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The Battle of Blanc Mont Ridge (3 October to 27 October 1918) occurred during World War I, northeast of Reims, in Champagne, France. In the battle, the U.S. Army's 2nd Infantry Division and the 36th Infantry Division opposed the German 200th and 213th Divisions, along with portions of six additional German divisions.〔Curtis pp. 40-44〕 The result of this battle was the expulsion of the Imperial German Army from the Champagne Region. ==Background== Early in war the German Army had intensely fortified this promontory and proceeded to crush French offensives in both the Spring and Fall of 1915. Afterwards, the strength and reputation of the bastion seemed to guarantee permanent possession of the chalky plains of the Champagne for the invaders. French planners looked elsewhere for possibilities of breaking through. But by the end of September 1918, the time had come for a grand roll-back; it was time for the Allies to regain occupied France and Flanders. The German Army was suffering regular defeats and had sunk to conscripting the too-young and too-old into service. In the northwest of the Western Front, the British, bolstered by Canadian and ANZAC divisions, with the small Belgian Army on their flank, were on the attack; while to the east, the newly arrived First Army of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) was advancing in fits and starts towards Sedan. The French Army in the center of the Western Front, however, needed to match the advances of her allies on either side. In the Champagne, this meant crashing through Blanc Mont. Considering what four years of attritional warfare, 1916's Pyrrhic bloodletting victory at Verdun and the mutinies of 1917 had done to the spirit of the individual Poilu, the French infantryman, this was simply an unrealistic expectation. In three days of trying, the French Army once again failed to push their adversary off of his stronghold. What was needed for this mission were fresh, vigorous assault troops. That is to say, the high command had to find some soldiers who would march up that long slope to Blanc Mont without paying too much attention to their buddies alongside being machine-gunned down or mutilated by whiz-bangs. Then the surviving troops would have to possess the energy and will to hold onto the crest no matter what furies the German Army threw back at them. The answer, it was decided, was to commit some American divisions. The mission to take Blanc Mont ridge was given to the experienced soldiers and Marines of the AEF's 2nd Division and in reserve the unblooded Texas and Oklahoma National Guardsmen of the 36th Division, 54,000 men total. They were placed at the disposal of French 4th Army commander Henri Gouraud, one-armed hero of both the Gallipoli campaign and the recent defense along the Marne. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Battle of Blanc Mont Ridge」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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