The AEF's II Corps' Remarkable 14-Mile Advance to the River Selle

 

Prisoners Captured by the 30th Division, 8 October 1918

Mitchell Yockelson

Introduction: A number of American divisions trained under the British in 1918 and became involved in the stopgap efforts during midyear to halt the German onslaught. Pershing later pulled back most combat elements, but General Haig convinced him of the necessity of leaving some U.S. units with the British. Two National Guard Divisions, the 27th (New York) and 30th (Tennessee and the Carolinas) without their artillery brigades, the 301st tank battalion (American-operated Mark V British Tanks), and a number of support units would constitute II Corps. These were combined into the U.S. II Corps on the table of organization. Initially deployed to strengthen defenses in Flanders, it was sent to the British Fourth Army in the Somme sector in September to support offensive operations there. At the end of the month the Corps assisted in the spectacular capture of the St. Quentin Canal that allowed the breaching of the formidable Hindenburg Line. That operation seems to garner much attention in histories of the AEF. The subsequent actions of II Corps, however, are just as impressive but seem to be neglected in many histories. For this issue of the Trip-Wire, AEF historian Mitchell Yockelson describes the early stages and central role of the U.S. II Corps of the British Fourth Army's 14-mile advance during two weeks of October 1918. (See map below.) The selection is from his 2008 work Borrowed Soldiers: Americans Under British Command, 1918.

After breaching the Hindenburg Line on 29 September, the Fourth Army continued to push forward. The Beaurevoir Line had not been taken, and Rawlinson was adamant that his army must complete the destruction of the final prepared German defenses just to his east. Once this was accomplished, he would push the Germans back across open country. {After Australian units captured most of the fortified village of Monbrehain] Rawlinson ordered Monash's troops withdrawn from the line, and half of the American II Corps undertook relief of the Australian Corps during the night of 5-6 October. Only the 30th Division was ordered to the front initially, while both brigades of the 27th Division were in corps reserve.

Sector Map (Note Scale & Dates of Advance)

With the German Army now forced into open country, the Fourth Army continued the pursuit, and the Americans would spearhead most of the attacks. Because the 117th occupied a sector too far behind the 118th, it had to straighten its line before the next attack. A minor action was planned for 7 October to make this correction. At 5:15 a.m. a rolling barrage commenced the attack, but the artillery covered only a portion of the front. As a result, the British 25th and 50th Divisions, protecting the American flanks, could not advance. Four hours after the jump-off, 30th Division Commander Major General Lewis halted the attack when the center companies of the 3rd Battalion established liaison with the 118th and stopped near Mannions. Although the battalion had advanced only 500 yards and took heavy casualties, it captured 150 prisoners of the 20th German Division. Lewis blamed the losses on failure of the barrage and a lack of preparation time. His division had been in line less than a day, and it appeared that not all officers knew the battle plan.

On the afternoon of 7 October, the Fourth Army issued an order for the 30th Division to attack again the next day. The 118th would lead the assault, with one battalion of the 117th in support. It first required an advance of 3000 yards on a line running northwest from Brancoucourt. After securing this line, the barrage would halt for 30 minutes, and then the support battalion would pass through and exploit the second objective, requiring a push of 3000 yards to the northeast toward the village of Premont. In the hours preceding the jump-off, the Fourth Army artillery pounded the Germans with 350,000 shells. On 8 October at 5:10 a.m. the infantry moved forward under a barrage, as well as support from a battalion of heavy tanks and two companies of Whippets.

 

Machine-gun fire from the numerous emplacements around the west of Brancourt-le-Grand raked the lead elements, preventing progress. Troops from the 6th Division were held up and could not protect the American flanks. Fortunately, two hours later resistance lightened when the Germans retreated, fighting a rear-guard action. On the right flank, Company C of the 120th Infantry was pulled from reserve and was able to advance enough to fill a gap that developed between the 118th Infantry and the 6th Division. By 7:50 a.m. the 2nd Battalion of the 118th reached its first objective at Brancourt, and by 1:30 p.m. the regiment's 1st Battalion entered the village. There the elements of the 118th mopped up and then consolidated a line and dug in for the night. On this day, the action of three men of the 30th Division earned the Medal of Honor. In one instance, Sgt. Gary Evans Foster accompanied an officer to attack a machine-gun nest in a sunken road near Montbrehain. When the officer was wounded, Foster single-handedly killed several of the Germans with hand grenades and his pistol and then brought 18 back as prisoners.

That evening, II Corps Commander Read again notified the 30th Division there was no time to rest, but to resume attacking at 5:20 a.m. the next morning in the direction of St. Souplet. The eventual object was to secure the Selle River and the high ground from St. Benin to Molain. Such an attack, the American officers were told, would not be easy as it necessitated advancing a great distance through several villages, farms, and woods that probably contained enemy units. Yet, day to day, the Doughboys would continue their advance averaging a mile per day for the next eleven days. The 30th division would be joined by the 27th division for a period and then sent to rest while the New Yorkers carried on beyond the River Selle until it too was exhausted. By the time orders for their relief had come the two divisions had lost 6,100 men, killed and wounded.

27th Division Reinforcements Crossing the Selle,
19 October 1918

The 1st British Division took over the 30th Division sector and the 6th British Division relieved the 27th by 20 October. Although it was not known at the time, the war was over for II Corps. Its 27th Division moved to Corbie, and the 30th went to Querrieu for training. . . considering how the two divisions of the corps were essentially new to combat, compared with their British and Australian counterparts, they had done extraordinarily well. The American infantry and machine-gun units had received good instruction from the British and Dominion forces and were able to apply what they had learned in this final operation. This was done against a German opponent that was far from collapsing. A historian of the operation writes, the Germans “fought hard and skillfully used defense-in-depth doctrine. Their position and intervention units were well organized, and the position divisions were relatively strong in manpower.”

Mitchell Yockelson's Borrowed Soldiers can be ordered HERE.