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The Lost Battalion is the name given to nine companies of the United States 77th Division, roughly 554 men, isolated by German forces during World War I after an American attack in the Argonne Forest in October 1918. Roughly 197 were killed in action and approximately 150 missing or taken prisoner before 194 remaining men were rescued. They were led by Major Charles White Whittlesey. On 2 October, the division quickly advanced into the Argonne, under the belief that French forces were supporting the left flank and two American units including the 92nd Division were supporting the right flank. Unknown to Whittlesey's unit, the French advance had been stalled. Without this knowledge, the Americans had moved beyond the rest of the Allied line and found themselves completely cut off and surrounded by German forces. For the next six days, suffering heavy losses, the men of the division were forced to fight off several attacks by the Germans, who saw the small American units as a threat to their whole line. The battalion suffered many hardships. Food was short, and water was available only by crawling under fire to a nearby stream. Ammunition ran low. Communications were also a problem, and at times they would be bombarded by shells from their own artillery. As every runner dispatched by Whittlesey either became lost or ran into German patrols, carrier pigeons became the only method of communicating with headquarters. In a famous incident on 4 October, inaccurate coordinates were delivered by one of the pigeons and the unit was subjected to "friendly fire". The unit was saved by another pigeon, Cher Ami,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Charles Whittlesey – Commander of the Lost Battalion ). The bulk of this is credited to the Williams College Library.〕 delivering the following message: WE ARE ALONG THE ROAD PARALELL 276.4. OUR ARTILLERY IS DROPPING A BARRAGE DIRECTLY ON US. FOR HEAVENS SAKE STOP IT.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Letters of Note )〕 Despite this, they held their ground and caused enough of a distraction for other Allied units to break through the German lines, which forced the Germans to retreat. ==77th Division== The men of the 77th Division, who held the Charlevaux ravine, were mostly from New York City. The 77th Division is also known as the "liberty" division due to the Statue of Liberty emblem the group picked out for themselves, but they were usually referred to as the "Metropolitan" division because of where most of the men hailed from. "… but it was first known as the Metropolitan Division and under that moniker, it was to gain fame." Most of the men had grown up on the streets of New York City fighting from a young age for food. These attributes acquired on the streets are seen by many historians as one of the reasons that this group survived in the Argonne. The 77th Division was trained at what became a prestigious camp located just outside the city called Camp Upton, and Charles Whittlesey was assigned there upon completion of his officer's training. The camp was located a half mile from the town of Yaphank, New York, on Long Island in Suffolk County. "Yaphank? Where the hell is Yaphank?"〔 was a common expression heard amongst the new recruits of Camp Upton. 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「Lost Battalion (World War I)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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