Some previous posts at this genealogy blog have been travelogues. In each case the main excuse for the trip was to visit where one of my ancestors had been born or had later resided. Recently I've had a slightly different excuse for traveling. Two years ago I visited the Puglia region of Italy, because that is where my father, John Toth, was stationed with the Army Air Corps during World War II. This October I traveled to France, because that is where my maternal grandfather, Felix Murtha, served during World War I.
The Meuse-Argonne region of France was the location of the final and largest campaign of the American Expeditionary Force. The Meuse-Argonne offensive began on September 26, 1918, and ended 46 days later with the November 11 armistice. According to his discharge papers, my grandfather's specific unit was Company D of the 307th Engineers of the 82nd Division. The 82nd had arrived in France in late spring of 1918, and so had already seen combat before September. For the first several days of the Meuse-Argonne offensive the 82nd was held in reserve. (Similarly the 1st Division, which had been in France since 1917, was held in reserve for the first few days.) At the beginning of the Meuse-Argonne offensive my grandfather's 307th Engineers unit was temporarily detached from the 82nd and tasked with repairing supply line roads. As previously summarized in source note number 6 of my grandfather's WikiTree profile, on 29 September my grandfather's D company traveled north to report to the 28th Division near the front at Apremont. In the Official History of the 82nd Division, one section describes D company as having been shanghaied
by the 28th Division. Another section is more diplomatic, describing reporting to the 28th as being in compliance with orders from the 1st Corps [higher headquarters for the 77th, 28th and 35th Divisions, and soon to be also for the 82nd and the 1st].
Later in this post there is more about Apremont. The point for now is that learning (from the 82nd Official History) exactly where my grandfather's D Company was located from 29 September to 1 October made me want to get a feel for the area. So I traveled to France. Sandwiched between several nights in Paris, I stayed three nights at the bed and breakfast 14-18 Meuse-Argonne in Montfaucon. My hosts were Maarten and Didi. On the first full day Maarten was my guide. But I'll start with a moving experience on my own on the second day.
I spent some time in the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery. It is the largest American cemetery in Europe, the resting place for over 14,000 military dead. (For the American cemetery at Normandy the number is about 9,400.) This cemetery is organized into eight sections, all eight on a gently sloping hill. Below is a view of part of just one of the eight sections. This is section F.
At home before leaving for France I had searched the Find A Grave page for this cemetery. I searched for memorials where the word Fayette appears in the biography section. I grew up in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, and I discovered several people from my part of Fayette County who are buried in this cemetery. None of them are related to me. But one stood out. I found him in the first row of section E.
Private Fortunato Fiorentino was a member of the 111th Infantry of the 28th Division. He died on October 1, 1918, at Apremont, during the defensive fighting there that my grandfather's D Company had been invited to join. Fiorentino was born in Sicily, but he had joined the 28th from Republic in Fayette County. I attended junior high school at Republic. This soldier could easily be related to one of my classmates.
There is a chapel at the top of the cemetery's gently sloping hill. Wall panels adjacent to, outside the chapel have inscribed on them the names of over 900 missing in action. One of the outside wall panels is a map showing where the various divisions fought in the Meuse-Argonne.
On the south, along the completely American portion of the September 26 front line, from the west side of the 77th to the east side of the 33rd, the straight line distance is about 30 kilometers or about 20 miles. Toward the southwest are the divisions previously mentioned (77th, 28th, 35th, 82nd, 1st), all part of the 1st Corps. Also notice near the middle of the area assigned to the 79th Division, the black dot with the smudged label. This is the location of Montfaucon, where I stayed three nights.
If you want to see Apremont located on a modern map, the easiest way is to search google maps for Sergeant York Historic Trail.
There is not much to the trail itself, but it happens to be a map feature included by google. Selecting that feature will quickly take you to a zoomed in part of France. Zooming out slightly will reveal Apremont, located about two miles southeast of the trail feature. A view containing those two features will approximately correspond to the map below. First I need to explain where the map below came from.
The American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) was created by Congress in 1923. The ABMC administers cemeteries and a few other memorials. Years ago the ABMC created booklets, one for each division that served in France during World War I, containing both text and map depictions of the division history. These booklets, both text and maps, are digitally archived through links at the University of Texas. The original publication year was 1944. The maps were created by the ABMC by adding information in red to a base map in French. I've extracted a part of the ABMC map for the 28th Division in the Meuse-Argonne.
Red lines labeled with double Xs are division boundaries. Other red lines and labels are front lines and dates, bold lines for the 28th, thin lines for adjacent divisions. In particular the right side of this extract includes lines for the adjacent 35th Division. By September 28 the 35th had reached a hill northeast of Apremont. The hill is labeled Montrebeau. A fierce counterattack drove the 35th back to a line through Baulny, and it was along that line that the 35th was relieved by the 1st Division on October 1. Meanwhile the 28th's left side had not advanced as far as the right. The situation is described in the 28th History (from the ABMC booklet archive) as follows. During the night of September 29-30 the line of the 28th Division was considerably in advance of the front lines of the divisions to its flanks. ... Apremont was organized during the day with four strongpoints, echeloned in depth. Strongpoint No. 1 was located in the cemetery on the ridge north of Apremont; No. 2 was situated about 400 meters to the left, in the large gravel pit; ... These strongpoints were garrisoned with the following troops: ... No. 2, Company E, 110th Infantry, and a platoon of the 307th Engineers, 82d Division; ...
So what is described as an old quarry in the 82nd history is a large gravel pit in the 28th history. And it is clear to me now that not all of D Company was at the quarry/gravel pit. From the 82nd Official History, At daylight [Sep 30], 50 men, under Lieutenant Sam H. Andrews, Jr., were sent to an old quarry ... The other elements of D Company were on the firing line immediately in front of Apremont.
So my grandfather could have been at either of these two locations. I'm guessing in front of
would also be on the north side of Apremont.
This was near the end of my day with Maarten as my guide. We had just come from Chatel-Chéhéry traveling highway D42 approaching Apremont from the north. In 1918 I would have been wearing a gas mask, and crouched down in the ditch.
The 28th History says only that Apremont was successfully defended. You have to go to the Official 82nd History, discussing their Company D of the 307th Engineers, to get part of the rest of the story. There were American casualties, but the October 1 engagement appears to have been a disaster for hundreds of attacking enemy troops. The 82nd history concludes its discussion of D Company with, On October 3, this unit returned to road work.
October 1 may have been the only time my grandfather's Engineer Company D was engaged in fighting at the front.
When the 1st Corps reorganized in early October, the 1st Division was instructed to continue advancing north-northwest through the territory originally assigned to the 35th. The 28th was instructed to concentrate on the high ground to the west. On October 6 the 82nd Division as a whole entered the offensive when it was slotted in between the 28th and the 1st. The 82nd was also instructed to initially focus on the high ground to the west. On the map above, the division boundary line extending horizontally west from Chatel-Chéhéry, labeled Oct. 7, in theory separated the activities of the 82nd, to the north, from those of the 28th, to the south. That line traverses a ridge that would be close to the 82nd's Sergeant York's heroic deeds on October 8. In Chatel-Chéhéry there is a plaque erected by Tennessee in 1987 honoring Sergeant York.
A 1941 movie Sergeant York stars Gary Cooper in the title role. I don't know what my grandfather may have thought of that movie. The subject of Sergeant York never came up in family conversations.
In Part Two, to be posted at a later date, I will discuss the other sites Maarten guided me to.
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