc Mont, Champagne |
The St. Mihiel success dictated the 2nd Division's role for the rest of the war. After refitting, it spearheaded the French offensive that ended in the battle of Blanc Mont and the German withdrawal to the Aisne. For the final offensive of the war it spearheaded the American First Army's drive through Meuse-Argonne. On 11 November 1918, its forward units were fighting on the other side of the Meuse. In all, it suffered over 24,000 casualties, about 10 percent of the AEF total, and earned one of the most enviable combat records in military annals.
Lejeune's part in the division's accomplishments was enormous. In less than two months he had kept 28,000 men capable of spearheading three complicated offensives, each decisive and two very costly in casualties. This was one of the greatest leadership feats in WWI and surprised American and Allied officers nearly as much as it did the Germans. Lejeune himself explained it as a triumph of unity and spirit, and it certainly was that. Achieving the unity and spirit was something else again.
Tactically, Lejeune recognized at once that a coordinated offensive on a narrow front was the only way to beat the Germans. When he took command of the 2nd Division he immediately concentrated on developing a solid punch of infantry, artillery, and engineers. He rehearsed his units from platoon to division level and was not satisfied until every man in every unit realized what he was supposed to do and then did it. He demanded such perfection from his gunners that his infantry would not hesitate to follow a barrage at almost suicidal distance. This was called "leaning on the artillery" and meant that before an enemy recovered from a bombardment he was looking down the wrong end of the infantryman's rifle.
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| Major General Lejeune and His 2nd Division Staff |
Not wanting, not permitting, foolish mistakes, he took great pains to lead his officers away from them. He wrote about leadership later, and it would not hurt anyone today to read the advice given on pp. 307-309 of his book, The Reminiscences of a Marine (Dorrance and Co., 1930). Above all he demanded and gained esprit because "there is no substitute for the spiritual in war…If each man knows that all the officers and men in his division are animated with the same fiery zeal as he himself feels, unquenchable courage and unconquerable determination crush out fear, and death becomes preferable to defeat or dishonor."
The basis of esprit was tactical ability sufficient for the individual infantryman to believe himself the best fighting man in the world. To give him identity, Lejeune authorized a division patch—a star surmounted by an Indian head—the first time in France that this was used. Henceforth, the 2nd Division became known as the Indian Head Division, its commander, Old Indian.
Old Indian was a soldier's general, and as such he stood at odds with the habitual aloofness practiced by senior officers of that day. Although the jet-black hair was said to stand on end and the soft brown eyes to shoot fire upon seeing a needless error, the same eyes could manage humor and understanding that in war can sometimes replace hot food and reduce pain and discomfort and fear. Once during an inspection he noticed a young replacement's unbuttoned uniform. Casually repairing the damage, he remarked, "You ought to keep these things buttoned, young fellow. General Pershing would give me the devil if I went around that way."
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| The Victorious General Wearing the Indian Head Patch of His 2nd Division |
Some Basic Qualities
During the Meuse-Argonne drive he approached a group of his men who started to snap to. "Sit down," he ordered. "It is more important for tired men to rest than for the Division Commander to be saluted." On another occasion he was talking to an Army chief of staff who, because of the late hour refused to awaken the Army commander for a vital decision. Lejeune bluntly told him, "It is better to wake up one general than to have 25,000 sick and exhausted men march 35 miles, and I will do so myself."
The same basic qualities appeared in his relationship with seniors. When General Gouraud, commanding the Fourth French Army, suggested breaking up the 2nd Division for the attack on Blanc Mont, Lejeune looked hard at the one-armed veteran and said, "General, if you do not divide the 2nd Division, but put it in line as a unit on a narrow front, I am confident that it will be able to take Blanc Mont Ridge, advance beyond it, and hold its position there." He won this round only to have General Naulin, his corps commander, order him to a frontal attack. Lejeune refused, instead persuaded Gouraud to let him attempt an enveloping action. Not only did the [double] flanking move work, it caused Marshal Pétain, never over generous with praise, to call Lejeune "a military genius who could and did do what the other commander said couldn't be done."
Postscript: In 1920, Lejeune began the first of two tours as commandant of the Marine Corps. During this period he won public support for the continued existence of the Corps, developed the Fleet Marine Force concept, and paved the way for successful amphibious operations conducted in the Second World War.
Sources: Relevance, Spring 2011, by permission, the Marine Corps Gazette. Originally published April 1962.
Much to be learned from a man such as this.
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