Arneb wrote:27 September, 1918 - Lots of action at the Western front, BEF attacks the Hindenburg line for the first time. Unsurprisingly, much terrain lost for my boys. One thing that struck me: Of 2,000 American men attacking an outpost along the Hindenburg line 1,540 are lost.
To pick up on an earlier conversation: the US Army in 1918 (the AEF) were an anomaly. Physically they were bigger, fitter and healthier than any other army. Hence The Doughboys. Black Jack Pershing was adamant that the US units only be employed as a national army, not spread out between other armies. Which makes sense but meant that they had to learn on the job, rather than be taught as they go. Some divisions had spent time with the BEF and been paired with British divisions, mainly Australians. They got on well, the AEF learned how to fight and what worked and what didn’t. They were regarded as good soldiers.
In March 1918 the last German offensives started and the shit hit the fan. Pershing wouldn’t let his army be parcelled out and it wasn’t until the summer that they were given a stretch of front of their own. And this is where it went wrong. The British and French had moved to “bite and hold” tactics, where massive firepower was used to attain limited goals. Pershing thought this wasn’t due to pragmatism but due to war weariness or pessimism. American exceptionalism meant that what was needed was simply dash and courage, running at the enemy would mean victory due to moral superiority.
The British tried to persuade them otherwise, in some cases begged them not to make the same mistakes the BEF had made in 1915 and 1916. When the AEF attacked in 1918 they were three years out of date in their tactics. No-one had the dash and elan of the French in 1914, and they died in droves. The same would happen to the AEF, particularly the Marines who made an effort to retrieve their dead.
Not many battles in the Great War qualify for “Lions led by donkeys” but the squandering of the AEF by commanders who wouldn’t listen is close.
For today, as a comparator, the action by the 46th (North Midlands) Division crossing the St Quentin Canal is how it should be done in late 1918.