What Is The Last Battles Of World War I ?
The last battle of World War I was the Meuse Argonne Offensive between the Americans and the German forces. On 30th August 1918 when Marshal F Foch ordered General John Pershing not to have the offensive against the Germans in St. Mihiel, Pershing was furious and refused to stop the offensive. He believed that it was necessary to go ahead with the assault. So, Foch agreed to allow Pershing to go ahead with the St Mihiel offensive, provided his soldiers would be ready to launch an attack by the middle of September in Argonne Valley. |
This prompted Pershing to have a quick victory in St Mihiel and then he moved the soldiers to Argonne. And, as a result the Meuse Argonne Offensive started on 26th September 1918.
Argonne was a valley that had a forest on one side and the Meuse River flowed on the other side. The terrain gave the Germans a perfect defensive position. However, Pershing was quite certain that he would be able to cause a lot of damage to the Germans by breaking through the German defensive lines, Giselher and Kreimhilde. So, the Allied forces first bombarded the German front lines and then started the assault, which was supported by the French as well as American tanks. The Germany front line decided to fall back and make a stand at Montfaucon. However, the difficult terrain hindered the V Corps as well as the Allied forces.
On seeing that the V Corps was struggling to climb Montfaucon, the German general sent 6 reserve divisions to their assistance. This dashed the hopes of the Americans, who were hoping to win quickly. Nonetheless, they managed to capture Montfaucon the following day. But the American forces suffered from leadership as well as logistical crises. So, the offensive was stopped on 1st October. Pershing went about replacing the troops with more experienced ones, but caused further logistical problems.
On 4th October, Pershing ordered an assault along the entire American line. The Germans resisted this attack. On 8th October, Pershing decided to take the offensive to the eastern side of the Meuse with the aim of stopping the German artillery. However, this was not successful and 2 day later, Pershing handed over the command of the 1st Army to Lieutenant General Hunter Liggett. While Liggett pushed on one side, Pershing took the 2nd Army to the eastern side of the Meuse. Then between 13th October and 16th October, the American soldiers started making headway and they managed to break the German lines by capturing Malbrouck Consenvoye, Cote Dame Marie and Chatillon. This caused a break in Kreimhilde line of the Germans and Liggett ordered the 78th Division to attack Grandpre. It took 10 days for the town to fall.
Liggett kept advancing and this forced the Germans to retreat and also stopped them from forming new lines. By 5th November, the 5th Division of the US army had crossed the Meuse. Three days after this, the Germans sought armistice. However, Pershing continued attacking the Germans until the war finally came to an end on 11th November 1918.
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When World War One was going on, the US president was Woodrow Wilson, who wanted the US to stay neutral. Wilson tried everything possible for 2 years to prevent the US from entering the war. Even when the German U-boat sunk the liner, Lusitania, and caused the death of 124 Americans, the US stayed out of the war. 