The Lost Battalion

The "Lost Battalion" (a journalist's term that caught on) were 554, or so, American soldiers who held out against German forces surrounding them for five days -- deep in the Argonne Forest -- in 1918. They ran out of food after two days, but they refused to surrender. By the end, 360 had been killed, wounded, taken sick from living unsheltered in the October rain, or captured. Johnson and Pratt superbly researched this from military records and from the recollections of American and German survivors, publishing it 20 years after the event. The writing is such that the reader can easily place himself in the conflict. Some of the soldiers seem real: Whittlesey, McMurtry, Hollingshead, Krotoshinsky, Kozlowski, Cullen, Larney, Newcom, Cepeglia were survivors. Others, who died -- Schenck, Peabody, Cavello, Baedeke -- are equally easy to recall. The descriptions of the Lost Battalion's movements, and those of various units trying to make contact with them, are so well described (with the help of maps) that a senior high school student or young collegiate could give the episode a good military analysis for a history class. The book covers the questions raised at the time about the choices that officers made that led to the Battalion's isolation deep in the forest. In a nutshell: the orders to advance were unusual in that they reminded this reader of General Ulysses S. Grant's orders in the early summer of 1864: push onward regardless of losses. Major Whittlesey followed them and reached his goal; other commanders had doubts and held back. The book ends with descriptions of what many of the survivors did in civilian life after the war. The only drawback, to me, was that fifteen or so German expressions were not translated in the book. I did it online. Hardest was translating one American's bad German.

An excellent book on the Lost Battalion of WWI. Not a lot of written information out there.

A look at how they were left out ahead of the other forces and the failures and miscommunications of those in command.

Interesting book. It's a different style, jumping around to perspectives; but reads smoothly. I would suggest this book to anyone interested in the topic.

Great

True story on a battle in World War 1. Excellent book.

A very interesting book about some very brave men. It is written by men who actually interviewed the men who fought in this desperate battle.

good