Donkeys Leading Lions: 363rd Infantry Regiment, 91st Division American Expeditionary Force, France-Belgium, 1918-1919

DONKEYS LEADING LIONS

Private Americo Guidotti

363rd Infantry Regiment

91st Division American Expeditionary Force

France-Belgium, 1918-1919

David Rogers

Smashwords Edition

When Gertude Lenore (Rogers) Quindotti, his elderly aunt, passes at age 97, David Rogers discovers a packet of her family documents in the freezer compartment of her refrigerator. Within this packet is her deceased husband’s U.S. Army honorable discharge from the 363rd Infantry Regiment, 91st Division of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF). This discovery leads David on five years of research of WWI with a trip to Luxembourg and his uncle’s battlefields and American/Allied cemeteries in France and Belgium. This factional novel summarizes the events leading to WWI, presents the emergence of military intelligence by the belligerents and the important role women played in that effort, and presents General Pershing’s negotiations with the French and British while building the AEF. David tells a vivid story of his uncle’s, Americo Guidotti, brutal battles using historically re-created maps of the St. Mihiel, Meuse-Argonne, and Ypres-Lys Offenses, ending four years of horrible trench warfare and the insane killing of half the seed of Europe. Americo Guidotti later changes his name to Rico Quindotti, attempting to erase his horrible memories of the war. Donkeys Leading Lions commemorates the fierce, young American warriors of the 91st Division who are poorly led at the Corps and Army levels, but advance further in battle than any adjacent AEF Divisions. Their price is high with nearly 5,000 casualties, but their names and valor are not forgotten, even after 100 years!

DONKEYS LEADING LIONS

Private Americo Guidotti 363rd Infantry Regiment

91st Division American Expeditionary Force

France-Belgium, 1918-1919

Copyright © 2018 by David Rogers

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Pollock Pines, CA 95726

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DEDICATORY

Upon the passing of my aunt, Gertrude Lenore (Rogers) Quindotti in the fall of 2001, I found an envelope with my uncle’s, Rico Quindotti, U.S. Army discharge documents under his birth name, Americo Guidotti, and a few family photographs of him in uniform when he returned from Belgium and France five months after the end of World War I (WWI), sometime in early April 1919

This novel is dedicated to Aunt Gertrude and Uncle Rico, his courageous fellow American soldiers, and those of France, Belgium, England, Ireland, Scotland, Canada. Australia, Portugal, Italy, Russia and other Allied Forces, as well as all secret service and civilian resistance forces who opposed the terribly misguided and criminally insane German-Austrian-Hungarian aggression of WWI.

CONTENTS

Dedicatory

Table of Contents

Preface

Prelude

Introduction

Dance of the Donkeys

Invasion and Occupation of Belgium

A Turning Point in the Great War

Payment of the Debt to Lafayette

Formation of the American Expeditionary Force-America in the Crosshair

Military Intelligence

Chapter 1 – Military Intelligence-May 1914 to July 1918

Passchendaele-Third Ypres Offensive-June to December 1917

Hound Dog Following the Trail-September 1917

Battalion III of La Dame Blanche-May 1914 to April 1916

Belgian Resistance and the Path to Madness-May 1916 to April 1917

Hound Dog Schultz Still On the Trail-October to December 1917

Throw a Cat Amongst the Pigeons-December 1917 to July 1918

Chapter 2 – Here Come the Yanks-June 1917 to August 1918

But Who Was to Lead

Greatest Yankee Achievements of WWI

AEF Training and Organization

The Five Ludendorff Offenses in Spring and Summer 1918

The Big Red One at Cantigny

The 2nd Division at Belleau Wood

The Rock of the Marne

Soissons—the Turning Point

Chapter 3 – Abecedarians in the Devil’s Calderon-July to September 1918

Parades, Marching Bands and Awards

Reynard Traps a Donkey

They Came by Land and Sea-All 2,000,000 Soldiers

Sniper, Scout and Open Warfare Training

First Independent Battle by the Abecedarians

91st Division Ordered to the Front

Hound Dog Schultz Gets a Tip

Chapter 4 – Lion Killing Fields-September 14 to October 18, 1918

Callous Expediency

91st Division Slowly Moves Forward to the Meuse-Argonne Front

Five Tremulous Days for Yanks and Krauts Alike

Meuse-Argonne Offensive-Day One 26 Sep 1918

Meuse-Argonne Offensive-Day Two 27 Sep 1918

Meuse-Argonne Offensive-Day Three 28 Sep 1918

Meuse-Argonne Offensive-Day Four 29 Sep 1918

Meuse-Argonne Offensive-Days Five through Seven 30 Sep-06 Oct 1918

Meuse-Argonne Offensive-Days Eleven through Twenty One 07-18 Oct

Chapter 5 – Treacherous Turnip Fields-October 19 to November 11, 1918 and Beyond

Marching to Battle Again 19-30 October 1918

5th Ypres (Ypres-Lys) Offensive-Day One 31 Oct 1918

5th Ypres (Ypres-Lys) Offensive-Day Two 01 Nov 1918

5th Ypres (Ypres-Lys) Offensive-Day Three through Five 02-04 Nov 1918

5th Ypres (Ypres-Lys) Offensive-Last Two Days 10-11 Nov 1918

Brief Summary of Foch’s Campaign 18 Jul to 11 Nov 1918

Breakout in the Meuse-Argonne-01 to 11 Nov 1918

91st Division Returns Home

Epilogue

In the Aftermath

Main Historic Characters

Main Fictional Characters

Lessons Learned by the AEF

End Notes

Military Terms and Abbreviations

List of Main Characters

Historical Characters

Fictional Characters

Bibliography

Appendix A-Americo Guidotti Documents and Miscellaneous Photographs

PREFACE

During the 100th commemorative anniversary of ending the war to end all wars, I am proud to publish this factional novel describing the life and times of my uncle, Americo Guidotti, who served with the 2nd Platoon, Company I, 3rd Battalion, 363rd Infantry Regiment, 182nd Brigade, 91st Division in the last months of American Expeditionary Force (AEF) campaigns of World War I (WWI). His period of service with fellow American soldiers became the turning point of WWI; ending a four year stalemate of horrible trench warfare, which had claimed millions of soldiers’ lives. Like many soldiers experiencing traumatic combat zone conditions, he rarely talked about them or shared them with friends and family, except possibly the only other family member at the time with military experience, his grandfather by marriage, David A. Howcroft, who served with the 4th Artillery Regiment during the last campaigns against the Chiricahua Apache. At the end of the war, Americo Guidotti informally changed his name to Rico Quindotti and when he came back to America, he only used this name, perhaps to leave his war ghosts behind. It wasn’t until 1956 that he legally changed his name to Rico Quindotti. On rare occasions, Rico was observed by family members replaying battle tactics on maps (C. Rogers, Jr., 2016) and the only military connection he maintained was with the American Legion where he was a 50 year member and the Commander of Post No. 4 in Auburn, California.

Uncle Rico suffered a stroke in 1963, when I was 20 years old and before that, I was too immature to understand or appreciate his experiences in WWI. As I grew older and became more interested in military history, his story was locked within a stroke victim’s brain and he died in 1970 while I was serving with the 2nd Infantry Division in a combat zone along the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). His wife, my father’s sister, Gertrude Lenore (Rogers) Quindotti shared a few, rare tidbits of his WWI experiences when I was taking care of her between 1997 and 2001 before she passed. Consequently, I have no physical record of his personal experiences; therefore, this novel is based on historical events of his military unit and personal experiences of soldiers of adjacent or flanking military units and previous AEF campaigns.

To fill in the voids of his honorable service and experience, I have relied on more than five years of research of published documents and military records and the few family documents and notes which result in confirmation that Uncle Rico enlisted into San Francisco’s Own National Army unit, the 363rd Infantry Regiment, 91st Division on 30 April 1918 as Americo Guidotti. His unit initially trained at Camp Lewis (Later Fort Lewis), Washington in the Spring of 1918, and departed on 20 Jun 1918 and by rail, travelled through Canada to Camp Merritt, near Hoboken, New Jersey and boarded transport ships to Southampton, England arriving the 17th of July. From Southampton, the 363rd crossed the English Channel under heavy Naval protection to Le Harve, France. From Le Harve, France his unit was transported by rail (the famous Hommes 40, Chevaux 8 boxcars) to the Department of Haute Marne at Montigny-Le-Roi Training Center a few kilometers south east of Chaumont, France for additional open warfare training by the French Army. AEF Orders of Battle show the 91st Division was in reserve during the Saint Mihiel Offense and then deployed as storm troopers on the front lines during the Meuse-Argonne and 5th Ypres-Lys Offensives. Later, after the Armistice of November 11, 1918, the 363rd remained within the American sector of the Allied forces in Belgium and France until returning to America between February and March, 1919.

The setting for this novel begins with the life and experiences of a fictional British intelligence agent, Charlotte Marie Kayser, who was born in Enscherange, Luxembourg, educated at Oxford, England and recruited by the British Intelligence Service, Secret Intelligence Section (SIS) to be an operative agent working with the Belgium resistance forces during the brutal German occupation. Her character is based on the many historic, courageous female intelligence agents operating in Belgium as spy trackers guiding downed Allied pilots and stranded British and French soldiers out of the war zone. She continues her covert operations as a secret, counter espionage agent and German sniper, where she encounters soldiers of the AEF late in the war.

The style of this historical novel follows those wonderful works by Naida West, author of Eye of the Bear: a History Novel of Early California, the sequel River of Red Gold and ending the trilogy with, Rest for the Wicked. In this style of historical fiction, the main characters are both fictional and historical, and the more the fictional characters interact with real people, the more the real people become fictionalized. So this style of writing covers a spectrum from documented or remembered fact at one end to representational fiction and pure fantasy at the other. Please see the End Notes for the list of real and fictional characters and their biographies developed for this novel.

I’ve tried to avoid using military jargon and acronyms unless initially explained; however, some jargon may have passed the filter due to my prior U.S. Army experience. To assist civilian readers, a list of military terms and abbreviations is provided in the End Notes.

Some readers may be offended by the graphic description of battles, raids, and conflicts. They are what they are—horrendous, unpredictable, and chaotic destruction and maiming of humans and destruction of the environment and civil societies. Armed conflict is cruel, inhumane, and horrific regardless who conquers or loses. WWI was especially brutal as warfare theories of Carl von Clausewitz (1993), first published in 1884, were initially applied universally by all nations at the time against incredibly deadly armaments (massive, long range, saturated artillery bombardment, chemical munitions, highly accurate machine guns, air planes, and tanks) for the first time in history. Antiquated tactics placed soldiers in the path of deadly modern machines and explosives resulting in the highest casualty rates of any war prior to and after WWI. Additive to military mortality rates were unique environmental conditions of trench warfare combined with the rudimentary understanding of disease and infection of the early 1900’s. During WWI more soldiers died from influenza epidemics and field infections than all the combined modern weapons of war.

Through my fictionalization of historical characters I may have inadvertently distorted facts, misinterpreted history, or maligned historical individuals. I take full responsibility for these acts knowing malice was not my intent.

And finally, I’m forever indebted to my wife, JoAnne, for her tolerance and encouragement during this journey. The reading of previous authors’ novels, historic accounts, government documents, and newspapers as well as reviewing photographs and drawings of the AEF in WWI greatly assisted in writing this novel. It was particularly helpful to visit my uncle’s battlegrounds in France and Belgium, walk the same countyside and view the changes that have occurred over the last 100 years. Walking through the American and Allied cemeteries in France and Belgium reinforced the reality of so many soldiers paying the ultimate price on foreign soils to defeat tyranny.

I’m particularly gratefully to the U.S. Army Heritage and Educational Center, U. S. Army Military History Institute and the Army Heritage Center Foundation who assisted in the research for this novel.

PRELUDE

Introduction

This Prelude to the story about my uncle’s involvement in WWI is a narrowly focused summary on the significant military/political events occurring in the world during his formative years before 1900 and up to the time he stepped onto French soil on 23 Jul 1918. This narrow perspective provides scant insights into the relatively stable, simplistic and isolationistic American experience of the time as opposed to the highly complex and diplomatically convoluted events in Europe and particularly the Balkan region, where political turmoil was brewing from European allegiances and alliances created before the turn of the century and shortly thereafter. For example, from the time of my uncle’s birth in 1895 and until America’s involvement in WWI in 1918, the United States Army was no more than a relatively small police force to contain and control Native Americans on their reservations. Our only military campaigns had been short-lived, limited engagements of the Spanish-American war in Cuba, military police actions during the Boxer Rebellion in China, a brief insurrection in the Philippines and a transient Punitive Campaign against Pancho Villa in Mexico. However, in Europe there was a seemingly endless struggle between major powers over borders between countries and their respective colonies that started before the end of the 1800’s and continued to the start of WWI in August 1914. For example, the following events were all additive factors, but not necessarily singular causes, in the precipitation of a world war:

• French foreign policy and resentment towards Germany resulting from Germany’s annexation of Alsace-Lorraine after the Franco-Prussian War in 1870-71,

• German re-alignment to Austria-Hungary and Russian re-alignment with France 1887-1892,

• British alignment towards France and Russia in 1898-1907 and the creation of the Triple Entente,

• First Moroccan Crisis 1905-06 between Britain and France against Germany,

• Bosnian Crisis in 1908 caused by the Austria-Hungary annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (duel provinces in the Balkan region of Europe formerly under control of the Ottoman Empire, which encouraged pro-Russian, anti-Austrian sentiment in Serbia and other Balkan provinces),

• Second Moroccan Crisis in 1911 when French forces were deployed to Morocco and Germany retaliated by sending a gunboat to the Port of Agadir, which strengthened the Triple Entente hostility towards Germany,

• Italian-Turkish War of 1911-12 otherwise known as the Libyan War where Italy captured Ottoman Tripolitania Vilayet Province. None of the European great powers stepped in to support the Ottoman Empire and this triggered a chain of opportunistic assaults on Ottoman territories across the Balkans,

• Balkan Wars 1912-13 were two conflicts in southeastern Europe where four Balkan states defeated the Ottoman Empire in the first war and Bulgaria (one of the four) was defeated by the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire lost nearly all of its holdings and Austria-Hungary, although not a combatant, was diplomatically weakened as a much larger Serbia pushed for a union of southern Slavic peoples with the support of Russia,

• Franco-Russian Alliance changes from the original conception to protect both France and Russia from German attack by both countries mobilizing in tandem, forcing Germany into a two front war. Throughout the 1890’s and early 1900’s both France and Russia made it clear, limits of the alliance did not extend to provocations caused by the others’ unilateral foreign policy. However, this understanding changed around 1912-14 as France accepted the importance of the Balkans to Russia and if war would break out between Austria-Hungary and Serbia, France would stand by Russia.

The following simplistic diagram from the Causes of World War I (Wikipedia, 2016) summarizes the European diplomatic alignments shortly before WWI.

Figure 1: European Diplomatic Alignments

The origins of WWI still remain controversial and debated by political/military scholars today, of which this author is not one. The only agreement appears to be the war most likely started in the Balkans in late July with one of the many fuses to worldwide insanity, the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his consort, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, by Grarilo Princip, one of a group of six assassins (five Serbs and one Bosniak) coordinated by Danilo Ilic, a Bosnian Serb and a member of the Black Hand terrorist organization. How this assassination occurred was one of history’s more gothic jocosities. First of all, Archduke Ferdinand was warned by his military advisors and intelligence that his visit to Serbia could be a catalyst for disaster and personal harm, but no, he arrogantly rode in an open car motorcade from the train station to the government center in Sarajevo. By mistake, two local policemen jumped into the first car with the Chief of Security and the Archduke’s security team was left at the train station. Along the way, one of the assassins, Nedeljko Cabrinovic tossed a grenade which bounced off the Archduke’s car and injured some spectators along the road. No one else in the armed terrorist group acted and the motorcade drove past them with their jaws agape! Upon arrival at the government center, Franz Ferdinand told the mayor of Sarajevo, I came here to speak and I was greeted with a bomb, this is outrageous! Ferdinand and his consort had planned to visit the hospital treating the wounded spectators, but decided to take an alternative route back to the train station. However, the driver was not informed of the alternative route and started back on the original route, when the mayor yelled at the driver to stop and take a side street to the alternative route. When the motorcade stopped, it was fortuitously right in front of the six assassins who were trying regroup for another assassination opportunity. When the Archduke’s car stopped, it was within 1.5 meters of Garilo Princip, who pulled out a Belgium made .380 caliber Fabrique National Model 1910 semi-automatic pistol and fired two shots, one striking Ferdinand in the jugular vein and Sophia in the stomach (Princip later said he was aiming for the mayor not Sophia). Both bled to death on the way to the governor’s residence for medical assistance.

Much has been written, far too much to burden the reader in this Prelude, about the back and forth events that followed the assassination and the demands and concessions made between Austria-Hungary and Serbia, as well as the slippery slide towards full military mobilization for war between Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia, with France and Great Britain hoping to stay out. If the reader is really interested and wants to spend a year or two of research on this, there are several sources in the Bibliography (Albertini, 1952; Carter, 2009; Everett, 1980; Fussell, 2013; Gilbert, 1994; Hannah, 2000; McMeekin, 2011; Mombauer, 2007) which would provide a good start on this journey. In this author’s opinion, WWI may have been easily prevented by Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia if their respective ruling monarchs (all cousins and in secret communication with each other during the July Crisis of 1914) were strong enough to over-rule their military advisors, all who were convinced the war would end in four to six weeks.

Dance of the Donkeys

The Dance of the Donkeys begins as Germany invades Belgium on 04 Aug 1914 implementing a fatally flawed modification of the Schlieffen Plan, which in itself was doomed to fail by locking the belligerents into a long drawn out, entrenched stalemate of four years of trench warfare. The Schlieffen Plan was an offensive strategy developed by Field Marshal Alfred von Schlieffen who was the Chief of the Imperial German General Staff from 1891 to 1906. This plan was supposed to be a winning offensive strategy against a one-front war with the French Third Republic that would be over in four to six weeks. Although it was well thought out and field tested by various tours of the potential battle fields by Generalfeldmarschall von Schlieffen and his staff, which envisioned countering a French offensive in the Alsace-Lorraine by drawing the French Army into a concentrated battle front while rapidly deploying a sweeping arm of highly mobile storm troopers though Belgium and into France, out flanking the majority of French forces and capturing Paris, as shown in Figure 2 on the following page.

After General von Schlieffen resigned in 1906, Generaloberst (Colonel-General) Helmuth von Moltke the Younger, took over as Commander-in-Chief of the German Army and modified Schlieffen’s original plan, creating four different scenarios based on whether Germany would be faced with a one-front quick victory over France in which the German Army could switch to the Eastern Front and defeat a weakened Russian Army or Germany would be faced with a two-front war at the onset of their declaration of their invasion of Belgium and France.

Regardless, as in most wars, strategic and tactical plans often become obsolete and doomed for failure once the battles begin. What actually occurred has been debated by numerous military scholars and is based on secret German documents found by the Russian Army in Berlin at the end of WWII in 1945.

Figure 2: German Schlieffen Plan (red) and French XVII Plan (blue)

The German sweep into France violated the basic tenet of the Schlieffen Plan. Instead of encircling Paris, the German Army hoped to drive toward it and, almost inevitably, failed. So, in the First Dance of the Donkeys, General Helmuth von Moltke the Younger, much of his staff and many of his field commanders were dismissed and sent to the Russian front. Likewise, many French strategic planners, commanders, and staff were relieved of duty and reassigned to defensive positions along the German front.

Invasion and Occupation of Belgium

The international European 1839 Treaty of London recognized Belgium as an independent and neutral state. However, in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, Germany violated Belgium’s neutrality to invade France and did so again in 1914 starting WWI and again in 1940 during WWII. In WWI the German chancellor likened the 1839 Treaty to a scrap of paper as did Adolf Hitler in 1940. In Accordance with the Fifth Convention of the Hague Peace Conference of 1907, in which Germany was signatory, Belgium was not prohibited from resistance, because belligerents were not allowed to move troops or supplies through neutral territory. Article 5 of that Peace Conference required neutrals to prevent such acts and Article 10 provided that resistance by a neutral could not be considered to be hostile.

The German political administration and the military were irate that Belgium would not allow Germany unfettered passage through their country in violation of the 1907 Peace accords and ever more incensed Belgians would possibly slow their execution of the Schlieffen Plan to capture Paris and end the Western Front War. Behind these indurate feelings was the lingering fear of French and Belgian resistance stemming from the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 where "frances-tireurs" (free shooters) in the form of a civilian uprising of unparalleled impact caused havoc and chaos amongst the German troops. The frances-tireurs of 58,000 civilian resistance fighters were organized by the French Government of National Defense, which killed 1,000 German troops and diverted 120,000 German troops from front line operations to protect the lines of communications and supply during the 1870-71 Franco-PrussianWar. This fear on the part of the German Army of 1914 re-affirmed the adage that when nations prepare for the next war, they are haunted by the last one. Consequently, Germany’s invasion and occupation of Belgium during WWI was brutal, severe, criminal and unprecedented until Nazi and Japanese aggression leading up to and throughout WWII some 25 years later proved more brutal.

At the end of the 1870 Franco-Prussian War, Belgium constructed a series of heavily fortified citadels within key, strategic cities to prevent another German invasion. These key citadels were located in Liege, Haelen, Namur, Antwerp, and Ypres (Ipres). As the Germans advanced in 1914, these strongholds were systematically destroyed by Big Bertha artillery using Short Naval Cannons mounted on rail cars. The caliber of these cannons was 420 mm and those projectiles could be launched to a distance of 10,000-12,200 meters. Although the brave Belgian soldiers with assistance from the British Naval Division were able to prolong and stall the advance of the Germans, eventually after a few months, all but Ypres fell to German control.

In November, 1915 a new German counter-attack was planned to pin down the Allied forces while the Germans created a new formation, Armeegruppe von Fabeck with six new divisions and more than 250 heavy guns to take over the boundary of the two German Armies. By 01 Nov, the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) were nearly exhausted and the 75th and 84th Infantry Divisions had fewer than 300 soldiers, one-third of their original strength. The French IX Corps was moved forward taking pressure off both of the British flanks. On 03 Nov German attacks began to wane and the new Armeegroupe had lost 17,250 casualties. Then on 10 Nov, the Germans made a main attack by their 4th Army, in which Dixmude was lost. But between October and November, the German 4th Army had lost 52,000 soldiers while their 6th Army suffered 28,000 lost. By November 1914 the offensive strategies of Germany and France had failed, leaving most of Belgium under German occupation and the Allied blockade, with only Ypres in Belgium control, whose government had retreated to LeHarve, France. German troops were exhausted and there was little heavy artillery ammunition left.

The Germans governed the occupied areas of Belgium for the next four years, with the exception of a small area around Ypres, with an iron fist. Elsewhere martial law prevailed with an intricate German secret service organization formed to suppress their fears of frances-tireurs and more realistically, Belgian and British Intelligence supporting civilian resistance cells. The German military governor was Moritz von Bissing under which was a network of regional and local German Kommandanturen and each locality under the control of a German officer. Many civilians, with the means and foresight to travel, fled the war zones to the Netherlands, France and Britain. In the spring of 1915 the Germans started construction of the Wire of Death, a lethal electric fence along the Belgium-Dutch border which would claim the lives of 2,000-3,000 Belgium refuges trying to leave the occupied country. While some historians labeled this period of German occupation as a long and extremely dull vacation because most Belgians refused to work and many Belgian citizens became active in the underground and resistance forces, re-enacting the "frances-tireurs". The occupying German army sought out Belgian dignitaries, priests, teachers, politicians and other important civic leaders; arrested, interrogated and threatened them into submission and compliance.

The German Army was wroth at how the Belgium military and civilian resistance frustrated the Schlieffen Plan to capture Paris and end the Western Front war so they could concentrate on the Eastern Front with Russia. Between August and November 1914, a number of random, large scale shooting of civilians were ordered by junior German officers and condoned by senior German officers and politicians. Historians researching German records after WWII discovered at least 101 major incidents where ten or more civilian, non-combatants were killed with a total of 4,421 executed, including many females and children. Historians also discovered minor incidents that led to the deaths of another 1,100 Belgian and Allied citizens, all claimed by Germany to be in response to guerrilla attacks or subversive activities.

According to Zuckerman (2004), after the fall of Antwerp, the occupiers split Belgium into three zones, the smallest of which, Operationsgebiet, or zone of military operations was only a few kilometers wide anywhere and fell under martial law. The next largest, the Etappengebiet, or zone of depots and communications, lay under military jurisdiction but supposedly respected civil law. This zone included the two Flanders and southern parts of Hainaut and Luxembourg provinces. The third zone (except Antwerp under military governorship) made up the Generalgouvernement, or occupied areas, where the governor-general held control from Brussels. The boundaries of this larger third zone shifted to accommodate changes in zone of depots and communications, but its control structure never changed. In addition to the three operational control zones, the German occupiers purposely courted the Germanic Flemish leaders to exploit their historic and lengthy quarrel with the Latin (French) based Walloons to split Belgian loyalties and later perhaps, divide the country geographically. This German policy, called Flamenpolitik or inflammatory politics, arrogantly assumed that Belgians had no nationality and the Latin Walloons and Germanic Flemish were irreconcilable and further supposed that Belgium had never been independent but always leaned toward France because of the dominant Walloon minority. German mentality went so far as to believe if a peace treaty with France demanded Germany withdraw from Belgian territory, Germany would retain influence over the Flemish areas of Belgium. The purpose of promoting ethnic difference and tension within Belgium as well as dividing the county into three separate zones was to facilitate the highly damaging and destructive pillaging of Belgian industry and natural resources for Germany’s war effort. By the time the Armistice was signed on 11 Nov 1918, Germany had virtually dismantled all of Belgian heavy industrial plants and shipped them to their homeland. They had removed most of the railways and trains, except those needed for their war effort, and shipped them back to Germany. Vast iron and coal resources were also plundered as well as most of the banks, food sources, milk, dairy cattle and other livestock. By the end of the war, the entire Belgian civilian population were starving to death. During the German advance throughout Belguim, more than 20,000 buildings were purposely destroyed and leveled to stone and brick rubble or burned to the ground, including civic centers, universities, cultural and art centers, private residences, transportation hubs and other non-military structures.

As shown on Figure 3 German Sweep Into France, the German Army advanced to within 60 kilometers of Paris by 02 Sep 1914 but was never able to encircle Paris. The failure to execute the original Schlieffen Plan, largely lies with the reliance on Belgium to allow the German Army to remain neutral and allow the storm trooper to pass freely to the French border. However, as shown on Figure 3, because of Belgian decision to protect their sovereign rights from invasion, it took the Germans nearly a month to reach the French border and they were especially held up in the sector of the German Second Army under command of Field Marshal Karl von Bulow and the German Third Army under command of Field Marshal Max Klemens von Hausen. On 22 Aug 1914 the Second Army was stopped by Belgium resistance along the Meuse River west of Mamur and the Third Army was stalled by Belgium resistance south of Mamur to the French-Belgium border. It took both armies another eight days from 22-30 Aug 1914 to catch up with the advancing First Army and Fourth Army on their respective right and left flanks.

Figure 3: German Sweep Into France (Everett, 1980)

Under the calm, persistent leadership of Joseph Jacques C. Joffre, Marshal of France, the French Army held together and the exhausted German storm troopers were driven back after the First Battle of the Marne (5-12 Sep 1914) over a period of two years to a line along the Aisne River and northwestward to Nieuport in Flanders, as shown on Figure 4: The Western Front 1916-17, during what is known as the Race to the Sea as each army tried to outflank the other toward the English Channel. But this resulted in a virtual stalemate of trench warfare with several offensive advances over the next year by French, British and German soldiers resulting in strategically insignificant results but with the loss of millions of young soldier’s lives and many more wounded on both sides of the insane war of Donkeys Leading Lions.

Figure 4: The Western Front 1916-17 (Gilbert, 1994)

Both sides tried to break the stalemate using scientific and technological advances. On 22 Apr 1915, at the second battle of Ypres-Lys, the Germans violated a Hague Convention prohibition of chemical and biological weapons by using chlorine gas for the first time on the Western Front. Over the next few years, with Germany leading, several types of gas (mustard, picric acid, phosgene, tear gas) were used by both sides, but more reluctantly by the Allied forces. Although gas warfare never became a decisive, battle winning weapon, poison gas became one of the most-feared and best-remembered horrors of the war. Neither side proved able to deliver a decisive blow for the next two years. Throughout 1915-17, the British Empire and France suffered more casualties than Germany, mainly because of strategic differences. Germany only mounted a few major offensives from their entrenched Hindenburg Line of defenses, while the Allies made several attempts to break through the German massively entrenched defensive front.

In February 1916, the Germans attacked the French defensive positions at Verdun. Lasting until December 1916, the battle first saw German gains but French counter-attacks returned positions of both armies to near their starting point. French casualties were the greatest as this event became a symbol of French determination and self-sacrifice. French casualties were estimated to be around 1,000,000 with German loses estimated from 700,000 to 975,000.

The Battle of Somme was an Anglo-Franco offensive starting in July and lasting through November 1916. In the opening offensive, the British Army suffered the bloodiest day in its history with 57,470 casualties (19,240 dead) on the first day alone. In the end, Britain had 420,000 casualties and the French suffered another 200,000 with the Germans losing an estimated 500,000 soldiers.

The last large-scale offensive of this period of stalemate was a British attack (with French support) at Passchendaele (July-November 1917) twelve kilometers northeast of Ypres. This offensive initially opened with great promise for the Allies as attrition of German soldiers was starting to take hold with untrained 16 and 60 year olds replacing veteran casualties. But as the offensive went into the fall wet season, it soon bogged down in the October mud, virtually halting any artillery support movement. Although disputed, casualties on each side were estimated to be between 200,000 and 400,000.

During these years of trench warfare in the West, there was no major exchange of territory and while the front remained static, British, French and German tactics were evolving to meet new battlefield challenges

A Turning Point in the Great War

Early in January 1917, a critical meeting at German Army Headquarter in northern Silesia, Prussian Germany, started the German/Austrian war machine down a lubricous slope which they would never recover. Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany called a supreme council of his top military advisors with the Army headed by the highly revered Generalfeldmarschall Paul von Hindenburg and his fickle Chief of Staff, Enrich Ludendorff. The German Navy was represented by the Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Henning von Holtzendorff and Admiral Karl von Muller, Chief of the Naval Cabinet. The German Reichstag was represented by Chancellor Theobald Bethmann Hollweg.

The Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey, and Bulgaria) and the Western Allies (Britain, France, Russia, Italy, and Romania) were locked in a deadly stalemate on the Western Front where the Kaiser’s soldiers faced the British and French forces. Although Germany had just recently eliminated Romania as a viable fighting force, German soldiers were being worn down by the stubborn English and French on the Western Front, and time was running through their fingers after three years of brutal war on two fronts, east and west.

On the Western Front, Kaiser Wilhelm was faced with the dilemma of re-instituting unrestricted submarine warfare to stop the resupply of Britain and France, particularly England who was ever more dependent on supplies from America or would this trigger the U.S. to enter the war? Admiral Holtzendorff argued that Allied shipping loses were already severe and if the restrictions were lifted, it would bring Britain to their knees within nine months. His braggadocios opinion was bolstered by both Hindenburg and Ludendorf who discounted America’s ability to enter the war with an effective fighting force, going even so far as to say they would be blown out of the water by German submarines and never reach the French shores. Seeing the overwhelming bravado of his Army counterparts, Admiral Holtzendorff reinforced his position and with his arrogant honor, and said, not one American will land on the continent (Eisenhower, 2001). Reluctantly, Kaiser Wilhelm and the more cautious Chancellor Hollweg capitulated and the Kaiser directed that unrestricted submarine warfare would begin 01 Feb 1917.

From the onset of Germany’s invasion of Belgium and the start of WWI in August 1914, President (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson, his administration and the U.S. Congress had maintained a policy of neutrality while supplying the Allied Forces with military and non-military supplies and equipment. President Wilson and his administration were more concerned and aggressively dealing with the unrest in Mexico. After President Porfirio Diaz went into exile in 1910, General Jose Victoriano Huerta Marquez, initially pledged allegiance to the new administration of Francisco Madero, and General Huerta was retained to crush any civil revolts. However, Victoriano Huerta secretly plotted with U. S. Ambassador to Mexico, Henry Lane Wilson (no relation) and cashiered several other generals and Porfirio Diaz’s nephew to overthrow Madero’s administration by assassinating the President. This episode in Mexican history was known as La Decena Tragica. After learning about the implication of Henry Lane Wilson having a hand in the murder of Mexican President Francisco Madero and his support of the coup staged by Victoriano Huerta, President Wilson recalled the ambassador and initiated a campaign to remove Huerta from Mexico. On 17 Jul 1917, President Wilson sent his personal envoy, John Lind, to dismiss Ambassador Wilson and President Wilson withdrew all diplomatic recognition from Mexico in an attempt to isolate Huerta, setting up various embargos with European nations against Mexico. However, this policy unraveled when President Wilson lifted an embargo on a shipment of arms to Huerta’s opposition, the Constitutionalists, led by Venustiano Carranza and the plan back-fired by strengthening internal support of the provisional government under Huerta.

President Wilson was objurgated, both nationally and internationally, for interfering with a sovereign state undergoing civil war. U.S. and Mexican disagreements grew when U.S. Naval crewmen were briefly detained at Tampico, Mexico. Wilson received approval from Congress to use military force and later ordered an occupation at Vera Cruz, Mexico assuming there would be little resistance. Unfortunately, the military action resulted in many fatalities, mostly Mexican with 19 American soldiers killed. With President Wilson’s reputation as an international statesman tarnished, he readily accepted an offer by Argentina, Brazil and Chile (ABC Powers) to mediate the U.S. and Mexico dispute. Under mounting pressure, General Huerta’s attempted coup failed and he went into exile in April 1915, eventually arriving in the United States, while Carranza victoriously entered Mexico City. Although President Wilson had achieved the desired result, it would prove to be a costly win, as Carranza’s second in command, Pancho Villa, would present a more serious threat to America in 1916. Huerta died of cirrhosis of the liver while imprisoned at Fort Bliss for conspiring with German Naval Intelligence to purchase arms and arrange U-boat landings on U.S. soil later during WWI.

Disputes between America and Mexico again surfaced following the official recognition of former ally Venustiano Carranza as the head of the government of Mexico, much to the angst of his former second in command, Francisco (Pancho) Villa, who had become disenchanted by Carranza and formed rebel forces to overthrow the seemingly corrupt Carranza. In addition, the U.S. also provided rail transportation of more than 5,000 loyal Carranza troops from Texas to Arizona to fight Villa rebels at the Battle of Agua Prieta, where Villa’s rebels were decimated. As a result, Villa’s rebels began attacking U.S. nationals all along the Mexican-U.S. border. On 11 Jan 1916, sixteen American employees of the American Smelting and Refining Company were removed from a train near Santa Isabel, Chihuahua, stripped naked and executed. Following on 09 Mar 1916, Villa rebel forces attacked Columbus, New Mexico and Camp Furlong, a U.S. Army Post nearby, where ten civilian and eight soldiers were killed, with Villa forces suffering 67 dead and many more wounded. The next day, General Frederick Funston, Southern Department Commander, recommended an immediate pursuit in force and President Wilson concurred. Brigadier General John J. Pershing, who was stationed nearby at Fort Bliss, Texas, was given the task to lead the expeditionary forces consisting of cavalry under command of Colonel George A. Dodd and horse artillery units armed with machine guns, Springfield rifles and semi-automatic pistols. On 15 Mar 1916, Pershing with a provisional division of three brigades (four regiments of cavalry two of infantry comprised of 6,000 soldiers) crossed the border into Mexico to search for the Villa rebels. The active search for Villa and his rebel forces ended after a month in the field when Mexican government troops, sent by former ally Venustiano Carranza, resisted U.S. incursion on Mexican soil. After a brief encounter at the town of Parral, Mexico the U.S, military mission was changed to prevent further attacks on American soil by Mexican rebel troops and to prepare for war if that occurred. War with Mexico was averted diplomatically and Pershing’s expedition remained in Mexico until February 1917 to encourage Carranza’s troops to pursue Villa and prevent further raids across the border.

For nearly a year after June 1915, Villa rebel raiders from Mexico attacked Americans on our soil 38 times, killing 26 U.S. soldiers and 11 civilians. The interesting fact is Pershing and Villa previously had a respectful military and personal friendship before the Punitive Expedition of 1917 into Mexico. Pancho Villa and his rebels eluded Pershing’s attempts to capture him, although several of his senior leaders and 190 rebels were killed. While General Pershing declared his expedition a success in quelling the attacks on Americans, President Wilson stated in public, he was disappointed with the results.

Francisco (Pancho) Villa, birth name of Jose Doroteo Arango Aranbula, became a Hollywood figure that reached an agreement with the Mexican government after Carranza and his top advisors were assassinated on 21 May 1920