. History and rhymes of the lost battalion . it would be unjust to single out one newspaperfor criticism. Every overseas veteran knows that the folksback home are crammed full of bunk aboutthings that happened in France. When we firstcame back some of us tried to correct these er-rors when first we heard them repeated, but itdidnt take long for us to realize that our fellowcitizens resented having the myths wanted to believe the foolish and improb-able things they did believe. So today probably a hundred million peoplebelieve that the Lost Battalion was lost and thatwhen summoned
. History and rhymes of the lost battalion . it would be unjust to single out one newspaperfor criticism. Every overseas veteran knows that the folksback home are crammed full of bunk aboutthings that happened in France. When we firstcame back some of us tried to correct these er-rors when first we heard them repeated, but itdidnt take long for us to realize that our fellowcitizens resented having the myths wanted to believe the foolish and improb-able things they did believe. So today probably a hundred million peoplebelieve that the Lost Battalion was lost and thatwhen summoned by a German officer to surrenderthe gentle, but heroic, WTiittlesey replied: Goto Hell. It may be that Cambronne uttered thewords at Waterloo that Hugo says he did. Per-haps Farragut cried Damn the torpedoes atMobile, but we have Whittleseys own word thathe never said Go to Hell in the Argonne. Rhymes of a Lost Battalion Doughboy. Rhymes of a Lost Battalion Doughboy What he actually did was so much finer, andin character with the man, that it should not belost to the world in the musty files of the WarDepartment. To understand what brought about the so-called Lost Battalions advance, and its resultantpocketing by the Germans, one must realize thatafter seven days continuous fighting in theArgonne the 77th Division on October 2, 1918,found its advance checked before the heavily-en-trenched German positions. The success of theAmerican operations depended upon breakingthrough the enemy line. In the face of this impasse the then MajorWhittlesey, commanding the First Battalion ofthe 308th Infantry, received from his command-ing officer. Colonel Stacey, an order to attackwhich contained this sentence: The generalsays you are to advance behind the barrage re-gardless of losses. How strictly the heroic
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Keywords: ., boo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjectworldwar19141918
