MEUSE-ARGONNE OFFENSIVE OPENS

Meuse-Argonne Offensive opens

On September 26th, 1918, the American Expeditionary Forces launched the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, the largest United States campaign of the First World War and one of the biggest in the nation’s military history. In cooperation with French units, American divisions attacked along a broad front in northeastern France, aiming to drive German forces back from vital rail lines and help break the enemy’s will to continue the war. For many American soldiers, this was their first experience of a major, sustained offensive involving dense artillery barrages, tangled wire, machine-gun nests, and the challenge of coordinating infantry, armor, and air support. The terrain, carved by woods, ravines, and fortified ridges, gave defenders many advantages, and early progress was slower and costlier than hoped. Over weeks of fighting, United States units learned hard lessons about staff work, logistics, and combined arms in a modern industrial war. The campaign’s eventual success added weight to Allied pressure on Germany and accelerated the path to the armistice that would come on November 11th, 1918.