To the Last Man - Jeff Shaara [192]
AFTER MONTHS OF HOLDING OFF THE ALLIES’ INSISTENT DEMANDS, Pershing finally secured a commitment from General Pétain that the Americans should be assigned their own distinct position in the line, their own theater of operation. Pershing and Pétain had considered the most logical location to be in Lorraine, just south of the ragged battlefields of Verdun. That part of the front contained a fat bulge in the German position known as the Mihiel Salient, which extended deep into the French defenses between Verdun and the city of Nancy. The salient had brought the Germans dangerously close to critical rail hubs and transportation lines that connected the entire southern section of the Western Front to their bases of supply and communication. On the German side of the salient lay important coal- and iron-producing areas, the Saar Basin and the Moselle Valley, and the key rail and communications centers at Metz and Thionville, ripe targets should the Americans spearhead any new attack. Pershing had studied all sections of the front, knew what Pétain knew, that without the strength of the fresh American forces, the French weakness at the salient was severe, and worse, should the Germans open a breakthrough and expand the salient westward, they would have a short march to Paris. It was not a situation that gave any comfort to the French people. Pershing had followed the First Division’s training closely, knowing full well that the earliest opportunity for those troops to man some part of the front lines would provide a surge of morale to the allies. On October 21, the men of the First marched forward, guided by French officers who chose their particular location because of its relative quiet. All over France the word spread that the Americans had finally joined the fight. Though the sector they were assigned was chosen primarily to allow the soldiers to gain a feel for the ground, and discover the realities of life in a community of trenches, the Germans had no intention of allowing the Americans to become comfortable. In the predawn darkness of November 3, a German raiding party burst into the American lines, startling the inexperienced guards. Three American soldiers were killed. The AEF had experienced its first bloody taste of the war.
PERSHING’S HEADQUARTERS HAD BEEN ESTABLISHED AT CHAUMONT, southeast of Paris, a convenient rail and communications point that lay between the capital and the southernmost section of what would become the American sector. Throughout the summer and into the fall, Pershing continued to call upon his staff for the mammoth task of organizing the army. Though the rate that new troops were arriving was a continuing disappointment, Pershing knew that a sudden flood of American soldiers could create more havoc than benefit. Assuming the ships could be found to bring the men across the Atlantic, they still had to be transported inland from the ports, fed, supplied, and housed. Until the infrastructure for all of this was established, soldiers would be of little use to anyone.
Gradually, the right personnel were put into place, including a number of prominent civilians who had been brought over from the States. The challenges of working within French systems had proved frustrating at best, and though the French leadership proved willing to assist the American efforts, often the expertise at the local level was inadequate. Immediately there had been problems with the chaotic French telephone system, and Pershing had ordered the construction of an entire network of cables and communication stations that would bypass the French system altogether. The railway system was not as haphazard, but the French were hard-pressed to furnish supplies and transportation even for their own army. While the American Corps of Engineers had been hard at work constructing and rehabilitating the overused French track system that would serve the American ports of entry, Pershing brought in a team of civilian experts to manage